The gaming developer Peter Molyneux (64) shaped the genre of “god simulations” and was known for milestones in gaming in the 90s and 00s such as Populus, Dungeon Keeper, Black & White and Fable. But the Brit has experienced some setbacks and has developed a reputation for describing his projects in a much nicer way than they actually are. He now wants to take action against this reputation.
What are the good things about Peter Molyneux?
Molyneux was brilliant at describing the games so euphorically before their games were released that they sounded fantastic and created a lot of hype. It seemed like he was playing the international gaming press like a piano.
Fable is one of the major series closely linked to Molyneux. Here is a trailer for the current game:
Fable – Xbox Games Showcase
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Brilliant designer seems like a foam bat that no one believes anymore
These were the bad sides of Peter Molyneux: Molyneux has always had a tendency to “oversell” his games, promising more than the products could later deliver
The “Black & White” series was often advertised through the huge creature that players could train – but that overshadowed the actual gameplay, which was much more banal about conquering villages.
At some point, Molyneux was seen as someone who simply could no longer be trusted. Every statement he made was accompanied by an eye roll of “Oh, him again.” It was a kind of “No Man’s Sky” before there was No Man’s Sky – the name “Molyneux” became synonymous with broken promises and a lot of hype about nothing.
To put it bluntly: all of his last projects were ill-fated. Since 2010, since Fable 3, there hasn’t been much positive stuff. A fate that Molyneux shares with other grandees such as Richard Garriott.
“Life-changing prize turned out to be a rout”
That was the lowest point: There was a lot of criticism about the project “Curioisty: What’s Inside the Box” (2012): The experimental video game seemed to only revolve around solving a cube and getting to the mysterious prize inside.
The question of what was in the cube was at the center of the game. Molyneux described it as “life-changing and, by any definition, fantastic.”
But in the end, the game ultimately ruined Molyneux’s reputation and was even seen as a fraud because the “life-changing thing” in the box was ultimately just a share of the sales of a new game from Molyneux, Godus, which ultimately turned out to be a failure . The winner didn’t get much money, nothing here was life-changing and, by any definition, fantastic.
This was a major setback for Molyneux’s career and reputation.
“Would tell everyone what’s in the cube right away”
This is what he says now: In an interview with gamesindustry.biz he is asked what he would do differently today: Molyneux says the first thing he would do today is tell everyone what the prize in the cube is waiting for the winner.
At the time he thought it would be more exciting if you didn’t reveal it and more motivating, but looking back that was completely naive. If he had to decide again, he would never have launched his “Godus” project on Kickstarter – it was disastrous. Here, too, it was subsequently assumed that his promises were worthless.
“Not everything I say is a promise broken”
How does he view his reputation? Molyneux believes his problem has always been that he liked discussing ideas about games that were still in development. That always got him into so much trouble.
Now he is writing a blog in which he explains every step from the idea. With this he obviously wants to show that he doesn’t create air bubbles and just babble, but that there is real work behind everything he says and does:
You don’t just shoot from the hip. They are long, thoughtful and quite interesting journeys you go on. Actually it is [der Blog] trying to contradict this idea that everything I say is a promise that will be broken.
Molyneux is currently working on “MOAT”, a service game for consoles and PC that will take place in the Fable world of Albion. The 64-year-old wants to put all his energy into the game.
Legacy will also be released soon. The last game from Molyneux that relies on the “NFT” technology, which has now gone out of style:
New multiplayer game offers NFT property for 800,000 euros, sold directly