Not sure at the surprise around Fable 3. It's the third in an established series that has seen steady growth in customer base over time. It has a huge, pre-built audience ready to pre-order, just like Halo or CoD. Why wouldn't it show both strong pre-orders and good growth in demand? It's good a fair bit of marketing and hype plus the in-built audience plus - so far as I've seen - solid reviews saying that if you like Fable 2 you're going to like it.
GT5 isn't a surprise either. The title's release date has been withdrawn unexpectedly, it's already taken years to arrive, who knows when they'll release it now, etc. Why pre-order? It was bound to take a hit until the sort out the release date.
People who pre-order tend to either already have an investment in a series - and hence strong desire to commit early - and to be far more up-to-date on games progress and the title they're interested in, that's why they pre-order. This means they spot release date changes, etc. and react, or show strong support close to launch for the franchise they want to purchase.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
