Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Chatting to GI.biz, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux has revealed that - much like its predecessor - Fable 3 will be seeing an episodic release following the retail launch. Not exactly massively shocking or anything, considering Fable 2: Episode 1 apparently managed to push 1.6 million downloads, with all five episodes pulling in a comfortable $15 million in contribution margins.

“Soon after the retail launch we’re doing episodic. We break it down in chapters. We give away the first chapter entirely free, the first hour," said Molyneux. “When you reach a certain point in the game it says ‘thank you for playing the pilot of Fable III, do you want to spend an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars to buy the next episode, or buy the whole lot?’ Press ‘yes’ and you will immediately continue playing.”

I think they'd have even more luck saying, "Thank you for playing the pilot of Fable III, if you don't spend an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars to buy the next episode, the dog dies on a rusty spike", but that's just me.

Molyneux also said in the interview that Lionhead is looking to sell at least 5 million copies of the game, bringing in around $150 million, explaining that "we have to do that because if a franchise doesn't reach that level it will inevitably wither."

Let's hope for 5 million then.

Fable 3 will be available in retail stores from October.