Peter Molyneux has claimed that his newly announced game, Masters of Albion, is set in the same world as Fable, despite being unaffiliated with Microsoft or the Fable series.
Molyneux announced his new game, Masters of Albion, during Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday. The game, which is being developed by former Fable developers as well as former Media Molecule boss Mark Healey, is described as an “open-world gods game” set in the world of Albion.
Speaking to IGN, Molyneux justified the use of the name Albion by saying that several games are set in the same country, which cannot be prevented by copyright law.
“[It’s] That's like saying if you set one game in America you can't set another game in America,” he says. “So Albion can't be copyrighted. It's the name for England and Wales and so we get away with it.”
“Fable was set in Albion, Masters of Albion is set in Albion,” Molyneux clarifies.
When asked if he was sure Albion could not be copyrighted due to its historical context, he replied: “I don't know if I'm being honest, I don't really know… I hope so. You would think that if I were a responsible person I would have spent the last six months in law firms…”
Molyneux later said that while his new game would be an interesting expansion of the universe, it was by no means a new entry in Microsoft's franchise.
“It's not really Fable 5 or anything like that,” he said. “But if you've played Fable, Masters of Albion will certainly be familiar to you. One of the things we had that we really wanted to perfect was the humor.”
“I think the Fable games aren't so much about telling jokes, but more about giving you, the player, the opportunity to do ridiculous and funny things. And we have a lot of that in Masters of Albion. I think we've really succeeded in doing that.”