Lionhead's Molyneux Foresees Price Pressure For Games

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux (Fable II) has joined analysts in suggesting that games might be forced to sell at lower price points in 2009, despite earlier prevailing opinions that games can thrive at current pricing thanks to entertainment hour per dollar. "Everyone says games are good value for home entertainment, despite the relatively high price. I'm not so sure," Molyneux tells the BBC. "I think we're going to see a lot of price pressure put on games," he says. Citing Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet as one of his "personal favourites," he also suggests that the holidays might be a less-than-ideal release period for new titles. 2008's Christmas season saw success weighted heavily in favor of triple-A sequels like Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 5 -- LittleBigPlanet sold only 141,000 units in the U.S. during November, despite widespread critical acclaim and fan appeal. "I wonder if Christmas is really the right time to release a new title," says Molyneux. "We've got into a rhythm [of sequels at Christmas] which is all fair and well while people are buying games but we have to make sure we don't get complacent." The Christmas glut might've left a void for 2009, which is "all looking a bit dry," according to Molyneux. "While there is stuff in 2010 we can look forward to, off the top of my head I cannot think of anything next year that really excites me." As for Lionhead, Molyneux says that now that Fable II has launched, the studio will focus on a new project: "It's super secret for now - but we might announce it next year."