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Forza Horizon developer Playground Games is working on a new title.

Whilst the project is widely rumoured to be an open-world RPG - perhaps even a new instalment in the Fable franchise, if some reports are to be believed - the finer details of the game have yet to be confirmed outside of speculation, rumour and "sources" which are never disclosed.

However, in an interview with creative director Ralph Fulton, Daily Star Online asked whether the senior developer's new found experience with the Xbox One X developer kit - having just released an Xbox One X update for Forza Horizon 3 - has helped shape the studio's next project.

Although Microsoft was keen to avoid any questions about Playgrounds' future work, Fulton, to his credit, was more than happy to answer.

In response, Fulton suggested that their new game will be utilising the Xbox One X as 'the lead platform' for the title, leveraging the awesome power of Microsoft's new flagship device - and most powerful console in the world - for this new project.

"Ease of development in the Xbox One X's make up provides a really great development platform, not just for that console but also the whole family of devices and even PC," Fulton told us.

"As we work on our current project, which is currently undisclosed but is also occupying our studio at the moment, we're creating it with the Xbox One X as the lead platform.

"We're doing this, not just because it's new and incredibly powerful, but also as I've mentioned before, it's really easy to develop on and it's got fantastic test tools on the ChuckWalla [devkit] itself.

"What that means is that it's not just about the Xbox One X version, but all versions in the Xbox One family improve as a result of that focus.

"[Xbox consoles] have always been good consoles to work on, going back to the Xbox 360 generation as well, but in terms of the power the Xbox One X has on your desk, it's a fantastic bit of kit for developers. And that's great for games and gamers."

For anyone who might have missed the news last year, Playground recently expanded its studio, hiring an additional 200 staff in a new Leamington Spa location.

This comes as Microsoft boss Phil Spencer stated that he and Microsoft are not 'deaf' to the memes that the publisher needs to invest in more content, suggesting that there might well be some truth to the rumour.

Rumours began circulating a number of weeks ago, when Resetera user Klobrille - known for accurately leaking Microsoft's E3 2016 press conference - teased some potential updates on several Microsoft's IPs that were allegedly leaked via an Xbox Live API SDK.

One of the more interesting - but coded - messages from Klobrille pointed towards a UK studio developing a new Fable. His precise quote was:

"I would love to revisit Albion. Project name could be Wisdom. An UK Studio should do it."

Eurogamer this week also reported that Playground's supposed Fable title is "planned as a story and character-focussed open-world action RPG", which Microsoft plans to significantly invest in the development of.

However, the Eurogamer article also warns players not to expect the game anytime soon, as apparently, it's still in the early stages of development.

Intriguingly, we also interviewed a number of ex-Lionhead developers late last year - who have gone on to work on a new game called Deadbeat Heroes - and they told us that 'it would be very hard' for another studio to capture Fable's unique flavour'

One of the developers in question, Adam Langridge, was lead gameplay programmer at Lionhead whilst the studio was owned by Microsoft, from the period after 2006 until the studio was closed in 2016.

Langridge stated to The Daily Star that he worked on the combat of the Fable games - so he knows the series pretty well.

"We feel such a personal connection to that series," Langridge states in the interview.

"There are such a large number of key people - creative director Dene Carter, for example - whose vision crafted that franchise, and without those key people, you're going to have a very hard time recreating the same kind of Fable.

"Their personalities permeated the games, you know? You could feel them in there like names through a stick of rock.

"It'd be very hard for another studio to make a Fable game like the ones we know now, but that could be seen as me dropping the gauntlet! Have a go! Go for it!"

We've seen some ex-Lionhead developers move on to join other UK-based studios (EA, Ubisoft Reflections, Jagex and more besides) and we've seen more splinter off to create indie studios.

There's even a free-to-play digital collectible card game video game set in the Fable universe - Fable Fortunes - that's released on Xbox One and PC this year.

So Lionhead has a long legacy and has provided a lot of talent to the UK video game industry since its closure.

But it's interesting to note that Langridge believes that the Fable games we experienced between 2006 and 2016 were unique to the studio, and that perhaps another developer wouldn't be able to emulate the charm and unique setup of the games if they were to reboot the series.

Microsoft has announced no plans for the Fable franchise in the future.