Molyneux: “Gaming is being reborn on the PC”

By Stephany Nunneley

Peter Molyneux has told Switched that when he first started creating games for consoles, he compared it to being imprisoned in a box.

Speaking with the site at SXSW in Austin, Molyneux said that over time his view of consoles changed, and lately he’s noticed that games are being reborn on PC.

“It’s like I was born on PC. I felt it was this thing that was completely open ended, and that felt great,” he said. “When I skipped over to the console, it felt like being slightly imprisoned by this box. But know I have realized that it is set in stone – like, ‘this is the box, that’s it, you don’t get any more or any less’ – it was a nice experience.

“But now they keep on giving us this new hardware stuff. Natals, Moves, and input controllers – they kind of feel a bit more PC-ish.

“The surprising thing about the PC that’s just starting to happen now, is that gaming is being reborn on the PC. You’ve got Facebook, everybody’s talking about Facebook games and there’s this company called Zynga and they make games with 88 million people [Farmville].

“It feels like the whole thing with gaming is changing radically… and I don’t see why all those others like AAA blockbusters can’t incorporate that sort of level of interaction.”

Molyneux then goes on to chat a bit about the new touch mechanic in Fable III, how the decisions you make as the ruler of the country fall onto the populous, and how the future of gaming will change our idea of what a “game” encompasses

“I think in the next two to three years we are going to start seeing stuff, not just from Microsoft, but from everybody, that just changes our whole thought of what a game is and that is part of the problem, ” he said. “The problem is that the word ‘game’ just sounds so trivial compared to what we are trying to do.

“We are just now at the point to where were are smart enough to create a character that can meet you. Just imagine, a character on that screen who can meet you, engage with you, and see you, and has empathy with you.

“That changes everything because there is no narrative art or character development that is being defined in the movie industry – we will be something new and totally different. I truly believe that when we get these experiences, that when you feel noticed as a player, then we’ll get stuff that we’ve never even dreamed about.”

Heavy stuff there.

Fable III is slated for later in the year.