Peter Molyneux leaving Lionhead, Microsoft for new games studio 22 Cans

Bullfrog and Lionhead Studios co-founder Peter Molyneux today revealed that he will leave Microsoft and Lionhead once development of Fable: The Journey is complete. The industry veteran first rose to games industry fame from his work on a string of successful Bullfrog titles such as Dungeon Keeper and Populous. He then left Bullfrog in 1997 to co-found Lionhead, and went on to create the iconic Black & White and Fable franchises. Lionhead was acquired by Microsoft in 2006, at which point it focused on development of games for the Xbox 360. Molyneux is currently the head at Lionhead, and creative head at Microsoft Studios Europe. However, in a statement to Kotaku today, he explained, "It is with mixed emotions that I made the decision to leave Microsoft and Lionhead Studios, the company that I co-founded in 1997, at the conclusion of development of Fable: The Journey." He continued, "I remain extremely passionate and proud of the people, products and experiences that we created, from lack & White to Fable to our pioneering work with Milo and Kate for the Kinect platform. However, I felt the time was right to pursue a new independent venture." Microsoft said in a statement that it wishes Molyneux "the best of luck in his future endeavors," and called him "one of our most passionate and influential developers for the Xbox 360 platform." Molyneux revealed via Twitter that his next venture is a new games company called 22 Cans, which was recently established by former Lionhead chief technical officer Tim Rance. "Now for something really amazing, scary and brave, a new company called 22 Cans," he tweeted.