Lego Dimensions

andhe

CCC said:

Pitfall69 said:

My wife has NEVER heard of Dr. Who.

Who?

Star-Lord?

legonut80

Well it's already got kids talking in the playground, my 8 year old went back to school today, he was excited to tell his best friend about the video for it and his friend has also seen it. I know it's going to be on the Christmas list, but I'm hoping for some sort of deal on it.

legomatt

samiam391 said:

Did anyone else click on this thread thinking they were going to find a long list of LEGO sets and their respective display dimensions? 

I didn't click this thread for that very reason. Days later, i start to wonder 'why is nobody talking about the new video game announcement? ...what's it called? ...right, dimensions...' 

**clicks forum search box, using the keyword 'dimensions'**

...Oh.

;oD

BazookaJoeX9 said:

You want sales? Put an exclusive DC/LOTR figure out there we can't get any other way and watch what happens.

^ This. Definitely this. As evidenced by: 

bobabricks said:

I'm not sure about the game itself but some of those fun packs are worth it on their own. I'm planning on getting BTTF because of that exclusive hover board mold/print and I think the guitar is a new mold. I also plan on buying the Wicked Witch because it's the first Wizard of Oz figure.

Which i'm sure will echo the thoughts of many, many lego fans. If there's any new lego figs to be found in any of these boxes, that set is sure to be a stick-on sale.
And the very reason they've attached multiple properties and teased multiple sites is to attract as wide an early adopting fanbase as possible. So I'm surprised Harry Potter isn't (yet) in the first wave to grab those fans too.

So if they want a huge pile of early sales, then 'Soldier of Gondor' fun pack, or 'Eowyn vs Witch King' team pack would've smashed pre-orders, and though many might just buy for the lego initially, a fair percentage of them would also give the game a go (or pass the game content to someone else, who'd give it a go).

dragon114 said:

I want the back of the box to leak so we can see more info.

If my box leaks, i'm taking it back! ;oP

Pitfall69

^Yeah poor choice of words :)

Shib

I am curious to see just how far they go with the themes used. The one thing I can see them doing that could be massive for sales is doing Level Packs for themes that they couldn't see a way to do a full game of...I'm thinking stuff like Classic Space, which I'm sure AFOLs would have loved to have seen, the main audience age probably would have preferred something more like Galaxy Squad.

I don't like toys to life games, and I definitely don't like the price of this to get all the good stuff, but I have always wanted a cross theme game (Lego Indianna Jones as a character in Lego Star Wars was brilliant at the time, but as each subsequent game passed without cross theme stuff it became more of a kick in the teeth)

Having a game where you are able to pick and choose which themes you want is interesting, but the price tag attached to toys to life just puts me off. If the little buildable elements do somehow read the bricks so you can build other stuff to put into the game I might be more interested but I really can't see that working without developing a whole new range of elements. 

If the starter set does get reduced in the same way as Skylanders/Disney Infinity (1/2 price within a year normally) then I'll consider it, but to be honest I also hate peripheral devices for games consoles, they are kind of gimmicky and put more strain on already tight storage spaces.

As a side note on Wizard of Oz -the rejected Ideas project has already been bought up...I wouldn't be surprised if it was licensing conflict. As I understand it WB own the IP to the original film, but Disney bought the rights to the story in more recent years, which is why Disney released the film Oz the Great and Powerful (No I haven't seen it either, but I understand it's something of a prequel) so I think it's likely that Disney hold licences attached to certain characters. Computer Game IP rights are also held differently to the Toy licences so it's entirely possible that WB were able to use their computer game licence for the original while LEGO couldn't get the rights to make toys because they went (at least in part) to Disney who didn't want toys that would also give WB a share of the deal (or vice versa) 

cheshirecat

Shib said:

If the little buildable elements do somehow read the bricks so you can build other stuff to put into the game I might be more interested but I really can't see that working without developing a whole new range of elements. 

It wont, I think we can forget about that now sadly. 

What I have noticed is this is advertised all over the place, almost 6 months before release.

cheshirecat

They really do need to pull back on that price though. Just checked and Disney Infinity 2 was £53 on PS3/360 and £57 on PS4/One on release day September 2014. £89 and £99 for Lego Dimesions is just taking the piss. 

Shib

Is that price confirmed for the UK or is it just pre-order assumed price? It is ridiculously high, the character packs etc aren't massively out of line with other TTL games but the starter is well off the mark.

I know that that having real build transferred to in game is a bit of a pipe dream but it's the only thing to my mind that would justify the cost.

cheshirecat

^ I suspect they're thinking you get a 200pcs lego set so its a fair price. I think they're in for a shock. 

As for tech, the only thing i've seen is that you can have up to 7 pieces brought into a game at a time. 

Shib

^Funnily enough I was chatting to the Watford Lego store's assistant manager on Saturday and he said similar regarding the price. He said it looks like they are pricing based on the standard TTL setup PLUS a Lego set on top. He also said that he'd already had dozens of people in asking about it, despite the typical Lego store employees having been told nothing officially about it.

cheshirecat

I'll be honest, if as expected disney infinity 3 comes out at roughly the same time with a Star Wars theme I know where our money will be going. Ep I-VI, Rebels, Ep VII ... so much potential and presumably allowing use of DI 1 and 2 characters as well. 

Xefan

Shib said:

Is that price confirmed for the UK or is it just pre-order assumed price? It is ridiculously high, the character packs etc aren't massively out of line with other TTL games but the starter is well off the mark.

Doesn't that depend entirely on content? The character packs are massively out of line given the amount of content it sounds like is included. If the new "levels" are anything like existing TT Lego game levels then £15 for one level and a few other bits is massively overpriced compared to say, Lego Batman 3 which even at it's most expensive costs only 3x that but you get, what, a couple of hundred characters, and maybe 20 - 30 levels as well as an exclusive mini-fig thrown in too normally if you pay that price?

Honestly though, I'll probably be more interested in other peripheral bundled games due out this year, like Rock Band/Guitar Hero providing the reboots aren't completely broken.

Lego has decided to position itself as the lowest value for money product in a year where premium priced games + peripherals are storming back to market. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out. Part of me thinks they've priced themselves out of the market, the other part makes me think the Lego bubble is still growing and they could sell bricks made of dog crap for £50 and still break sales records.

Shib

^I meant in line with TTL game. RRP seem to be £15 for a character for skylanders - admittedly I haven't played the games but I understand it only really unlocks the character - Dimensions £15 fun pack gives a character and a vehicle.

cheshirecat

No idea about skylanders but Disney Infinity...

Main Game - 3 characters, 1 playpiece and a couple of power discs. £53 now £30 or lower. The playpiece gives you a story game, about 8 hours for kids (i guess) relating to the 3 characters in the pack - ie. avengers. Probably the same as part of a LEGO TT game. You also get the toybox allowing you to build your own play areas and build (very) simple games, or download other peoples for free.

Play Set - 2 characters, 1 playpiece. £29 now £15 or lower. Again the playpiece gives you a whole new story game about either guardians of the galaxy or spiderman. and unlocks more toybox content.

Toybox Set - 2 characters, 2 power discs - £22 now a bit lower sometimes. Gives you just new toybox content characters can't be used in story games.

Individual character - 1 character - £15 now between £5 and £10. Often 2 for £15. Just a new character that can sometimes be used in a story mode but always in toybox.

So assuming that the character packs etc get similarly discounted then they seem decent value, assuming they have value in game. 

Shib

^So on that basis the additional content packs do seem to be in line with other TTL games - I'm curious to see what price the starter back hits on pre-order competition as launch gets closer and how quickly it falls after launch.

£100 is more like the price I'd pay for a console (yes I am cheap and wait for massive deals etc) rather than the price for a game that then requires further payment for other levels, characters and vehicles.

cheshirecat

^Exactly, I think i paid about £150 for a ps3 with GTA. If DI 3 does get announced with a date around the same time and includes star wars there could be a bit of price war. Assuming they stick with the same pricing as DI 2 then surely LEGO would have to come right down.

Kevin_Hyatt

I was expecting this to be £60 and that I would wait a month to pick it up at £45ish.

£100 for the base game is insane!
If this comes out against a Disney Infinity 3 with three StarWars figurines for £60 its going to be a massacre.

Shib

I'm hoping that the prices being listed are placeholder prices where they've just lifted the US prices and put £ instead of $ so they can start taking preorders without having to risk honouring prices that were 'too low'

charlatan13

Having purchased the first three versions of Skylanders -- the price for Dimensions seems in line for the 'Toys to Life' model. Anyone who has purchased Skylanders or Infinity will probably not see Dimensions as being overpriced (the target audience I imagine). I remember buying a dark edition of Skylanders SwapForce (two additional characters along with all five of them being special edition 'dark' ones) for around $100 at launch (this included the game and the portal). Single characters were around $9 - $14 (sales and promotions aside) and level packs (exclusive character, one level and a special token that performed some sort of magic [armor for 30 seconds or a treasurer finder for example]) were around $25. It makes perfect sense that members here approach the announcement from a Lego-first perspective but I think the bigger audience will view it as a 'new' Toys-To-Life game AND it uses Lego. 

Shib

@charlatan13 - The reason there's a lot of talk about the price being ridiculously high from UK members is because £99 is roughly $145 

charlatan13

@Shib -- I figured as much (was on my phone typing but I thought I should plug the numbers into a currency converter before posting but other comments have also remarked about the entry point price as being too high). That's awful - sorry to hear about such a price difference for the same game. I was just introduce some background in regard to my experience with the whole 'Toys For Life' pricing strategy. Hopefully the price will come down sooner rather than later for those of you in the UK.

Aanchir

Shib said:

As a side note on Wizard of Oz -the rejected Ideas project has already been bought up...I wouldn't be surprised if it was licensing conflict. As I understand it WB own the IP to the original film, but Disney bought the rights to the story in more recent years, which is why Disney released the film Oz the Great and Powerful (No I haven't seen it either, but I understand it's something of a prequel) so I think it's likely that Disney hold licences attached to certain characters. Computer Game IP rights are also held differently to the Toy licences so it's entirely possible that WB were able to use their computer game licence for the original while LEGO couldn't get the rights to make toys because they went (at least in part) to Disney who didn't want toys that would also give WB a share of the deal (or vice versa) 

Actually, the situation as it currently stands is that the rights to The Wizard of Oz (as in, the MGM movie) are currently held by Warner Bros, but the STORY (as in, the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum) is in the public domain. Back in the 80s Disney even created their own movie "sequel" titled Return to Oz, which was an adaptation/amalgam of the second and third Oz books.

Basically, what this means is that ANYBODY can use the characters from the original books, but only Warner Bros can grant permission to use the likeness of the characters and settings as they appeared in the film.

Shib

Thanks @Aanchir - I didn't realise it was full public domain - I wander how that effects the game use of characters.

theLEGOman

Shib said:

Greendude said:

TLG should be ashamed.  £15 for basically a minifig?

Its in line with other toys to lIfe. The cost is in the bases with the readable chips in them - it is too much for me though.

They have some 3 packs of I think Skylanders in Smyths at £1 each.

At least these will be a cheap way to get some cool figures and builds once the price bombs.

Kleiovous

Always wanted a Lego Stargate...

Bumblepants

I really hope these end up in weird places that don't normally sell Lego for deep discount at some point.

VorpalRyu

Personally, I'm over the games industry's heavy reliance these days on DLC/Locked-On-Disc content (of which, these toys to life games are a prime example), almost as much as the online only play models... These days you're effectively paying $100+ for a demo disc & looking at hundreds of dollars more to get the rest of the game. The money grab that was Mass Effect 3 caused me to write off EA/Bioware, I no longer even look at games they are involved in & if WB/TT are going down this path, I'll say bye bye for them too...

DLC was great when it was extras stashed on the game company's website & it cost you just time & harddisk space, the stuff you paid for was called an Expansion or Add-on disc & those gave you at least double the missions/adventures of the original game, at a fraction of the cost.

dougts

^ I'm with you. Been at least 1.5 years now since I last bough a game.  And I've been console gaming since the Atari 2600 and PC gaming since the 286.  I'm over the new paradigm of pay up front, and pay all along the way.  Just make a good game, put a price on it, and let me play it to the end.

VorpalRyu

^ Sounds so familiar, but we had a Vectrex (my cousins had Ataris), then came the 286 XT & the NES, complete with R.O.B & Gyromite... We currently have two 360s (got the second to system link for Halo Reach games nights at ours) & a WiiU, I have no interest in upgrading the 360s or switching them out for PS4s... Nintendo & TT Games titles were about the only games I wouldn't hesitate to buy these days, but with this, it might now be down to the big N.

Bumblepants

Apparently a Eurobricks member did some work on the box top image from Amazon and from the blurry images it looks like Simpsons and perhaps Portal will be involved among other things. I would suddenly be very interested if Portal turned out to be true, especially if there was a Portal styled level/gameplay.

prevere

Kleiovous said:

Always wanted a Lego Stargate...

We already have Ra. Adventurers series pharaoh.

legomatt

Regarding price, you'd think lego would've learned form their disappointment with the pick-up rate of the Universe game, where they expected people to pay both full price for a disc on top of subscriptions... then bemoaned the number of players... (while ignoring a chorus of folk advising them 'game disc free, tie-in toy range, cross-promote lines in-game').

If any game is going to be reliant to any degree on multi-player online formats, subscription fees, or as with this one, the lion's share of revenue generated from numerous subsequent add-on packs, you'd think by now they'd have the sense to offer the entry point to their potential cash cow at a lower 'the-first-hit-is-on-me' price.

It just serves TLG no purpose to price countless families out, to later bemoan a slow pick up rate. Besides which, part of the success of these games comes from buzz... if kids at school hardly know anyone else playing, the game will garner something of a 'dud' reputation - even in unfounded - as the few kids playing it will get bored (not necessarily with the game, but the lack of peer group excitement for them to interact with) and move on.

Whereas if the initial entry point is abundantly affordable, then the school yards become abuzz with chatter, which in turn gives the kids confidence to want more... everyone likes to feel they've backed a winner. 

dannyrww

I don't know. I work with the target audience every day....and they will buy the inifinity figures, the skylanders figures, and judging by conversations I have had they will buy these even more so. They like this type of game, but the like Lego characters even more so, and they are the target audience for this. Now that being said with things like Simpsons, Back to the Future, and that preview with Joel McHale, I think they are expecting a crossover audience of adults on this too (which I'm not sure Skylanders has). I think this will be a hit.

legomatt

I have no doubt it'll do well, lego is riding an all-time high right now, and kids (and adults) can't get enough, but what i was saying was this particular product could be a much greater success, potentially stealing whole swathes of the toy-to-life market, if released at a lower (more accessible) buy-in price.
Obstacles to entry are just obstacles to sales. Pure and simple. Product availability is one such obstacle; if you can't find it, it dies, no matter how amazing it was meant to be. Price is another. 
At a high buy in, kids may talk all they like, but parents could baulk. And given time for the initial buzz to wear off, if too few friends are actually playing it, and there's little chatter to keep them occupied, they'll move on and get excited about something else. It's just basic sense, no need for any specialist background. (Though i do have family who work with kids, schools, their mentors, and whom lecture on childhood development, not that any of this should be necessary). ;oP

VorpalRyu

With the current economic situation here & abroad, many parents will more heavily scrutinise purchases of this nature at this time. Most of the people we know that went in on Skylanders or Disney Infinities version 1.0 didn't grab the other & most of them didn't go back for version 2.0, so at least, amongst our friends & family, the market for toys to life games is already dying off & I can't see that situation being a completely isolated thing.

As for us, I refused buying into outright, as to me its worse that regular DLC, its Locked-On-Disc content, it took some talking, but our five year old accepted that by not getting these, we could get more cool stuff like Lego sets, Marvel, Ben 10 & Max Steel toys. A few of our friends asked how we managed it & had the same talks with their kids.

legomatt

^ The existing competition (and jading effect some of them have produced from designed obsolescence) is a good point you raise there, too, @VorpalRyu, which i meant to mention with regard the pricing.

Had Dimensions been the first ever toys-to-life game, there'd be more allowance for them commanding a premium price - as there'd be no competition - plus people would be more forgiving of any glitches , or mediocre gameplay, as development of the tech goes through its infancy. Unfortunately for Lego, they're not.

So in terms of toys-to-life gaming, lego are instead quite late to the party, with a whole bunch of expectations to live up to (and issues to avoid), so rather than being in a position to get away with a so-so experience and high prices, they face existing competition which they need to muscle out of the way, and probably need to produce a game that not only matches what is already out there, but knocks it out of the ball park. 
So more reason for that easy-on-the-pocket entry price to help them do that muscling in. 

Having said all that, i am hoping it'll be the game of games for sandbox videogame lego fun. I'll not care what my avatar is, as long as there's plenty of fun and games to be had.

Brickarmor

I just received a preorder email from GameStop. Probably a very good idea to cross-merchandise them there. Were the Fusion kits ever offered at GameStop? If so, hopefully everyone has forgiven and forgotten...

plasmodium

Bumblepants said:

...Portal...

What, as in Valve's Portal?! May it please the powers that be to make it so!

MODVLEX

This talk about Portal is just wishful thinking from AFOLs. I mean, if Firefly was too adult for their brand image, there's no way they're signing a deal with Valve. Come on, guys--the best evidence anyone has is a blur on top of a box that's coloured orange and white, and anything orange and white can only possibly be Chell suddenly?

Bumblepants

^Well wishful thinking makes the internet go 'round. Nothing wrong with Portal brand. It isn't like they would have to also do Half-Life or other more violent things too or be associated with them. The movie studios Lego do license deals with also make all sorts of other films that would be inappropriate brand fits. But that doesn't keep the ones that do work like Harry Potter or Ghostbusters off the shelves.

That said, I do agree with your point that the basis for the rumor is very thin at best.

Xefan

MODVLEX said:

This talk about Portal is just wishful thinking from AFOLs. I mean, if Firefly was too adult for their brand image, there's no way they're signing a deal with Valve. Come on, guys--the best evidence anyone has is a blur on top of a box that's coloured orange and white, and anything orange and white can only possibly be Chell suddenly?

As much as I love Firefly, I think it's hard to agree with you that Firefly is as innocent as Portal. Portal was mostly just harmless fun with robots. One of Firefly's key characters was a prostitute, another was a preacher, and another a bounty hunter. That basically covers Lego's sex, religion, and war taboos in one fell swoop (yes, yes, I know TLG regularly flouts these anyway, but that's up to them to explain).

I doubt TLG wanted the drama of The Daily Mail expressing faux-outrage that Lego had created a prostitute minifig whilst throwing in made up stories about small children asking their parents what Inara's job involves.

MODVLEX

I dunno, Portal gets pretty dark. While you could conceivably remove them, the info players get about the background of Aperture etc. are probably a good deal more emotionally troubling than anything in Star Wars or Prince of Persia.

The other thing to remember is that Lego's target market is still 8-year-old boys from Germany...content issues aside their toys still have to do well with that market. And if the kids who drive the "other" 99%+ of TLG sales don't get/like/recognize Portal...

plasmodium

I did wonder where the Portal rumour started. It seems a little 'out of the blue'. Though concerning what you said above, I kinda felt Portal was a two-levels-of-understanding game. A kid would just have laughed at the funny quotes and had fun with the puzzles, whereas an adult would have grasped more of the backstory. I don't know though.

Still sounds pretty unlikely that it would be made - the rumour seems to be based on pretty wobbly sources. And if I'm not mistaken, didn't Lego reject a Portal project on Ideas/Cuusoo back in the day? That would indicate either Lego or Valve wasn't interested in a crossover.

cheshirecat

My 8 year old loves portal and whilst much of the back story (and comedy) goes over his head its not remotely dark of scary. That said I'm sure this rumour is utter nonsense. 

Shib

I think the biggest issue to Portal being included is that it would mean one video game developer giving another video game developer the rights to make a video game based on their IP. Just seems unlikely, I know crossovers do happen, but generally speaking it involves things like studios being owned by the same group or some kind of vested interest.
I don't see Valve wanting to give WB interactive the green light on Portal content just to bolster a merchandise deal with LEGO - there is already a lot of portal merch out there and while LEGO is hot property atm it's not the only merchandise opportunity.
As has been pointed out by others, rumours based on some fuzzy bit of box art are not really a substantial source to go on. I can see how it could tie in with the world jumping element of Dimensions but it's so massively unlikely that anyone waiting to make a decision on the game based on this possibility are likely to be disappointed.

Aanchir

Shib said:

I think the biggest issue to Portal being included is that it would mean one video game developer giving another video game developer the rights to make a video game based on their IP. Just seems unlikely, I know crossovers do happen, but generally speaking it involves things like studios being owned by the same group or some kind of vested interest.
I don't see Valve wanting to give WB interactive the green light on Portal content just to bolster a merchandise deal with LEGO - there is already a lot of portal merch out there and while LEGO is hot property atm it's not the only merchandise opportunity.
As has been pointed out by others, rumours based on some fuzzy bit of box art are not really a substantial source to go on. I can see how it could tie in with the world jumping element of Dimensions but it's so massively unlikely that anyone waiting to make a decision on the game based on this possibility are likely to be disappointed.

Well, it wouldn't have to be "a game based on their IP", just an appearance of characters from one of their games as playable characters in another developer's game. And that kind of thing happens more frequently than you might expect. TV Tropes gives a lot of examples on this page — some of those examples are characters appearing in games by the same developer, but others like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man in Super Smash Bros or various Soulcalibur guest fighters certainly fit the bill. Just like any other crossover, putting characters from your own game series into another company's game series can be a great way to get your series more attention.

Shib

^But all of those examples you listed happened because there was something in it for both companies - Sonic first showed up in Smash when Sega started working on some exclusive titles for Nintendo, Megaman because Nintendo and Capcom had worked out some deals on virtual distributions etc - Even if you were to go as far as saying Snake in Smash bros that was down to fan votes and the companies having a pre existing relationship. 

Yes crossovers happen, but this is a pretty unlikely one.

plasmodium

I'd be vaguely interested in seeing the fuzzy orange and blue thing that set this off. Was it in a particular image or video? From what I hear so far it sounds like over-hyped rumour, but it'd be interesting to see the source (that's the history student in me speaking!).

Bumblepants

^I think neoape has it. Or Eurobricks is where it originated.

Shib

For those that haven't seen the fuzzy image

http://www.groovebricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/LEGO-Dimensions-Minifigure-List.png

It's really impossible to draw any conclusions from it - some of the blurs do look like certain characters but most of them just look like blurs.