Why Are Half a Million People Poking This Giant Cube?

BY RYAN RIGNEYEMAIL AUTHOR 11.09.12 6:30 AM

"...half a million players so far have registered to help destroy the 64 billion tiny blocks that compose that one gigantic cube, all working in tandem toward a singular goal: discovering the secret that Curiosity‘s creator says awaits one lucky player inside. That’s right: After millions of man-hours of work, only one player will ever see the center of the cube.

Curiosity is the first release from 22Cans, an independent game studio founded earlier this year by Peter Molyneux, a longtime game designer known for ambitious projects like Populous, Black & Whiteand Fable.

Molyneux is equally famous for his tendency to overpromise and under-deliver on his games.

In 2008, he said that his upcoming game would be “such a significant scientific achievement that it will be on the cover of Wired.” That game turned out to be Milo & Kate, a Kinect tech demo that went nowhere and was canceled. Following this, Molyneux left Microsoft to go indie and form 22Cans."