Molyneux: 'Milo & Kate' fully playable, 'ten times more amazing' than before

by Mike Schramm on Jun 24th 2010 8:00AM

While we did get to see (and be impressed by) Fable 3 at E3 last week, there was no sign of Peter Molyneux's other big project, the demo now known as Milo & Kate for the hardware now known as Kinect. Molyneux tells CVG that it is now fully playable, and "ten times more amazing" than it was when we saw it at last year's E3. The game was shown off to celebrities, presumably at the closed-doors hands-on session held during the bizarre Cirque du Soleil event last week.

So why didn't we get to see it? "There's a very interesting reason why," says Molyneux, "but I can't tell you why." Really, Peter? Didn't we mature past this random, vague hype? Fable 2 was great, and Fable 3 looks good, so we'll be patient. But the reason why Microsoft didn't show off what sounds like one of its most enticing Kinect titles had better be "interesting" indeed.

Source: CVG

Tags: cirque-du-soleil, e3-2010, kinect, microsoft, milo, milo-and-kate, peter-molyneux, xbox

Reader Comments (78)

So really just twice as amazing as before.

@JXCGunrunna

Sorry for hijacking top comment here, but everyone here seems to have missed the obvious:

Closed door session with celebrities probably means they were recording footage for the "big reveal" or some commercials or the like.

@JXCGunrunna
He's come a long way for saying it was ONLY 10 times better.

@JXCGunrunna maybe it was too good that it was going to overshadow the terrible launch titles so they are waiting for it to subside.

@JXCGunrunna Like having two actors in another room providing the voice and animations for Milo and Kate instead of just the one actor hiding in a room doing it last year?

Oh Oh, I know, I know! It's because you guys made Milo cry last time!

@Fminus Negativity To The Rescue
awesome! you know that's what milo will turn into.... the game you put on with friends over and your all getting trashed and you just pretend that he's the nerdy kid at the party not having any fun cause he refuses to drink..... OMG can we scan beer into milo's world.... That would be awesome!...

@Fminus Negativity

"Your Drunk Again Arn't You?"

Looks to me like Milo is the drunk one.

hurry up and show it already....

@(Unverified) he's waiting until it is 100x better, that's why it was not shown to the public! I wonder what kind of celebrities, if it's true, were shown this game? Oprah? Zach Galifianakis? Dalai Lama?

@(Unverified)

That's what she said...

Does it work for real now?

@MrAlex Are you seriously expecting video game developers to actually have created intelligent computer software that can understand, react and appropriatly respond naturally to human interaction - something that top scientists & researchers are still unable to achieve after decades of research?

I shoud hope not.

@MrAlex

what Jason said, its not hard to make software that replies with pre written answers to common questions but if you ask "milo" who he really is will he really say he's just a bunch of code on a gaming console? no... hes gonna say some pre written bullshit. Who the hell wants a human virtuapet anyways, its not as interesting of fun as you may like to think it is

@PR0F3TA Pedo Trainer

"something that top scientists & researchers are still unable to achieve after decades of research?"

You know, we're actually pretty far in this field. Still, Milo is just a chatbot with voice.

@JasonDassh cleverbot.com

Ten times zero is still zero.

@Prox

+1 this ten times

@Prox I dare say that was the greatest thing I've read in ages

Fable 2 was not great it was 90% filler 10% game.......... it was still kinda good but the first one felt more polished....

@ZippyDSMlee

I will join you in being downvoted. Fable 2 was a good game, not great, but good, and it was 90% filler garbage. As far as I'm concerned only presentation really saved it.

Shagittarius
Ya it felt like a 0.5 game more than a solid stand alone continuation of the series.

I hope fable 3 is more main story, about twice as much as fable 2 and I will call it great just cue you should have more of a balance in content unlike fable 2.

I did like some of the things they did in fable 2 wish you could customize controls a bit more (do 2 spells at once or arange the spell charge ladder as so you can do either or level 1-2/3-4/2-3{in that order} ) more wish you had more magic to get wish they made new brutal styles dealing with group based attacks and maybe counter(do a flourish while in a guard stance but you take more damage the lower the skill is while using it ) and or "rag dolling" just tripping,throwing and general fckery with the rag doll physics.

Fable has alot of room to grow combat/skill wise even the AI/social stuff could be polished more but all in all more game...er.... no not more mini gmes more main story game yes plz?

So they decided to not show the ONE THING that makes Kinect look interesting.

Great job Microsoft. You know...last year when I saw "Natal" I nearly crapped myself. It was like looking 10 years into the future. But at this years E3, MS showed us Eyetoy 2.0. And it cost 150 frigging dollars!

I really really hope this thing can deliver more that silly dance games and...uhhh...petting zoo animals?

@NaeemTHM Well, I think it was a smart move of Microsoft to not show Milo, and focus on only real stuff, not empty promises.
If you think Milo will be anything like what we was shown, then you are quite optimistic. Do you honestly believe that a small studio like that has developed the most realistic artificial intelligence ever, on a small machine for 199$? And now he says it will be 10 times more amazing than that? The fact that it's coming from Moleneux isn't actually helping it's credibility.

For christ sake, we still haven't got a good artificial intelligence in text form (SmarterChild etc), and now suddenly we'll have one will full graphics, voice acting, and facial/voice recognition? Do anyone honestly believe Milo will be what Moleneux says it will be?

@NaeemTHM -- This is what Microsoft want:

http://www.ndtv.com/article/sci-tech/what-is-ibm-s-watson-33009

IBM's Watson.. This has the ability to have some sort of intelligent conversation.. It also happens to run on IBMs Blue Gene, which costs millions in terms of hardware..

As for milo, its a freaking GIGO Garbage In Garbage Out pile of junk.. What is the point to it ? None, who is going to buy it ? why would you want this ? It just makes absolutely no sense....

@McDuckScrooged Hey thanks for that link, that was a good read.

@Digital Viking : When you put it that way it does seem pretty ridiculous that a game developer created the most advanced AI in the world and plans to release it for a game console.

Peter better watch his back for windowless vans.

@NaeemTHM Although the whole "Milo" thing (game?) is cool technology and may be interesting, if they're going to try and sell me a Kinect with a game all about talking/interacting with virtual people as it's killer app, then they've got another thing coming.

Dear Peter,

You can be vague and pompous all you want, but no one is going to care until you stop making over-rated garbage.

Thanks!
mike

@mikeymilkshake

Reasons like this one (which make him look like a pompous ass) are why I hate him as much as Al Quaida

um fable 2 wasn't that great...also this dude is just a damn snake oil salesman

You're just upset there isn't more... "interactive" elements to Milo.

@Xoonaka

he's not my type, because he's a HE.

@PedoJokerBear

but this kate character has me intrigued....

Kate's a dog...

Milo has become self aware and now refuses to wear pants.

They're not going to show it because they don't want to blow consumer MINDS.

No, but really, Microsoft, this entire Kinect campaign has been one long and stupid failure. Congratulations, you've succeeded at aping the Wii and the exact feature set and ONLY the Wii feature set, but you just don't get that the software that does this (such as Kinect Sports) is NOT as compelling. You've shown zero reason why we should spend $150 on the Kinect as opposed to buying a Wii.

If you had just taken 2 minutes away from showing video chat, or people jumping around on Joyride to show some dude on his couch playing a new Rainbow 6 or something with a controller, and making military silent gestures to instruct his squad as to how exactly he wanted to breach a room, you'd have everyone on your side. Even Sony would have to stop making fun of you (pew pew).

Instead, MS Marketing has decided the way to break into the motion control stranglehold Nintendo has on the market is by offing up the generic supermarket brand of the motion control breakfast cereal.

Newsflash, MS: The reason those sell decently is because they're MUCH CHEAPER.

This isn't going to end well.

@onan

"to show some dude on his couch playing a new Rainbow 6 or something with a controller, and making military silent gestures to instruct his squad as to how exactly he wanted to breach a room"

Never will happen.

@onan

You pretty much summed it up.

@onan My thoughts exactly. Instead of continuing what they're good at, Microsoft is spending tons of money on something they're not.

Them taking down Nintendo's stranglehold on dumbed-down waggle games is about as likely as the Zune toppling the iPod, or Mac overthrowing Windows outside of coffee shops.

Also, I fear a "coffee table of death" scenario for this thing. Who honestly has completely empty, table-free 400 sq ft living rooms?

Prenatal.

I don't know. The word just came to my mind.

im 2.5 times as intrigued and 85% sure molynaux likes playing with numbers but i cant tell you why.

something, something, british fart joke, something, something, feature that will be pulled before release, something, something, vague, vague, HYPE.

ooh peter, your steady decent into insanity is saddening. im excited for fable 3, but i loved fable 1, remake another fable 1.

Well, the last time it was shown, it is somewhat the most realistic and advanced artificial intelligence ever created. And that's on hardware for 199$, and I don't believe that.
So ten times more amazing than that? Well.. Believe what you want, but I won't listen to anything Moleneux say before he shows us actual "game"play.

@Digital Viking

You're giving it too much credit, 10x just means it understands 10x many words. It's not skynet.

Incidentally, they already did this in Japan near the launch of the Xbox 1. Look it up, it was called @N.U.D.E., for "Natural Ultra Digital Experiment if I recall. You had a little cyborg girl that you could talk to on the headset.

Also, before that, you had Seaman on the Dreamcast. That only understood specific phrases during set points. We've evolved past that, but it's still all pretty rudimentary.

@onan

Nude, Seaman, (Pre)natal -->Milo

Something's not right here.... or... I like where this is heading, I'm not sure : /

The one thing that supposedly made Kinect better than simple motion controllers isn't ready to be shown? Then I will guess that most gamers aren't ready to buy it then.

Oh boy. Here goes Molyneux running his mouth again.

@ScubaSteveEL For sure. I'm a reasonable and forgiving man but I've finally had enough of Petey's lies. This is the one that finally did it:

"There's a very interesting reason why," says Molyneux, "but I can't tell you why."

That is not how normal people - above an elementary school level - conduct interviews. That and the "now it's like TEN TIMES awesomer" are just unacceptably juvenile.

Milo remembered what everyone said about him last year and refused to perform this time.

"Hi Milo, how ya doing?"

*Milo gives the finger*

"Milo isn't cooperating. Better go with the baby animals this year"

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Molyneux: 'Milo & Kate' fully playable, 'ten times more amazing' than before

Reader Comments (78)

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:01AM JXCGunrunna said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 9:31AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:16AM swooded said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 12:57PM tonyprince said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 2:28PM johnperkins21 said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:06AM DeanXeL said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:39AM Victoryismine52 said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 1:40PM Vcize said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:08AM yoshieee said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 12:31PM Ridgecity said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 5:27PM Steve XBL SteveM NZ said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:16AM MrAlex said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:26AM JasonDassh said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:43AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 10:59AM Grubermeister said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:53AM Unvrfd said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 10:21AM ThePope said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:19AM Prox said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:36AM Co said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 9:58AM hxczuner said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:20AM ZippyDSMlee said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 9:41AM Shagittarius said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 9:58AM ZippyDSMlee said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:22AM NaeemTHM said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:51AM Digital Viking said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:58AM McDuckScrooged said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 10:04AM sirspy said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:30AM incredibilistic said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:40AM Mouthsmasher said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:24AM mikeymilkshake said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:49AM Spookimitsu said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:29AM PedoJokerBear said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:47AM Xoonaka said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 9:26AM PedoJokerBear said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 9:27AM PedoJokerBear said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:44AM Hyams said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:31AM Hunter2223 said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:32AM onan said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:38AM Co said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:47AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:36AM benheck said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:40AM InfinitiProject said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:44AM Tezz said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:46AM Digital Viking said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 9:16AM onan said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 11:51AM coolicer said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:52AM Lerkero said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:53AM ScubaSteveEL said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 2:07PM Bighouse said

Posted: Jun 24th 2010 8:56AM Uncle Jesse said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW