More than six years after it was first teased, Legacy, the ironically-titled new game from once-legendary designer Peter Molyneux, finally has a release date. The blockchain-based business simulator developed by Molyneux's 22 Cans studio is set to go live on October 26.
"Legacy will be seamlessly integrated with GalaChain, providing smooth and secure gameplay backed by a games-first blockchain that allows real ownership and real rewards," publisher Gala Games said. "This includes the ability to bridge items to and from Ethereum for trade on secondary markets like OpenSea.
"Ownership and creativity take center stage as you get the chance to build and manage your business on your very own land!"
Molyneux was a true force in the early days of the videogame industry, with groundbreaking games including Populous—the great-granddaddy of the "god game" genre—Syndicate, Theme Park, Magic Carpet, and Dungeon Keeper to his credit. His run continued through the turn of millennium with Black & White and Fable.
It all took a sharp downturn when he left Lionhead in 2012 to found a new studio and launch Curiosity, a community-driven game/competition about chipping away at a giant cube which ultimately proved to be one of the most ridiculously overhyped projects of all time. That spilled over into genuine ugliness when the prize for winning Curiosity turned out to be "godhood" in Molyneux's next game, Godus, which turned out to be a complete bust—neither the game nor the prize were ever fully delivered.
(Curiosity did give us this absolute banger of a headline, though, so it wasn't a total loss.)
it's 2023 and mfers are still going on about the blockchain
Molyneux's entire game development career was started because a company accidentally hired his company, Taurus, instead of Torus, a company that actually made database software, to develop database software for the Amiga and he didn't correct their mistake.
Who wants to join my new studios: Lorian Games, Epick Games, Fromme Software, and CD Project Reed?
I love that he's going to call his worst game Legacy. The most transparent grift since his last one, entering the NFT space after they've lost like 95% of their value, it's peak Molyneux.
It was fantastic. Underdelivered on his promises, but to that point I think the only other RPGs that had engrossed me as much were Oblivion/Morrowind and Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask. Black and White 2 was also a genuinely good game from someone I wouldn't trust sell me bread without it being full of sawdust.
It obscenely overpromised on what it would actually be, but at least it was playable and enjoyable for some.
The sequel with the conveniently-moved-goalposts to make sure that a bad ending always happens unless you do sufficient capitalism to the kingdom and make enough
to stop the big evil thing (the price tag for the good ending is set deliberately out of reach and keeps rising no matter how many non-evil actions are done, just to make sure the le morally grey sermon is delivered properly) was fucking silly.I think that's Fable 3, 2 just either killed your wife and dog or all the townspeople.
Beyond that, true, though I liked that you could easily get there by being a king that guitar hero'd around the kingdom to buy all the houses and lower their rents while raising the rents on businesses.
Out of sheer bullheadedness I've gotten the very good ending in a save where I immediately lowered all working class rents to the minimum, lowered poor shops and middle class homes somewhat, and raised the riches rents as high as possible.
It was a pretty good game. The issue was that Molyneux iwas always in interviews before his games came out just wildly making up features for the game off the top of his head. So what was delivered was not even close to what he was promising
I'm not sure I could be disappointed by something I have concentrated anti hype for.
I hate Molyneux so much, primarily at this point because he keeps grifting and keeps raking it in each and every time.
I just want Black and White 3. After the revolution we're keeping him around as Puyi and he only gets to develop real games.
I know a lot of it is just cynical corporate glad-handing but I am still baffled by how many fuck-ups Molyneux can profit through and people still line up to give him money.
I wonder if he reports to anyone as the head of his studio. The conversation to initially pitch this game must have been insane.
The conversation to initially pitch this game must have been insane.
"What if the usual Molyneux grift... but on the blockchain?"
I think it's pretty standard corpo brain there.
I'm sure the reason he left Lionhead in the first place was so he wouldn't have to report to anyone.
Unless you count Chris Roberts' previous fuck-ups that at least had some control over his head that forced something to ship eventually (which almost didn't happen with Freelancer), Star Citizen is just one big massive ongoing fuck-up that continues to pay off for him.
It was garbage, but at least it actually released as a completed product, not the promise of a product that keeps asking for "pledges."
As far as I know, Molyneux isn't a sex pest kiddie creeper, unlike David Cage.
I recently saw a great documentary about his AI game "Project Milo". Completely forgot about its existence, but seeing his name here now reminded me.
Here's a link: https://youtu.be/VUL8UDVVJSA?si=0dms4B545U_O2I3N
It's still in Steam early access despite not being updated for years. Honestly, the gameplay didn't look that much better or more involved than the original Populous from 1989.
Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube really ended up being 22cans' most successful game, there was actually some excitement at the time. Then it turned out to just be an elaborate ad for Godus and the guy who won never got anything
It was a pretentious grift, because at that point, Molyneux didn't have to actually deliver finished games anymore to get publicity and money.
The guy who won the prize of being god was a 19 year old British kid. He never got the prize money or the status in the game because it was never finished. I think he ended up sueing and getting a minor settlement.
The game wasn't anything special.
Wooo! Fuck yeah! I can't WAIT to spend $40+ on another unfinished game, I LOVE not even being able to buy dlc to finish a game! This is PERFECT for me, I never beat them anyway, why buy game I won't play?
