Peter Molyneux Leaving Lionhead, Microsoft

Peter Molyneux

Famed video game designer Peter Molyneux announced he will leave Lionhead Studios after the completion of Fable: The Journey, which will launch later this year. He will also leave Microsoft Games Studios Europe, where he is creative director.

Molyneux, 52, is the creative force behind Populous, the 1989 computer game that invented the "God game," Black & White, and, most recently, the Fable franchise. He is certainly one of the most gifted and respected game designers of his or any generation. He will be succeeded at Lionhead by Mark Webley, who co-founded that company with Molyneux. Microsoft has not yet named a replacement.

Molyneux also announced that he will launch a new video game studio, 22 Cans. If history teaches us anything, Molyneux will make a handful of ambitious, important games with his new studio, sell it to an interested party, and move on to bigger and better things. He did it first with Bullfrog Productions (sold to EA), then with Lionhead Studios (sold to Microsoft following the success of Fable).

From the press release:

"It is with mixed emotions that I made the decision to leave Microsoft and Lionhead Studios, the company that I co-founded in 1997, at the conclusion of development of Fable: The Journey."

"I remain extremely passionate and proud of the people, products and experiences that we created, from Black & White to Fable to our pioneering work with Milo and Kate for the Kinect platform. However, I felt the time was right to pursue a new independent venture."