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John Needham, boss of Fable developer Lionhead, has said that upcoming Xbox One exclusive Fable Legends will make use of the console's cloud storage to deliver a multiplayer offering closer to the likes of Dark Souls and SONY's indie darling Journey than the expected MMO.

"It's the capability of the Xbox One," Needham told Eurogamer in an interview this week. "All of the cloud services available to us and the online features we can build around that, that will connect players. A connected experience just brings you closer to the product, right, because you have shared experiences with your friends in-game, and it adds an engagement layer people expect these days. Most of your game experiences are connected, if you think about it."

"I always mention this, but I love Dark Souls, where you're invading other people's worlds, and games like Journey, where people are organically coming in and out of your game world. Having that kind of infrastructure behind the Xbox One gives you a lot of flexibility to do highly innovative online. They definitely inspire us, for sure."

Before that could happen, however, Needham had to convince the rest of the company that his vision of a shared game world would fit comfortably with a series that celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. "That was goal number one, and rallying the studio around, look, we can make a fantastic Fable experience online. This is not an IP that has to be a single-player experience."

A release date for Fable Legends has yet to be confirmed. Fable Anniversary, an HD remake of the original 2004 game for Xbox 360, is out in February.