Another “not quite a huge surprise” announcement coming out of Germany overnight was Peter Molyneux and Microsoft announcing Fable III, which will be a 360 exclusive coming holiday season 2010. Instead of simply becoming a hero, Fable III will task you with becoming a king or queen. As you rule a land, becoming good or evil, you will feel the weight of your decisions more than in previous Fable games, since they will effect not just you, but the entire kingdom. Or so Peter Molyneux promises in an official press release.

“We’ve spent a lot of time at Lionhead thinking about how we can innovate the gameplay and progress the world of the ‘Fable’ games for its third chapter, and we’re confident that players won’t second-guess what we have planned for ‘Fable III,’… Though I can’t give too much away right now, players should expect to have to make much tougher choices with far wider consequences than ever before in Albion — and with many more interactive adventure elements.”

I was a huge fan of Fable II, and my initial reaction to this announcement was one of glee—a new Fable game, only a little over a year away! However, the short time between releases makes me a bit nervous. I hope that Peter Molyneux can truly deliver on all of his drunken promises in the next installment of what is becoming one of Microsoft’s biggest series, and I’m pretty excited to see what’s in store for Albion. Also, there’s a very good chance that “holiday season 2010” actually means 2011 or 2012.

The more surprising news from Lionhead Studios was the fact that last year's hit Fable II was going to be re-released as a downloadable episodic game, with the first episode launching on Xbox Live September 29--for free, which is pretty sweet if you have yet to play Fable II. No word yet about dates or prices for episodes after that, but I expect we'll hear more about all of Lionhead's projects shortly.