Peter Molyneux
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Peter Douglas Molyneux (; born 5 May 1959) is an English video game
designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...
and
programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...
. He created the
god game A god game is an artificial life game that casts the player in the position of controlling the game on a large scale, as an entity with divine and supernatural powers, as a great leader, or with no specified character (as in ''Spore''), and pla ...
s '' Populous'', ''
Dungeon Keeper ''Dungeon Keeper'' is a strategy video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by Electronic Arts in June 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. In ''Dungeon Keeper'', the player builds and manages a dungeon, protecting it from invading ' ...
'', and '' Black & White'', as well as ''
Theme Park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...
'', the ''Fable'' series, '' Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube?'', and '' Godus''. In 2012 he founded and currently runs 22cans, a video game development studio. In 2009, he was chosen by ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.


Career


Early career

Peter Molyneux began his career in 1982 by distributing and selling floppy disks which contained video games for
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...
and the
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...
. He believed that including games on the disks would improve sales, and later concluded that the games were the main selling point. He created ''The Entrepreneur'', a
text-based In computing, text-based user interfaces (TUI) (alternately terminal user interfaces, to reflect a dependence upon the properties of computer terminals and not just text), is a retronym describing a type of user interface (UI) common as an ear ...
business simulation game about running a fledgling company. "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. Molyneux published the game himself in 1984 by duplicating hundreds of tapes on two
Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned Retail, retailer based in Fort Worth, Texas that made leather goods, operated the RadioShack chain, and later built personal computers. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store ...
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. In 2007, a
GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...
reviewer commented that the economic gameplay mechanics in Molyneux's ''
Fable II ''Fable II'' is a 2008 action role-playing video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360. The game is the second installment in the ''Fable'' game series, and the sequel to 2004's ''Fable''. The ...
'' 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''". 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.
Commodore International Commodore International Corporation was a home computer and electronics manufacturer with its head office in The Bahamas and its executive office in the United States founded in 1976 by Jack Tramiel and Irving Gould. It was the successor compan ...
mistook it for ''Torus'', a more established company that produced networking software, and offered to provide Molyneux with ten free
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
systems to help in
porting In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...
"his" networking software. 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." Taurus designed a database system for the Amiga called ''Acquisition – The Ultimate Database for The Amiga'' 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
Bullfrog Productions Bullfrog Productions Limited was a British video game developer based in Guildford, England. Founded in 1987 by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar, the company gained recognition in 1989 for their third release, ''Populous (video game), Populous'', ...
in 1987. The company's first game was a conversion of ''Druid II: Enlightenment''. Molyneux recalled, "I got in touch with a software company called Firebird and told them that I could program games. Of course I was bullshitting, but they gave me ''Druid 2'' to convert to the Amiga. You're very unlikely to get that kind of break today." Molyneux provided the original concept for '' Populous'', the first
god game A god game is an artificial life game that casts the player in the position of controlling the game on a large scale, as an entity with divine and supernatural powers, as a great leader, or with no specified character (as in ''Spore''), and pla ...
for the personal computer. Released in 1989, ''Populous'' was a major success for Bullfrog and went on to sell over 4 million copies.
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
(EA), Bullfrog's
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
, acquired the studio in January 1995. 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 Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson (British game designer), Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the ''Black & White (series), Bl ...
, shortly after the release of ''
Dungeon Keeper ''Dungeon Keeper'' is a strategy video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by Electronic Arts in June 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. In ''Dungeon Keeper'', the player builds and manages a dungeon, protecting it from invading ' ...
''. 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), 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. 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. Bullfrog continued to develop games through 2001, and in 2004 EA merged
Bullfrog Productions Bullfrog Productions Limited was a British video game developer based in Guildford, England. Founded in 1987 by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar, the company gained recognition in 1989 for their third release, ''Populous (video game), Populous'', ...
into EA UK.


Lionhead Studios and Microsoft

Molyneux came up with the concept for
Lionhead Studios Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson (British game designer), Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the ''Black & White (series), Bl ...
' first game, '' Black & White'', and convinced his small staff to take on the task in late 1997. He paid the $6 million in development costs himself. 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. After three years, in 2001, the game was finally released. In April 2006, Lionhead Studios was acquired by Microsoft Game Studios. At E3 2006, Peter Molyneux gave several interviews in the press, in one of which he stated that "I think you're going to see a lot more fantastic games from Lionhead because of that relationship ith Microsoft" On 4 June 2009, he was promoted to Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios, Europe, although he continued to produce video games with Lionhead Studios. 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.


22cans

To date, 22cans has sold early access on multiple titles including '' Godus'', ''Godus Wars'', and ''The Trail''. Despite years of development and successful
Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
financing for Godus, the game never left Steam Early Access. As of December 2023, both ''Godus'' and ''Godus Wars'' were removed from the Steam store. In October 2023, Molyneux announced he was working on a new game, code-named ''Project MOAT'', which was to be set in Albion, the setting of the ''
Fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...
'' games. The project was officially unveiled on 20 August 2024, during
Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as ''gamescom'') is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming event, with 370,000 visitors and 1,037 exhibitors from 56 ...
2024, as a
god game A god game is an artificial life game that casts the player in the position of controlling the game on a large scale, as an entity with divine and supernatural powers, as a great leader, or with no specified character (as in ''Spore''), and pla ...
with the official name ''Masters of Albion''.


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 '' GamesMaster'', ''Games Wars'', '' Gamezville'', '' Bad Influence!'', '' Gamer.tv'', and '' Games World''. He also made an appearance in the Scottish web series '' Consolevania''. More recently, Molyneux was featured within an episode of Godus alongside The Yogscast. An episode of G4's games retrospective series ''
Icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels. Although especially ...
'' was devoted to him, during its third season. More recently, a comprehensive two part interview was filmed of him during the 2006 Brighton Games Developer Conference by leading UK website
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
. He was also featured in the fourth episode of the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...
mini-series ''Rise of the Video Game'' alongside Will Wright and Sid Meier, fellow developers of simulation titles. Molyneux was accredited in the "Top Ten Game Creators" Countdown by
GameTrailers ''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
. He has given keynote addresses and spoke extensively at worldwide conferences, including Games Convention, Games Convention Asia, Develop, and the
Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...
. 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 '' Fable 3'' and I never want to work with Microsoft again." In February 2015, Peter Molyneux stated during interviews in gaming blog '' Rock, Paper, Shotgun'' and British newspaper ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' that he will "never speak to the press again", after being personally attacked for not fulfilling all game promises, which ended in Molyneux announcing that he will not conduct further interviews. At the same time, gamers and game developer veterans began to question the intentions of those publications, such as Tim Schafer calling it "out of proportion" and a media hunt, saying "I'm not saying that developers like Peter and I shouldn't be responsible and accountable to deadlines. I'm just saying the reaction to recent events and the tone of that reaction is really way out of proportion to the seriousness of the events themselves."


Awards and recognition

Molyneux received an honorary doctorate from Abertay University in 2003. He was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame in 2004 and was honoured with an OBE in the New Year's Honors list announced on 31 December 2004. He was awarded the title of Chevalier de l'
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...
by the French government in March 2007. In July 2007, he was awarded an honorary degree of
Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...
by the
University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...
and that same year an honorary doctorate by the
University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...
. In March 2011, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the
Game Developers Choice Awards The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding video game developer, game developers and video game, games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by ...
and has received a
BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
Fellowship at the 2011 British Academy Video Games Awards.


Games


Pre-Bullfrog


Bullfrog Productions


Lionhead Studios


22cans


See also

* Peter Molydeux, a parody Twitter account


References


External links

*
''The Worlds of Peter Molyneux'' from Wired.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Molyneux, Peter 1959 births BAFTA fellows English video game designers Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres English computer programmers English people of French descent Lionhead Studios Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Guildford British video game programmers Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees Bullfrog Productions Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award recipients