PeterMolyneux
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Molyneux interested in revisiting old franchises
Speaking to Gamespot UK, the ever-enthusiastic and monochromatically inclined Peter Molyneux expressed interest in revisiting some of his old franchises. Licensing complications aside, he asserts that "some sort of next-gen online version of Syndicate would certainly be popular with gamers," and that new versions of Dungeon Keeper and Populous would be equally exciting to him. Having been purchased by Microsoft certainly makes the prospect of these sequels appearing at Lionhead (and not EA) less likely, but not impossible.In fact, we're already swooning over the idea of a sprawling Syndicate sequel -- perhaps a next-gen variant might even give us that real ending we were so rudely cheated out of years ago. Then again, sprawling development costs might say otherwise. "But it should be remembered that there is a law of diminishing return here, so if you spend $5 million and double that to $10 million, you don't get double the quality. This trend really can't continue, and the industry must face the fact we need to stabilize our costs. This will mean that reuse of technology and assets needs to be much better managed." For further Molyneux insight, check out Joystiq's "But you said that about Fable 1!" interview conducted at last month's Develop Conference.[Via GamersReports]
The latest Fable scraps
The latest Fable 2 update gives us a few tidbits to enjoy -- namely the solitary piece of concept art above. Of particular interest -- especially to those who were disappointed by Fable's restrictive pathways -- is level designer, Charlton Edward's comments on the game:"The world definitely is much bigger and it also feels better. There are more things to do within each area and we absolutely have to make them interesting and absorbing. Too many times have I spent playing RPG's set in vast barren wastelands. Fable 2 retains the Fable 1 organic, intimate feel, while giving players tons to explore and discover. We are really trying to pack the world with exploration, interaction and secrets."While this doesn't necessarily mean the end of Fable's linear paths, it at least promises we'll have more to do on said paths. Anybody have this in their top five most wanted yet?[Via Xboxygen (watch out, it's in French)]
Hype begins and ends with the gaming press
Wanna see a hype fest? Do you? You do?! Well just head over to Eurogamer, where the site decided to give Peter Molyneux a free license to hype up his unannounced projects. In an "interview" that in fifty years will be regarded by scholars as the definitive example of hype creation, Eurogamer asked Molyneux "what's your next game, and when are we going to find out about that?" The rest of the interview consists of Molyneux spouting hyped, fluffy nonsense about how he can't tell us what the game is about, but that it'll definitely be awesome+1 to the max! I just can't blame Molyneux for this mess -- if you give one of the game industry's most savvy game developers/marketers an open microphone, it's practically a law that he will use it to hype his product. Since Molyneux didn't actually say anything about his next game that might not be included in the game (like what happened with Fable) Molyneux is totally covered. The real blame lies with Eurogamer. This goes way beyond them failing to rein him in; they've gone out of their way to construct hype out of the interview. The accompanying article is dedicated to encouraging readers to guess the word that defines Molyneux's next project. Do they think that the average Eurogamer reader is five years old?! As Winston Smith says in 1984, "if there is hope, it lies in the proles gamers", so it's encouraging to see commentators calling Eurogamer out on this trash. Stoatboy says "Oh ffs - that was a terrible interview. Love him or loathe him - that interview said NOTHING above any beyond "it'll be GREAT", which is the very least anyone would say about any game they happened to be working on." See also: Joystiq's interview with Peter Molyneux
Molyneux - "Apple needs to get behind games"
Last week I carried out an interview with Peter Molyneux (the founder of Lionhead Studios which has games like Black & White, Fable and The Movies to its name) over at TUAW sister site Joystiq. I made sure to ask him a question or two about the state of Mac gaming because one, I *used* to be a relatively hardcore Mac gamer and two, Lionhead has a track record of bringing all of its games to the Mac. That isn't changing with Microsoft's recent acquisition of the company (haven't we heard all this before?!).The relevant part of the interview:"There's this Catch 22 situation where not many people play games on the Mac and therefore developers don't want to make games for the Mac. Exactly. I think it would need Apple to get behind games. There's nothing in their operating system that panders to games at all and I take my hats off to Microsoft. I think they've realized that games are important."Macworld's Peter Cohen suggested that Molyneux was referring to Apple's lack of a unified application programming interface that would make the jobs of game programmers much easier. I think this suggestion is spot on, but not the only thing that Molyneux was referring to. One passive improvement could include getting Apple to kick its recent integrated graphics habit (Molyneux called my MacBook "a perfect thing" in the interview - pity it can't play games). Sure, we'd all like an iTunes Games Store, a mid-range upgradeable Mac with a decent graphics card and an Apple that publishes games, but it ain't gonna happen while you-know-who is still around.Unless Apple gets off its arse and gives game developers more than the bare minimum of support, Mac gaming is going to disappear thanks to the rapid emergence of easy access to Windows games via Boot Camp or GPU virtualization (when it finally appears). Only then will we see articles on Apple.com about how awesome Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter looks on the Mac, instead of long features about how the GRAW music was composed using a PowerMac G5.
Peter Molyneux's orgasmic delight
Conrad over at Joystiq has posted an interview with Lionhead's Peter Molyneux. There's a lot of good stuff in there and I won't attempt to recount it all. I will, however, relate this little tidbit to whet your appetite:"You know in those days that's what it was like, I smoked more cigarettes, drunk more and did disastrous things to my body. I was a total introvert, the world outside of what I did on my computer became dim, almost psychotically so. But, there was, and I apologize for using this words, there was this orgasmic delight in physically creating something."Good stuff. Conrad and Peter talk Fable, Fable 2, Pete's "secret project", and more. Head over to Joystiq and check it out.
Joystiq interviews Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios
Yesterday at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Jennie and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the founder of Lionhead Studios, Peter Molyneux. We chatted about the issue of hype, frustrations surrounding PC gaming and Peter's early days in the industry, amongst other topics.Fable was pretty much portrayed as one of the most open games of all time, but in terms of hype, it failed to meet the high expectations that you gave the game. There was even a forum post where you apologized about this: why did it get to that level?Well, it started with this fatal line that I made and that was that I wanted to make Fable the greatest role playing game of all time. I kinda still defend that because I honestly don't see the point in making a game that you don't honestly believe has a chance of being the greatest game of all time. I meet the press quite a lot, every 6-8 weeks there's some sort of press interview. The way I work then is to get a system in, play around with it, polish it, make it better. Sometimes I leave it as it is and sometimes I throw it away.
A few Fable scraps
The Lionhead Times has be updated with a few bits of info regarding Fable 2. Most of the info is just general development stuff, but there are a few interesting things to point out. For instance, the story of Fable 2 takes place 500 years after the events of Fable and The Lost Chapters, giving the game a richer history from which to build the story. The story is also planned to be longer than the original, which is definitely good news. Somewhat more cryptic, it's also revealed that the story could take a turn that will "shock" players. Another little tidbit, the Fable 2 team now has to make "milestone" builds of the game in order to showcase the game's progress to the suits at Microsoft. The upshot of this is that we should get some insight on the game's progress as well. Fable 2 is one of the 360's heavy hitters so, rest assured that we'll keep you posted.
Molyneux predicted a Revolution ... in '04
During a demonstration of Fable, his then-upcoming RPG, at 2004's DICE conference, Peter Molynuex predicted that game controllers needed a revolution -- so to speak -- to accomodate the shift in game design. He said: I reckon, and this is a real personal point of view, the greatest innovation in hardware won't come from the next graphics processor, or the next processor, or the next console, or even the next PC. Someone, somewhere will come up with an input device that enables us to do games that we haven't even imagined before ... somewhere, someone is going to come up with a second-generation controller because, I would argue, the controllers we have now were designed to actually move around 2D worlds, and they've been hybrided for 3D worlds, and they're still not good enough, and the number of times you have to go through and re-jig your game because of the controllers. Sounds like the sagacious Molynuex would have loved to make a title using Nintendo's new controller; although, with last week's announcement that Microsoft finally bought Molyneux's Lionhead Studios, it looks like it ain't gonna happen. [Thanks, k2switch]
Microsoft's Lionhead acquisition official
The GDC rumour mill had its finger on the pulse where Lionhead and Microsoft were concerned; Microsoft has acquired the British developer, beating out rumoured competition from EA and Ubisoft. It looks as though Microsoft were especially keen to grab Peter Molyneux -- they'll be putting his innovative approach to gaming to use on the Xbox 360 and Vista platforms. This is good news for the struggling Lionhead, although whether it will help Molyneux's games sell any better is yet to be seen. As far as the UK games industry is concerned, international acquisitions like this (and Rare's before it) are interesting -- while there will always be smaller guys going it alone, there's a short supply of big-name British developers who are staying home-grown.
Molyneux's Lionhead cuts staff, axes projects
Lionhead has confirmed recent job layoffs, downsizing its total staff from 250 to 200. The cutbacks also signal the end of some of the studio's current projects. Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux told remaining employees that only two titles, both for next-gen consoles, will continue to be developed. The sequel to Fable—said to be in development for the past year—is expected to be one of those games.Analysts have cited poor sales of Lionhead's most recent PC titles, The Movies and Black and White 2, as primary causes for the decision to resize the studio. Activision, publishers of The Movies, dropped the title last month, destroying hopes for a console port. In addition, rumors have begun heating up that Molyneux is again seeking to sell Lionhead. Microsoft and Ubisoft are the most prominent potential buyers. Although, Microsoft is likely wary of offering the big bucks given Rare's poor performance since the Xbox-maker acquired that studio for $375 million back in 2002.[Thanks, The1]
