Peter Molyneux Interview

The guys at Eurogamer were able to have a lengthy chat with Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux at last week’s GDC, and have posted the results for our reading pleasure.

Eurogamer: So you’re not going to announce Fable 3 at GDC… But didn’t Jonathan Ross already do that via Twitter?

Peter Molyneux: We were at the BAFTAs and so was Jonathan Ross. There were ten people from the Fable team, and they were so excited to win the award that everyone downed the medium-cheap wine on the table – about two bottles each.

I went off to do some interviews. When I came back two of the programmers were slumped on the floor, virtually in their own vomit. The rest of them had Jonathan Ross literally pinned up against a wall, going, “Go on, do a voiceover, do a voiceover, do a voiceover…” Poor Jonathan. They were virtually beating him up.

He then assumed it was for Fable 3, but it could have been a voiceover for any of the Fable things we’ve got planned.

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Eurogamer: When can we expect to hear more about Lionhead’s project?

Peter Molyneux: Two things need to happen before we can tell the world. Microsoft has to see the sense in what we’re doing, and we’ve got to absolutely have something to show you. This is the rule now, the rule I’ve set myself – I will absolutely not talk about anything, any concepts or ideas, until I’ve got something tangible to show.

We’re almost there on the tangible thing, and we’ve been showing it round internally. It’s probably the best reaction I’ve ever seen to anything I’ve done.

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Eurogamer: Is there going to be a Fable 72?

Peter Molyneux: Whatever happens in the future of Fable, I don’t want you to think you know exactly what features are going to be in there. Don’t think about this as an RPG franchise – think about it as the world of Albion.

There’s a niche for Fable as there’s humour in there and there’s a Britishness and I think we’ll keep that side of it. But whether it’s more action or RPG or MMO or some new genre – that’s what we have to do.

I think it’s not good enough just to say, “OK, we’ll do another Fable.” Because in the end you’re just driving yourself off the cliff. At some point, someone’s going to turn round and say, “You know, I’m a bit bored by all this.” We don’t want that to happen.

If I was talking about Fable 3 – I would hope there would be three enormously big things about the Fable 3 that would surprise and shock you. Not that I am talking about Fable 3. Hypothetically speaking.