Peter Molyneux
Peter Molyneux Video game designer | |
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Years active | 1982–present |
Known for | |
Awards |
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Peter Douglas Molyneux
In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.[2]
Career
Early career
Peter Molyneux began his career in 1982 by distributing and selling floppy disks which contained video games for Atari and the Commodore 64. He believed that including games on the disks would improve sales, and later concluded that the games were the main selling point.[3]
He created The Entrepreneur, a text-based business simulation game about running a fledgling company.[4] "In those days you could literally call a game 'Space Blob Attacks Mars' and sell about 50 million copies. So what did I do? I did a business simulation", Molyneux later said.[3] Molyneux published the game himself in 1984 by duplicating hundreds of tapes on two Tandy Corporation recorders. After taking an advertising space in a game magazine, he prepared for the game's success; he later stated in an interview, "I was utterly convinced that this game would sell tons. I thought, 'You know, this letter box is just not big enough. It's just not going to fit all the envelopes.' So I cut – and this is no joke – I cut a bigger letter box". However, the game received only two orders, one of which Molyneux speculated was from his mother.[3] In 2007, a GameSpy reviewer commented that the economic gameplay mechanics in Molyneux's Fable II may have been a descendant of The Entrepreneur, stating, "I'm a little concerned that it's Molyneux sneaking in a remix of his first game, Entrepreneur".[5]
Due to the game's failure, Molyneux retreated from game design, and started Taurus Impex Limited—a company that exported baked beans to the Middle East—with his business partner Les Edgar.[6][7] Commodore International mistook it for Torus, a more established company that produced networking software, and offered to provide Molyneux with ten[6] free Amiga systems to help in porting "his" networking software.[3][8] Molyneux later said "it suddenly dawned on me that this guy didn't know who we were. I suddenly had this crisis of conscience. I thought, 'If this guy finds out, there go my free computers down the drain.' So I just shook his hand and ran out of that office."[3] Taurus designed a database system for the Amiga called Acquisition – The Ultimate Database for The Amiga[6] and, after clearing up the misunderstanding with Commodore, released the program to moderate success.
Bullfrog Productions and Electronic Arts
Using money earned from the database program, Molyneux and Les Edgar founded
Electronic Arts (EA), Bullfrog's publisher, acquired the studio in January 1995.[11] Molyneux had become an Electronic Arts vice-president and consultant in 1994, after EA purchased a significant share of Bullfrog.
Molyneux left Bullfrog in July 1997 to found Lionhead Studios,[12] shortly after the release of Dungeon Keeper. According to Molyneux, his choice to leave the company was a result of a chain of events from a night of drinking with his friend Tim Rance (who would later co-found Lionhead) around 1997. Molyneux had already been contemplating his departure (in 1996 the gaming news media reported "rumors" that he was unhappy at EA and would be leaving once Dungeon Keeper was completed),[13] and, while discussing this with Rance, Rance suggested he write out his resignation letter to EA. Molyneux typed out an email to EA's CEO Larry Probst, and before Molyneux could stop him, Rance had sent the email. Though he quickly explained the situation to EA, the event caused tension in his relationship with EA, with EA asking him not to come into the office any more; according to Molyneux, EA feared that he would pull many of the other developers at Bullfrog along with him should he be present. EA threatened to pull support for Dungeon Keeper, which was still in progress, but Molyneux insisted they allow him to complete it, most which he did from his own home.[14] A significant innovation of the game was its unique combination of first- and third-person perspectives, in the ability to "possess" any one of the creatures (or "minions") in the game world, yielding a first-person experience reproducing the physical characteristics, visual perspective, gait, and voice of the minion.[15]
Bullfrog continued to develop games through 2001, and in 2004 EA merged
Lionhead Studios and Microsoft
Molyneux came up with the concept for Lionhead Studios' first game, Black & White, and convinced his small staff to take on the task in late 1997.[17] He paid the $6 million in development costs himself.[18] Despite his acrimonious departure from Electronic Arts, he opted to give them the publishing rights, explaining that EA were more reliable and had better worldwide distribution than any other publisher.[19] After three years, in 2001, the game was finally released.
In April 2006, Lionhead Studios was acquired by
On 7 March 2012, Molyneux announced that he would be leaving Lionhead and Microsoft—after the completion of Fable: The Journey—to begin work at a company founded by former Lionhead Studios CTO Tim Rance called 22cans.[21][22]
22cans
To date,
In October 2023, Molyneux announced he is starting work on a new game, currently called Project MOAT, which is set in Albion, the setting of the Fable games.[27]
In the media
As one of the industry's leading and best-known figures, Molyneux has appeared on many television shows and video gaming news discussion or documentaries. He has been repeatedly interviewed for shows such as
An episode of
Despite the success of his games, both critical and financial, Molyneux has acquired a reputation for issuing over-enthusiastic descriptions of games under development, which then struggle to meet expectations. This goes back to Black & White, though the most well-known case of this was with Fable, released in 2004 without many of the features talked about by Molyneux in press interviews during development. After the release, Molyneux publicly apologized for overhyping the game. In February 2014, he was quoted as being "ashamed of the final product
Awards and recognition
Molyneux received an honorary doctorate from
Games
Pre-Bullfrog
Title | Year | Role |
---|---|---|
The Entrepreneur | 1984 | Designer/programmer |
Bullfrog Productions
Title | Year | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Druid II: Enlightenment | 1988 | Programmer | Amiga port |
Populous | 1989 | Designer/programmer | |
Flood | 1990 | Designer | |
Powermonger | 1990 | Designer/programmer | |
Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods | 1991 | Designer/programmer | |
Syndicate | 1993 | Producer | |
Magic Carpet | 1994 | Executive producer | |
Theme Park | 1994 | Project leader/lead programmer | |
Hi-Octane | 1995 | Executive producer | |
Magic Carpet 2 | 1995 | Designer | |
Dungeon Keeper | 1997 | Project leader/designer |
Lionhead Studios
Title | Year | Role |
---|---|---|
Black & White | 2001 | Concept/lead designer/programmer |
Fable | 2004 | Designer |
Fable: The Lost Chapters | 2005 | Designer |
Black & White 2 | 2005 | Lead designer |
The Movies | 2005 | Executive designer |
Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods | 2006 | Lead designer |
The Movies: Stunts & Effects |
2006 | Executive designer |
Fable II | 2008 | Lead designer |
Project Milo | 2009 | Lead designer |
Fable III | 2010 | Lead designer |
Fable: The Journey | 2012 | Creative consultant |
22cans
Title | Year | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube? | 2012 | Designer | |
Godus | 2014 | Designer | |
Godus Wars |
2016 | Designer | |
The Trail: Frontier Challenge | 2017 | Designer (uncredited) | |
Moat | TBA | Announced 2023 |
See also
- Peter Molydeux, a parody Twitter account
References
- ^ "D.I.C.E Special Awards". Retrieved 22 January 2017.
- ^ "IGN - 18. Peter Molyneux". IGN. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f Dulin, Ron. "Legends of Game Design: Peter Molyneux". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 1 September 2011. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
- ^ "Seeing next-gen games in black and white". Red Herring. 5 April 2001. Archived from the original on 1 February 2010. Retrieved 25 December 2007.
- ^ Joynt, Patrick (8 March 2007). "Fable 2 Preview". GameSpy. Retrieved 25 December 2007.
- ^ a b c "Classic Game Postmortem". Gdcvault.com. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
- ^ "GDC: Peter Molyneux's Accidental Gaming Career". IGN. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ a b McLain, Alan. "Fable – Molyneux Speaks". Xbox.com. Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
- ISSN 1078-9693.
- ^ "History of Lionhead Studios". Lionhead Studios. Archived from the original on 2 January 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
- ^ "Electronic Arts to acquire leading European software developer, Bullfrog Productions Ltd". AllBusiness. 6 January 1995. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2008.
- ^ ISSN 1742-3155.
- ISSN 1078-9693.
- ^ Osborn, Alex (4 April 2017). "How a Drunken Email Led to Molyneux's Parting With EA". IGN. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- ^ "Born-again Keeper". Bullfrog Bulletin. No. 4. Guildford: Bullfrog Productions. 1997. pp. 8, 9.
- ISSN 1742-3155.
- ^ Geoff Keighley. "Part 2: Bored Beyond Belief / The Two Pages". GameSpot. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
- ^ Geoff Keighley. "Part 1: No Excuses / It's All on Me". GameSpot. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
- ^ "Molyneux Returns to EA". Next Generation. No. 34. October 1997. p. 23.
- ^ "Video Games Daily | Peter Molyneux Interview June 2006 – Fable 2 & More". Games.kikizo.com. 7 June 2006. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ "Peter Molynuex Announces Departure From Lionhead Studios". TeamXbox. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
- ^ "Twitter". Twitter.com. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ "Kickstarter: Godus". 11 November 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
- ^ a b Sinclair, Brendan (18 December 2023). "Godus, Godus Wars removed from Steam". www.gamesindustry.biz. GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
- ^ "Godus in the Steam Store". Steam (service). Retrieved 14 September 2023.
- ^ Chalk, Andy (15 December 2023). "Godus is deadus: Peter Molyneux's controversial Godus games are finally being taken off Steam". www.pcgamer.com. PC Gamer. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
- ^ "The Unconventional Peter Molyneux: A Glimpse into 'MOAT'". Eat Sleep Game Repeat. 15 October 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
- ^ "Specials". Archive.org. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ "GT Countdown". GameTrailers. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ Hermida, Alfred (8 October 2004). "Technology | Fable creator explains online apology". BBC News. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ Laura Kate Dale (13 February 2015). "Peter Molyneux interview: 'It's over, I will not speak to the press again'". The Guardian.
- ^ Walker, John (13 February 2015). "Peter Molyneux Interview: "I haven't got a reputation in this industry any more" – Rock, Paper, Shotgun". Rockpapershotgun.com. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ "Tim Schafer says negative reaction to Molyneux was 'way out of proportion – Polygon". polygon.com. 18 February 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
- ^ "Peter Molyneux's Next Game is "Very Different"". Retrieved 8 June 2017.
- ^ "Molyneux to receive honorary doctorate from Abertay". 27 October 2003.
- ^ "Honorary graduates | University of Surrey".
- ^ "Molyneux getting lifetime achievement award at GDCAs". Gamespot. Archived from the original on 24 February 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
- BAFTA. Archived from the originalon 10 January 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2015.