Lionhead has outgrown its original studio space and is moving across the Surrey Research Park to larger premises.

You’d think this would be an easy thing to organise and carry out. But no. Director Steve Jackson, overseeing the move, hasn’t slept properly for several weeks. Firstly, there was the net connection. We require a fibre-optic cable the diameter of a baby’s arm to give us the bandwidth we want, and we want an internal network with the capacity to store the sum of all human knowledge plus hundreds of hours of the video and audio footage we’ve generated. Oh, and this has to work faster than the speed of light, and never crash. Lastly, there’s Peter Molyneux’s chair. Undoubtedly he had the best chair in the office, and not unreasonably we all wanted one. So we had to source those. And TFT screens, new computers, desks and plasma displays for the meeting rooms. The list grew and grew. And there were various interior designers suggesting we make the studio look like everything from Terminal Four at Heathrow to the Mines of Moria to a fifteen-year-old boy’s bedroom. Worryingly, all of these had support from people on the team.

till, the move happened on 1st February and Lionhead now has space, light, a network and web connection that would make Microsoft jealous, and funky chairs. Steve Jackson could finally relax. Apart from one easy thing. Black & White Studios, our affiliated company has the simple task of moving into the space where Lionhead originally was. This looked like it was going to be easy. But then Black & White Studios put forward the specifications of what they’ll need; a fibre-optic cable the diameter of a baby’s arm, an internal network with the capacity to store the sum of all human knowledge etc. etc. etc. Steve isn’t expecting to sleep any time soon…

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