Molyneux apologises for Fable missing bits

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 October, 2004

He just gets so excited.

Lionhead supremo Peter Molyneux has taken the unprecedented step of apologising to fans on an official message board for any features that were described during Fable's development that didn't make it into the final game.

Xbox exclusive RPG Fable, recently released in the States and due out in Europe next Friday, October 8th, was in development for some four years at Lionhead satellite studio Big Blue Box, and Molyneux regularly popped up in the press during that time extolling the game's virtues and highlighting the original thinking behind the game.

"When a game is in development, myself and the development teams I work with constantly encourage each other to think of the best features and the most ground-breaking design possible," he told visitors to the Lionhead message boards.

"However, what happens is that we strive to include absolutely everything we've ever dreamt of and, in my enthusiasm, I talk about it to anyone who'll listen, mainly in press interviews. When I tell people about what we're planning, I'm telling the truth, and people, of course, expect to see all the features I've mentioned. And when some of the most ambitious ideas get altered, redesigned or even dropped, people rightly want to know what happened to them."

"If I have mentioned any features in the past which, for whatever reason, didn't make it as I described into Fable, I apologise. Every feature I have ever talked about was in development, but not all made it. Often the reason is that the feature did not make sense."

Molyneux then went on to outline an example - the way trees were meant to grow in the game as time past. "The team did code this but it took so much processor time (15 per cent) that the feature was not worth leaving in. That 15 per cent was much better spent on effects and combat," he says. "So nothing I said was groundless hype, but people expecting specific features which couldn't be included were of course disappointed. If that's you, I apologise. All I can say is that Fable is the best game we could possibly make, and that people really seem to love it."

As a result of the reaction to Fable in some quarters, Molyneux is considering whether to hold his tongue a bit more in his future dealings with the press, and limit exposure to games in development until a bit further down the line.

"I have come to realise that I should not talk about features too early so I am considering not talking about games as early as I do. This will mean that the Lionhead games will not be known about as early as they are, but I think this is the more industry standard," he concluded.

You can read Molyneux's full message here. Look forward to a review of Fable in the coming days.

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 (21) Latest comment 7 years ago

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

  • Blerk #1 7 years ago

    the way trees were meant to grow in the game as time past

    Passed! Not 'past'!

    /spelling nazi

  • Clive_Dunn #2 7 years ago

    Bah, I thought Molyneaux was going to say something interesting like "sorry, it's a bit shit isn't it ? And so was Black and White."

  • Thamuhacha #3 7 years ago

    >Passed! Not 'past'!

    That's more of a grammar issue isn't it?

    /corrections Nazi

  • Menace #4 7 years ago

    To have any warrant shouldn't this excuse have been made before the game hit the shelves?

  • AOFanboi #5 7 years ago

    No, then people might have opted not to buy it.

    Bah, XBox owners deserve whatever bad things happen to them. :p

  • Shrimp #6 7 years ago

    No, you have to wait until *after* the first rush of sales before word-of-mouth kicks in...

    Was going to rip the piss for some of the quotes there, like "Often the reason is that the feature did not make sense" (... really!? any fool can spout shite at a design team and hope some of it sticks)

    However, the final word about not talking about stuff too early is suprisingly sensible, although he should have probably learnt a bit of restraint a long time ago. Anyone else remember when the original Syndicate was going to be this awesome fully-simulated world, with basically every possible feature you could imagine? (Not saying the final game wasn't a classic in its own right tho)

  • Whizzo #7 7 years ago

    Remember to save a copy and paste in a few different words here and there when "The Movies" turns out not to be able to do half the things that Peter says it will do.

  • Sko #8 7 years ago

    "As a result of the reaction to Fable in some quarters, Molyneux is considering whether to hold his tongue a bit more in his future dealings with the press, and limit exposure to games in development until a bit further down the line."

    Never going to happen. Molyneux is the re-incarnation of PT Barnum and he loves performing.

  • Pirotic #9 7 years ago

    He's actually pretty shy if you talk to him, he's just had tons of experience with making presentations which sometimes portrays him as a bit of a chatterbox.

    I think its nice to hear what they are working on, but they really need to produce some sort of 'list' of what actually made it into the game before it goes on sale, otherwise you'll end up with all this angry rants that "i wanted this feature and it isnt in it" etc

  • prettyboytim #10 7 years ago

    Well *Duh*.

    Whenever Molyneux talks to the press about any game, he'll basically say 'yes' to any question you ask him, and then ad lib a bit about it.

    Press: So, will your character in Fable be able to masturbate?
    Molyneux: Er... Yes, he will! Although... errr.. obviously we'll mosaic out the actual process, and if you get caught by someone doing it your reputation will go down....
    Press: Is it true all pre-orders will delivered by swedish supermodels?
    Molyneux: Yes! And you'll be put in a raffle to spend a steamy night of sex with one of them!

    In short, always take any Molyneux pronouncements with a pinch of salt...

  • spuncken #11 7 years ago

    Well. Iīve been playing the NTSC version for the past 2 weeks and I am completely hooked. I was about to pass on this game after the mixed reviews but this is in fact a truly great game. Itīs a shame that the reviews donīt reflect that. In fact when you read the reviews most of them praise the game but then go on to drag it down mainly because of the pre release hype. Hopefully EG wonīt do that, games should be reviewed for what they are. The only thing I can complain about is that you canīt go wherever you please. That and the target lock is a bit iffy. When you are surrounded by enemies and friends you are very likely to lock on and hit a friend instead of a foe. But thatīs realistic I guess. A lot of the criticism also focuses on the length of the game. Iīve been playing it for over 20 hours and am nowhere near the end I think. Besides as a 30 year old with kids itīs going to be nice to finally be able to finish a game and even have another go. two sides on that coin.

    Now if youīll excuse me I have some chickenkicking to attend to.


  • savant #12 7 years ago

    Molyneux has admitted in the past that he's often made up features on the spot in press conferences (at least for B&W), and when he's got back to the office, his coders have taken him to task about it, albeit good-naturedly. I suppose it's for everyone's benefit that he'll cut back on this, but it's going to ruin the bullshit bingo-style lottery that characterised his previous presentations.

  • Spike3 #13 7 years ago

    He hasnt been making good games since he left Bullfrog. He could do no wrong when he was producing the likes of populous, syndicate and dungeon keeper which were all brilliant.

    Lost his touch maybe?
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/04 @ 13:50

  • dadrester #14 7 years ago

    i totally agree with spuncken. if you were to have had a nasty knock to the skull and have forgotten about the 4 years of hype, and knew nothing of fable it would be a truly lovely game. nothing at all what was promissed but really really fun nonetheless. like all games it has it's niggles but if you set it apart from the hype it really does shine.

  • penhalion #15 7 years ago

    I think this is more a result of us gamers finally abandoning the gullible doe eyed way in which we believed the hype games makers put out.

    You will notice for games like Doom 3 and even Half Life 2, that many of us now realise that developing a game for 4+ years and then delivering less than was promised or virtually no gameplay is simply not acceptable. After all it's our money they want.

    Don't be fooled by the odd person who pops up and continually yells it's hard to write a game so it's bound to take years. To this I simply answer B%$LS*^T. It may take 2 years to create all the assets and game logic but no way does it take more than that. More than likely the first two to three years are spent writing the engine for the game. A task that should be left to a third party as engines today all have pretty much the same features.

    The longer you use something the better people get at using it. Writing a new engine each game almost guarantees sub standard end results. It takes time to learn and guage what the engine can do or where the limits lie.

    A good example of this is renderware. Games using that come out within a year to a year and a half and get better each release. A great example of this is burnout 3. The burnout team are now so comfortable with renderware that their games just sing quality and care and attention and take only a year or two to come out. Contrast this with games that are 4 years in development and exhibit great engines but, almost no gameplay when they finally appear.

    sorry for the rant :oS

  • sam_spade #16 7 years ago

    I think that's a bit harsh on Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. At least they are selling on their engines so other companies and, as a result, gamers benefit. Molyneux engines are solely for Molyneux games. I've never heard of a company saying: "Oh, we are using the Fable engine for our new WWII game. The Germans think less of you when you shoot them."

  • jx++ #17 7 years ago

    15%?? Whatever.

    I can't fathom how they managed to come up with a tree-growth algorithm that takes 15% of the processor speed - all you'd have to do is just one small subtraction calculation whenever you load a scene. Whenever you're about to enter a new area, you load up all of the trees, calculate how old they are based on their born on date, and then put the necessary model into the scene. When you're loading stuff of a disc the processor isn't doing a lot since you're just waiting for the data to come in, so it seems to me that this feature really could have been implemented. Its not as though the areas are that big anyway.

  • jumpdeveraux #18 7 years ago

    At least he could have published a list of his rantings re 'The Movies' and 'Black and White 2' that aren't going to make it into the final games...

    Credit to him for being a visionary and overtly enthusiastic about what he wants to achieve, he just needs to match his aspirations against what the current hardware platforms will allow him to do.

    Can't wait for the optic nerve interface and motion-tracking oven gloves he's including in Fable 2...

  • George-Roper #19 7 years ago

    Black and White was fucking monkeynuts.

    Enough said about this twat

  • Menace #20 7 years ago

    ManicMinerUK wrote: he should be apologising to the design team first and foremost... SNIP 8<

    This is pretty standard fare in this business (others also I guess), but by no means an excuse!

  • barnard666 #21 7 years ago

    15% of processor time? 15%what a crock of crap, they dot need to grow whilst you stand there, they just need their age calculating when they are drawn damn it, born 10month ago draw 10month old tree, I guess its not that simple, but I dont see why not, hell if they can do sim city on a gba then they can grow some trees on an xbox,