Legendary Game Maker Peter Molyneux Talks Regrets and What's Next

In his first major interview in over a year, Molyneux opens up about his legacy, his empathy for the 'No Man's Sky' team, and redefining himself.

[solideagle]

great interview...i hope he comes back to console industry

[Mystogan]

Bring him back for Fable 4

[Kaneki-Ken]

Bring him to PlayStation and do a spiritual Successor to Fable. PlayStation will fund the game and give full creative control over the game.

[XXanderXX]

only with the exception where he doesn't over sale and not deliver like he did with Fable 1-3

[zuul9018]

Yea he had part in some neat games, (fable, black and white) but i think all im gonna remember him for was his pre-fable 2 interview.

"You dont control the dog, the dog acts on its own." Feel like that was the most proud hes ever been about a feature in his game. "You dont control the dog" kinda funny

[UltraNova]

Yeah the time where people got excited about Peter's promises is long long gone. He has to deliver...

[badz149]

Knowing Molyneux, this talk about regrets might be another one of his promises he's not gonna fulfill.

[XanderZane]

I want a new Populus game for the new generation. Played that game to death on the Genesis. It's too bad that Peter's ambitions always seemed to exceed his final product. He always had big dreams though.

[TheColbertinator]

I miss this crazy fool. Microsoft could use a game developer like Molyneux again.

[S2Killinit]

MS could use any developer.

[omegaheat]

Dude, you really should get a life. No matter what developer comes on board, you'll find some way to make it out as a bad thing. Save some of that surplus of criticism for things that really matter, you know things like Donald Trump.

[S2Killinit]

Whaaa. Im just saying they dont show a lot of movement in terms of first party. If we all sit back and dont say nothing, it will continue to be that way.

[Trekster_Gamer]

Yes like Sony could use free backwards compatibility the cheap bastards

[ThePresentIsAgift]

That was hilarious BTW and I owned all Xbox Consoles/

[Godmars290]

No, just need to loosen the reigns - a lot. Realize that not everything needs to be online so as to need a paying sub just to access.

[rainslacker]

@omega

Actually, thinking on it, maybe you could name one high profile game designer that works for Microsoft?

Without a google search.

There's a reason that high profile game designers become high profile....it's usually because they make some rather iconic, impressive, or innovative games.

[Godmars290]

MS is literally in the shape they're in because of this guy. Especially regarding Kinect.

[psuedo]

Dod that hurt pulling that out of your know where?

[Godmars290]

So he wasn't in charge of Kinect game development at one point? Never delivered with Milo?

[InTheLab]

That was Kudo and Don Mattrik. They pushed the motion gimmicks and Molyneux simply believed in the project enough to stage a phony demo as proof of concept.

The only other notable instance of him ruining Xbox was that completely on the rails Fable that he argued and had 50 idiots from gaming media to sign their names stating the game wasn't on the rails.

While I do believe Kate and Milo sold a dream to millions (many of whom still argue the potential for Kinect), at that point in Xbox history the Kinect was entirely optional.

He has zero to do with Forced Kinect, DRM, no used games, and all of that deal from the Xbox launch and he certainly doesn't have anything to do with Phil's mission to gut the Xbox one of all exclusives

[Godmars290]

@InTheLab:

How as the face of Kinect is the man as if not more culpable? By all counts he had skill and resources in excess to deliver Milo, but instead held up an empty example expecting 3rd parties to do as well if not better? And since, apparent grand tradition of overselling and at some point walking back, shareholders bought something yet to be proven never to actually work as Mattrick only saw the money to be made through watching XB1 owners, how was Molyneux and Milo not responsible for Kinect being mandatory on the next system?

The XB1 was built around Kinect, Kinect never worked as advertised, effectively crippled the XB1, and that's on Molyneux and a proof of concept.

[phoenixwing]

He sure talked big about his games. As for them hitting the mark, at least he has an ambitious imagination. He walked the line of what is barely acceptable to promise to gamers without getting huge backlash. Unlike a certain game publisher with their procedurally generated universe.

[cfc83]

Very good interview. Good luck to him.

[Krysis]

Bring him to rare studios and get them on another Fable

[The 10th Rider]

Honestly putting him on a Fable reboot may not be a bad idea. With the tech we have today he could go much further with it than they were able to over a decade ago. Maybe this time it could actually live up to everything he promises.

[Krysis]

Ahh, he would probably still promise the sun and we would only get the moon. I never let his broken ambitions take away from my experiences. I loved fable for what they were

[Ristul]

I liked the first fable a lot, granted I didn't read about it at all prior to it's release, so I was not exposed to his promises like others were. Still had a lot of fun playing it, they had a great vibe going on with the humor and athmosphere/music.

[The 10th Rider]

Oh, I don't think the games were bad by any means. He just had a tendency of letting his ambitions getting ahead of realistic expectations. I think we're at a point where many of his ambitions could be realized and it would actually be cool to see what would come of Fable if he tried his hand at it again.

[Segata]

"legendary" lying asswipe.

[BlackIceJoe]

I'd like to see him work on a spiritual succsessor to Syndicate. I doubt that will happen, but I'd like it.

[Godmars290]

He just wont leave, will he?

Or was it the interviewer's fault for sticking a mike in the man's face?

[Bolts]

No. Just no. Please just retire. Stop giving this guy millions because all he does is sell lies.

[Jakens]

https://www.nowgamer.com/th...

"When building up nuclear blast levels of hype for the original Fable, Molyneux claimed that if your character knocks an acorn off a tree, another tree would eventually grow from the fallen acorn. When the feature was nowhere to be found in the final game, some gamers called Molyneux out on the issue."

He dreams...

[Master of Unlocking]

Why did Microsoft get rid of him and Lionhead studios again?

[Rachel_Alucard]

He quit and made an indie studio that ended up failing to design one game that's been stuck in that kickstarter hell that killed any reputation he had left in the industry. MS killed Lionhead due to be a huge liability with Fable Legends being a massive failure on so many levels that nothing they did could fix it's internal problems, every new update screwed it even worse and being that it was a F2P game and it lacked the ability to get people to pay and keep engaged MS went ahead and just ended the studio. I would assume it being due to that they felt they couldn't afford another project for that studio since they'd been on a losing streak 3 times at that point.

[Kingdomcome247]

It's hard to not like the guy. I wish him well.

[Jaqen_Hghar]

he's only 57! A man thinks he's got at least 2 decades of game making ahead of him!

[Hardiman]

I would like to see him come work with Sony. They seem to be open to different and innovative things.

[jznrpg]

He never lived up to his own hype, talk is cheap. He had some decent games but he had a lot of bombs. Curt Schilling lost his entire fortune with the "help" of Peter Molyneux

[Prince_TFK]

Never like the guy really, espcially after i got burned with his lies about Fable 3. Bought it, played it, very disappointed with it espcially compared to Fable 2.

I thought he had a change of heart and stop lying to the industry with Godus. Boy oh boy i was very wrong.

[Canary]

Wasn't his last big interview all about how much he hated dealing with the press and was never going to do another interview again?

[Interloper]

He's basically Kojima but without the awesome team behind him. Imagine if Peter and Kojima teamed together and had the best designers on their hands... xD

[mochachino]

Well, he couldn't have f'd up Lionhead more than MS did. They still managed to release game under him. Now they're dead.

[XXanderXX]

So what happened with Studio 22 Cans