‘It’s about redemption’: Peter Molyneux says Masters of Albion will make up for decades of ‘overpromising on things’

Veteran game designer Peter Molyneux says he “did overpromise on things” when promoting his previous games, and that he sees his final game Masters of Albion as a chance at redemption.

Molyneux appeared at Gamescom Opening Night Live last year to announce Masters of Albion, an entirely self-funded game which he says will take elements from all his previous work and is described as an “open-world God game”.

Now, Molyneux – whose career as a game designer has spanned 43 years and led to the creation of such titles as Fable, Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Black & White, Theme Park and Curiosity: What’s in the Cube – told Edge magazine that Masters of Albion will be his last game ever.

The designer has gained a reputation over the years for making bold claims about what his games will do while they’re in development, then not delivering on those claims when the games are released.

While those games were still mainly critically acclaimed for what they did offer, Molyneux has now acknowledged that his words have come back to haunt him numerous times in his career, but that for his final game he really needs to deliver.

“I think that line in Fable – ‘for every choice, a consequence’ – wasn’t delivered on well enough,” Molyneux explained. “I think the possession mechanic that we had in Dungeon Keeper wasn’t delivered on enough. The open-world freedom that we had in Black & White, I think it was good at the start, but it didn’t deliver enough at the end.

“And Masters Of Albion is an opportunity to mix all those together. Even though one is an RTS, one is a god game, and one is a roleplaying game, why the fuck can’t we mix them all together?”

Molyneux then reportedly started tearing up, saying: “And I don’t know if it’s going to work. It’s so important to me, this game, because to a certain extent it’s about redemption.

“I admit now that I did overpromise on things, and said things that I shouldn’t have said about Curiosity. But I only ever did that because I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. And so Masters Of Albion is a redemption title for me. But also, it’s my last game. It just is.”

Conscious of overpromising again, Molyneux added: “For me, it’s the most significant title that I’ve ever done, for sure. And I’ll tell you the amazing thing – it’s going to fucking work. It really is. It’s like nothing you’ve ever played before, but it’s still unbelievably familiar. It is Black & White, it is Dungeon Keeper, and it is Fable, but it’s a completely new genre. And it shouldn’t really work, but it does.

“I can’t call this a great game. That’s the wrong thing for me to say, because if I say in the press ‘Masters Of Albion is going to be a great game’, that’s a promise. So I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is, it’s a unique experience, which is unbelievably intimate and familiar to any person who played Fable, Black & White and Dungeon Keeper. If I turn around and say ‘this is going to be my greatest game’, that’s when I get in trouble.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Molyneux elaborated on his claim that Masters of Albion will be his last title.

“I know people are going to say ‘come on, it won’t be your last game’,” he said, “but, you know, I’m 66 years old. I’m working as hard as I’ve ever worked in my life. And I just haven’t got the life energy left to do this again. Everything that I’ve done… it just feels like this is the bet, you know? I’ve put all my chips on the table.”