Peter Molyneux

Lore & Background

Molyneux began his career in 1982 by distributing and selling floppy disks containing video games for Atari and the Commodore 64. He created The Entrepreneur, a text-based business simulation game, which he published in 1984 but received only two orders. He then started Taurus Impex Limited, a company that exported baked beans to the Middle East, with his business partner Les Edgar. Taurus designed a database system for the Amiga called Acquisition – The Ultimate Database for The Amiga, which was released to moderate success. Using money from the database program, Molyneux and Edgar founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987. The company's first game was a conversion of Druid II: Enlightenment. Populous, released in 1989, was a major success, selling over 4 million copies. Electronic Arts acquired Bullfrog in January 1995. Molyneux left Bullfrog in July 1997 to found Lionhead Studios, shortly after the release of Dungeon Keeper. Lionhead's first game was Black & White, released in 2001. In April 2006, Lionhead Studios was acquired by Microsoft Game Studios. On 7 March 2012, Molyneux announced he would be leaving Lionhead and Microsoft to begin work at 22cans, a company he co-founded with former Lionhead Studios CTO Tim Rance. To date, 22cans has sold early access on multiple titles including Godus, Godus Wars, and The Trail. As of December 2023, both Godus and Godus Wars were still available for purchase on Steam (though delisted later in 2024). In October 2023, Molyneux announced he was working on a new game, code-named Project MOAT, set in Albion, the setting of the Fable games. The project was officially unveiled on 20 August 2024 during Gamescom 2024 as a god game with the official name Masters of Albion.

In Their Own Story

A dimly lit office in Cambridge, late 1990s. Molyneux stands at a whiteboard, marker in hand, drawing a crude figure of a creature bowing to a hand descending from above. Around him, Bullfrog developers argue about AI pathing. He taps the board. 'The player isn't playing a game,' he says, voice low and intense. 'The player is *being* a god. And gods don't get cutscenes.' He caps the marker. Outside, rain streaks the window. Somewhere across the channel, in a different office, a team at Rare is sketching a red-furred raccoon with a cigarette. Two philosophies, one island, one era.

Reader's Guide

Molyneux has appeared on many television shows and video gaming news discussion or documentaries, including GamesMaster, Games Wars, Gamezville, Bad Influence!, Gamer.tv, and Games World. He also appeared in the Scottish web series Consolevania and was featured within an episode of Godus alongside The Yogscast. An episode of G4's series Icons was devoted to him. He was featured in the fourth episode of the Discovery Channel mini-series Rise of the Video Game alongside Will Wright and Sid Meier. Molyneux was accredited in the 'Top Ten Game Creators' Countdown by GameTrailers. He has given keynote addresses at conferences including Games Convention, Games Convention Asia, Develop, and the Game Developers Conference. Despite the success of his games, 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 was with Fable, released in 2004 without many features he had talked about. 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, Molyneux stated he will 'never speak to the press again' after being personally attacked for not fulfilling all game promises, announcing he will not conduct further interviews.

Did You Know?

• Molyneux's first game, The Entrepreneur, received only two orders, one of which he speculated was from his mother.
• He once cut a larger letterbox in his door, convinced his first game would sell tons.
• Molyneux founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987 with Les Edgar using money from a database program.
• Populous, released in 1989, was the first god game for the personal computer and sold over 4 million copies.
• Molyneux left Bullfrog in July 1997 to found Lionhead Studios after a night of drinking with Tim Rance.