Guardian

Peter Molyneux has admitted to having moments of doubts about his future as a games designer. After accepting his Bafta fellowship to a standing ovation at the Bafta video game awards on Wednesday, the industry veteran told the Guardian that some disappointing reviews of Fable III had led to him questioning his abilities.

"The Fable III the reviews were, justifiably, not what I'd hoped for," he said. "We just weren't good enough with the craft of what we did. That always makes you reflect. And I said to myself late one night, 'Have I already created the greatest game I'm ever going to create? Is the rest just a downhill struggle?' And the next day a letter came through the post telling me I'd been nominated for a Bafta fellowship. And I just thought, 'I am going to prove that I haven't done my best.' Everything I've done up to this point is just training for what I should do."

Molyneux also admitted to being overwhelmed by emotion when accepting his award. "I feel unbelievably humbled. As I walked up on stage I almost fainted. There was this sea of faces, and lots of people I've worked with before, and everyone stood. I was choking up. It was an incredible feeling, and I do immediately want to go home and start proving that I'm really, truly worthy of this."

The industry veteran also took the opportunity to praise games in general and spoke about an "energy in the air" right now for developers. "Tens of millions of people are choosing games as a medium of entertainment. Over my career I've gone from selling games on trestle tables at royal horticultural halls in London to a night like tonight. I remember standing in front of the press in 1991 arguing that computer games are art by any definition, they have cultural influence! But what should worry people in film and TV is we've only just started. Only now, when you see social gaming, mobile gaming and Kinect coming on, you think, Jesus, where is this all going to go? That's what's exciting."

In his acceptance speech Molyneux humorously touched on his reputation of over-promising on his games, but denied it was a PR tactic. "I'm not over-promising, I'm over-believing. I always truly believe that this is going to be the greatest game of all time – I wouldn't try to do it any other way. But now I've come to realise that, you know what? It's all about the execution. You can be super-passionate, but you need to execute on it."

When asked how his current game projects will be affected by the Bafta acknowledgment he said: "At Lionhead, we always have a meeting on Fridays and I think I will stand up and say, 'This award is for everyone.'

But I'll also say to them, 'Let's ensure our next game is nominated next year!'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/mar/18/peter-molyneux-bafta-game-awards

If he honestly feels that way, then all the better, and I think we can expect some good games from him. I've always felt he has great ideas but they aren't necessarily presented in the best way. Maybe he'll figure that out now.

only thing he must do. is to stop taking interviews.

He needs to stop overhyping the games, as someone said, no interviews, no hype, no expectations = result.

Promising innovation and the most amazing thing since sliced bread isn't going to bode well with the masses. He needs a PR guy.

He has the ideas and the immagination most game devs would die for, it's just his poor implemention that's killing it

Perhaps MS should have him co work on a project with another dev studio?

him and epic would be freightingly awesome

Go Peter go! :D 

I loved Fable II and III. They were both better than their predecessors!

Exactly, his ideas have so much potential but they kind of suck at making them right a lot of the time.

Also Peter's kind of a drama queen

I seriously don't understand how or why people HATE this guy so much.  He's about one of the most genuine people in the industry.  We the spoiled gamers indeed ...