Molyneux defends Milo and Kate: "all that technology does work"
Lionhead boss denies project is a tech demo; admits Redmond team has questions about direction
Peter Molyneux, head of Microsoft Game Studios, has confirmed that little-seen Kinect title Milo and Kate is "a full product", but admits that it has at times proven difficult to convince Microsoft about the project.
Opening the second day of the GameHorizon conference in Gateshead, he said "Milo has been a really hard thing to do and a really hard thing to describe. I have real sympathy for the [Microsoft] people over in Redmond, because they understandably have some questions.
"The biggest challenge for us is convincing people what we're doing is actually going to work, is going to reach a new audience, is going to be an idea that people love. That for me is a massive challenge. Convincing people what you're doing is something that can change the world."
Responding to GamesIndustry.biz's query about the project's status following yesterday's comments (later retracted) by Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg that it was still a "tech demo," he was adamant that it was not in any danger.
"Poor Aaron Greenberg - he's on the PR team, he hasn't seen it since last year, so he came up with this stock answer that Milo is alive and well and living in Guildford but it's still a tech demo.
"I feel sorry for him, he hasn't seen the game since last year. If I had spent time with him and showed him the game recently, he'd know what was going on."
"All that technology that we showed at E3 last year actually does work," he promised. Added GameHorizon chair Ian Livingstone OBE, "I've seen it. It works, Peter. Honestly."
Molyneux also revealed that he would be finally unveiling Milo's current form at the TEDGlobal conference in two weeks.
"This is a full product that we're working on. It's not going to be released this year for sure, it's not part of the launch line-up - I think it would be inappropriate to be so, it's using Kinect in a very different way which is very sensitive. It is going to be somewhat premiered at this TED talk on Tuesday in two weeks time."
Regardless, I'll be keeping an eye on the TED talk -- tech demo or not, horribly overhyped or not, this is still, in my opinion, the most interesting of the Kinect applications so far.
"Poor Aaron Greenberg"
"I feel sorry for him"
Some interesting messaging taking place here. :)
Silver lining: Milo is crap, Microsoft knows it's crap, and it's never going to see a retail shelf.
Bonus: All the crazy crap he said about Fable 3 in another GamesIndustry article on the front page today. Does this guy ever tell the truth and/or not chronically exaggerate?
A boy version of tamagotchi that reacts to specific movements and sentences? Yes. Intelligent and living AI that learns and reacts to everything? No.
If Molyneux wants to show of that Milo works, he should pick random people and get them up on stage and let them interact in any kind of way with Milo they want. Showing a Video again or only one guy presentating it and follow his script is not profe that it works.
Do they know something the greatest minds in A.I., voice recognition, Intel, IBM, nVidia and ATi don't know?
Because even with some of the most powerful dedicated hardware on the planet and best software we have written, you do not get what they showed at E3 last year.
That's light years beyond even the most advanced software/hardware combination we have today.
You won't see the same demo being played out at TED unless they fabricate it again (and they admitted to fabricating the E3 2009 presentation).
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jim Webb on 30th June 2010 8:25pm