Fortune favours the brave, but can that adage extend to a spin-off from Microsoft and Lionhead Studios’ Fable series which boldly takes inspiration from The Witcher 3‘s Gwent card game?
Either way, there’s officially not long now until we know for sure, since developers Flaming Fowl Studios and Mediatronic have confirmed that Fable Fortune will launch – albeit in an early access build of the full product – this July 11th.
Set for release on Xbox One and PC, Fortune tasks franchise veterans and newcomers alike with gathering the cards to wage tactical, turn-based warfare either in single-player or PvP modes.
On top of that, the standalone offshoot’s main gameplay trailer (below) teases the chance to relive “old memories” from Fable‘s fantastical past or “create new ones”, with characters both iconic and original seemingly appearing along the way.
The idea of pitting such a nostalgia trip against other Collectible Card Games (CCGs) in a crowded market featuring Gwent, Magic: The Gathering and more would already seem daunting in and of itself, but a far greater challenge lies in Fortune‘s path.
In the wake of original dev Lionshead’s closure last year, Flaming Fowl took the project on and – after an ineffective Kickstarter campaign – had to scrap together funding itself, meaning they’ll doubtless want its sales to justify such costly toil on their part.
Indeed, given the underwhelming sales of Kinect spin-off Fable: The Journey in 2012 and the lack of further franchise announcements from Microsoft, Fortune could feasibly serve as the long-running saga’s swansong. No pressure, then.
With any luck, though, by launching in its quasi-alpha form next month rather than during the kill-or-be-killed autumn season of blockbuster AAA titles, this potential series finale may well reap plenty of much-needed recognition ahead of its full-scale release.
Come July 11th, expect to see Fable Fortune‘s early access build hit Xbox Live for £9.99 / $14.99 / €12.99 sporting a 20 pack of cards including rare Flaming Fowl and Giant Egg designs, with a free-to-play version following at a date TBA in late 2017.
Expect our review of Fortune around that time as well (not to mention our coverage of Microsoft’s other major 2017 titles as they’re revealed at E3 this week), but until then, here’s the full gameplay trailer in all its top-down glory…