fable devs made press play the demo twice, and the gta 6 delay worries make sense now

Playground Games pulled a weird flex at Gamescom. They let press play the Fable demo behind closed doors, first time anyone outside the studio has touched it. The slice was short, a dungeon with undead a little way into the game. But the devs were smirking from the start. They told the journalist they'd be going through the whole thing twice.
"We don't want to spoil anything, but we've got two very different loadouts for you to play with today."
That's associate game director Will Kennedy. The Eurogamer piece says the devs were confident, and after playing it twice the writer agrees they were right to be. Two different loadouts in the same short dungeon, and it held up both times.
What got me is the link in that article. Eurogamer points back to their earlier story about Fable getting delayed to 2027 amid reported GTA 6 worries. So this confidence isn't coming out of nowhere. They pushed the game back, partly because Rockstar's next thing is looming, and now they're making press run the same demo twice just to show it's solid.
I don't know about you, but that's the kind of energy I want from a studio showing this much confidence. An open world RPG with undead dungeons and loadout variety. If they're this sure about a slice of it, the full game might actually be worth the wait.
And the GTA 6 angle is real. Rockstar's release date is November 19, 2026. Fable got pushed to 2027, and the reporting says GTA 6 worries were part of it. That tells me other open world devs are looking at what Rockstar is about to drop and deciding they need more time. Not because their game is bad, but because the bar is about to move.
I'd rather see that than a rushed launch. Playground making press play twice is a small thing, but it says a lot about where their heads are at.
Source: Eurogamer · Curated content.
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