Lego to try again with a MMO

by **Octan** 6/29/2012, 12:42 am

Today Funcom announced that it has entered a partnership with LEGO to create a new massively-multiplayer-online game. This time around it’s based on the phenomenally popular collectible Minifigures, which LEGO has been licensing out with surprising frequency, with them now appearing on everything from suitcases to pencil carriers and lunchboxes. Funcom’s most recognizable game to date was the dubiously successful Age of Conan MMORPG, which like nearly all MMOs that are not owned by Blizzard, withered away quietly to the deserts of free-to-play a short time after release. Funcom touts that the game will “focus on maximum accessibility,” which doesn’t bode well for sustaining the long-term interest and depth required to support such an expensive endeavor as an MMO necessitates. I am curious, however, about what sort of plot and world Funcom intends to tease out of what is, essentially, simply a random collection of figures. The press release is scarce on details, but that’s to be expected this early in development:

LEGO® Minifigures are the inhabitants of an unimaginable number of spectacular creations put together by both kids and grown-ups over the past several decades. Whether it is a knight in shining armor, a brave firefighter or just an oddball in a gorilla suit, these figures breath life into elaborately constructed cities, castles and even space stations around the world.

I do sincerely hope that this game will be more successful than LEGO’s last ill-fated foray into the world of MMOs, but the MMO market is notoriously hard to get even a foothold in, much less create a rousing success.

(Via the Brothers Brick)

So, think it is worth trying again? LEGO failed with their last MMO, mostly because of the price, but even going free to play couldn't save LEGO Universe. I wonder if they will be doing like Cartoon Network is doing Fusionfall, basically it is free to play but the entire game is more or less an ad.

by Bossky 6/29/2012, 2:41 am

Interesting that Lego is trying again at an MMO, but I wouldn't really be that interested in playing it though.

by Henri da Flipper 6/29/2012, 9:55 am

why don't they partner up with WB interactive or TT games to make this, that was the main problem I had with Universe, it had nothing to do with the experience I knew from lego games :L

by **The Breakdown** 6/29/2012, 10:21 am

Stupid how they didn't learn from their previous multi-million dollar failure.

They should just stop now and give us a game like that that isn't MMO, and it's on a system. Think about it, like a minecraft/normal LEGO games for LEGO.