Yesterday, eagle-eyed Twitter users (via The Verge’s Tom Warren) spotted handles for two dormant but still legendary Microsoft IPs: Fable (@fable), Lionhead Studios’s action-RPG series, and Perfect Dark (@PerfectDarkGame), Rare’s futuristic take on the FPS genre. What made these accounts very, very interesting was the fact that they were followed by Microsoft employees (i.e., co-creator of Killer Instinct, Ken Lobb), which led fans to believe that a Fable 4 and Perfect Dark 3 was in the works for the Xbox Series X (and PC).
I’m not sure who discovered the @fable and @PerfectDarkGame placeholders, but a Microsoft Xbox employee is following one, and the other is registered to a Microsoft email address 👀 pic.twitter.com/MagqUbPiZf
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) June 27, 2020
Unfortunately, neither of those seem to be happening. General Manager of Xbox Games Marketing Aaron Greenberg claims that these accounts were generated years ago for placeholder purposes. The Perfect Dark account has also been updated with a message by the owner, who confirmed that it was fan made and not affiliated with Microsoft.
I know everyone is hungry for news, but sorry to get your hopes up. These accounts have been inactive for years, it’s standard practice to secure social handles for our IP.
— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼♂️❎ (@aarongreenberg) June 28, 2020
“I know everyone is hungry for news, but sorry to get your hopes up,” Greenberg tweeted. “These accounts have been inactive for years, it’s standard practice to secure social handles for our IP.”
But wait. Both of these accounts were created very recently, with @fable and @PerfectDarkGame dated at March 2020 and June 2020, respectively! Is there something Greenberg isn’t telling us?