The toys-to-life idea introduced in Activision’s Skylanders series is a deviously profitable one. The whole business model is built on the idea of selling video games alongside a range of toys that unlock specific content when scanned into the games after using a certain peripheral. So, in essence one must pay a significant amount of money to obtain all the figures and get the “full experience” out of the game. After watching from the sidelines for a while as Activision cleaned house, Disney and Nintendo saw the potential to milk, er, profit from this business model and launched the Disney Infinity and amiibo ranges, respectively. Now, if a report from VideoGamer is to be believed, it looks like another major competitor is set to enter the market very soon.
According to an anonymous source close to the project, Warner Bros. is looking to get itself a slice of that profitable pie by developing a toys-to-life LEGO game due out later this year. Before you completely dismiss this rumour, know that earlier this month VideoGamer asked about the possibility of a LEGO toys-to-life initiative when talking to Traveller’s Tales’ associate producer, Tim Wileman, and he had this to say in response:
We're always looking to push the boundaries on these games in terms of the scope and the potential and we're ambitious in that respect... So although I can't go into any specific details now, rest assured that is the case and we're always trying to push the boundaries. So watch this space.
If that isn't dodging a question, we don't know what is. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how this develops, as there’s a certain degree of believability behind this rumour.
Do you think there’ll be a LEGO toys-to-life game? Would you buy anything related to such a project? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source videogamer.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 39
With so many people jumping into their own toy-to-life system, the stores aren't going to have enough shelf space to accommodate them all. They already have enough trouble displaying all the current Skylanders, Infinities, and Amiibos.
If they include BIONICLE, I might support this.
This is going to be the next "Guitar Hero/RockBand" over-saturation type of crash.
@Ryno Yeah, I get the same feeling. When you look at it, it's really the same story. New, popular concept comes out, companies flog it as everybody races to get a piece of the profit, consumers get tired when the market is flooded. There's already three major competitors in this, will there be room for a fourth?
I wonder if this will be like those Lego fusion sets.
Market Over-saturation
Over-saturation. Happened with Guitar Hero/Rock Band, happened with Shooters, happened with Just Dance type games, it even happened with motion controls. People need to realize that when you get casuals on board with something, the fad is only going to last a year or a few. Nintendo made the wrong decision thinking they still had all the casuals after the whole Wii success. It's best not to even bother with things like this.
@BaffleBlend Don't worry, other then regulars like Mario and Link, new Amiibo will vanish off the shelves the moment they're put on display, so there's no need to dedicate any big shelf space to Amiibo.
Boring
@Ryno - That was what I said about amiibo coming out after Skylanders and DI and only working on Nintendo hardware. And now people have to camp out on eBay to buy them
Lego already sells lots and lots of toys, and they make lots and lots of Lego video games. Having those toys interact w/ the games makes logical sense to me. And theyll sell b/c Lego are fun for adults and kids. There will be no crash a la GH and RB brought on by Lego toys. The crash will come, Wii U has crashed unbelievably badly after the dominating force that was Wii, but it wont be from Lego. Everybody loves Lego.
This is the first comment Ive ever posted after finding a link on Twitter. Will probably never happen again.
"If that isn't dodging a question, we don't know what is."
If that is dodging a question, that's a real crappy attempt.
Lego Sets are expensive enough already
It's music games all over again....
I'd imagine that they would tie the game in with the minifigures line. LEGO already gets plenty of my money, why must they take more?
@EvisceratorX
You have misspelled LEGO throughout your entire article, it's spelt completely in capitals (everyone else commenting has too).
LEGO people already come to life. . .using the power of my imagination.
If I want to play with LEGOs, I'll play with actual LEGOs.
So how does this work. I'll build a Lego object and it will appear in game?
How would it work? If it's a toy that looks like it's made if LEGO then no thanks, but if you buy any normal LEGO set and it unlocks something in the game, then maybe.
If they were smart about this, they'd incorporate this toys-to-life concept by including this functionality in their upcoming standard LEGO products (in the form of say, a card, or a portal that can "read" certain types of LEGO).
As it has been mentioned before, there is an over saturation of the toys-to-life concept as it is. There is no room for more of this any more than there is room for a fourth home console or third handheld on the market. The only reason I'm supporting amiibo is due to the promise of a wide range of games supporting the figurines (plus, they're easily the coolest figurines on the market today). And with the first party release schedule being pretty sparse, I'm assuming that I'll end up buying most, if not all of them, and that almost all upcoming retail titles will support amiibo in at least some way.
I hope they use real LEGO Minifigures that you can actually use. Also do you think this will do with any of LEGOs own IPs? What if this a LEGO Universe reboot? What if it's based on Ninjago? What if it's LEGO Ciry Undercover (insert name here)
Also what if they used cards instead of portals? I kinda like cards more.
@Edwintalksshrek But then they wouldn't be able to include BIONICLE. <.<
Original idea dount steel
@shaneoh Haha, thanks man. Does "LEGO" actually stand for something or is that just the way it's styled?
@BlatantlyHeroic You seem to forget that nintendo has 2 advantages with their versions. The first being collectors and collectability with the fact they are known, popular, and nostalgic franchises and the second being the fact it works in different games and doing different thing in some games while not really being truly needed to play.
@BlatantlyHeroic they can include Bionicle by including a card in every toa set.
I'm not looking forward to this trend. Eventually video game figures are going to take up more space than all of the game shelves.
@thehoppypoppy True True
@thehoppypoppy True True
The draw of Amiibo and Disney Infinity is that they are good quality cheap figures, if these LEGO ones are good quality and cheaper than other LEGO figures then maybe.
@EvisceratorX
Haha, thanks for making an AFOL (adult fan of LEGO) happy. It's a wossname, portmanteau, of the danish words "LEg GOdt" meaning "play well". (Also the Latin meaning of LEGO means "I study" or "I put together.")
(also never add an "s" to the end of LEGO)
If you don't get to build the figures/characters from special NFC parts, what's the point?
@BlatantlyHeroic Yes. YES!!
NOOOO NOO!!!!!!
stares at mountain of lego star wars and lego minecraft sets
MY WALLET NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! NOnoNOnoNOO.
Sounds awesome. I don't have room for all of these figures though! -_-
What would be cool is if you could build something with Lego and then import use it in the game. Wait, that sounds similar to Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, scratch that it would suck.
@Captain_Gonru - "cross-use of accessories"
I'd say you have it backwards. I have 1 GH "plastic instrument" (glad I wasn't posting a lot during that fad) guitar for my PS2, which I haven't had in 5 years so it goes unused. I have Skylanders that work on Wii, PS3 and Wii U and Disney Infinity characters that work on PS3 and Wii U. I'm sure there's probably a dongle to hook up my PS2 guitar to my PS3 but I don't have one, and then it still won't play the game disc.
Lego has a wide range of toys, from those little 99c packets to $100 licensed products to $200 Mindstorms. No reason for me to think a $15 Lego toy wont sell. And considering the upcoming Lego Jurassic Park game is releasing on every current platform those games would be widespread.
I think Lego has enough money now that they would make the game available as a free download a la "Free Realms" or Planetside just to sell the toys. Of course we would still need a portal, and the game would release on disc for people that don't have broadband, but there would be a free version available. Disney Infinity 1.0 is free on Wii U, cost me about $300 to play that "free" game so far. Both 1.0 and 2.0 are also available free on PC.
I do think you are on to something w/ your Minecraft idea. At least I think that's what you were getting at. Every single block would need a chip though, so it could get expensive. But a Lego game must have blocks, and building, and destroying.
Lego will be around long after the "toys to life" fad is gone. Of that I'm sure. It's like Play Doh.
The two things that should stay away from this system are LEGO and Pokémon.
AND IT'S HAPPENING ANYWAY.
@rjejr I'm not sure if they would charge $15 a figure, as someone can go and buy one of the three Toa for that much, and they're a lot more complex and are larger.
@rjejr I'm not sure if they would charge $15 a figure, as someone can go and buy one of the three Toa for that much, and they're a lot more complex and are larger.
@BlatantlyHeroic - "charge $15 a figure"
I only said $15 b/c that's about what the other 3 toys to life products cost, and I was pointing out the very wide range of prices that Lego products sell for, so $15 would not be a deterrent for Lego fans.
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