Molyneux declares Fable: The Journey 'definitely not on rails'

by Ben Gilbert on Jun 13th 2011 10:10AM

"My name's Peter Molyneux and I made this horrendous mistake." With that emblematic phrase, Lionhead creative director Peter Molyneux kicks off a hilarious public service announcement he created with the help of OXM UK. According to him, the Fable: The Journey demo he showed off at E3 2011 gave the impression that the game is "on rails," an idea he's quick to dispel.

Apparently, the team at Lionhead working on the Kinect-based Fable title decided to remove navigation controls from the press demo, the same snippet shown during Microsoft's presser, effectively putting the game on rails and giving everyone the wrong impression. "I will just say on record now that Fable: The Journey is definitely not on rails," he specifies, even going so far as to ask for journalists' signatures before they exit the demo room. If you look really hard, you can spot one of our own among them. It's like Where's Waldo with squiggly pen marks!

Source: OXM UK

Tags: e3-2011, fable-the-journey, kinect, lionhead, lionhead-studios, microsoft, on-rails, peter-molynuex, xbox

Reader Comments (76)

Even if it had dinosaurs shooting laser beams out of their eyes, I wouldn't buy it. After Fable 2 and 3 im done the empty promises.

I don't mind empty promises, I just don't want to waste my time playing bland games. Fable was a let-down, Fable II was a reminder, Fable III was the test and I passed it (by not playing it!).

I love the fact that Fable 3 is pretty much ABOUT empty promises.

@MyAbsolution

Disnosaurs shooting laser beams, I'm all in for that. But that already exists.

http://www.arcadebomb.com/play/robot_dinosaurs_that_shoot_beams_when_they_roar.html

@MyAbsolution

I really wish his employees would just grow a pair and just straight up tell him they want to make another Populous or Dungeon Keeper. I'm sure when they signed up to work under this guy the last thing they wanted to make were games about monkeys flinging poo, and walking around boring open worlds with a dog.

@jsx

you nailed it...

@MyAbsolution

"My name's Peter Molyneux and I made this horrendous mistake."

Which one?? stop being a creative developer and taking the fast buck method by staying with one franchise only which has NEVER been as good as your other games, and not doing original stuff like you used to??? if so then i agree.......

@MyAbsolution

I don't know that would be pretty hard to pass up laser beam shooting dino's (out the eyes mind you)

Let it have Mech Vs Dino battles in Albion and I'll be throwing my money at lionhead once again.

@MyAbsolution
I hope that it IS on rails, then he points to everyones signature and says "HAHA! I fooled you ALL AGAIN! and you SIGNED for it!"

And we're supposed to just believe him? His track record for honesty is, shall we say, less than stellar.

@jblank Read the article. The demo during the presser had movement controls taken out. But they were in the booth demo that press people got to see.

Hence why the "Definately not on rails" thing has all of their signatures on it.

It's confirmed, but it's still a dumb thing to do. As people are going to remember the on-rails demo more than this statement after the fact.

@TRTX
That's a fair assessment, but I think as do so many other, that's the staff of Lionhead studios live a Bizarro multiverse where bad is good, not is not not.. and er... everyone of a low pay grade speaking in a west country accent.

The only people who have escaped Molyneuxworld were the Dinosaurs from Starfox Adventures. You don't want to know what happened to them after they were found on a superior third person adventure to Fable 2 & 3. Let's just say it was ugly and involved being chased while dressed in a chicken outfit.

@jblank
Which is exactly why his PR handlers should have know that changing the way the game was played for the presentation would be a bad idea. By this point, it should be literally impossible for Lionhead or PM to make any kind of publicity mistake, yet here we are again...
Who, in their right mind, thinks that making a game appear to be on rails (if it's actually not) for your first public announcement of the game is a good idea?!

This proves what exactly?

Maybe a similar plan needs to be adopted titled 'Disappointed?', see how many signatures there are then, 'spesh after Fable III.

"It's not on rails" is referring to the programming language in use. "What I meant is, we didn't program it in RUBY ON RAILS, when I said it's not on rails. Simple misunderstanding on all your parts."

Calling it right now.

Is Justin's name somewhere on there? I heard him talking about this, and Molyneux's 'reality distortion field' on the Giant Bombcast on my way to work this morning.

@baby sea tuna
Watched it on the livestream. That was hilarious.

How do you control navigation?

@koehler83
There are navigation parts, where you use your hand to guide the character along different paths. It's completely separate from the combat sections they showed.. and probably still not any good.

@Snowblind

Oh you mean like a RAIL junction? How interesting.

Anyone know what Justin McElroy's signature looks like? I'm having trouble here...

ha! what a fable.

@PedoJokerBear

Something was done here and I saw it.

@PedoJokerBear

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk19/Threddd/fry.gif

I think a more honest whiteboard statement would be "It's definitely not on rails (anymore.)" After they were basically laughed at I can see him demanding they re-introduce a navigation system ASAP. They probably had experimented with one before deciding to put it on rails, so there was code that could easily be introduced.

Anyway, I'm sure they added about ten feet of walkable distance in either direction, so you can sort of move about Star Fox style, though probably without constant advancement. Not on rails? Maybe not. But still on a track.

Right, but it's just the demo....things can change. :)

I just don't trust the guy, he's so full of hyperbole and bluster that it just turns me off

He's a passionate guy, I'll give him that. And while I enjoy his games, they aren't worth the price of entry. But more to my point, can't he just let Fable die? He's got to have some better ideas in the head of his, right?

Lionhead hasn't done anything original in years

@(Unverified)

man, i'd take another Black & White over another fable.

@(Unverified)

I don't think Lionhead has ever made anything original. Everything was made from a pretty established genre. They just make them fun with enough variation on the established formula.

Last interesting thing out of them was The Movies back in like 05. I didn't hate Fable 2 since really it was just Fable 1 done right, but the original (not Lost Chapters) and 3 were huge disappointments. I also hated having to resurrect your dog in a DLC pack if you chose the noble route in the end, cutting off a lot of quests since you didn't have a way to dig anymore. Other than that, fun game.

Justin's signature is behind Peter Molyneux's hand. http://i54.tinypic.com/2ppwsw8.png

@mattwestcott Under "rails", second on the left. Do I win a prize?

On rails game is on rails.

@jaydark123

Peter Molyneux is off the rails.

I know I'm alone here, but I thought the demo looked fun as an on-rails magic shooter. Would make for a great nerdy party game

@syrik zero You're not alone, I'm apparently one of the very few people able to look past the promises of what Fable was supposed to be , and simply enjoy it for what it is . Peter is a dreamer , he opens his mouth and talks too much , but he still brings a unique game to the table , and its a series I've enjoyed .
If it weren't for the fact that this is a Kinect based game , I would definitely buy it . If I ever do find myself able to justify buying Kinect , this will be bought with it .

I bet you it was/is on rails, but after the public outcry, he's going to pretend like it never was meant to be on rails and they'll tack on some sort of movement option.

Kind of like how he said that that glitch in the Fable 2 Pub Games was "intented" and there were consequences for using it....
......Yeah, we all remember how that panned out.

Seriously I don't want to come off sounding douchey but what game has he ever rfeally delivered on? I've been playing and regretting playing his games since forever.

Games I played ;populous,power monger,black and white (was syndicate his?), fable 1& 2 and invariably I stop about 50 percent of the way through from a combo of boredom and mild annoyance.

Am I missing the magic of this studio? Is there an underlying something I'm not grasping that has given this man a long running games career because from where I sit he feels like a hype machine that has gotten by largely on new batches of gamers falling for his dream shit (blades of grass being simed on fable 1 stands out in my mind) and him just being around so long people assume his older games must have had some merit.

I think we should take his word for it.

After all, when has he ever let us down or mislead us, before?

Peter keeps breaking our hearts, then talking his way back into them with promises of how great it's going to be this time. And how he knows what he did wrong…When will we say enough is enough and toss him out of our lives, or just toss the games out the window in dramatic fashion like a spurned lover.

Good old Pete. I love his ambitious ideas and energy overall but, his ideas are always larger than when the development team can fit into game.

More focus on a more realistic and enjoyable experience than these fantastical beer coasters Lionhead puts out., and where's MIlo?

I.... I just wanted Milo! Take a break from Fable and get more time under your belt for the next one for crying out loud! Give me my Milo! T_T

So....did he really just write that on the wall? I thought J.Mcelroy was joking about that on the Giantbombcast, apparently not.

I think the best part about all of this is that he totally wrote that on someone's wall.

Doesn't matter, it's still going to suck.

Translation: It's on rails.

What a douche. Don't show a demo that is clearly "on rails" during a worldwide press event if that isn't the conclusion you want people to jump to. How does this game even work with navigation controls then? Have any of those undersigned journalists explained exactly how it works, if it was different in the booth demos?

Surprised to see all the hate for Fable II, given that it was Joystiq's GOTY. Not that anyone is required to agree with Joystiq, but you'd think a certain percentage of the readers would.

@Aerothorn

I think only a few people were disliking on Fable 2, they were happened to be at the top of the thread. I personally thought it was great and played through it 3 times.

Now Fable III, on the other hand...

@baby sea tuna

I too enjoyed Fable2 .

This "Journey" can be on-rails or free roaming, whatever it is, we don't want it. This game should have been playable within Fable 3 at certain points during the game; not a game in itself.

I'm not buying this. I was burned by once by his lies, never again.

after fable 3 i'm done with listening Peter Molyneux . Peter need to step up his game.

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Fable: The Journey

Molyneux declares Fable: The Journey 'definitely not on rails'

Reader Comments (76)

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 10:11AM MyAbsolution said

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