Lionhead Studios’ action RPG Fable 3, which first released in 2010, is now a free download on Xbox 360 for all Xbox Live Gold members. Fable 3 is only a free download until June 30, though, so get it while you can. Xbox Live Gold requires a monthly or annual subscription, whereas the Silver level allows DLC downloads and multimedia elements but not access to online multiplayer matches or free games such as the now-gratis Fable 3.
Lionhead’s seminal RPG has a host of player-determined skills and attributes, but there are plenty of Fable 3 secrets as well. Chief among those secrets his how to open the Fable 3 demon doors, a series of doors that grant players access to secret areas in the Fable 3 world that include special items and gold. The demon doors themselves aren’t hidden, but how to open them is the tricky part.
Making Fable 3 a free download is Microsoft’s way to introduce the upcoming “Games With Gold” program. The Games With Gold program was first announced last week at Microsoft’s E3 2013 press briefing, and it will grant XBL Gold members additional incentives to justify their paid membership. The Games with Gold program officially begins on July 1.
Microsoft has said the Fable 3 freebie is unrelated to the forthcoming program, but that’s probably just a technicality, since the Games with Gold program won’t officially launch until the Fable 3 promo is over. To say that making a full-length first-party game available for free only to Xbox Live Gold members is “unrelated” to a program that’s going to work exactly the same way borders on insulting to gamers’ intelligence.
The Games With Gold program will give XBL Gold subscribers up two free Xbox 360 games per month. The titles will be available on the first and 16th day of every month. The first two games in the program will be Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed 2, although Microsoft hasn’t announced which of the two will release first.
Once Gold members download a game as part of the program, the title will be theirs to keep in perpetuity. It will not be playable only as long as they’re Gold members or are connected to the Internet. Take that, DRM conspiracy theorists.
