Social media is difficult. Imagine all the daily misinterpretations you have from just talking to people with the added contexts of vocal intonation, body language, and the ability to quickly clarify what you mean and then strip all those away in favor of a megaphone that reads out statements in a monotone voice with just loud white noise as feedback.
That’s kind of how the Xbox Game Studios Publishing account stepped into it the other day. Upon teasing some news for Monday with mention of chickens, the account followed the (now deleted) tweet up with the line “We’d call it our Fable Anniversary, but that name was already taken.”
It stands to reason, for any casual observer, that this account was tweeting about Fable in some form — most likely, the upcoming undetailed new Fable game from Forza Horizon developer Playground Games. This would only make sense and stirred up some conversations and expectations for a Monday trailer or some other kind of news drop.
Until, well, the account had to clarify that this was a whoopsie-daisy on a pretty big scale.
Sorry for any confusion! We don't have any big game news tomorrow, or any info about @WeArePlayground's upcoming Fable game.
— Xbox Game Studios Publishing (@XboxPublishing) October 18, 2021
We still don’t know what the actual news was supposed to be, but it’s not related to the new Fable game at least. Hell, Microsoft has multiple IPs that could fit the initial tease, it’s just that the Fable mention in the follow-up set thoughts marching in a specific direction. It’s another lesson in being extremely careful with your wording, because you never know when a tease is just a small beat of a larger marketing plan.
