Microsoft today announced that the first episode (1 of 5) of Fable II: Game Episodes is available today over Xbox Live completely free of charge. Peter Molyneux, head of Lionhead Studios and also Microsoft's man in charge of al European development, explained to Edge why Lionhead and Microsoft are now dividing up Fable II into episodes, and why he hates game demos.
Ultimately, Molyneux believes Fable II has a better chance of reaching a larger audience as a digital release. "There are two reasons, really. The first is that I had a look at how many active Live users there are – I don’t know the exact number but it’s 10 million or something like that – and compared to the number of people that have bought Fable II, about three million, and saw there’s a big divide. As a greedy game designer I ask why. I can sit back and moan about it and wish the game had more presence at retail or whatever, or I could do something about it," he said.
He continued, "Now, I hate demos. I think demos are the death knell of experiences. Over the years I’ve done demos and they’ve either completely ruined the game, given too much to the player, or they’ve confused people, so I said that we should give away the very first 45 minutes of the game, completely free, and just before you get to Bowerstone up comes this message saying, ‘If you want to continue playing press this button, but if you want to buy the rest of the game, press this’. So people that are interested but don’t want to commit to the full purchase can play more, and people that are into it can buy all of it, and they don’t lose experience or gold they’ve collected."
IndustryGamers thinks this is a smart move by Microsoft and Lionhead. Although the digital revolution is still in its early stages, we think over time this sort of episodic release could become the norm. Giving gamers incremental experiences at cheaper prices rather than charging $60 or more upfront is also more palatable to the consumer.
