With Masters of Albion, Peter Molyneux presented his new project at gamescom 2024, which seems like a mix of Fable, Black & White and Dungeon Keeper. The developer legend can finance the project thanks to the NFT game Legacy.
How successful was Legacy? When Peter Molyneux announced the industrial simulation Legacy in 2019, he wanted to develop a modern version of his game “The Entrepreneur” (1984). Well before the launch, in December 2021, it was possible to buy land for Legacy for the first time. By then, however, the project had mutated into a blockchain business sim.
According to reports at the time, the sale of the associated NFTs is said to have brought in more than 50 million US dollars in the first few days. In an interview with Eurogamer during gamescom 2024, Peter Molyneux now clarified that the amount had been “exaggerated” by the press.
The first trailer for Masters of Albion by Peter Molyneux and his studio 22cans:
Trailer for Masters of Albion offers insight into the gameplay
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Nevertheless, Legacy was successful enough to finance Masters of Albion, which was recently announced at the Cologne trade fair:
Well, I’m exaggerating and so are you. You’ve all exaggerated – it wasn’t quite as much as people speculated. But it gave us the money to fund Masters of Albion. That’s what we used most of the money for, to bring Russell and Mark and Ian back. It’s not cheap to do that. You have to get them away from their jobs.
Peter Molyneux via Eurogamer
Editor’s note: We are talking about Russell Shaw, Mark Healy and Iain Wright, whom Peter Molyneux knows from the old Bullfrog and Lionhead days.
The visionary has not understood his own game
What else does Molyneux say about Legacy? The initial success of Legacy was not sustainable. The final release in October 2023 came right in the middle of the bursting crypto bubble. Of all the NFTs, which at the time were owned by 23 million people, less than one percent were said to have actually been worth anything (via markets.businessinsider.com).
Peter Molyneux admits that he never really understood his blockchain project:
People played it, but unfortunately at the time there wasn’t the meteoric rise of cryptocurrency that would have spurred real play-to-earn gaming. I think the play-to-earn concept only managed to generate a flat interest and then even declined. Legacy is still playable on Gala Games’ website, but the economic model, in my opinion – and I’m not someone who really understands it – doesn’t work financially or in terms of gameplay.
Peter Molyneux via Eurogamer
In a way, it’s nice to see that there might now be a positive example that NFTs actually have some kind of value. After all, the legacy revenue will allow Molyneux and his team to develop a real game that might even be really good.
What kind of game is Masters of Albion? In the first trailer, the construction strategy simulation seemed like a wild but exciting mix of the three Molyneux classics Fable, Black & White and Dungeon Keeper. You build during the day and fight at night. With a kind of “Hand of God” you intervene directly in the game.
You can expect a lot of freedom to master the game’s challenges – from rats as food to baguette swords for your fighters. The developers promise an open world and a big focus on the story, with moral decisions and quests. Our editor-in-chief is skeptical: My childhood hero is back with a new game on Steam – but his idea flopped 7 years ago as Fortnite