Molyneux Rumour Control

Gamespot has an article up looking at some of the current rumours swirling around designer Peter Molyneux. Best known for the Black and White series, Molyneux's Lionhead studio is heavily favoured to be the next acquisition target for Microsoft. He canceled a GDC session with no notice on Friday (one I was hoping to go to, I might add), and there's been much speculation since last week. From the article: "Over the subsequent month, the rumors festered. On March 3, Lionhead laid off between 50 and 100 people, and reduced its number of projects-in-development from three to two--a Black & White 2 expansion and a Fable sequel. Today, the floodgates of speculation re-opened, when Molyneux's session at the 2006 Game Developers Conference in San Jose was summarily canceled."

Comments

Populus

[AoT]

I just want a remake of Populus.

Re:Populus

[bigattichouse]

Agreed.

Maybe Lionhead Studios Just Isn't Doing Well?

[mikeisme77]

Rumors are all very good and all... but they're just that--rumors. The same things would happen if the studio was floundering because they aren't making enough returns from their investments. Fable was, disappointing, to say the least. There was lots of hype surrounding it, but it just didn't live up to all the hype. Sales were fairly good, but a game of that kind isn't exactly inexpensive to make. Black & White 2 just came out too far after the original Black & White and is another game that definitely isn't inexpensive to make... I personally don't think that the studio is doing that poorly, but I'm just playing devil's advocate and pointing out that these are signs of things other than a possible buy out...

Re:Maybe Lionhead Studios Just Isn't Doing Well?

[Senjutsu]

Black & White 2 just came out too far after the original Black & White...

No, the problem with Black & White 2 was that it was a sequel to Black & White, an incredibly over-hyped game, like Fable, that didn't come anywhere near living up to Molyneux's hyperbole, and had extremely shit game-play besides. That thing left such a bad taste in so many people's mouths that I'm amazed they even considered making a sequel to it.

Re:Maybe Lionhead Studios Just Isn't Doing Well?

[mikeisme77]

See, I hadn't even bothered reading a review of B&W 2, let alone playing it... Fable was a huge disappointment to me and B&W was fun like 5 years ago, but I just didn't feel like playing more of the same with its sequel. But if the sequel was that much of a let down then it seems fairly likely that the problem might just be the studio is floundering. Just because Molyneux made great games at one point, doesn't mean he can run a successful studio now. Hype/fan base can only take you so far.

Spelling mistake

[Anonymous Coward]

It's spelt Molyneux.

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Now let's think about this:

• Now-medicore developer riding on the wave of his impressive past
  
• Overpromises for years and years on every game, then underdelivers
  
• Lives and dies on a wave of overcharged hype

Yup. Looking at their past history, Molyneaux would be a perfect fit acquisition target for Microsoft XBox's games studios.

Fable sequel?

[steveo777]

This would be most welcome. I enjoyed Fable. A lot of people felt the game was too short. I agree, but if you went out of your way to complete most of the game, you were still siting around 30 or so hours (much more if you killed the shopkeeps and then bought them out). The only thing I didn't like about the game was how quickly you could go shift sides from bad to good or good to bad. I wasn't too fond of running around with white armor and having every single adult propose marraige just because my attractiveness attribute was too high.

Seriously, it was a pretty good game that could have used more story and much better graphics. The effects were good at the expense of textures IMHO. The 360, or any other next gen system, should be able to handle this. Another feature they could include would be loading the clear save on an old memory card (or just on the new HDD of the 360) and continueing the story from that point (whether you killed your sister or not, were bad or good, etc). This could be done with numorous RPGs, really. Not an expansion, though, you would, of course, be givin the option to start fresh.

Re:Fable sequel?

[sammy baby]

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

The only thing I didn't like about the game was how quickly you could go shift sides from bad to good or good to bad. I wasn't too fond of running around with white armor and having every single adult propose marraige just because my attractiveness attribute was too high.

Yes, I'm sure you get quite enough of that in real life.

(I apologize. Like I said, couldn't resist.)

Re:Fable sequel?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Seriously, it was a pretty good game that could have used more story and much better graphics

Gods!!! What the hell is wrong with you people?! Is there no satisfying you?!

Fable is probably one of the best looking games on the Xbox. It's artisic design alone gives it significant merit.

It's comments like this that leads to developers throwing away resources at useless graphical improvements when they could be improving the actual game instead of pandering to these impossible demands.

Re:Fable sequel?

[steveo777]

The game's graphics look grainy (and I've played it on normal and Hi-Def TVs). There was too much junk everywhere. A lot of people considered it to have great graphics, but, to me, it seemed like they were doing too much with what little they had (performence vs. image quality). You could see where they cut corners too easily. The massive gloves, for instance. It keeps them from having to use polygons on the charecter's hands (Just a big cylinder for the gloves, really). It also looked like all bump-mapping used the same image. Most of the backgrounds didn't need bump-mapping because of how many textures they used.

So when I say much better graphics, I mean it could really utilize the 360's abilities. I don't mean that it could have had much better graphics on the XBox. The team that did the original was very talented, it shows.

That's not really what we want

[Anonymous Coward]

A remake of Populous isn't really what we want. I say this because Black and White was a remake of Populous, and it clearly wasn't what we wanted.

Personally, I'd settle for just a rerelease of the original Populous. I hope you can buy it on the Nintendo Revolution online ROM store.

Molyneux

[Ligur]

Say what you will about his games, but the man sure knows how to create a buzz. And just for the record, it's "Molyneux".

Re:Molyneux

[Anonymous Coward]

And just for the record, it's "Molyneux".

As in, "I wonder what Molly knew..."

(I think that's from Monty Python)

How 'bout another Dungeon Keeper?

[AugstWest]

That was an awesome Molyneux game.

Or another Magic Carpet? Or another Populous?

Or something completely new and kickass instead of another sequel?

Re:How 'bout another Dungeon Keeper?

[Picticon]

Dungeon Keeper has soooooooooooo much potential. It's a shame it was never expanded upon. Evil Genius was nice, but I *hated* the world map. You had to constantly flip back to it every 15 seconds in case the super agents appeared. It felt tacked on to add difficulty when all it did was frustrate. Some kind of warning would have been welcome. But all you got was a number that flashed AFTER you had lost your men. If I still programmed for fun (instead of for a living), I would make a DK type game.

Lionhead is dead. they just havent shut the doors

[Anonymous Coward]

This company is now, sadly, old news. The 2 last nails in the coffin were Black and White 2 and the Movies. The Movies took a good 2 years longer than it should have, due mainly to Peter not giving a damn about if for the first 2 years or so. A company that size burns money real quickly, and the debts are just too high.
A huge long list of people have left the company recently, and everyone who knows the score who still has a job is currently looking for work elsewhere.
The biggest problem with the company is peter M himself. The entire B&W2 dev team petitioned him to allow the tutorial to be skippable, and he didnt listen to anyone, and guess what the main gripe is in most of the reviews?
Peter made some great games, around 15 years ago, but finally he has run out of press and public goodwill. You can only waste so many investor dollars before people call in the loans.
The finance guy is also, sadly, a total idiot. When asked about the new developments in online distribution, he said he thought it was 'irrelevant'. Somehow, that justified a £255k salary for him.
A pity to see an independent studio die, but it could have been predicted a year ago.

I have insider info on why BillG wants Molyneaux.

[master_p]

They need him to rewrite the Windows Vista interface. It is so simple guys, why do one has figured it out yet?

big names

[angrymilkman]

I don't understand why the big gaming studio still hire "repected" game designers as the whole game industry is moving towards hollywood anyway. Which gamestudio is going to hire Tim Burton or the Coen brothers for making a Game??? Can't wait...

OK, let me rephrase.

[AoT]

I want a *good* remake of populus.

Re:Lionhead is dead. they just havent shut the doo

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like Rare. When the company is about to die, make yourself an indigestible meal for Microsoft!

FreePop

[Deusy]

FreePop is on the way there. Go and help out if you want it that badly.

Oh

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I see

The Cut Game?

[Sux2BU]

Anyone know which game got cut? In the writeup it reads reduced its number of projects-in-development from three to two, but fails to mention anything about that third game.