The Lego Group has confirmed that Lego Universe will close January 31, 2012. The reason that the MMO will close after just 15 months in operation is that it did not successfully convert enough free players into premium subscribers.
“The Lego Universe team can take pride in having developed and launched a great LEGO experience that many players will miss,” said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President, Lego Universe. “Right now, we have almost 2 million players in LEGO Universe, and we get extremely positive feedback from players. Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game.”
The Lego Group indicates that they will continue with their digital offerings in the future. They pointed to the partnership with TT Games & Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and said to expect that “further expansion in the digital area will mainly be based on similar partnerships.”
“The development of our digital offerings continues to be a very important element in our strategy,” said Mads Nipper, Executive Vice President, Lego Group. “We have more than 20 million visitors on www.lego.com every month, and Lego video games are among the bestselling children’s video games with sales of more than 60 million units in the last five years. Through our experience developing and running Lego Universe, we have gained a lot of valuable insights, and we have a very strong foundation for future development in the digital area.”
115 employees from the developers at Play Well Studios in Louisville, Colorado and the game’s marketing wing in Billund, Denmark will be let go. The Lego Group indicates they will offer job search assistance to all affected employees.
