Molyneux: Fable 2 had "huge design flaws"

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has claimed that his most recent game Fable 2 suffered some critical failings.

Speaking today at the Develop conference, he said "Let's be honest, it had some terribly messy things about it. We rushed at the end, where we had this terrible phase where we went from 'the world looks this beautiful with this many features' to being less beautiful and less features because we had so many bugs."

He claimed a build submitted to Microsoft for testing sported around 61,000 bugs, requiring the studio to downscale the game's feature set.

"To be honest with you there were also huge design flaws in Fable 2," he said. "There were game features that people just didn't use or only used once. A great example of that was getting married. It didn't mean anything, it didn't add to the game. It was just an excuse to have sex, to find out whether it was another hot coffee."

Molyneux also talked up the importance of drama in games, claiming it was something the industry was largely overlooking. "I don't think we have taken drama seriously enough." Lionhead had not treated the narrative in Fable 2 as "a real story," he said, but hopes to address that with Fable 3's "much more simple" story and "great cast."

After showing a list of 'dream' intentions behind the upcoming Fable 3, he also admitted "what this dream really means is we want to sell loads more units. It means more money for our lovely corporation Microsoft, and also we love success."