GameSpasm

Despite "generally favorable reviews," there were quite a few people out there who had some serious problems with Fable 2. And to hear Lionhead's Peter Molyneux talk at the Develop Conference in Brighton today, he's one of them.

Molyneux's hour long on-stage presentation of Fable 3 included a veritable smorgasbord of self-deprecating remarks about the problems in the first two Fable games that would be fixed or mitigated in the threequel. For instance, Molyneux lambasted his studio for throwing way too many unnecessary features into Fable 2, even citing a study showing that most people didn't use more than 60% of the available features. Even when a feature was used, Molyneux said, it was often only used once and didn't factor into the larger game enough. For example, "most people did get married, but it didn't mean anything, it was just an excuse to have sex," he said. At one point Molyneux likened Fable 2 to "designing a car with 300 buttons on dashboard when you only need a steering wheel."

Continue reading Develop: Molyneux talks Fable 2 problems, Fable 3 fixes

Develop: Molyneux talks Fable 2 problems, Fable 3 fixes originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Develop-2010, fable, fable-3, Lionhead, lionhead-studios, microsoft, microsoft game studios, Peter Molyneux, rpg, Xbox

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According to Wired UK's writeup of the talk, Milo encountered snails on a walk, and asked the demonstrator if he should step on it. When Dmitri encouraged him, Milo ended the poor e-creature's e-life. Live tweets from @TEDNews note that Milo hesitated before doing so. The demo continued with Milo going home to eat dinner, getting in an argument, and soliciting some words of encouragement from the player.

All of this is significant not because we hate snails, but because this is the first demonstration we've seen of Milo since E3 2009. Molyneux ended the demonstration with the shocking truth that all the world's Milos are going to form a Borg-like hive mind, with the AI data "in the cloud" (as Wired puts it), continually learning from individual interactions. He also revealed a more concrete, game-like narrative for Milo, in which players experience a "tutorial" during which Milo's family moves, with the game opening up afterward to allow you and Milo to explore the new surroundings.

[Image Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED Conference]

Milo, meet TED: Molyneux demonstrates Milo at conference originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: kinect, Lionhead, lionhead-studios, microsoft, milo, milo-and-kate, Peter Molyneux, TEDGlobal, Xbox

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Peter Molyneux, the king around Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Games Studios' European creative director, told GI.biz that the company is "driving" for Fable 3 to sell more than 5 million copies and make profit "in excess" of $150 million. Molyneux expressed the reasoning behind the parameter: "We have to do that because if a franchise doesn't reach that level it will inevitably wither." Hmmm, "wither" sounds like a long process. Can we still get Fable 4 even if it doesn't hit that mark?

In response to the "massively successful" nature of Fable 2's episodic release, Fable 3 will also release in an episodic format "soon after the retail launch." The first chapter, which is approximately an hour of the game, will be entirely free. You can then purchase the next episode -- for "an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars" -- or the whole game. Molyneux claims the first episode of Fable 2, which released about a year after the game's launch, reached 1.6 million downloads and "$15 million in contribution margins."

Fable 3 targeting 5M sold, episodic release will follow retail launch originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Episodic, fable-3, microsoft, PC, Peter Molyneux, Xbox

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Pictured here we see the "Project Milo Team" hard at work, according to a TweetPhoto posted by Lionhead Studios' Sam Van Tilburgh today. Van Tilburgh's proof comes in response to comments made by Aaron Greenberg about the status of Lionhead's Milo & Kate project in a video clip (see 0:41 mark) posted on the Australia-based ABC "Good Game" site. "Obviously, that's a tech demo -- and technology -- that continues to exist, but right now it's not a game that we're planning to bring to market," Greenberg said of Milo in the brief clip.

While Van Tilburgh could not openly comment to Joystiq on the assumption (based on Greenberg's statement) that Milo could remain a non-retail tech demo, he did clarify, "There's about 50 people on the 'Project Milo Team'" (which would seem an unlikely number of staff and apparent resources to devote to a mere demo).

Van Tilburgh deferred to Greenberg, who tweeted this official statement today: "Project Milo absolutely continues in development at Lionhead Studios, it is just not a product we plan to bring to market this holiday." While carefully worded, Greenberg's statement suggests that Milo, in some shape or form, is likely to be integrated into a retail product in the future.

Just last week, Lionhead head Peter Molyneux teased that there was "a very interesting reason" why the updated Milo & Kate demo was not shown to media outlets during E3. Could it be that Molyneux is saving the big reveal for his scheduled TED talk? Probably not -- but the "game changing" designer will be lecturing about his "astonishing virtual friend" on Tuesday, July 13. Hopefully, he'll start to Kinect some of the dots.

'Project Milo' team about 50 strong; 'product' not coming this holiday originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: aaron greenberg, kinect, lionhead-studios, microsoft, milo, milo-and-kate, Peter Molyneux, Project-Milo, Sam-Van-Tilburgh, ted, Xbox

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While we did get to see (and be impressed by) Fable 3 at E3 last week, there was no sign of Peter Molyneux's other big project, the demo now known as Milo & Kate for the hardware now known as Kinect. Molyneux tells CVG that it is now fully playable, and "ten times more amazing" than it was when we saw it at last year's E3. The game was shown off to celebrities, presumably at the closed-doors hands-on session held during the bizarre Cirque du Soleil event last week.

So why didn't we get to see it? "There's a very interesting reason why," says Molyneux, "but I can't tell you why." Really, Peter? Didn't we mature past this random, vague hype? Fable 2 was great, and Fable 3 looks good, so we'll be patient. But the reason why Microsoft didn't show off what sounds like one of its most enticing Kinect titles had better be "interesting" indeed.

Molyneux: 'Milo & Kate' fully playable, 'ten times more amazing' than before originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: cirque-du-soleil, e3-2010, kinect, microsoft, milo, milo-and-kate, Peter Molyneux, Xbox

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One of the most impressive things about Fable 3 isn't the redesigned menu system (it's a room!), the path from revolutionary to royalty (it's like two games in one!), or even the "touch" mechanic (drag a hobo to his death!); instead, it's the release window: this year. For those of you keeping track, that's just two years and five days after the release of Joystiq's 2008 game of the year, which Peter Molyneux told us is a new experience for him.

"A very unique thing about Fable 3," Molyneux said, "is it's been developed in two years. At both Lionhead and Bullfrog, I've never done a game in two years before." And what that means is that Fable 3 looks a lot like Fable 2. But before you run off, screaming something about "sequelitis" and the "creative bankruptcy of the video game industry" we want to be clear: While I, and most of the Joystiq staff, loved Fable 2, we can all agree it would have benefitted from some refinement.

Continue reading Preview: Fable 3

Preview: Fable 3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: e3-2010, fable-3, lionhead-studios, microsoft, microsoft game studios, Peter Molyneux, Xbox

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Still not sold on Fable 3 as an iterative improvement over the last game in the series? Well, you might just change your mind when you hear about the game's latest feature, which was recently revealed in the latest Official Xbox Magazine: When you're not busy building a monarchy and roaming the wild landscape of Albion, you'll "be able to enjoy, ahem, intimate moments with your co-op friend and eventually produce offspring together," according to the mag.

We hope this isn't another one of those "no, really, the trees will grow" scenarios, because this is quite possibly the sexiest thing we've ever heard. Sure, it might lead to some horrifically awkward Xbox Live voice messages, but its raw sexiness is undeniable.

Make babies with a co-op partner in Fable 3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Co-op, fable, fable-3, Lionhead, microsoft game studios, offspring, Peter Molyneux, rpg, Sex

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It's a beautiful day to be a Joystiq reader and a fan of Peter Molyneux. After years of extensive testing and the (as it turns out, unnecessary) deaths of millions of lab animals, we've finally perfected the Peter Molyneux Quote Realisticator 2007 (sorry about the name, we had to delay it a few times). So now, when Peter Molyneux tells IGN that Fable 3 will feature "the greatest cast that any computer game has ever had," you know it's the equivalent of a regular person saying, "Fable 3 has a pretty darn good cast."

Actually, we're a little surprised his praise is so mild. John Cleese as your butler? Stephen Fry as Reaver? What does it take to impress you, man?

Molyneux: Fable 3 has a pretty darn good voice cast originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: fable-3, john-cleese, Lionhead, Peter Molyneux, Stephen Fry, voice-actors

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Peter Molyneux says that the biggest problem with Project Natal isn't the difficulty in programming for a new technology, but the potential users themselves. Speaking with the Times Online, Molyneux says that the Natal tech is "so different and new that trying to get a focus group to look at it and respond is almost impossible." Perhaps it's not just that people aren't responding to the likes of Milo, it's that they don't realize he will respond to them.

Molyneux clarifies that his team is still working on the to-be-announced project, which we saw "glimpses" of at E3, and that they've increased "emotional engagement" since then. "The only way I see you at the moment is through your thumbs," he says. But Natal lets a virtual character see everything from body movement to facial expression, and that, says Molyneux, allows his team to "design experiences that truly resonate with you as an individual, rather than with a mass of people." While its an intriguing concept, such an open-ended design makes for a lot of pressure on the developer to ensure accessible to all kinds of individuals. Good thing there's plenty of time to pencil in more focus groups before Natal's holiday launch.

[Via TVGB]

Molyneux says Natal focus testing is 'almost impossible' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: focus-groups, milo, natal, Peter Molyneux, project-natal

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Upcoming Xbox 360 RPG Fable III may be following in the footsteps of its predecessor and going "episodic", according to comments from the game's creator, Peter Molyneux. More »
Tags: fable, Fable III, Lionhead, microsoft, NEWS, Peter Molyneux, Xbox 360

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