Lionhead's Peter Molyneux is getting the Lifetime Achievement Award from his peers at GDC 2011 in March.

The Lionhead founder (Fable series, Black & White) is being honored for his over 25 years of work in video games and his "indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole."

"Peter is a remarkable assets to the games industry," said Meggan Scavio, event director of GDC, "and truly embodies everything that the Lifetime Achievement Award represents. We are proud to honor someone who has had such a profound impact on the industry, through his boundless enthusiasm and profound talent in creating games about choice and interactivity that the entire world loves to play."

Previous winners include John Carmack, Hideo Kojima, Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, and more.

Congratulations.

I don't know why they even have a lifetime achievement award at GDC. It's not like Hideo Kojima is a super life-changing guy, we just all like Metal Gear.

Yawn. Molyneux is the king of over-promise.  The guy can come up with great concepts by the exectuion of his games is uneven (and that's being kind). With the exception of Fable 2, Dungeon Keeper, and Magic Carpet he's done nothing but disappoint me for years.

Gah.  The dude barely did much beyond Populous on his own.  Every other game in the history of Bullfrog and Lionhead was created and developed by other far more talented people.  His specific games (Black and White and Fable series) were all full of unfulfilled promises.  He's now moved from Game Production to wearing a suit for MS.  His personal successes do not warrant a lifetime achievement award.

And let the hating begin.

Great, I bet at E3 he's going to announce a new game about him getting the award and of course it'll be the most revolutionary thing since his liverspotted balls.

" And let the hating begin. "

It's not undeserved hate.

" And let the hating begin. "

I love Molyneux. I will let him lull me in with his false hopes and over-exaggerated promises any day. This is the guy who got me excited for the big change in Fable 2....a dog! Sure it sounds dumb now, but you go back and look at the excitement in his eyes when he tells you you're getting your very own fake, virtual dog...who could say no?

Bollocks.

I fuckin love that picture of him, by the way

Best Game Developer? Even with his previous games, that's kind of a stretch. 
 
Now Best Salesman? Definitely.

All that guy does is break promises. How does that deserve an award?

But...but...Dungeon Keeper!

" But...but...Dungeon Keeper! "

" Yawn. Molyneux is the king of over-promise.  The guy can come up with great concepts by the exectuion of his games is uneven (and that's being kind). With the exception of Fable 2, Dungeon Keeper, and Magic Carpet he's done nothing but disappoint me for years. "

They've already run out of people who deserve it?

Wow, if his sole achievement in life was to under-deliver then he deserves the fuck out of this award

I don't recall him lying about anything in Fable 3. Yes, he gets incredibly excited about the games he makes, but honestly who cares? The hate he gets is annoying.

" I don't recall him lying about anything in Fable 3. Yes, he gets incredibly excited about the games he makes, but honestly who cares? The hate he gets is annoying. "

I'm fine with it. 
 
Haters gonna hate.

Biggest bullshitter award.

Anyone hating on Peter Molyneux is a jerk! The man's a visionary, and has created some of the coolest games that I've played.

I think he is a guy who can take some great concepts and turn them in to playable games.  Not the BEST, TIGHTEST, FLASHIEST games, but some pretty interesting concepts that other hadn't tried before he has made in to games that I have enjoyed.
 
And the guy has name recognition.  I'm sure that's a big part of it.

I don't hate him but my god he should not get a life time achievement award. His games have been average or a little bit above... nothing mind blowing.

" @CL60 said:

" I don't recall him lying about anything in Fable 3. Yes, he gets incredibly excited about the games he makes, but honestly who cares? The hate he gets is annoying. "

You do this in like every thread and its annoying. You don't enjoy the tenure of conversation here, go away. Simple. "

They couldnt have picked a better developer? How about Jaffe? He actually delivers good games. Peter just likes to over hype everything he does and make a bunch of promises that he does not keep. The fable series is good, but a shadow of what Peter said the games would be pre launch. 

Man I wish everybody liked everything, but since they don't I'll stop in and be a gadfly to anyone who doesn't like anything harumph.

" Man I wish everybody liked everything, but since they don't I'll stop in and be a gadfly to anyone who doesn't like anything harumph. "

" I'm fine with it.  Haters gonna hate. "

What exactly has Peter Molyneux done in the past decade to deserve this award? Certainly, none of the games he's made while at Lionhead are bad per se, but there isn't much in the Fable series or Black and White that isn't done better elsewhere with far less posturing on his part. I guess you could say what he did while at Bullfrog makes up for it, but all that stuff was before mine and a lot of other people's time. I love his (misplaced) enthusiasm, but I wish he would spend more time actually trying to make his games good instead of going off on how making the menus somehow even more unintuitive with that weird lobby hub makes the game more accessible.

Black and White 1 was cool, but the rest of his games aren't the greatest games ever, not even close. Sure the Fable series have a pretty cool way of customizing your character whenever you wanted and with plenty of tattoos and haircuts, but the rest of the games are linear as fuck, giving no re-playability besides checking out some new beards they released in a DLC or something.

I hope they promised him the award. 
 
And take it away to give it to someone else. 
 
So fitting.

He probably doesn't deserve it now any more than he did about ten years ago, but he still totally deserves it.  Bullfrog's list of games speaks for itself.  If you only know him as that dude that talks shit about Fable, then frankly you have no idea what you're talking about.

" @I_smell: A lifetime achievement award simply recognizes outstanding work over the course of a lifetime, not something that necessarily changes lives. "

I like the guy, he's passionate and there's nothing wrong with it.