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Eidos-Montreal has supported Playground Games on Fable (2026) since June 2024. The Montreal studio, best known for the Deus Ex and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy franchises, provides external development support across multiple disciplines on the open-world reboot.

What Eidos-Montreal Contributes

Reports that surfaced after the partnership went public describe Eidos-Montreal as a co-development partner rather than a contracted vendor. Roughly one hundred Eidos-Montreal developers are attached to Fable on a rolling basis, working alongside Playground Games' Leamington team. The arrangement is one of the largest external collaborations on a current Xbox first-party project.

Public descriptions of the partnership cover help with open-world systems, environment art, animation, and engineering. The two studios share toolchains where possible, but Eidos-Montreal works on its own tracks within the project rather than reskinning previous Eidos systems for Fable.

Why Eidos-Montreal

Playground Games grew out of the Forza Horizon team and shipped its first Horizon entry in 2012. Fable is its first non-racing project and its first open-world RPG. Bringing in an experienced narrative and open-world team helps Playground Games scale up RPG-specific systems (quest scripting, NPC density, branching dialogue) without retooling from scratch.

Eidos-Montreal has worked on RPG-adjacent open-world projects for years and brings systems experience that complements Playground Games' technical strengths in ForzaTech-engine open worlds. The combination is closer to Bungie's external work on early Destiny than to a typical outsourcing arrangement.

Comparison With the Blizzard Cinematics Partnership

Eidos-Montreal's role is distinct from the smaller Blizzard cinematic collaboration announced in April 2026. The Blizzard partnership is scoped to cutscene animation only; the Eidos-Montreal partnership covers gameplay development at scale.

Production Significance

Adding a co-development partner of Eidos-Montreal's size partway through a project signals that Playground Games prioritized hitting the planned release window without compressing scope. Xbox first-party games have historically supplemented teams in the final two years of production; Fable's June 2024 announcement places Eidos-Montreal's involvement comfortably inside that window ahead of the February 2027 launch.

Eidos-Montreal's parent organization changed hands during the same window. Embracer Group sold the Eidos-Montreal label to a new owner in 2024, and the studio has continued its Fable work uninterrupted through that transition.

Related Pages

• Playground Games

• Blizzard Cinematic Collaboration

• Development History

• ForzaTech Engine