Fable Legends cross-play will be entirely blind to platform, according to Lionhead

At a technical conference today, Lionhead laid down some cross-play basics for its upcoming game Fable Legends.

Last month, publisher Microsoft announced that Fable Legends will be cross-playable on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. Due for release later this year, it's a free-to-play multiplayer action-combat title in which a group of four heroes take on a villain.

Speaking at GDC today, engineering lead Raymond Arifianto talked about the developers' goals for the game's cross-play functionality. He said there will only be one Fable Legends game logged into Microsoft's back-end and a single cloud of saved-games. Multiplayer games will be drawn from the same pool. Players will be able to approach the game across both devices "seamlessly." There will be a single pool of Achievements.

He added that "the game will be optimized for each device and its input scheme."

"People ask us why we don't just do this the way it has always been done before," he said. "Why don't we split the player pool up into Xbox and PC? What we have learned is that every time people play Fable Legends, either as a hero or a villain, it's a different experience. A larger pool of players creates opportunities for a richer experience."

Players will begin the asynchronous fighting game in the social village area of Brightlodge where they can meet with other players or find matches. There will be no mention of whether they are on PC or Xbox, he said. "Everyone is just a Fable Legends player. It doesn't matter."