In a revealing interview, former Microsoft Game Studios Europe creative director Peter Molyneux said the Xbox team is constantly watching Sony, and aired his fears for the platform holder’s future.

When asked by GamesIndustry whether the Xbox team keeps an eye on what its primary rival PlayStation platform is doing, Molyneux said “Yes, very much so. Obsessively so.”

Praising Sony’s focus on first-party development, Molyneux said Microsoft was right to showcase its own games so strongly during E3 2012.

“I thought it was a very smart move on their behalf to focus on demos. And actually, I thought EA’s line, ‘You’re going to see ten great demos from ten great developers,’ you could have said the same for Microsoft,” he said.

That said, the former Lionhead boss said he was surprised how few Kinect games were shown, and said Microsoft needs to focus on innovation.

“I would hope the next generation would bring about a new wave of innovation. If we don’t do that in consoles, then you will find that those people that want innovation will start retreating to other formats. Look at the PC. It’s incredible to me how there’s been a resurgence in PC gaming. There’s a lot more innovation now,” he said.

“I think that’s the other thing about the Microsoft press conference. It’s always shocked me about how little Microsoft cared about the Windows platform. There was hardly a single talk about Windows 8 at all. You would’ve thought, with a billion installed machines, there would be at least some play. And the whole metro interface is much more gamified, but there was no talk about it at all.”

But Molyneux doesn’t feel other platforms have done much better than Microsoft in that regard.

“It’s going to be an interesting problem for all the console manufacturers I think. It’s because so much computer entertainment, is spreading and diversifying over so many different platforms,” he said.

“They no longer have the luxury of keeping us all funneled into these consoles. A whole lot of manufacturers in the industry have been in a luxurious position for so long, where they could restrict the entertainment content to the masses.

“They did a very good job of squeezing the PC out and making this just about three formats and now it feels like it’s sand dripping through their fingers. It’s escaping from them,” he concluded.

The whole interview, available through the link above, is well worth a read and includes some discussion of Molyneux’s jump to indie outfit 22 Cans.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/13/molyneux-shocked-by-microsofts-lack-of-pc-focus-xbox-obsessively-watches-sony/#more-269195

well i agree.... but i think they want to take it one step at a time.... launch win 8 globally then push smartglass see how it works out for lil while.... then they will analyse the data and try to gi accross the board.... you can smell it from miles away...
they are just being cautious to keep their business healthy.... will try to crack open the phone and tablet a lil more and then go global when they'll have a better idea of how much and where to put their money to support a global ecosystem....

Microsoft obsessively watches Sony who obsessively watches Nintendo. Yeah, that sounds about right.

That sounds fine, they need to watch their competitor's every move!

lol molyneux talking about innovation a wonder! did he ever not talk about it in any interview his whole life?

and it should be clear that a company watches the competition right? a company would be stupid not watching them all the time. you can't react fast enough if something new will be a huge success if you don't watch all competitors.

but funny, if they would have shown more windows 8 stuff, people would complain, if microsoft doesn't show so much, people complain. do what you want, people will complain about it. people who want more pc stuff, people who want less pc stuff, people who want more social media, people who want less social media.....you will always find people complaining to get too much or too less of something.

but i'm with him if he says pc is stronger compared to consle than it was some time ago.

I wasn't a fan of his since i feel he ruined fable for me. I loved the first one and couldn't even play the second one. Never tried the third.

You should try his new game with his new studio before writing him off. It looks very promising.

Ha. No matter how many overhyped Fable games he talks about, I still have nothing but respect for this man. Bullfrog is hands-down my favourite studio ever, and he was a huge part of their biggest successes. He seems to have such a passion for gaming, and I really like him for that.

In relation to the article, I think he stays pretty fair throughout. Praising Sony for their first-party development (rightfully so, if you're a fan of videogames) but still praising Microsoft for a much improved performance this year in terms of their own stuff.

Peter talking sense? Is it april yet? O_o;

He's actually talking sense

Im gonna mark this down as proof that working for Microsoft makes you insane.