Peter Molyneux Interview, Part Two

The second half of Develop’s interview with Lionhead Studios CEO Peter Molyneux covers his change in PR style, how well Fable II sold, the company’s relationship with Microsoft, and more.

Now that it’s been out a few months, how do you think Fable 2 has performed?

Well, I’m a greedy kid. I always want more. I think you can look at the number of copies that we’ve sold and the feedback and awards we’ve got, and you can say, ‘˜Wow, that’s an amazing achievement’. I’m incredibly proud of what we did a lot of it seemed impossible when we were doing it. So there’s an incredible feeling of pride.

I do think that, however, that there are more people out there that would enjoy Fable 2. Thinking about that is a real frustration. You can read that as, in my mind, Fable 2 should sell more, because I think it’s a great experience and a great game. Sure, I think there are things desperately wrong with it. Do I want to go in there and fix all of those things? Yeah, of course I do, but I really think it’s one of the best games that Lionhead’s done. It certainly had more innovation in it, even though it was a sequel, than a lot of other experiences.

Are you worried about becoming just the Fable company?

Lionhead stands for much more than just what Fable is, and we’re working on things beyond that. We’re working on Fable things we’ve just done the DLC and we are working on other stuff. But we’re also working on other innovational titles and I’m not going to say title or titles, whether it’s a prototype or experiment, whether it’s near or far away but I can say that what we’re always trying to do is create something that is meaningful. When we think why we want to do this, it’s because we want to make a landmark title.

It’s a very interesting time in the industry to be trying that, because the industry is turning around and asking itself everything from the experiences we make for our current audiences, what they are, the balance and mechanics of what they are, even to who our audience is. Lionhead tries to stand for innovation and to give people things that they perhaps might not have expected or imagined. That’s very important to us.