Interviews// Lionhead Peter Molyneux

SPOnG: What about two people playing co-operatively in real-time over Xbox Live from different locations?

Peter Molyneux: Yes, you can do that. You can do everything I’ve just said over Xbox Live. The cool thing is that we’ve invented this technology called 'Ambient Orbs'; and when you’re playing the game, you will see ghosts floating around. When you walk up to them you realise that’s me in my world, playing my single-player game. You can walk up to me and say: “Hey, come into my world.” So, it has that immediacy of just seeing people connected.

We can filter down to your single-player game 64 of your friends, or 64 people who are closest to this point in geographical space or 64 people who are at a similar gaming score. And that mechanic is kind of like an MMO, because you don’t feel like you’re alone when you’re playing the game. And when I bring you into my world and you see everything in it, you’ll realise that my world is very different to your one: my hero looks different, my family is different, the way people treat me is different and even whole regions are different because of the way I play the game. Those are the three really big, big points.


SPOnG: In terms of technology, it’s very much a second-generation Xbox 360 game: what did that allow you to do that you couldn’t have done when the Xbox 360 was new?

Peter Molyneux: I’ve been through so many of these generation-leaps it’s insane. And being ex-PC coders, you’re very used to that technology moving on very quickly. So, we took the Xbox 360, and first of all threw everything away that we’d done on the Xbox. We used a lot of its power to make a free-roaming world, for example, and to add lots more stuff. But I think the interesting thing is what the Xbox 360 gives us in terms of Xbox Live. This co-op is actually a much bigger thing than it seems at first. OK, it’s co-op, but because you do share your experience with other people, it’s a new experience.


SPOnG: What’s your take on the general state of RPGs at the moment?

Peter Molyneux: Well, there are two lots of RPGs: the RPGs in Asia and the rest of us. The rest of us, you know, are pushing the state of the art a little bit. I suppose in the RPG category, I would include Grand Theft Auto.

My point being that RPGs used to be the most techy, complex games with 100 to 200 hours of gameplay and stories which only the most die-hard fans could even begin to describe. But they’re turning into much more dramatic things. If you take Grand Theft Auto, for example, it has the greatest characterisation the games industry has ever seen.


SPOnG: Recently, you’ve started to talk about your project which used to be known as 'Dimitri'?

Peter Molyneux: Dimitri was an experiment, and that experiment is still live. We’ve had a breakthrough in that experiment, and it’s being made into a full-blown game. I think we’ll be talking about it next year. It’s a ridiculously ambitious thing.

SPOnG: What’s your take on the general state of the UK development industry at the moment?

Peter Molyneux: I think we’ve reached the end of the massacre in development. It’s been five very hard years for independent developers, and anybody who is left after it has all been shaken out is probably very professional and well-managed, and probably has a future. Seeing people like Media Molecule, which is ex-Lionhead people, doing incredibly well is great.

SPOnG: Thanks for your time, Peter.