The next entry in the Fable series has finally been announced, but given how little of it was shown, speculation is running rampant. Fans are postulating on just what the game will be like, and a big question surrounding it is what the release window will look like. At the moment, there is literally nothing to go off of, as the last Fable game released was Fable Fortune and the rest didn't follow any particular pattern. With that in mind, everything herein and found online is most likely speculation, and fans should take everything they see with a grain of salt unless it comes from an official source.

For those that may have missed it, capping off the recent Xbox Game Reveal event was a brief teaser trailer for a new Fable game. Many are presuming it is Fable 4, but that technically isn't confirmed yet as it was not referred to as such in the teaser. This short trailer showed very little, but paints a picture of a magical and unfamiliar world. It is unclear whether this is the Albion that Fable fans have seen so many times before or something completely different, but the description of the trailer claims that "Fable returns with new beginnings for the legendary franchise."

RELATED: Xbox Needs to Answer PS5's Gameplay Reveal with Fable

Elder Scrolls 6 Reveal Trailer

Right as the new Fable trailer faded out, many probably felt similarly to how they did when The Elder Scrolls 6 trailer was revealed at E3 2018. This is a franchise for which excitiement has been building over the course of several years, and for the trailer to be so short and reveal so little was a little bit of a slap in the face for some. In the case of The Elder Scrolls, the short trailer revealed nothing but the existence of the game, but that may have been the intent.

With highly anticipated releases like this, rumors, alleged leaks, and lies run wild. While sometimes these can be good at generating engagement for a game, it was probably Bethesda's intention to nip all of that in the bud with this trailer. The game was obviously nowhere near completion when it was announced over two years ago, but now that fans know it exists, there won't be any more misleading discussion about at least that aspect of it. This trailer does reveal two things though: the next The Elder Scrolls game will in fact be a direct sequel to Skyrim as opposed to a spin off and it shows a bit of the landscape allowing for speculation on which of Tamriel's regions Elder Scrolls 6 would take place in.

Fable 4 Trailer

The new Fable trailer is similar to The Elder Scrolls 6 in a lot of ways, but there are some key differences as well. Regarding what the two have in common, they both are very vague, only revealing the title of the game and almost nothing else. Likewise, both end with a panning shot of an open landscape and don't give any solid information regarding a release date. While these similarities are easy to see, the differences are a bit more obfuscated.

The Fable trailer leaves one big question for fans, and that is whether or not this is Fable 4 or something completely different. It most likely isn't another Fable spin off card game or anything like that, but it could be that this is in fact a complete reboot of the series. The Elder Scrolls 6 at least confirmed it would be a direct sequel, but this one does not. The Fable trailer has a lot more substance, though, as it shows not only a funny skit which sets the tone for the game, but also has a voiceover narration.

RELATED: Will 2020 Finally Be Fable's Year?

Fable 4 Announcement

Fable 4

If, in fact, Fable 4 is coming soon, it begs the question of why more wasn't shown. The most probable answer is that the game is still in very early stages of development, and that this reveal trailer served only to announce its existence to fans. Though there have been Fable games throughout the last decade, the last main entry in the series, Fable 3, was released in October of 2010. That means that by the time the Xbox Series X comes out, it will have been over a decade since the release of the last main entry game.

Fable 4 is definitely overdue, but with Playground Games taking over now that Lionhead Studios is no more, it is difficult to say what the development process will look like. It is unfortunate to admit, but the next Fable game could still be years away, and the final product could still be very different than what most expect based on this trailer. Only time will tell at this point, and hopefully Microsoft or Playground Games makes some kind of announcement in the near future confirming just how long excited fans will need to wait to play the next Fable game.

Fable 4 Rumors

Regarding the most recent rumors surrounding Fable 4, this trailer doesn't necessarily disprove any of them, but it doesn't do the service of confirming them either. The biggest leak to date purported that an asteroid would strike Albion, obliterating it completely. The world the game would take place in would be a much more medieval, less advanced society in a completely new area. From what's been shown so far, the setting seems to track. The asteroid may seem outlandish, but there were no smoke stacks coming out of that castle to indicate an industrial era like Fable 2 and 3.

The leak ends up getting pretty bizarre, though, claiming that interplanetary travel and time travel would become major factors in the story. This is where the leak starts to fall apart for many, especially when considering that the video which accompanied it seemed pretty fake as well. Still, it may be that the leaker wasn't too far off the mark, but the only way to know for certain is to wait for more information from Playground Games and Microsoft. With any luck, it won't take long to get that, but if it follows in the path of The Elder Scrolls 6, it could be years before fans hear about it again.

Fable was revealed at the Xbox Game Showcase.

MORE: 5 Killer Exclusives That Can Make Microsoft's Xbox Series X Event Huge