Molyneux: It was tempting to retire

Peter Molyneux has given his first interview to the press in nearly a year, in which he admits that he nearly abandoned game development entirely.

The famed UK developer had vowed to never talk to the press again. This followed the revelation that promises made to the winner of 22Cans’ Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube had been broken, and an interview in which Molyneux was asked if he thought he was a pathological liar.

However, after what has been described a very tough period for him, Molyneux returned to the limelight earlier today with the release of a second Godus Early Access title – Godus Wars.

"It was tempting to retire," he told Eurogamer. "Many of my counterparts from the late eighties have sat back and retired and left. I had always said this is my life and my passion, other than my family. That was a knife-edge decision.

"[However] you can’t afford the luxury of just going in the corner and sobbing a bit because you’ve got an entire team of people who are just looking at you and saying, right, what does this mean? Does this mean the end of the company? Does it mean the end of you? What does it mean?

"I had the chance to stand back and I tried to get to the core of what that journalist was saying, which was, you’re over promising and under delivering. What’s the solution? Here, a year later, is the solution."

Molyneux explained that his job now very much mirrors his roots fin the industry. He worked as a coder and designer for Godus Wars, with current 22Cans CEO Simon Phillips handling the duties Molyneux is now freed from.

Molyneux has also vowed to keep his press time limited, stating: "This interview does not mean me being back in the press. I don’t have time to be honest with you. I’d much rather keep hunkered down."

He has also said he will not talk to the press about games ahead of their release for fears of being accused once again of over-promising. He also revealed that he received death threats in the wake of last year’s drama.

The elephant in the room, however, is still Henderson. It was revealed in July that a plan still hadn’t been put in placefor him to claim his reward. This, however, seems to have changed, with Molyneux insisting that the path to multiplayer in Godus – a development that is a prerequisite for Henderson to assume his ‘God of Godus’ role – is now very much in place, although the studio won’t yet commit to a timeframe.

Henderson says, however, that he is now almost being contacted too much!

They were giving me so much information I didn’t even need. It was like they were responding to how little they gave me before, and put it to the complete opposite extreme, and gave me all this information and updates every week,” he told Eurogamer. I said, just tell me what I need to know when you feel like you need to tell me.

"To be perfectly honest, I’m almost past the point of caring about this whole thing, you know? It’s just been a complete balls up, to be frank. I’m just going to ask them, how many of you are actually still passionate about this? I’d rather they did it with interest in it, or just didn’t do it all all, you know? But we’ll see when I talk to them."