Peter Molyneux

Following the amazing introduction of Milo at Tuesday night's Microsoft Press Conference, everybody thought Lionhead's Peter Molyneux had nothing left up his sleeve.

They were wrong. The famed designer (Fable, Black & White, The Movies) had one more trick left, which he announced today, at midnight New York time. He'd hinted that he would make a statement that would relate to him personally, rather than any specific project, leading to rumours that he would be retiring from the games industry. These rumours couldn't have been farther from the truth, with the revelation that Peter Molyneux has now been promoted to creative director of European studios at Microsoft Game Studios.

Until accepting the promotion in March, Molyneux was creative director for Lionhead Studios - a job role he will retain, maintaining that he will "still be as involved with the design of Lionhead games as (I) ever was". The promotion sees him adding the creative direction of fellow UK-based studio Rare to his duties, plus working on several unnamed European external projects.

Microsoft say that Molyneux “will bring a unique set of skills and an in-depth understanding of the games development process to this newly created role,” as he brings more than 20 years of experience to the table.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this new job-role, whether we'll start to see more "moral" gameplay in Rare titles, or if perhaps Banjo will show up in Fable 3!