Lego Universe is a traditional MMO, requiring a subscription to play. Apparently they were not seeing enough revenue and had to close. It has wonderful graphics, seems quite smooth, and uses the same kind of combat mechanics s the immensely popular Lego Star Wars types of games (everybody's a lego dude and you break your enemies). Just not popular enough with the target audience.
Lego is a hugely successful company and their decision argues for the limited appeal of the EQ model. Maybe the thrill of being a character in a world is a one-time affair (I think Richard Bartle has argued as much). After you get over that, what keeps you engaged? I'm an explorer type, and I burn out when I can sense the boundaries or the world or, alternatively, when I can tell that getting to the boundaries (such as the highest level) will take far too many hours of repetitive gameplay. I dream of a world that is called into existence by my footsteps. At the same time, mere land and sky is not enough. I want to come across villages that no one has seen before and find that they need me somehow.
What an irony, given that Lego is the ultimate sandbox game. I didn't see this one coming.
Posted by: Lisa G | Nov 09, 2011 at 17:57
Lego *should* be the ultimate sandbox game but Lego Universe was a remarkably grindy traditional MMORPG. They did have building areas where you could play around with Lego bricks but they were walled off from the rest of the game and limited in size. So sandbox it was not.
Still, it's sad that the game is dying. There was neat stuff in the game even if it didn't turn out to be enough to justify a sub for enough people.
Posted by: Polynices | Nov 09, 2011 at 23:10
i looked up a bit and realize something fishy about the short history of Lego Universe.
Netdevil originally developed the project and i assume they need to pay a larger cost than many other same tier mmos to the copyright, since its Lego is nonetheless a big shot. it was originally dated in 2008 but they ran out of fund and was sold to Gazillian by 2009. 2010 the lego team leaders quit their jobs. the game released afterwards and 2011 the lego group in netdevil sold the game to the real Lego company. i dont know what revenue model the lego company had, but first of all they never ran an mmo before; secondly they didn't even try hard enough to promote the game; then lastly i really dont expect anyone to design a reliable revenue model during the 2 years of internal political drama.
i dont think the game design caused it to shut down this soon. i mean, many mmos are meant to last 2~3 years but that's because they've milked enough to hit marginal return. Lego didn't even hit the first wave jackpot.
Posted by: Rits | Nov 10, 2011 at 08:16
I had high hopes. Like Polynices says, it was not the sandbox game that they could have made. There are actually deep divisions within Lego about how much they are a user creativity company and how much they want to tie into Hollywood and licensing. This one was obviously driven by the Hollywood side of the company, since the game was totally on rails. (Since the Lego console games are all very profitable licensed tie-ins, this was no surprise, I guess.)
With a little imagination, Lego *could* have created Minecraft and made gazillions. Instead, they decided to copy Everquest and substitute Lego figures.
Their MMO is now going down the tubes and Minecraft is minting money. They should think about that at the next board meeting.
Posted by: greglas | Nov 10, 2011 at 09:34