Fable, Black & White, and Dungeon Keeper developer Peter Molyneux is someone who's "absolutely motivated by praise," so he was really happy when Microsoft offered to acquire the studio he co-founded: Lionhead.
"Lionhead was 350 people, with a burn rate that meant I had to change my underpants twice a day, and these escalating costs of development," Molyneux remembered of the studio before it was purchased in 2006, speaking to the latest issue of Edge Magazine.
"Fable II was showing promise, but still needed work. And so we were acquired by Microsoft. It was a very different company then to what it is now, because they had this feeling of shame about them. They'd released Windows Vista. The world hated it. The game division was this one little jewel people loved," he said.
The famed game dev also recalled some memories of Phil Spencer, who ran most of Microsoft Game Studios during the Xbox 360 generation, before being promoted to head of Xbox partway through the Xbox One generation, before being promoted to Microsoft's VP of gaming now.
"He's one of the best people I've ever worked with," Molyneux went on. "I'm not saying this to butter him up - he's someone that absolutely loves the game industry, and is unbelievably smart. But he's worked in Microsoft his whole life. Phil used to work out of the Lionhead offices, so we spent a lot of time working together. And he said, 'You know, Peter, I'd really love to use your talents a bit more widely at Microsoft.'"
Of course, Spencer's a more divisive figure nowadays since he's been at the helm of Microsoft's gaming division while it recently canned multiple projects and raised Game Pass prices by 50%, though Molyneux's still a fan.
"Now, I am someone who is absolutely motivated by praise, so when he said, 'We want to make you a Microsoft partner, I thought: Fantastic they really like me!" It's just going back to school, this kid wanting to be liked, really – that's what it all comes down to. So I let myself forget how awful it had been, being [senior vice president] at EA."
