An extended version of the game, Fable: The Lost Chapters, was released for the Xbox and Windows in September 2005.

A port of the game for Mac OS X, created by Robosoft Technologies and published by Feral Interactive, was released in March 2008 after a delay of more than two years due to licensing issues.

Upon leaving the guild, the player is given a choice to decide whether the hero should live up to his name, or guide him on a path of darkness.

The game's music was composed by Russell Shaw, with the opening title theme written by Danny Elfman.

[8] Fable received generally positive reviews from critics for the quality of its gameplay and execution, though the failure to include many promised features was noted.

Fable Anniversary, a high-definition remake of the game that includes The Lost Chapters, was released for the Xbox 360 and Windows in February 2014.

Fable's game world is dotted with towns where recreational activities not related to combat can be undertaken.

Enterprising Heroes can buy trade items such as beer kegs or grain sacks and sell them at other towns for profit.

Eating too much causes the character to gain weight, while drinking excessive amounts of beer causes Heroes to become sick and vomit.

The entire land was once led by an ancient royal bloodline, bestowed with the title of Archon, referred to as the "Old Kingdom".

Upon the death of their mother, the Hero and Theresa are the only two remaining descendants of Archon, and if Jack destroys them both the sword will be even more powerful.

Fable was the first game developed by Big Blue Box, a satellite studio of Peter Molyneux's Lionhead.

Dene and Simon Carter, Big Blue Box's founders, stated that their first project would have to meet several criteria in order to be accepted by game publishers, but that they weren't interested in producing a generic title.

According to the Carters, they wanted to create a role-playing game like no other: The world would be a breathtakingly beautiful place filled with waterfalls, mountains, dense forests, populated with compelling and convincing characters with real personality, people who actually reacted to what you did.

[a][17] The main ideas that constituted the entire development of Fable were that the hero visually reflects his experience and that the world reacts in a manner appropriate to the player's actions.

[18] Peter Molyneux aggressively promoted Fable, at one point stating that "it's gonna be the best game ever".

[19] Fable previews noted that the somewhat absurd humour and atmosphere of the game, which GamePro called "Terry Pratchett or Piers Anthony fantasy" was far different from what was seen on contemporary RPGs.

[20] With the exception of the title theme, Fable's music was composed by Russell Shaw, who had previously worked on Molyneux games such as Magic Carpet and Black & White.

Characters such as Briar Rose and Scythe, who played only minor roles in the original game, are now given more importance and are included in certain main and side quests.

Other character-based augmentations include the voice of the antagonist, Jack of Blades, sounding deeper, harsher and more demonic, and the ability to uncover (and resolve) the murder mystery of Lady Grey's sister.

Next Generation ranked it as the 29th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country.

[47] The short length of the main plot was criticised by reviewers, but many overlooked this due to the much larger array of side quests available to the player.

One of the complaints that arose upon the release of Fable was the fact that it failed to include features that Peter Molyneux had mentioned while the game was still in development.

[50] Molyneux reacted to these complaints by means of a public apology posted on the official Lionhead forums, on which he said: "If I have mentioned any feature in the past [that], for whatever reason, didn't make it as I described into Fable, I apologise.

The PC and Xbox versions of Fable: The Lost Chapters were also well-received, with slightly lower Metacritic and GameRankings averages than the original title.

[35][36][32][33] Reviewers such as Greg Kasavin of GameSpot noted that the addition of new content helped prevent the game from becoming stale.

[54][55] In 2005, a Microsoft Game Studios representative stated that Fable would be among the franchises that would appear on the next-generation Xbox 360.

[64] The game featured graphical upgrades in many areas over the original most notably; native widescreen support, higher polygon count, larger textures, specular maps, normal maps, improved lighting, improved shadows, and a larger draw/detail distance.

Many reviewers praised the new graphics, but bemoaned that old bugs from the previous version of the game had not been fixed, including freezing at a very frequent cadence.