In a surprise move that was on absolutely nobody’s bingo card, Peterꦅ Molyneux showed up at Gam🌟escom Opening Night Live to reveal his newest game, . He appeared on stage looking visibly nervous, presenting a thoroughly humble persona as he talked about h🍷is latest project.

Host Geoff Keighley made a heroic effort to convince the audience that the Molyneux we saw before us was a changed man: he was quick to highlight that in a radical departure from the bluster the Fable creator is known for, Molyneux has “kept very quiet” about the project as he wanted to “let the game speak for itself”. That the project is self-funded, referencing the infamous issues💧 with the fan-backed Godus that led to many funders demanding their money back. Molyneux, in turn, self-consciously referenced his work on mobile platforms, saying, “What the hell was I doing?”

Gamers Don’t Trust Peter Molyneux

Peter Molyneux is a contentious figure, perhaps made more so by the fact that he’s such a pivotal figure in gaming history. He’s been at the head of a variety of 90’s and 00’s classics like Populous, Dungeon Keeper, , and Black & White, some of which he drew inspiration from in creꦕating Masters of Albion.

But that legacy has been somewhat sullied. First, his development studio, 22Cans, created Curiosity, a “social e🌠xperiment” with a “life-changing prize”, which turned out to be that the winner would become a god in the studio’s next game, Godus. They would be able to decide the rules the game is played b🐷y, and would receive a cut of the money that Godus made for at least six months. The winner, Bryan Henderson, , and Molyneux later revealed that this was because the person in charge of keeping in contact with Henderson left the company and was never replaced.

Godus, in turn, was crowdfunded by fans on Kickstarter, raising over $850,000 when all was said and done. It was released in 🃏early access in September 2013. In February 2015, 22cans said ꧟that it “simply can’t see us delivering all the features promised on the Kickstarter page”, which led fans to request refunds and say Molyneux was a liar.

2016 saw the studio releasing a new early access game called Godus Wars, offered at no additional cost to owners of Godus. Godus Wars had microtransactions, which was unpopular enough with customers that they were later removed. Molyneux made a number𒊎 of promises of new features to Godus and Godus Wars, none of which ever materialised. In 2017, Molyneux said that Godus wasn’t profitable and Henderson would therefore receive no money. Godus never left early access on PC, and has since been delisted.

For a number of years after this, Molyneux retreated from the press, who he’d previously eagerly courted. Then in 2021, he returned to headlines with . Leg🔯acy is, as far as I can tell, still active.

Peter Molyneux’s Redemption Arc Is Still In The Works

It feels like Molyneux has spent the last few years trying to redeem himself and stay as low profile as possible. In a rare interview last year, Molyneux said he had “e🎃normous regret” for the way he&🀅rsquo;s promoted his previous work, especially considering he was wont to make outlandish promises and with no foll𒅌ow through. While he defended the things he said, saying that people often mistook his statements as “promises of features in the game”, he’d largely retreated from speaking to the media.

One might see his long period of silence👍 about Masters of Albion as an indication that he truly has begun putting the adage ‘silence is golden’ into practice, but some of that old, over eager self shines through in recent interviews with media about the game. does an excellent job of characterising him, describing how he’s been anxious about speaking to press again, how enthusiastic he gets when he speaks about his games, and how he fears that Masters of Albion will be his last game.

At times, it’s clear he’s itching to say more, but he also says that he “should only now talk about features that [he] can actually demonstrate”. He’s careful to confirm what he can and can’t share with a colleague during the interview, but ends up effusively hy💜ping up the game by the end, to his colleague’s apparent dismay. Unprompted, he insists that Godus is “still going and is still amazingly popular” on iOS. He says that the millions the studio earned with Legacy went towards Masters of Albion, but that Legacy’s economic model “doesn’t really work financially, or in gameplay terms”, and that that project’s play-to-earn model was pitched to him by an outside company, Gala Games – “and I’m very susceptible to these ideas”, he says.

Masters Of Albion Already Looks Amazing

It’s clear that Molyneux is trying to reform his image, and so far, it looks like he’s really trying not to over promise this time. Keighley said Molyneux wanted the game to speak for itself, and speak it did – I was sceptical when the trailer started, and completely sold by the end. Its village-building mechanics looked like pure fun, and getting to zoom in to the details and design weapons had me excited. By the time the trailer revealed that you could control heroes in close third person to beat up creatures at night, and you could cast spells with your cursor, I was desperate to get m𒆙y hands on the game and start flinging my villagers around.

We don’t know much else about Masters of Albion just yet, but to my great surprise, I’m really looking forward to Molyneux’s newest project. It remains to be seen if this excitement is misplaced, though as far as we can tell, there isn’t any weird monetization or blockchain involved with this project, and there will be no fans angrily demanding their money back if the studio break✅s its promises. Give it to me please, Peter.