There has been much debate as of late regarding the level of bullying and cyber-terror which has plagued our online communities, including the video game world. Now it appears even seasoned veterans of the industry are not immune.
Famed developer Peter Molyneux recently sat down with The Guardian to reveal he’d be stepping away from the public eye for a while, after threats upon him and his family have pushed him to the brink. “…I understand that people are sick of hearing my voice and hearing my promises…people get so frustrated…so much so that they’ve threatened me, they’ve threatened my family and it just cannot go on, it really can’t,” Molyneux says.
Of course attacks such as these are never justified, but it was Molyneux’s repeated attempts at delivering on promises he seemingly could not back up which resulted in the initial backlash (work on Godus being one recent example).
Molyneux feels he’s never deliberately sought to mislead anyone or abuse their trust, blaming his ambitious nature as the driving force behind many over-the-top guarantees he’s made and broken in the past. Although he “truly believes” what he says at the time, he admits that “…sometimes they don’t come to pass. They don’t come to pass because they’re too technically difficult, they don’t come to pass because maybe they don’t fit and people see this as being a promise.”
Do you think Peter Molyneux is being treated too harshly by the gaming community? Let us know in the comments section below.