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Star-Lord?
**clicks forum search box, using the keyword 'dimensions'**
...Oh.
;oD
^ This. Definitely this. As evidenced by:
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).
If my box leaks, i'm taking it back! ;oP
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)
What I have noticed is this is advertised all over the place, almost 6 months before release.
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.
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.
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.
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.
£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.
£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.
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.
At least these will be a cheap way to get some cool figures and builds once the price bombs.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
That said, I do agree with your point that the basis for the rumor is very thin at best.
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.
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...
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.
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.
Yes crossovers happen, but this is a pretty unlikely one.
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.