Since Molyneux is worrying, I can stop now.

So, who is looking forward to [INSERT GAME HERE]? I know I am!

I'm not to worried, since the casual "low-budget" market is booming. But I won't be surprised if we see a drop in the number of low-budget 3D titles.

We worry about having to pay for expensive games.

He's obviously never heard of Earth Defense Force 2017, I got more excited about a budget game for the 360 than I did a lot of major ones.

The sky is falling, I'm glad Pete's keeping an eye on it for us.

If companies go belly up because they keep making big budget stinkers, it's their problem. It's only OUR problem when the big budget stinkers sell and we get a hojillion copy cats.

Considering the budgets for his games, this is kind of the pot calling the kettle black.

Budgets will normalize as more people flood the industry bringing down the cost of labor. If backers are smart they will demand the money be used to fill out teams and shorten time spans for the same cash AAA games cost now.

Oh and Molyneux is awesome .. bye.

@SkutSkut: So true. Doesn't always take a big budget to make a fun game.

Peter, im still not talking to you. Make Fable 2 available for PS3 and/or PC you bastard. I like your work, but if you ever want me to love you again, don't be a douche.

Oh Peter... stop crying and give me another Magic Carpet or a new Syndicate!

Oh, Peter Molyneux is always worrying about something...

I prefer that Peter works for MS and they give him a huge budget to make games for the 360 exclusive than him working for EA making compromised multi-platform releases of his original vision.

had gamers and developers not been forcefully thrust into the 'hd' era, games wouldn't be as expensive to make, developers would focus less on texture resolutions and more on gameplay, and gamers wouldn't have to buy a 2,000 hdtv to tell this gen from last gen...

just imagine what could be done with a 360 or ps3 if they were running in 480p instead of 720p. what a complete waste of their capabilities.

on a more positive note : I like pie

@Garo:

A new Magic Carpet game would be awesome on the Wii. There are so many control possibilities. But that's not likely to happen with Molyneux and Lionhead.

Maybe he could use Microsoft's rumoured new "I Can't Believe It's Not A Wiimote(TM)" controller.

It's his way of thinking. Molyneux is after all adept at analyzing the industry at its best and revolutionary game design trends. In this regard it can be easy for him to worry about budget because his ambition has to keep up with the rest of the industry. Unfortunately he's missing out on the niche venues that offer an opportunity to showcase something big out of something so humble, venues like XBLA, PSN, and handheld gaming. Monster Hunter 2G did rather well based on the post above. The small studios he speaks of need not worry if they take these into account, and the fact that the Wii and PS2 are still key alternatives.

@Strangelove: No, because he's not criticizing big budget games for being bad. He just thinks the industry needs to shift to a more affordable model. You should read the interview.

@ryivanV2: Making games for the company he works for is not being a douche.

but money isn't what makes games fun

@ryivanV2: PC, maybe. PS3 ain't gonna happen - LHS is owned by MGS (that's Microsoft Game Studios, not Metal Gear Solid, obviously).

@this_will_be_fun:
They'd look like ps2/xbox games but run at 250 fps, course you couldnt tell that since the max you can perceive is like 60.
Basically I'd be a Wii, but faster.

and 720p, really? 1080p is where its at (course if you can find a game that's actually in 1080p)!

It'd be like playing unreal tourny on my pc now... probably get about 500+fps

big budget in games = 69,99$ and maybe more for us! And many of gamers don't realize. But we can't really avoid it, gamers always want more, and ironically (even naturally) want to pay less.

I'm betting Fable 2 is costing at least 30 Million bucks (or over 15M pounds) to make...

@vgfanboy: Unfortunately, budgets in the industry won't decrease because there are more people coming into it. They go up because the companies want those few people that have experience and won't pay less to have a risk in someone new at the controls. It will hit a point then even out for a bit then more tech will bring in the need for more devs etc.

@this_will_be_fun: There was no 'forcing' into HD really. We wanted more, always want more with our graphics, this made looking into and developing HD products an easy decision. HD is just the next step really I mean considering the standard television hadn't been updated so much for a few decades I think it works out. As devs, we really couldn't do more with the original format and have it noticeable i.e. what Derigor said about more fps than our eyes can actually see.

This worry and debate will probably continue for a while here in games, the one thing we can really say is that we do welcome Indie productions. And we are trying to help them flourish, Hollywood has only recently done this noticeably in this decade with the big studios creating indie offshoots. And we aren't near as old as Hollywood is, I can only hope we're learning from their mistakes. Or we're just a slightly smarter group.

MANNNN! Petie Molyneux, the original shit talker.

Oh Moly.

When will this guy put a filter between his brain and his mouth?

Anyway, I think it's extremely rich (no pun intended) that a games developer is worrying about big-budget games. In case he doesn't realize it, these "big budgets" get passed directly onto the end user, ie. US.

The math is pretty simple: high development costs = higher game prices. Look at the movie industry. Movie ticket prices haven't paced inflation. They've blown way past it. Why? Because production costs have risen exponentially and the guys funding the latest Tom Cruise "film" want to at least break even on their endeavour, regardless of quality of the product.

So the next time the devs of Kane & Lynch think they can make a good game just by throwing more money at it, you better believe you'll be picking up at least some of the tab.

Anyway, as for Molyneux, I'll buy his game because I love the genre. But I'll only be renting the day he starts asking me to pay another $20 for it because it cost an extra $50 million to add more fucking bloom.

Haha, every time this guy talks now, I just hear Lois from Family Guy saying 'Petah' in my head.

Show of hands, who still takes him seriously? Anyone? You in the back...no. Well, that settles it.

@Strangelove: I'm with Strangelove on this. If you truly think this, make your next game for $50 000 next time, Peter.

Considering his development perspective of "making all the content/possibilities possible" .. I can see how he should be worried, this kind of evolution rise costs and only costs.

@vgfanboy: Shorter dev cycles will not be fixed by more people. Better tools, design processes and consistent hardware requirements will go further to decreasing dev cycles than more humans.

So, keeping with the analogy, would that make Daikatana the Heaven's Gate of video games?

Less time talking, more time figuring out how to make trees grow back after you cut them down.

Thanks.

@Miss Liz: @Miss Liz:

lol... Imagine what could be done with the extra processing power?

*better ragdoll
*better environmental destruction
*better AI
*better particle effects and explosions
*bigger environments
*more Characters on screen
*shorter load times

not to mention all the extra time and money developers would have if they could avoid wasting time making high res texture assets...

better scripts, voice acting, gameplay mechanics, new genres...

so he did populous, fable and a few other titles.
i fail to see what makes peter as as kotaku makes him out to be relevant

I think you people are all missing the point. He wasn't saying that developers should be more like him and not develop big-budget games, he uses a big budget because there are companies out there that will provide that money. What he is saying is that he is worried that the industry as a whole feels like it has to fork out tens of millions of dollars just to develop a game that will sell half a million copies. He's not saying his model is the answer to gamings problems, he's merely offering up advice. By the way, The Movies was awesome, so he can say whatever he wants.

@telek: You got that right on the nose Telek. Problem is finding people who want to build the better tools, but I can say that the design and production processes are getting better and more streamlined.

@this_will_be_fun: Right, I don't disagree with you on all that TWBF, believe me, I am a big purporter or developing the game not the graphics. And the industry is starting to focus on that more and more and part of the whole new HD era was more processing power for the items you listed.
Unfortunately, up until a maybe at the beginning of this decade, the main focus for games was the visual 'Wow' factor. It's either a stigma or stereotype that we as gamers are, at first glance, attracted to games for the visual "Oh Shiny, Smoother, Prettier Graphics and Colors! OoooooooOOOOoooo... *drool*"
Thus the reason there have been quite a few pretty games that were complete crap to play. Quick sales for a bad game, but those that could get both in, great graphics and gameplay, were the best of the best.

Honestly, I am hoping we can stick to this format for a long while and actually work on the more important parts of the game play and expand those more.

I'm worried too - that they may be too successful.
Otherwise, maybe they'll grow stale, flop repeatedly, and we'll be left with the good ones.

I worry about big budget games that waste shitloads of cash making total and utter garbage with the end product.

Im old school so none of these big budget games really wow me all that much, but the majority of the consumers now all fall into the same trap. :/

Maybe nintendo tought about that and went for the cheap desing with the wii and the DS...

@Witzbold: Yea, i only like watch the hd intros and say "wow it looks nice" but if its the average console fps i say bleh, if i cant take a battleship and ram it to the enemy battleship and fire the cannons to just 1 enemy soldier and steal a plane and just use it as an expensive taxi to get to the fight without the game telling me that i should not do that then im not interested XD...

@Witzbold: RB6V2 comes to mind..... 90% of that budget went to adverstising and the other 10% was spent polishing up what was wrong with the previous one.

Why keep posting things about Molyneux??? The guy always talks shit and has an ego bigger than Itagaki, i don´t understand Kotaku...

I love Peter's work and all but isn't his insane development cycles and massive teams part of the problem... I doubt Fable 2 will be as large as Oblivion and matching it in depth remains to be seen but Bethesda put something out and their about to put out another large game in the same time that Peter's been making Fable 2. I don't see a problem with how long it takes for Peter to make his game as his brand of creativity and what he's aiming for is high-concept enough to warrant more time but I don't know if the words have the same impact if part of the problem is essentially saying "we need to fix me".

Oh, Molyneux. When will you learn to just shut up and make Fable 2 and Black and White 3?

shouldn't he be busy on a game right now instead of worrying about the movie industry???????????????????