While speaking with Switched during SXSW in Austin, Lionhead Studios head-honcho Peter Molyneux said that games are virtually “being reborn" on the PC. The statement follows his claustrophobic-laced comment about developing games for consoles, saying the process initially gave him a sense of being imprisoned in a box.
But he also added that console development was a nice experience in that the "box" offered nothing more and nothing less. There were no system variants or an infinite number of software/hardware conflicts. On consoles, it's all “set in stone.” However with new hardware heading to the consoles-- Natal and Move-- he said they 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," he said. "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."
Naturally he goes on to talk about his upcoming game, Fable III. The self-promotion started with the overall picture of gaming within the next two or three years-- how the gaming industry will change the overall "gaming" definition, or at least, redefine the term as we know it now.
"The problem is that the word 'game' just sounds so trivial compared to what we are trying to do," he said. "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."
For more, check out the video interview here at Switched.
