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Peter Molyneux speaks on the Fable MMO
Even though Fable creator Peter Molyneux left Lionhead Studios last March, he still has a lot to say about the gaming industry and genre he helped revolutionize. In an interview with IGN, Molyneux talks candidly about the upcoming new Xbox and the possibility of a Fable MMO. "I can see that that would work. The thing about Fable is that it was such a rich world. It was, well, what the name says it is. It's all about Fable and Albion and this idea of legends and humour. RPGs are great for MMO transitions. I can see that that concept works, and works quite well. I think the charm of Fable was in the feeling of the world and definitely the humour. If they keep that in an MMO, then there's no reason why it shouldn't do reasonably well, I don't think." Of course, Molyneux's successor at Lionhead is an MMO vet himself, so let's all hope that the MMO pieces come together.
Distro Issue 50: the travel edition packs geotagging and offline navigation
Here at Engadget HQ, we're looking to take a bit of a breather after a long week of analyzing last quarter's numbers. With that said, a road trip or weekend respite of some sort is definitely in order and this week's edition of our e-magazine offers some insight into getting just a bit more out of that next excursion. Front and center, the globe trotting Darren Murph offers some tips for geotagging your shots from that next Blue Ridge Parkway trek and also takes Nokia Drive's offline navigation for a spin on a Lumia 900. The super thin $1,400 Acer Aspire S5 and the sub-$100 Motorola Atrix HD each get in-depth reviews while "Hands-On" is overrun by some new shooters -- including the much anticipated Canon EOS M. Fable: The Journey designer Ted Timmins takes his turn with Q&A, "Switched On" takes a look an Ouya, "Reaction Time" chats about pre-release secrecy and "IRL" has our personal gadget arsenals. That said, we're taking some Friday solace in one of the download links below, where you can grab a brand spankin' new issue of your very own. Distro Issue 50 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Fable: The Journey could be a rough one
Lionhead designer Ted Timmons says he learned a lesson after showing off Fable: The Journey to the public for the first time at E3 2011. "It's fine to be on rails," he says a year later, at the tail end of E3 2012. The spin-off was famously labeled as "on rails" by the public thanks to an early demo, and Timmons told Joystiq that while the team was surprised at the response, they eventually got a different message out of the whole thing: "We shouldn't be distracted by the whole 'on rails' issue," he says now. "We just want to make an awesome Kinect game."The Journey's awesomeness is yet to be determined, but it is certainly a Kinect game. The E3 2012 demo featured about ten minutes of two different levels in the game. You use Microsoft's all-seeing camera to snap and steer a horse's reins, throw a magical spear and open a locked door with magic spells.But while it all works (once you're shown how to do it - the tutorial is still a work in progress), the real question here is whether this journey is one worth taking.%Gallery-125521%
Fable developer seeking online game designer for 'ambitious new project'
Hey guys, since long-standing single-player titles' becoming MMOs is all the rage these days, did you know that the folks at Fable developer Lionhead Studios are looking to hire someone with a deep understanding of online multiplayer games to help them "define the multiplayer levels and experience of [their] ambitious new project"? Because according to the official job listing at Microsoft, they totally are. Of course, the first thing that came to our minds was could this mean a Fable MMO? Well, it could, but we're not sure yet. All we know right now is that Lionhead is looking for help to design a particularly ambitious (cough) online game, and if you take into consideration that late last year the studio was looking for an MMO-oriented programmer... well, fans of the Fable series or the studio itself should definitely keep their eyes on this one.
Molyneux: Microsoft was a 'creative padded cell;' 22 Cans will see his 'best' game ever
Peter Molyneux, creator of Fable and famously parodied developer, left Microsoft and Lionhead Studios last month to establish 22 Cans, a brand new development house. 22 Cans marks Molyneux's fifth studio founding, but there's something different about this one, he told Develop:"I believe it has all led me to this point. I believe the greatest game I've ever made is still ahead of me."Molyneux is adamant that he is building something special with 22 Cans, in both the structure of the company and the games it will produce. So far he has co-founder and former Lionhead programmer Dimitri Mavrikakis, data miner Paul Knight and IT director Tim Rance on board, but Molyneux is looking to have 22 people total from various industries, including architects, veterans, fresh faces and people who know nothing about the video game world.These people will help Molyneux make his "best" game ever; a game he couldn't create while at Microsoft. "I was in a creative padded cell," Molyneux said. "Microsoft was so safe. Microsoft was so nice. You're so supported. Everything I did couldn't hurt me, both creatively and physically. The danger was long gone. I had this huge desire to make something truly special, and I felt like I was being suffocated creatively a little bit."
Peter Molyneux leaves Lionhead and Microsoft to found 22 Cans
Peter Molyneux will leave Microsoft Game / Lionhead Studios once he's finished developing Fable: The Journey for Kinect. He'll be replaced by co-founder Mark Webley at the studio, with Redmond yet to name his successor at corporate level. Molyneux will partner with (Lionhead's) former CTO Tim Rance and Director Peter Murphy on 22 Cans, developing games under their own flag as he did when founding Lionhead and Bullfrog before that. The new company is based in Farnborough, 12 miles west of Lionhead's Guildford location and was registered on February 20th of this year. Given our childhood love of both Bullfrog and Lionhead's games, we wish both parties the very best -- you can check out when he visited The Engadget Show here.
Fable devs leave Lionhead to form Another Place
The brothers Carter have reunited, and it must feel good. Former Lionhead staffers Dene and Simon Carter have made good on their promise to form a new UK-based studio, aptly calling the venture Another Place Productions, according to Gamasutra. The pair were key players in the development of the Fable franchise, and bring with them a number of other essential players from that team.Former art director John McCormack, technical director Guillaume Portes, and executive producer Jeremie Texier have all stepped away from their former home at Lionhead to join Another Place.Simon Carter left his position last year, after co-founding the Lionhead satellite studio, Big Blue Box, which was responsible for the Fable series. Eventually, all satellite studios were absorbed into Lionhead as one complete entity, which is owned by Microsoft. At the time of his departure, Carter said he hoped to work on games for digital platforms like XBLA, PSN, Steam, and mobile titles, but it's unclear what Another Place will work on first.It's unclear how their departure will affect development of the upcoming Kinect-specific title Fable: The Journey, which is scheduled to launch at some point this year, which we're hoping works out better than Fable 3 did.
Creating a new world: 38 Studios discusses the formation of Amalur's IP
As MMO fans, we're keeping a close eye on 38 Studios for its development of Project Copernicus, the MMO that will serve as the follow-up to next month's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The risk factor of not only developing two major intertwined projects in parallel but to have the additional task of creating a brand-new IP in which to put them must be a pressing one, which is why CVG sat down with Reckoning Lead Designer Ian Frazier to talk about challenges the studio has been tackling. Frazier outlines the balance the studio's struck between its three big-name creators -- Todd McFarlane (art), R.A. Salvatore (story), and Ken Rolston (design) -- not to mention the ideas that pour in from founder Curt Schilling. Fortunately, Frazier says that these larger-than-life personalities mesh well together: "The nice thing that's worked out is, I think if we'd got three famous game designers, it would have been a disaster: big egos, they're all on the same plane, it wouldn't have worked out. What makes this work is they're all different." Even though Rolston previously worked on The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Frazier said the designer wanted to try his hand at something fresh with a better combat system. "They're all great games," Frazier said of the Elder Scrolls series, "and I think they're progressively better, but they're all the same game. It's not like they're radically changing with time." Frazier said Reckoning has been compared to a "single-player WoW" as well as Dragon Age and Fable, but he insists that the world and ideas the team's been creating will take it far past those basic comparisons. You can take your first peek into the world of Amalur with the Reckoning demo -- and let us know what you think in the comments!
This Week in MMO: Fable edition
What new this week in MMOs? You'll have to watch This Week in MMO to find out. Funny how that works, huh? Host Gary Gannon is joined by Mike Schaffnit and Jasmine Hruschak for the traditional news roundtable, and boy is there a lot to talk about. Topics include Star Wars: The Old Republic's launch and post-launch reactions, Cryptic's SWTOR ripoffs homages, and TERA's endgame political system. The heretofore single-player Fable franchise gets a mention as well, due to Microsoft's curious job posting that seeks an experienced MMO programmer. Join the trio for all this and more at the Gamebreaker website.
Fable developer Lionhead seeking experienced MMO programmer
Is the world of Albion coming to an MMO near you? That's up for speculation thanks to a job advertisement on Microsoft's career board. The software giant, which owns Fable developer Lionhead Studios, is seeking a programmer "who enjoys playing MMO games and has significant experience with the workings of a massive online multiplayer environment." Further requirements include "a minimum of one shipped MMO as a network programmer." Lionhead shipped Fable III in October of 2010, and the company is rumored to be developing a "controller-based" Fable IV in 2013, according to Eurogamer. When contacted by Eurogamer, Lionhead had this to say in an official statement: "Thanks for checking in with us! We're happy to tell you all about what we're working on. Just apply, get hired, and we promise to spill our guts!"
Buy Peter Molyneux's E3 badge for a good cause
Looking for the perfect accessory for that "Peter Molyneux at E3 2011" costume you've been putting together for the last week or so? Good news: you can buy Molyneux's E3 badge on eBay, and all the proceeds go to charity.
The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: True Fantasy Live Online
As an extremely amateur historian -- and an extremely attractive archaeologist -- I've always been fascinated with the "what ifs" of gaming's timeline. What if Blizzard had pulled the plug on World of Warcraft during development as it did for Warcraft Adventures? What if Hellgate: London had a lot more time and resources before it launched? What if North America had embraced the free-to-play model much earlier instead of the subscription model? What if Shawn came to his senses before he hired me? Life would've been a lot better. Or worse. That's the problem with counterfactual history: We can make educated guesses, but we'll never really know. While it's sad to see MMOs shut down due to underperformance, it's especially maddening to contemplate MMOs canceled before they even made it to the starting gate. In a new periodic series here at The Game Archaeologist, I'm going to look at a few of the "what ifs" of prematurely terminated MMORPGs. And to kick us off, I'm tackling probably one of the most frustrating, painful subjects that still linger amongst potential fans. I'm talking, of course, of True Fantasy Live Online, the game that could've shown the true potential of console MMOs. Or, y'know, not.
Fable: The Journey utilizes Unreal Engine 3
The cheerful hobbe you see above has been rendered in Unreal Engine 3. Lionhead Studios is using Epic's technology to power Fable: The Journey, a first-person Kinect game set in the land of Albion. We'll ask Lionhead what user-side benefits the technology offers for this game in particular (which is a major departure from the franchise), but you'll be pleased to know that Peter Molyneux's already giving it the hyperbolic treatment in the press release. "Already we are seeing a more beautiful, vivid and unique world full of dramatic moments and have crafted new, never seen before gameplay experiences." Fable 3 was built on Lionhead's own technology, which could be fairly described as "rickety." %Gallery-125521%
Fable: The Journey features Kinect-based journeying
Peter Molyneux has just announced Fable: the Journey for Xbox 360. The first-person Fable experience features Kinect integration, allowing the player to draw shapes in the air to cast spells. It also appears to be on-rails -- shades of Dead Space: Extraction?
Fable 3 combat lead gets combative about game's reception
It's a comfort to know that though Fable 3 (launching today on PC) may have represented a downturn in quality from Lionhead's previous game, the studio's talent for utter delusion is as robust as ever. Combat lead Mike West starts out well enough, detailing for Eurogamer some improvements in the PC port, like control schemes optimized for mouse and keyboard and a beefed-up graphical engine that supports higher resolutions and 3D effects. But when West starts defending Fable 3 against critics, things get ... weird. Here's a sample. "[Fable 3] is a better game than Fable 2." ... That's not a good start, but keep going. "Fable 3 wasn't very buggy - it was pretty polished. It all fitted together very well and as a product it was very good." If you'll remember, as with all "pretty polished" games, Lionhead had to solicit bug reports from the community after the game's release. "People saying the story wasn't very good was unfair. It's an interesting situation of you gather people together and then defeating the main bad guy." Umm, Mike? ... Hey Mike? That last thing you said? That's not really what happens in your game. Well, it's what happens in the first half. ... Oh, wait, did you only play the first half? Not that we blame you of course, but it would explain so much.
Lionhead survey seeks feedback on Fable franchise
What's your favorite Fable game? Lionhead is seeking the (obvious) answer in a community survey that's also intended to rank the franchise's thirteen core features, as listed by the developer, in order of importance. Fable players are asked to evaluate design elements like accessibility, British humour, co-op and the Dog, assigning each its rightful, subjective rank. (And what about the bugs, you're wondering? Those are actually dealt with in a separate survey.) "Sure we could try and digest 1,000,000 forum posts and come up with the data that way," Lionhead community manager Sam Van Tilburgh wrote in a community call to take the survey, "but it would take way too long and so it isn't very efficient." "Lionhead has a long relationship with a large and passionate community," Van Tilburgh added in a comment on the post, "so it's just a continuation of what we've been doing for many years now" -- and, presumably, for many years to come. Head of the pride Peter Molyneux has previously said his studio has plans for at least a Fable 4 and 5, which could include Kinect integration (not mentioned in the survey). Fable 3 debuted last October and went on to become the #7 bestselling release of 2010 on Xbox 360, according to NPD data published by Gamasutra. The PC version is still unreleased.
Fable Coin Golf, Game Room coming to Windows Phone 7
After dropping details on Avatar Kinect and the crazy amount of Kinects sold in its first 60 days on shelves, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer moved onto another recent Microsoft product launch: Windows Phone 7. While the Crackdown and Halo brands already have some presence on the platform, Ballmer took the opportunity to reveal that another major Microsoft Game Studios brand is making the leap to the small screen. Fable Coin Golf brings everything you know and love about Fable to your phone ... specifically, the coin golf part. Alright, so we didn't see what Fable Coin Golf is exactly, but Ballmer did reveal that all the gold earned in Fable Coin Golf (presumably earned playing golf?) will be sent straight to your Fable 3 character on the Xbox 360, ala Fable Pub Games and Fable 2, for the old-timers in the house. During a montage that followed the reveal, we also spotted the retro-themed Game Room service, specifically arcade classic Centipede. We'll try to dig up more on the service's mobile offering during CES this week. For now, make your best guess as to what precisely Fable Coin Golf is.
Isabella Products reveals 7-inch Fable connected children's tablet
Hello, diversification. The same company responsible for the Vizit photo frame is branching out in a big way -- Isabella Products has just introduced what it's calling the planet's first fully interactive, connected children's tablet. Just like mum and pop's Galaxy Tab, the Fable boasts a 7-inch touchpanel and inbuilt 3G, but details beyond that (hardware wise, anyway) are few and far betwixt. We are told that it'll come preloaded with children's titles from partner Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, including Curious George, Martha Speaks, and George and Martha. As you'd expect, it'll boast a tyke-friendly user interface and will provide a secure, SFW connection to the company's VizitMe.com content management system. There's nary a mention of price (nor how much it'll cost to maintain that 3G connection each month), but all should be crystal clear by the time it launches in mid-2011.
PSA: Free Fable 3 weapons DLC available now
Microsoft has released free DLC for Fable 3 on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The content includes two weapons: a war hammer (the "Bloodstone Bludgeon") and a rifle ("Gusket's Musket"). Neither will be immediately available; they're added to your "gift queue" and be unlocked as the game progresses.
Microsoft Games for Windows Marketplace relaunches in your browser on November 15
Microsoft just announced that its new Games for Windows Marketplace online PC games store will launch on November 15th. Think Steam, but not quite. The store offers online web access from anywhere and features fast purchase and download turnarounds to accelerate the time to game play; discounted games; and game search by title, genre or publisher. Games for Windows Marketplace is integrated with Microsoft's existing Xbox LIVE and Windows Live services and will launch with over 100 titles including "Fable: The Lost Chapters" and "Grand Theft Auto III." Anyone with a Windows Live ID can login. Check out the full press release after the break before heading over to Joystiq for more detailed coverage.%Gallery-105819%
