Peter Molyneux has been talking about why he quit the comforts of life at Microsoft and Lionhead to strike out with his own development company, 22Cans.

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Molyneux said he became frustrated by the limitations on creativity imposed by working for a large company. At the same time, he reached a crisis point as a creator, especially following a series of lifetime achievement awards and a BAFTA fellowship.Speaking to Eurogamer he explained, "I got myself into this slightly obsessive state where I said to myself that I just couldn't accept the best I am ever going to do in my life has already been done. I've got to take the bit between the teeth and go out there and try and do something truly, truly great.""So, after a lot of talking, we agreed I would leave Microsoft and set up a new company. Of course, Microsoft was very keen to talk about a deal, but I didn't want to constrain any creative endeavors this new company would do with setting an early deal. That's what I did at Lionhead, and it really did end up constraining what you ended up doing."I spoke to a couple of colleagues who weren't at Lionhead anymore. One was Peter Murphy, another was Tim Rance. We decided to found 22Cans."He added, "I really want to experiment and invent and create things that use all sorts of tech that's around at the moment, and that's semi-problematic for a big company like Microsoft. They're somewhat constrained by what they can and can't do."Molyneux, creator of hit games like Populous and Black & White is clearly motivated by autonomy. He took personal responsibility for the shortcomings of Fable 3 , but, clearly, he blames constraints laid down by corporate masters. "I take this as a personal failure. Not being persuasive enough that Fable III needed more time. That's purely and utterly my fault. It's me not being clear enough about it. As a creative director you always have to be clear about why you need time. Any publisher in my experience over the years, they don't want to give you more time. Of course they don't, because it means more money. But they equally don't want you to make a mistake with the product."Source: Eurogamer

Colin Campbell is a games journalist based in California. Follow him on Twitter and at IGN