Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux has a reputation for promising features for his games that don’t always make it into the final product that ships to retailers. Today in a post on GamerScoreBlog, Microsoft that confirmed that will happen once more with Fable II.

When Fable II arrives in stores, it will lack the online co-op multiplayer mode Molyneux touted at a 2008 Game Developers Conference presentation.. On the bright side, Microsoft is promising that the feature will be added in a downloadable update, possibly within the game’s first week on North American shelves. For those who can’t wait for a patch to adventure with friends, the game will include local co-op play out of the box.

However, the game won’t be entirely offline when it ships. Players will see gamers on their friends list as glowing orbs in-game, and will be able to chat or trade with them.

By Brendan Sinclair