Peter Molyneux Interview

CVG is offering up an interview with Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux about his game development history, the reception his titles have received over the years, and what his plans are for the future. On Fable III’s poor reception:

The first fruit of the partnership was Fable II in 2008 – probably the highest rated game of Molyneux’s career, and the catalyst for the majority of accolades on show in Guildford. A year later, Microsoft rewarded Molyneux by making him creative director of their studio network.

It was a tough act to follow, and despite plenty of 9/10 scores, Molyneux admits to being disappointed by the media response to last year’s Fable 3.

“I totally blame myself, not anyone upstairs, who all did a wonderful job,” he says. “My expectations were sky high. The planning was the problem. We had to look at the process.”

And so to what Molyneux believes will be the key to Lionhead’s future triumphs: ‘The Golden Line’. The studio and its leader’s rampant quest for new ideas have occasionally been to its detriment, Molyneux acknowledges:

“Every game we’ve ever made has provided this moment of: ‘Oh my God. It’s HOW long?’ At one point, Fable 3 was 24 hours long when it should have been 12.

“You haven’t got enough time to polish everything, so you have to cut chunks out. It’s like hacking off parts of your body. You really grieve doing it. There was so much good stuff left on the floor with Fable 3.”

That’s because it was dumbed down to high heaven. You couldn’t even die if you tried. And why is it suddenly a detriment to make a game that’s 24 hours long?