Molyneux would prefer to have HDD

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 February, 2008

But he believes in 360 Core system.

Peter Molyneux says that while he would prefer to have a hard disk to work with as standard, he believes that backing low-price console hardware is "really important".

"Given the choice, I'd obviously choose a hard drive every day of the week," he told Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"But the balance to that is you're supporting a system which is an awful lot cheaper.

"What I'm trying to address with Fable 2 is say 'Look, anybody can play this game.' That's what I really want. So supporting the cheaper price is really important."

Molyneux's Lionhead Studios was bought by Microsoft in 2006, and is currently working on action-RPG Fable 2, which was given centre stage in Microsoft's GDC keynote.

The game - which is designed to be accessible as well as rewarding for core players - will be among the first to benefit from a shared reward system that allows certain Xbox Live Arcade games to hand out virtual currency that can be spent in the world of Fable 2.

"I think it was my seed of an idea... Was it my idea? I don't know. It was a cumulative effort really," he told Eurogamer when asked about how this came about.

His colleague in the demonstration added that he remembered it as having been Molyneux's idea "to start talking about how we could use the infrastructure".

"Yes, then they went off and designed the games," said Molyneux.

For more on Fable 2, check out our Fable 2 GDC preview, unveiling co-operative play, or for more from Molyneux on other subjects, including the Wii and PC gaming, head through the blue-word doorway for the rest of our Peter Molyneux interview.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 4 years ago

    It's a difficult one. While the Core 360 alway seemed a waste of time to me as the premium was good value and most consoles have always been released around the £299 mark anyway, there is no doubt that it did (and still does) benefit many people on a tight budget. Indeed as the Wii shows the cheaper your hardware is the bigger your user base gets.
    Edited by 1 at 21/02/08 @ 11:53

  • TheWretched #2 4 years ago

    > actual cost of the hdd is probably so negligible these days.

    Yes, but tell this to Microsoft, who wants 100€ for 20GB or 180€ for 120GB

    This is where I have to give it to Sony, where you can just put in a 2.5'' SATA drive of your choice and not being forced to pay a premium to do so.

  • kangarootoo #3 4 years ago

    Is this really worth a second article?

    Its like its there to cater for readers who don't actually read the articles and need the sentient points handed to them on a platter / fired from a cannon.

  • bad09 #4 4 years ago

    @ TheWretched

    A good point but here's a question, You obviously have to open the PS3 if you upgrade you HDD so do you void your warranty or will Sony still fix it if it does become faulty?

  • SeesThroughAll #5 4 years ago

    It's explicitly mentioned in the instruction manual: replacing the HDD does NOT void your warranty.

  • Turambar #6 4 years ago

    Also the "opening" of your PS3 involves removing a plastic flap from the back.

  • BoffBoff #7 4 years ago

    Fucking Retarded Umbrella?

  • bad09 #8 4 years ago

    Frilly Red Underwear?

  • Penguinzoot #9 4 years ago

    Always amazes me that after 2 years the Core (and now the Arcade) 360 are still around. So, someone must be buying them ....

    EDIT:
    Perhaps Bloodkult is right: We need the cheap core to replace our buggered premium ones. :D
    Edited by 1 at 21/02/08 @ 12:24

  • kangarootoo #10 4 years ago

    Frighteningly Red Under-garments

    They were a gift from Italy OK!

  • peteb #11 4 years ago

    why is everyone still pretending that not almost everyone already has the HDD!

  • viper_h #12 4 years ago

    It'd be nice to be able to use an external USB hard drive on the 360. Is there any reason why M$ won't let you do this?

  • bad09 #13 4 years ago

    @ viper_h

    Yeah there's a reason, see the post from TheWretched

  • kangarootoo #14 4 years ago

    Agreed. Sony made a choice to let you use any storage medium you want (and any inpur device for that matter) and make money elsewhere. Peripherals are a form of income, and MS clearly still want to create revenue from that area.

    Not an inherrently a bad thing I suppose, its just a company making revenue from a product. I guess it just leaves more of a bitter taste these days when someone else starts giving you an alternative that is considerably cheaper and let you make your own choices.

  • Nithron #15 4 years ago

    On the other hand, not having a HDD as standard means that nobody's tried pulling a Capcom and forcing you to use up a vast chunk of your limited harddrive space to install their damn game before you can play it.

  • hana_fubuki #16 4 years ago

    Molyneux would prefer to have HDD? He and everybody else except the 12 people who bought the Core/Arcade.

    I understand that you can't sell an HDD-less console and then force the HDD on the unsuspecting buyer (well, Burnout Paradise kinda does, if you want to play online...) but I wish more games had the option to install the game, if it means better cache loading and reduced disk access (and thus reduced noise - I still haven't got used to it after 2 years of gaming on the 360).

    Microsoft should have used the Elite's release and revamping of their SKU offer as an opportunity to phase out the Core model altogether, and make the 20GB cheap enough that Core users would want to upgrade.
    That would have been in the interest of gamers (and developers, who complained about the lack of mandatory HDD on more than one occasion), but not necessarily in MS's interest -- so here we are today with a gimped version of an otherwise nifty (albeit flawed) system.

    [Edit: I'm my own grammar nazi...]
    Edited by 2 at 21/02/08 @ 14:47

  • reality_cheque #17 4 years ago

    Even if they had dropped all SKUs that don't come with a HDD, they still couldn't insist on it - because there will be people out there who don't have one.

  • agparrot #18 4 years ago

    Recently, Burnout Paradise requires you to have an HDD... to play online.

    Let's hope more titles follow in this vein - perhaps GTA IV will require you to have one for online play, as well as, naturally, an HDD being prerequisite to DLC.

    more TLA?

  • Triggerhappytel #19 4 years ago

    kangarootoo - "Is this really worth a second article?

    Its like its there to cater for readers who don't actually read the articles and need the sentient points handed to them on a platter / fired from a cannon."

    Like me. I can't stomach reading a whole article about Peter Molyneux, but I can just about manage these bitesize tidbits of news ;)

  • monkie_king #20 4 years ago

    reality_cheque: there is a precedent, Nintendo sold Expansion Pak-only games. The trick would be to bundle the HDD with a big high-profile game that needed it. It'd have to be MS-published gameof course. Since those 20GB HDs probably cost MS about £10 they could easily do it.

    Can't see much need for it at the moment though, unless you want to do huge persistent offline worlds.

  • bad09 #21 4 years ago

    Ah but the difference there was you could still play those games without the expansion pack monkie_king

  • skillian #22 4 years ago

    I'm pretty sure Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong required the Expansion Pak to play...

  • Nithron #23 4 years ago

    Donkey Kong definitely did, I still have the "pak" that came with it.