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Toys Entertainment Games

Lego MMO Delayed 32

Posted by Soulskill from the +1-yellow-block-of-dragonslaying dept.
LEGO Universe, the MMOG currently under development by NetDevil, will not be coming out this year, as was previously expected. Mark Hansen, a LEGO Group exec, would not specify a new time frame, and attributed the delay to avoiding competition between some of their other upcoming products. Hansen did comment on the possibility of a console version of the game, claiming that they're just waiting for the right time. IGN did a related piece on the past and future of console MMOGs, exploring where early attempts failed and what needs to be done for them to succeed. Many game developers and publishers are still hesitant due to the massive financial investment required to get such a game up and running in a market that has yet to prove itself.
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Lego MMO Delayed More

Lego MMO Delayed

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  • I guess... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Puffy Director Pants ( 1242492 ) on Friday February 20, 2009 @04:14AM (#26926361)

    they just couldn't put it together. Maybe they need some better directions?

  • Doesn't sound too smart... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dangitman ( 862676 ) on Friday February 20, 2009 @04:50AM (#26926455)

    If the game is/will be ready, and they are delaying it for basically artificial reason, that doesn't sound like a wise strategy. They'll lose the marketing momentum of people anticipating the game, and it might mean that the game is somewhat obsolete by the time it is released. Also opens the door for competitors, which is a bad thing in a MMO environment that relies on subscribers or active players. Most people won't actively play more than a couple of MMO games, and subscribers lost to a competing MMO might be lost forever.

    Of course, this could just be a smokescreen for the game not being ready, or needing more work. But MMOs tend to be works-in-progress anyway.

    Personally, I subscribed to Lego Universe, and the lack of any actual activity regarding the game has made me rather disinterested. I'm not interested by "download some new concept art wallpapers," I want the game.

  • So, how do they imagine this will work exactly? They'll have a stereotypical Lego castle made of blocks... then what? Also, Legos are marketed towards children... children are also generally broke. Children below ten years are not a large fraction of the MMO demographic, such as WoW. Combine that with parental fears of online child-predators, etc., and you have a recipe for failure. So what are they thinking? An MMO needs an activity that is enhanced by group interaction. Simply taking the normal MMO conve

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Google the term AFOL sometime.

      LEGO has a big market outside of little kids.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's been done already anyway, they better have something good up their sleeve because Blockland [blockland.us] already did something incredibly similar and just out of bounds of copyright infringement... and it was mega-fun. Still is.

    • Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Shrike82 ( 1471633 ) on Friday February 20, 2009 @06:55AM (#26926907)
      Having grown up playing with Lego I'd have no qualms about playing an MMO based on it. Lego is, and always will be, awesome.

      I'm more interested in the lack of gameplay videos, or details on exactly what the game mechanics would be. There's some vaguness along the lines of "co-op with vehicle, weapon and building construction", but that's almost meaningless. Could it be they're delaying ti because they don't actually have a game yet? Or am I just not finding the right sites?

      • They seem to have a whole section of their site made for crowd sourcing out ideas for their game (rather clever of them heh).

        I too though couldn't find any screen shots or other game play videos. Their lego creation game was also rather problematic IMO, so I seriously wonder if they will have come up with new ways to actually do the building... And previous stuff has had a lot of issues with only releasing a small set of the blocks which made buildings very annoying. :(

      • Maybe, Blockland but mmo? http://www.blockland.us/index.asp
        Check out the video!
        (Disclaimer: I don't work for them, just like the sandbox type game).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Gigiya ( 1022729 )

      Children below ten years are not a large fraction of the MMO demographic, such as WoW.

      Did we play the same WoW?

    • Not heard of Second Life, then? MMOs don't have to be competitive D&D knockoffs. Warcraft and its competitors have that market pretty much sewn up, anyway. There's plenty of potential for open virtual-world/shared-content-creation gaming.

      And the Wii should have put to rest any fears about the viability of targeting "non-gamer" demographics.

      It'll be more like the recent Star Wars Legos games, but without the licensed property. So, it'll be likely a medieval setting.

      No. It'll be a LEGO setting. Again, see Second Life. There is no requirement for a social MMO to have a single, coherent setting and story.

      As for whining about "purpo

  • A market that is yet to prove itself? (Score:3, Funny)

    by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Friday February 20, 2009 @11:04AM (#26929299) Journal

    They never heard of WoW? How much more proof do you need? Blizzard has been laughing their way to be bank for so long that the locals don't even look funny at them anymore. Of cours being canadian the bar is set rather high.

  • Who the fuck plays lego games anyway?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I would. The ability to build just about anything, with friends sounds like fun.

      • Unfortunately, the games don't work that way. The whole lego thing is just a gimmick, an excuse for poor-ish graphics.

        At best, you are collecting lego parts for a new spaceship or whatever, which is then auto-assembled for you.

        Atleast, that's my impression after playing Lego Star Wars.
    • A lot of people apparently, judging by the 33 games [wikipedia.org] they've made over the last 11 years alone.

      Would seem to be a long time to make Lego games if no-one was buying them.

    • A friend of mine was just over here telling me about how he plays Lego games with his kids (there are three.) And in fact a number of Lego games have been high-rated by adults. I'm 31, have no kids, and I still have two 12-gallon crates full of the real thing that I can't bear to part with... But they pretty much stay in the boxes except for the nifty red technics motorcycle which is on my windowsill getting UV-bleached.

  • In other news, water is wet and there are seven days in a week.

    • Actually this is news, if the news release said "LEGO MMO Behind development, but we'll release it anyway, with all the bugs and half the content, and we'll patch it later, only we won't because it will suck so bad due to bugs and no content it will be DOA." Then I think your comment would be on the money.
  • Sure people complain it will be "dumbed down to a level so that even a 2 year old can play it." I say to them this is a good thing. It will open the genre up to the masses!

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