Molyneux Calls Sony's PS3 Strategy Lazy

The British developer says this is one of the more "interesting" hardware races.

Say what you will about their respective hardware, there's no denying that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are taking very different approaches to the next generation. And if you ask new Microsoft employee Peter Molyneux, he'll tell you that the three's approaches aren't equally effective.

"I have been through console wars before," Molyneux said in a recent interview with GameSpot, "but this one strikes me as particularly interesting. Nintendo has done a great job of convincing us that next gen is about game play rather than high-tech specs. Microsoft has done an incredible job of expanding games online and making them more mass market. Sony, in my view, seems it has been rather more lazy with their message."

As head of Fable and Black & White developer Lionhead, Molyneux has made most of his games for PC and, more recently, Microsoft's consoles. This made Microsoft's decision to buy Lionhead earlier this year that much more interesting.

Far from bringing down the quality of his team's games, though, Molyneux is confident that having Microsoft signing the cheques will let Lionhead carry on making the sort of games that brought it such acclaim.

"As an independent we were starting to find it increasingly difficult to continue the development of a game until it was done," Molyneux told GameSpot. "Working with hundreds of people, we found ourselves having to make some very tough decisions on the quality versus release-date front.

"What I can say for certain is that Microsoft wants us to create games which will get the whole world excited and to spend time on polishing a game till it shines, although in saying that, we still intend to be as professional as we can be."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games