Microsoft has finally shown off our first proper look at the new Fable’s gameplay, and I’m thrilled to announce that it does indeed feature some authentic chicken-kicking action.

Last night, the latest episode of the Official Xbox Podcast went live, and it featured our first glimpse at Fable.

The little teaser trailer features the protagonist riding a horse, fighting some goblins and what looks to be a cockatrice, baiting a balverine into a trap, and, yes, punting a chicken as far as the eye can see.

It’s not all good news however, as the head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan also announced on the podcast that, unfortunately, the game is getting delayed to 2026.

“I just want to start with, really excited about progress… Really excited about where Playground are. We previously announced the date for Fable as 2025. We are actually going to give Fable more time, and it’s going to ship in 2026 now,” Duncan stated.

“While I know that’s not maybe the news people want to hear, what I want to assure people of is that it’s definitely worth the wait. I have unequivocal confidence in the Playground team.”

Personally, I’m alright with that.

Look, I could regurgitate the same old “a delayed game is eventually good” speech you’ve seen online a million times before, but the Fable franchise is oddly near and dear to my heart, so I really, really want them to get this one right.

I’ve played through that first game over a dozen times, and replayed it on three different systems, and yet I still want to boot it up every now and again.

So, I’m more than comfortable with Microsoft taking their time on this one. If it means that the eventual game is so good that we’ll get Fable 5 sometime down the line too, then I’ll wait as long as they need.