As part of an interview that I conducted with Peter Molyneux in Guildford recently, a wide-reaching chat that covered everything from Molyneux's final game, Masters of Albion, and its new game-changing update, through to the origin of Black & White's famous titan creatures, I also asked the veteran designer why a third Black & White game has never been made.
Fans of the Black & White series like myself and countless other PC gamers (Black & White is currently top of GOG's most-wanted remaster list) have been desperate for a new release, be that a remaster of one of the original games or a brand-new third game, so the fact that it has now been 20 years since the Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods expansion was released is pretty dispiriting. But is there hope for fans of the series?
My reading of these comments is that they ring true and are entirely unsurprising—especially that god games are seen as a small piece of pie by publishers. Any gamer who has followed the gaming industry for the last 10-20 years will have seen how the major publishers have coalesced around, and increasingly bet the farm on, just a few genres and business models, the most infamous being live-service. Those bets, for most, have now proven to be massive follies, with countless epic failures (Skull & Bones, Concord, Suicide Squad, Anthem, Marvel's Avengers, Redfall, MultiVersus, and APB: All Points Bulletin, to name but a few) leading to, literally, billions of dollars being flushed down the pan.
Why spend money on making a new god game, one that will require a dev team to really get to grips with a variety of bespoke, complex, interconnected systems, in order to make a profit, when instead you can just try to make your own version of Fortnite and make a mega profit? Or, as real gaming industry history has shown, actually make a mega loss. Getting a god game project greenlit, even a sequel to one of the most beloved god game series ever made, was likely next to impossible. In this light, it feels remarkable that Masters of Albion is now a reality, even in Early Access, and it is likely only due to Molyneux's pedigree as the father of the genre.
A tantalising teaser for Black & White fans
Just when I thought this part of the interview was petering out into disappointment, with any new Black & White release still stuck in gaming limbo, Molyneux dropped a potentially bombshell piece of news for god game fans.
Now, obviously, Molyneux's studio doesn't own Black & White anymore, and he's not connected with EA or Microsoft now, either. He's clearly not involved in the project. And he also only says he thinks a remaster is in the works, not that it definitely is, so I think it is important to take this comment with a pinch of salt. However, this would be huge news if true. As noted above, Black & White is the number one game on GOG's wishlist, and one of the greatest (if not the greatest) god games of all time. So a well-done remaster would be superb.
If the remaster sells well, which I'm sure it would, it could also potentially open the door for a new game in the series. Right now, that feels quite far-fetched, but a remaster would at least inch us closer to it becoming a reality. I'll keep my fingers crossed, as a return of Black & White's famous creatures (potentially powered by new powerful AI?!) would be awesome.
In the meantime, though, I'll be digging further into Masters of Albion's New Beginnings update, which has really taken Molyneux's last god game to a whole new level. It's also teased its own possible titans, too, so there's plenty to be getting stuck into while I wait for more Black & White news.