It’s no surprise that Fable III will eventually come to fruition, especially after Fable II sold 2.6 million copies.  Nevertheless, it’s still exciting to hear news about the next installment.  Oddly enough, the news was mentioned briefly in the New York Times’ Style section.

The Times announced a wedding between Amy E. Gilbert and Joshua Samuels Atkins and nonchalantly added that Atkins “is the lead game designer for Fable III, a video game series produced by Lionhead Studios in Guildford, England.”  How can such a reputable paper, that makes sure that “submissions are rewritten, fact-checked and edited according to the standards of The Times,” make such an error?  Let’s be serious, typos do occur, and this very well could be a typo, but let’s investigate a bit further.

It’s unlikely that the Times intended to type out “Fable II” because the lead game designer for that game was Richard Ham.  According to Gamespot, “On Fable II, Atkins served as a go-between for Microsoft and Lionhead as senior design director at Microsoft Game Studios.”  In other words, Atkins was NOT the lead game designer for Fable II.

The official word from Microsoft isn’t surprising.  “We have nothing to announce regarding future Lionhead Studios projects.”  Whether official or not though, Fable III is happening.  No doubt about that.