Lego is expanding into in-house game development.
In an interview with The Financial Times, Niels Christiansen, CEO of the Danish toy maker, talked about the desire to “cover experiences for kids of all ages,” both physically and digitally. Part of that, he said, is gaming, and he confirmed that a first-party development studio “is something we’re building up.” He didn’t elaborate on what that would look like, however.
It’s interesting to consider given Lego’s long history in games. The company is perhaps best known in this space for its many licensed titles based on the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Marvel and DC, which have all been developed by Warner Bros.-owned Traveller’s Tales.
However, Lego has also created original gaming properties like the GTA-inspired Lego City Undercover and the in-game Fortnite experience Lego Fortnite. The latter was recently rebranded to Lego Fortnite Odyssey alongside the launch of another GTA-esque experience, Brick Life. That’s to say nothing of physical Lego sets based on the likes of Mario and Sonic.
It’s currently unclear if the company plans to continue with these third-party partnerships alongside its first-party efforts. Rumours have suggested that Traveller’s Tales has one licensed Lego game in the works that encompasses all eight Harry Potter films, similar to how Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga covered all of that sci-fi series’ mainline entries. And presumably, Lego will continue its seemingly fruitful partnership with Epic Games on Fortnite.
For now, though, The Financial Times simply that Lego has spent “several hundred” million dollars to triple its overall number of software developers to more than 1,800. It remains to be seen what will come out of that investment.
Image credit: Epic Games/Lego
Source: The Financial Times
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