Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

[sfroggy1]

Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium​

LOS ANGELES -- During last week's E3, the game industry's annual trade show, I sat down for a few minutes with Peter Molyneux, Fable creator and creative director of European studios at Microsoft Games Studios.

He was at the show to hype his newest game, the action-RPG Fable 3, slated for release in October. In this part of the interview, available below, Molyneux talked about his strategy for downloadable content, why we haven't seen Fable 3's Kinect features yet and how he copes with harsh fan criticism.

UGO: Earlier this year, you said that Fable 3 will be supported with post-launch episodic downloadable content. What's your episodic DLC strategy?

Peter Molyneux: So we did the episodic thing for Fable 2, and it was enormously successful. More successful than we thought it was going to be. I think 1.6 million people downloaded episode one and that was almost a year after Fable 2 came out. We've got a lot going on in Fable 3, so we're probably not going to go episodic on the first day, but I definitely structured the game so it can be episodicly unlocked. You can think of how Fable continues to support that episodic structure.

We've got this new thing -- there is a shop that is linked to Xbox Live, and we as designers back in Lionhead (Studios), can put stuff in that shop anytime we like, and that shop is in one location of the Fable world. You could be playing Fable 3 and I could decide, "You know what? I am going to put this in the shop today." That means that there's more cool stuff in Fable 3 that can show up at anytime.​

UGO: I just played through the demo of Fable 3 here, and I saw a lot of improvements. What did you learn from Fable 2 that has benefited Fable 3? What improvements from Fable 2 did you have in mind when you began on Fable 3?

Molyneux: When we sat down with a design, the first thing we did was take lots of Valium, and we looked at the communities and started reading the community boards. You have to take Valium because we designers take this very personally, and when people say horrible things about your games, it's like saying something horrible about your child. You almost have to go for counseling.

When we looked at that stuff, there were lots of frustrations that people had, and we kind of wanted to address those frustrations and fix those frustrations. So that was one side. The other thing we said is, "Why shouldn't we continue to surprise people and give people stuff they haven't seen before in any game in Fable 3?" We want to make sure everything is accessible and it kind of made sense, but we love the idea of innovation. Mixing those two things together is really where Fable 3 was built.

Very specifically, we can credit some of the features in the game (to user feedback). Everything from -- very obviously -- people saying, "We love co-op but why cant we have our own heroes in the game?" We took the idea of co-op so that you can invite anyone you like into the world and mixed it with some new stuff. So we said, "Why can't you marry the person you bring in? Why can't you start your own family and have your own children?" So you can do that with your co-op partner if you want to now. That's just a cute little mechanic we added.​

UGO: If you're in a same-sex marriage, can you adopt children this time?

Molyneux: We have this thing called a business partnership, so if you don't want... I'm sorry to use this word because I know Americans hate the word "sex," but if you don't want to have sex, then you can adopt children.

UGO: I know that you had spoken about Kinect working with Fable 3. Are we going to see any of those features anytime soon?

Molyneux: We love Kinect. We have a lot of Kinect kits at Lionhead. We're working on Milo, so I think you can expect us to use Kinect in Fable. Were not sharing anything or talking about any of that functionality at this moment, but if there was something about Kinect in Fable 3, I will say I think it should be a substantial thing and not a gimmick. ​

 

[tjbyrum1]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Thanks man.

Rep

 

[Evan]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Ooo a substantial use of Kinect- wonder what that could be. I hope they make more DLCs than just two like in fable 2 because I had a lot of fun with them.

 

[Walker]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Very nice.

I find it highly amusing that we're contributing to their drug problems.

 

[WilliamBlack]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

that was funny about the vallium... i like the sex part of it... and adopting ... thats pretty cool

 

[MournfulStorms]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

You can adopt children, huh...

They're just asking for somebody to build an army of children now XD

 

[mjmarin12]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Nice stuff there
+rep

 

[handsdown65]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Valium? Wouldn't surprise me.
+rep

 

[Vicious Dice]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Uh-huh. Can't wait for it.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

the online shop looks pretty damn cool! i just hope that it runs off of gold and not actual cash. that's a great way to keep new content constantly flowing in.
+rep froggy

 

[Dark Prophit]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

yeah it would be a good idea to have it run off of gold, however they want to make money so it would prbly be off of micro points...

 

[Bluedrake]

Re: Peter Molyneux Talks Fable 3 DLC, Kinect Use and... Taking Valium

Still changing stuff, adding new gimmicks... I just hope they have a nice compelling story and involving NPCs. Fable 2 was a bit of a let down in that department.