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Lego acquires Lego Universe MMOG

Brendan Sinclair
By Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor

Gazillion sells its rights to massively multiplayer game with "majority" of game's developers offered jobs to continue work on title; layoffs reported.

Gazillion's Lego Universe massively multiplayer online game was in development for four years before launching last October, but the game was online for only four months before the developer divested itself of the project. Today, Gazillion announced that it has sold its rights to Lego Universe to The Lego Group, the Denmark company that publishes the game and manufactures the building block toys on which it is based. No purchase price was announced.

Now it's up to The Lego Group to put the MMOG's pieces together.

Now it's up to The Lego Group to put the MMOG's pieces together.

As part of the deal, the Lego Group has offered employment to "the majority of the Lego Universe development team," which was formerly part of Gazillion's NetDevil subsidiary. They will continue to work on the game from their existing Colorado offices, while Gazillion's other NetDevil projects will be moved elsewhere. According to an unconfirmed account, the move resulted in more than 20 layoffs from NetDevil.

"We're proud of the game our team built and are certain that it has a bright future," Gazillion president and COO David Brevik said in a statement. "The transition of members of our team to the Lego Group enables us to focus completely on internally published, free-to-play game businesses."

Lego Universe has been expanding since launch with additional items and environments. Earlier this month, the game incorporated the Ninjago toy line into its world, as well as new multiplayer features allowing four gamers to adventure together.

For more on Lego Universe, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

[CORRECTION]: This article originally referred to Lego Universe as a "free-to-play" game. GameSpot regrets the error.

Brendan Sinclair
By Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor

Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.

18 comments
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LordRaymond
LordRaymond

Lego acquires back their name game and good luck at your new jobs in Lego Group.

FallenOneX
FallenOneX

I think it's great that The Lego Group kept most of the people that spent their time making this game. If only more companies in the gaming industry could do the same.......

poochythegenius
poochythegenius

@ FriendBear: It has improved VASTLY since Beta. I'm just worried about the move...LEGO is great at coming up with new ideas, but they're about as tech savvy as the minifigures they build; that is to say, not at all. (Anyone who has asked Lego for technical support-on ANY Lego game-will understand this.) They definitely NEED the NetDevil employees to keep the game running... Then again, LU has done surprisingly well for a non-TT Lego game (technologically speaking), and that combined with its innovative content should keep things going for quite some time.

DniExplorer
DniExplorer

Your article states it was "free-to-play", but I'm pretty sure it costs $10 monthly. I played the demo and found it very fun and polished. I'm surprised it's not doing well.

fps_d0minat0r
fps_d0minat0r

"the lego group" a group of 10 nursery kids? if they paid more than a white 2x2 and a yellow 2x4 then they got ripped off.

FriendBear
FriendBear

This game is still around?? I beta tested this game and it was terrible, granted usually beta have problems...but this was..just bad.

gamerboy100
gamerboy100

I don't think Gamespot was saying it was free to play, it was probably a bad choice of words. I think what they meant was that the developer is starting work on a free-to-play game, or at least that's how I interpret it.

Goyoshi12
Goyoshi12

F2P? I don't think so...plus Lego to acquire Lego Universe? I'm a bit confused here...:?

jumpy46
jumpy46

Where did Gamespot get the idea that it is free to play?

StSk8ter29
StSk8ter29

Lego Universe Online isn't Free-to Play. It's even on the packaging.

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