The Future of Lego Games

[Hapori Tohu]

Most of us have probably played one or two of the Lego game titles released in the past six years, and some of us may have reasonable doubts about the future of Lego and digital development. After all, how many times can the formula be rewritten before they begin running out of ideas to keep it fresh? Gamespot has run <a href='http://www.gamespot.com/news/lego-great-opportunity-for-more-games-6397559' target='offsite'>an excellent interview</a> about this and much more with Darryl Kelley, a senior development manager for The Lego Group, and he seems confident that there is still plenty of room to grow. Give the article a look for details.View the full article

[Lyichir]

Interesting article. I think the future of Lego video games is looking up, particularly with the upcoming release of Lego City: Undercover, which looks so far to be the best of TT Games' non-licensed Lego games, far surpassing Bionicle Heroes and the Lego Battles games. I also have high hopes for the planned MMO, although tempered by the recent financial difficulties of Funcom. Based on what I've read about their games, however, I'm confident that if the game does get made it'll be quite engrossing. And rumors that its business model will be connected to sales of actual sets could give it the competitive edge Lego Universe lacked.

[Lair of Rockwhales]

I feel quite the opposite of this article, to be honest. The future of LEGO games seems troublesome with their past history for the last seven years. Ever since 2005, they've stopped making original games that all were different and just been churning out movie games that feel the same as LEGO Star Wars. The new LEGO City game looks okay, but it still looks a bit like LSW, plus it's only on the Wii U, unlike everything else TT has made which tries to be original.As someone in the comments of that article said, "How about Lego <not> a franchise?"

[Bricknave]

I feel quite the opposite of this article, to be honest. The future of LEGO games seems troublesome with their past history for the last seven years. Ever since 2005, they've stopped making original games that all were different and just been churning out movie games that feel the same as LEGO Star Wars. The new LEGO City game looks okay, but it still looks a bit like LSW, plus it's only on the Wii U, unlike everything else TT has made which tries to be original.As someone in the comments of that article said, "How about Lego <not> a franchise?"

Yeah, it would be nice to get some new LEGO video games that don't follow the LSW-styled template, like a maybe a third LEGO Racers or a LEGO Creator sequal with more action-oriented elements. However, LEGO probably wouldn't make those dream games until their LSW-styled games stop selling well. Fortunately, an improvement in the template is made for every LSW-styled game released, so the LSW-styled template is evolving rather than every game being an absolute reskin on LSW.

[Lyichir]

I feel quite the opposite of this article, to be honest. The future of LEGO games seems troublesome with their past history for the last seven years. Ever since 2005, they've stopped making original games that all were different and just been churning out movie games that feel the same as LEGO Star Wars. The new LEGO City game looks okay, but it still looks a bit like LSW, plus it's only on the Wii U, unlike everything else TT has made which tries to be original.As someone in the comments of that article said, "How about Lego <not> a franchise?"

Yeah, it would be nice to get some new LEGO video games that don't follow the LSW-styled template, like a maybe a third LEGO Racers or a LEGO Creator sequal with more action-oriented elements. However, LEGO probably wouldn't make those dream games until their LSW-styled games stop selling well. Fortunately, an improvement in the template is made for every LSW-styled game released, so the LSW-styled template is evolving rather than every game being an absolute reskin on LSW.

Lego Creator was a pretty poor game which has been rendered almost entirely obsolete by Lego Digital Designer. A new Lego racing game could be cool, but probably wouldn't happen unless Lego tied it into an existing theme (and like Lego Creator, Lego Racers was mediocre at best). As Bricknave pointed out, TT Games has found a formula that works and keeps working to improve upon it, rather than starting from scratch every time. LoR, I'm not sure what you meant by "unlike everything else TT has made which tries to be original". Also, Lego City: Undercover comes out not only on the Wii U but on the 3DS (which admittedly doesn't help you if you don't have it, either).TT Games did in fact try to mix up their formula with the more strategy based "Lego Battles" series. And the over-the-shoulder shooter Bionicle Heroes. And even speaking as someone who enjoyed those games, I have to say they paled in comparison to their licensed offerings. Lego City: Undercover seems like the most pure Lego experience since the days of Lego Island, and I'm really looking forward to it.As for other types of Lego games that don't follow the Lego Star Wars formula: they still exist. The last big one was of course Lego Universe, which unfortunately is no more. But Lego has stated that they're in talks with the development studio Funcom to try another stab at getting a slice of the MMO pie. And there's also the fairly decent Hero Factory Breakout game which is available for free either online or on iOS.P.S.: You know what Lego game I would like to see revived? Lego Loco. A better Lego trains experience is always welcome.P.P.S. The topic title is incredibly misleading. When I first went here, I thought it was referring to the Lego Games theme, not the Lego video games.

[Mr. Cup of Fail]

what i think is the opposite of this article. Lego stopped making original games,the last game that was original from LEGO was the Lego Universe and the last original LEGO game from TT game was the LEGO rock band. and the Funcom i don't know much about them but i do like the LEGO Universe and the new LEGO game they are making, hope it original and better then LEGO Universe.

[Lyichir]

what i think is the opposite of this article. Lego stopped making original games,the last game that was original from LEGO was the Lego Universe and the last original LEGO game from TT game was the LEGO rock band. and the Funcom i don't know much about them but i do like the LEGO Universe and the new LEGO game they are making, hope it original and better then LEGO Universe.

But that's sort of my point. Lego City: Undercover will be Travellers Tales' biggest attempt at a non-licensed Lego game so far, and if it's successful I'm sure we'll see more along the same lines. Unless you're talking about original in terms of gameplay, but in that regard I really can't complain about their games, since they've created such a polished system and keep improving upon it with every release. Contrast that with Lego's original computer games, which usually were designed from the ground up, but ranged from buggy at best to nigh-unplayable at worst. Having lived through that era of games (and causing my fair share of calls to Lego's customer service), I applaud Travellers Tales for creating such a polished Lego gaming experience.

[Bambi]

I just hope they aren't going to be the way they are now - Pretty much the previous game with a few new features.Also MMO sounds interesting, I'll be looking forward to that.

[Lair of Rockwhales]

Lego Creator was a pretty poor game which has been rendered almost entirely obsolete by Lego Digital Designer.

But LDD can't let you go to a "play" mode like Creator and have your people and vehicles run around. The game was poor, but that little element was what gave it charm. LDD is obviously better, but I miss that little life feature (Creator won't run on this machine, some graphics issue).

LoR, I'm not sure what you meant by "unlike everything else TT has made which tries to be original".

I worded that poorly. What I meant was, I heard in an interview about Batman 2 that TT tries to put their games on every console and take advantage of its strengths and weaknesses. This can be seen in most of their past games. And then, only a short time after that, they release a game that is only on one console and one handheld. Both Nintendo. Both new. I'm not spending three hundred dollars on a new console just for one or two games.

P.S.: You know what Lego game I would like to see revived? Lego Loco. A better Lego trains experience is always welcome.

Oh Loco...suddenly gibberish everywhere

[Marsie]

I bet that if Lego does something like a James Bond series, Eragon, or Hunger Games then it might have a really bright future. But I have a feeling they might go with something that might not sit so well with the fans, not sure why but it's a gut feeling I've got. They might do something involving sports and I feel that might possibly draw quite a few away from the series. I think the quality of the games is great though ^.^ (lol sorry if this sounds kinda jumbled, really bad at organizing my thoughts x3)

[Lyichir]

Lego Creator was a pretty poor game which has been rendered almost entirely obsolete by Lego Digital Designer.

But LDD can't let you go to a "play" mode like Creator and have your people and vehicles run around. The game was poor, but that little element was what gave it charm. LDD is obviously better, but I miss that little life feature (Creator won't run on this machine, some graphics issue).

LoR, I'm not sure what you meant by "unlike everything else TT has made which tries to be original".

I worded that poorly. What I meant was, I heard in an interview about Batman 2 that TT tries to put their games on every console and take advantage of its strengths and weaknesses. This can be seen in most of their past games. And then, only a short time after that, they release a game that is only on one console and one handheld. Both Nintendo. Both new. I'm not spending three hundred dollars on a new console just for one or two games.

P.S.: You know what Lego game I would like to see revived? Lego Loco. A better Lego trains experience is always welcome.

Oh Loco...suddenly gibberish everywhere

To be fair, the 3DS is almost two years old now. And since Lego Battles and Lego Battles Ninjago were exclusive to the DS, I reckon there's some reasoning behind Travellers Tales making their games based on non-licensed themes exclusive to Nintendo. My best guess for why this would be is that perhaps they don't see games that lack the crossover appeal inherent in licensed themes as being as profitable to release for 360, PS3, or PC. After all, Nintendo is widely viewed as more kid-oriented, and so Nintendo's userbase could very well overlap more with the comparatively young audience of the Lego City theme than the userbase of the other systems, which probably skew older on average. It does stink that people who don't have these systems won't be able to play it, but as a 3DS owner (and probably a Wii U owner in a year or so), I'm on the edge of my seat awaiting this game's release. And if Undercover proves successful enough, perhaps TT Games might make their next Lego game based on an non-licensed theme cross platform.