Fable Legends is going to be free-to-play

The rumours were true – Lionhead’s Xbox One and PC multiplayer title Fable Legends will be free-to-play.

That’s not just on PC, either, with the Xbox version also confirmed by Kotaku as being F2P. The free game will come with a story’s worth of free quests, with more to be released episodically after launch.

There won’t be any game time limiters or in-game currency, as seen in so many F2P mobile titles. Instead, the four available heroes will be offered individually on a two week rotation. When a character you’ve levelled is switched out, players can either wait for them to return (complete with all previously earned items and XP) or pay to access them permanently.

These payments can be made either with cash gained in-game or with real-world money. A rotation system will also be implemented for villains.

"The right version of F2P is a very good thing for the world,” creative director David Eckleberry said. The wrong version is kind of an abomination, but if you’re very fair to your players and they can play as much as they want, then it seems right."

The game will also offer cross-platform multiplayer, the preparation for which will include what Eckleberry describes as a really long beta” to help avoid another online disaster as has been the case with all too many online console game launches this generation.

Fable Legends is due out some time this year.