Update: The Reaver Industries Twitter account has confirmed that they are not related to Microsoft and have no affiliation with the Fable franchise. They are just fans of the series.
As big fans of the Fable series, we are sorry to state that this account is not owned by Microsoft or any of its affiliates. It is not a hint to a new Fable video game.
— Reaver Industries (@ReaverInd) August 3, 2018
Our original story can be found below.
What do Xbox fans want? New games. And when do we want them? YESTERDAY. Honestly, I’m happy with the games that are on Xbox One right now, but nothing excites me more than the idea that something new is coming. When that ‘new game’ could potentially be a big franchise like Fable, I get even more excited. So the fact people have started to spread a screenshot of a website for Reaver Industries was sure to catch my attention. My first reaction was to post this to the site immediately, but that would be somewhat reckless. On the surface, yes, this does seem like a tease for a new Fable, possibly a direct sequel to Fable III in roughly the same era rather than many years in the future. While we know Microsoft is working on a new Fable, most likely with Playground Games, I’m not so sure this is the reveal we’ve been waiting for.
I did some digging and what I found left me with tempered expectations. To start, both the Twitter account (@ReaverInd) and Facebook account were created in 2013 prior to Lionhead closing its doors. The most recent post from either account was in July of 2015, also prior to Lionhead closing. There is also an account on LinkedIn with 4 employees attached, but I am unable to see these people since I do not have a Premium account. This has left me with some hope that this could be part of a viral marketing campaign to announce Fable 4 at Gamescom later this month. But it has also left me with at least one question. If these are old accounts, why did Microsoft keep the website active? A simple WHOIS check on the current domain shows that reaver.co.uk was registered in October of 2016, while the previous site was located at http://reaver.industries. Then I went to an old trusted friend, https://web.archive.org to check and see how long this site has existed in its current form and it has had the same text on the site since at least May of 2017. I examined the WHOIS information and found reaver.industries was registered in Bergamo, Italy. Meanwhile, reaver.co.uk is hosted by NameCheap, Inc, where you can purchase a shared hosting account for under $3 per month. Unless Microsoft is trying really hard to throw us off the trail, this is looking less likely that we’ll get a Fable announcement any time soon.
I’d love for this to be real, but I’m going to hold back my expectations a little bit. I believe Microsoft very well may have plans to release Fable IV in 2020. But there are too many red flags for me to feel confident that Fable IV will be announced at Gamescom 2018. The social media accounts are all old and haven’t been active for over 3 years. The site has existed in its current form for over a year, maybe more. And then there’s the WHOIS info, one domain registered in Italy and the other being hosted by NameCheap, Inc. As much as I want Fable IV to be announced at Gamescom 2018, I don’t see it coming. At least we won’t have long to wait. Gamescom 2018 will be held from August 21st through the 25th. We’ll know if this is real soon enough.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.