Lionhead Studios has announced that the open beta for the upcoming free-to-play action RPG "Fable Legends" has been pushed back to spring 2016.

According to the company, it will use the extra time to extend the closed beta event for the game.

Originally, the open beta for "Fable Legends" was supposed to go live later this month. However, the developer decided to delay the public testing for the game due to technical reasons, IGN reported.

The studio noted that it did not expect that work on the game will be this extensive. As a result, the company has opted to extend its closed beta in order to collect more feedback from gamers.

"Fable Legends is coming together well and it's a lot of fun," the studio said in the game's website. "But we think that we can make it even better. So we've decided to extend our closed beta to continue to listen to feedback from our players and add features and polish that will make a real difference."

"This means 'Fable Legends' won't release into open beta this holiday as previously announced," Lionhead Studios continued. "We realize this may be disappointing for those of you not currently playing, so we wanted to tell you why."

As noted by the studio, the closed beta for the game will extend for several weeks. Currently, Lionhead is inviting a total of 100,000 gamers to sign up and test the game. However, since it's a closed beta, not everyone will be able to participate in the event.

Destructoid pointed out that with the open beta now pushed for spring of next year, the final version of the game will most likely come out near the end of 2016 if everything goes according to plan. Hopefully though, Lionhead Studios will be able to launch the complete game a bit earlier.

Under the guidance of Microsoft, "Fable Legends" is expected to arrive for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox One platforms. It will feature a cooperative type of gameplay and will also come with cross-platform play support. This means PC and Xbox One gamers will be able to play with each other through the game's multiplayer mode.

Unlike other role-playing games, "Fable Legends" will let players take on the role of the villain. As the main bad guy, they have the power to manipulate the narrative of the game by controlling how powerful the enemies will be and where they will come from. Villains can also determine exactly when bosses will appear.

The good guys or heroes, on the other hand, have to work together to complete their quest and defeat the villain.