Fable III free for Xbox Live Gold members

Adventure role-playing game Fable III is now available on Xbox Live as a free download as a special lead-in to Microsoft's new Games With Gold promotion.

The Fable III freebie offer ends June 30.

As announced during Microsoft's E3 briefing last week, the Games With Gold promotion will begin in earnest on July 1. The Fable III offer is an unrelated bonus, Microsoft said.

As part of the Games With Gold promotion, Microsoft will offer up two free Xbox 360 games per month, available beginning on the 1st and the 16th day of every month.

The first two games after Fable III will be Assassin's Creed II and Halo 3, though it's not clear which will be released first. Once the games are downloaded, players can keep these titles "no matter what," Microsoft said.

Microsoft's future ambitions may revolve around the Xbox One, but the company does not plan to abandon the Xbox 360 anytime soon. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said last month that he believes the platform will "be very vibrant for many years."

A redesigned Xbox 360 model was announced during Microsoft's E3 briefing last week and is available now.