Schafer: Criticism of Molyneux is ‘way out of proportion’

Monkey Island and Grim Fandango creator Tim Schafer has criticised the recent treatment of Peter Molyneux online and in the press.

I’d like to send our support to friend and fellow developer Peter Molyneux,” he said in a Broken Age Kickstarter update video, which you can see below. In the last few weeks we’ve seen some extremely rough treatment of Peter on the internet and in the games press and I think it’s really unfortunate and unfair, and I don’t think it’s healthy.

Obviously things did not go as expected with his game and because of that people are making some nasty accusations about Peter, and I can really relate to that, believe it or not. But I’m not saying that developers like Peter and I shouldn’t be responsible and shouldn’t be accountable to deadlines. I’m just saying that the reaction to recent events and the tone of that reaction is really way out of proportion to the seriousness of the events themselves.

Developers are human beings and I think it’s clear that the problems that Peter is having are not unique to him. In fact, they happen on many if not most projects.”

Molyneux has been forced to endure a ferocious tirade recently following the admission that his Kickstarted title Godus is unlikely to fulfil its Kickstarter stretch goals and the revelation that the ‘winner’ of Molyneux’s title Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube? has yet to receive his prize.