Fable III is one of the big titles in Microsoft’s lineup that isn’t a shooter of some sort. While the series has traditionally been regarded as an RPG, it’s been set up as an action/adventure to appeal to a larger audience.

“We are driving to sell more than five million units and to make a profit in excess of $150 million,” said Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux. “We have to do that because if a franchise doesn’t reach that level it will inevitably wither.”

Downloadable episodes will be part of this strategy. “Soon after the retail launch we’re doing episodic. We break it down in chapters,” describes Molyneux. “We give away the first chapter entirely free, the first hour. When you reach a certain point in the game it says ‘thank you for playing the pilot of Fable 3, do you want to spend an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars to buy the next episode, or buy the whole lot ‘ Press ‘yes’ and you will immediately continue playing.”

The concept of DLC episodes was tried with Fable II;  Molyneux says the first episode was downloaded 1.6 million times and earned $15 million. Molyneux is adamant that the system of trials is better than demos. “It supports this freemium idea. It gets around this horrible concept of demos. Anyone out there who thinks a demo is a good idea is crazy. It’s never a good idea, because demos are usually done at the end of a game and they require an enormous amount of design talent to make a demo. The other thing is you’re more likely to satisfying the curiosity of a user rather than entice them to play more.”

Part of making Fable III more accessible comes from the study that says that over 60 percent of Fable II players used and understood less than 50 percent of the game’s features. Casual gamers and females are being targeted as well.

“About 30 per cent of people that played Fable II were women,” revealed Molyneux. “The reason we’re doing this is really trying to bring a wider audience into the Fable franchise, because my suspicion is there are a lot of people who are the partners of core games who probably want to get involved as well.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz