LU CLOSING IN 2012
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LU CLOSING IN 2012
by MsRowdyRedhead 11/4/2011, 2:48 pm
Shocking news has come to us today.
Please use this as an opportunity to discuss what you are going to do in the wake of it, and how the game has affected you. share your memories and adventures!
ANSWER THE CALL! SAVE IMAGINATION!
Online game will close on January 31, 2012. The LEGO Group’s digital offerings will continue to develop over the coming years.
November 4, 2011 – The LEGO Group today announced that it will close LEGO® Universe, an MMOG (massively-multiplayer online game) that has been in operation since the autumn of 2010.
In spite of very positive player feedback and a large number of players in the free play zone, it has not been possible to convert a satisfactory number of players to paying subscribers. It has therefore been decided to close the game as of January 31, 2012.
“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.”
Despite the change, the ambition to develop and run a digital business remains. In future, it is the intention to further pursue cooperation with partners. The LEGO Group has a strong and continuing partnership with TT Games & Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create digital LEGO experiences within video games. A 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.”
As a consequence of the closure, the LEGO Universe staff has today been informed that the ‘Play Well Studios’ in Louisville, Colorado and the game’s marketing function in Billund, Denmark will be closed. This will affect 115 employees. All affected employees will be offered assistance in finding new jobs inside or outside the LEGO Group.
Please use this as an opportunity to discuss what you are going to do in the wake of it, and how the game has affected you. share your memories and adventures!
ANSWER THE CALL! SAVE IMAGINATION!
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by FatCatNine 11/4/2011, 2:51 pm
That's terrible... LU was really That Popular? Well They have there reasons and i hope those employees will be alright.MsRowdyRedhead wrote:Shocking news has come to us today.Online game will close on January 31, 2012. The LEGO Group’s digital offerings will continue to develop over the coming years.
November 4, 2011 – The LEGO Group today announced that it will close LEGO® Universe, an MMOG (massively-multiplayer online game) that has been in operation since the autumn of 2010.
In spite of very positive player feedback and a large number of players in the free play zone, it has not been possible to convert a satisfactory number of players to paying subscribers. It has therefore been decided to close the game as of January 31, 2012.
“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.”
Despite the change, the ambition to develop and run a digital business remains. In future, it is the intention to further pursue cooperation with partners. The LEGO Group has a strong and continuing partnership with TT Games & Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create digital LEGO experiences within video games. A 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.”
As a consequence of the closure, the LEGO Universe staff has today been informed that the ‘Play Well Studios’ in Louisville, Colorado and the game’s marketing function in Billund, Denmark will be closed. This will affect 115 employees. All affected employees will be offered assistance in finding new jobs inside or outside the LEGO Group.
Please use this as an opportunity to discuss what you are going to do in the wake of it, and how the game has affected you. share your memories and adventures!
ANSWER THE CALL! SAVE IMAGINATION!
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Super Luigi Galaxy 11/4/2011, 3:16 pm
What I will do at the wake of it: Forget it was closed and try to play it again. Or play Runescape more again. 
Memories/things I wanted to know: How I met Hollis. First to get 10,000 Reputation with alan1. Getting to level 45 before Hollis (And he was level 44 while i was level 41!). Level up 7 (BEAT THAT!) LEvels in like 20 days! from LEVEL 38 to level 45!. Eating pie.. ohwait..
Memories/things I wanted to know: How I met Hollis. First to get 10,000 Reputation with alan1. Getting to level 45 before Hollis (And he was level 44 while i was level 41!). Level up 7 (BEAT THAT!) LEvels in like 20 days! from LEVEL 38 to level 45!. Eating pie.. ohwait..
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Roxtus 11/4/2011, 4:55 pm
Those are sad news. I really wanted to get the full game sometime.
Still, I really enjoyed the free version.
Good thing they will still make the video games.
Still, I really enjoyed the free version.
Good thing they will still make the video games.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Roddy15 11/4/2011, 6:12 pm
I would like my 120 euros back and some sort of compensation for working in testing for a year for them! There subs were too high, it was never going to be competitive against Club Penguin which is around 49.99 euro a year. The patcher is not worth talking about with it's issues with some anti-virus software, it's glitches and it's very bad marketing! Enough said now they either get off their customer service chairs in Denmark and work on a new MLN type feature that would be free for all or they take the MMO idea to a new free level and launch a new game with a decent marketing team.
My LMB comments below:
My LMB comments below:
- Spoiler:
Here are the things I have submitted on the LMBs to be posted:
I've tested this game since December on a year I can't remember but it was because I was on the LKIC and was invited to alpha test it. I watched LEGO make LU bigger and honestly the fun was lost when it reached beta. Now a year after release and they are cutting it and I now just regret wasting hours of testing and giving feedback when they cut it the year after live release. Honestly it was too over priced and people were conned into a glitchy game where you now have to have millions of LU coins to be classed as cool. NetDevil and LEGO messed up the game in Beta and it was never the same, basic, fun building and fighting game that it should have been. Good luck LEGO Customer Services repaying back people who will want refunds for game time they won't get!
The 2nd post:
Right first of mods let this through please.
First of all I am an alpha, closed beta, open beta tester and currently own a subscription of LU. Here are my overall thoughts on this. Firstly I want my 120 euros back from the sub and the disc I bought, you should have made it digital download in the first place. Secondly I think for those that say paid for 12 months in June or any other month should be paid a percentage of what they paid because they won't get full time and that isn't very fair in this tough time to take some parent's money away in your back pocket because you had a over-priced game. Last of all the price was no way competitive to the likes of Club Penguin which charges around 40 euro less! Last of all the patcher is so bad anyway. I think though should continue this idea and make some kind of play for free game that continues the story and nevermind subs!!
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by LBK10 11/5/2011, 12:32 pm
They said that everyone's money will be returned according to how much gameplay time you have left. People on the LMBs are over reacting waaaaaay to much. They are swearing (the mods are being a bit loose :O) and ranting and saying that they want to kill LEGO and they now hate LEGO and are quitting every LEGO thing they are involved in. That is too far. It's just an online game, okay people? (Not you people, people on the LMBs) Okay, so I myself don't have the game and have never played the game, so I can't say how good it was or whatever, but I have played other online games, such as the LEGO "Coast Guard Game". I loved that game, and I played it a ton and beat all the levels. But then the game was removed from LEGO.com. Okay, so, what do I do? Do I start swearing at the mods (even though they just moderate and don't make the games or have anything to do with the games) and ranting and YELLING? No, I just calmly say "Okay, so all good things must com to an end, right?" Yes, if you think about it, most every good thing left in the worlds today is coming to an end.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Roddy15 11/5/2011, 3:36 pm
Well NetDevil had 5 years of development planned before it was left to the members to keep it going. LEGO ended it thanks to their bad marketing! People have a right to be mad at them right now especially those who put so much effort into this like the developers and testers.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by LBK10 11/5/2011, 4:38 pm
I disagree. LU was highly advertised on LEGO.com, LEGO catalogs and LEGO Club Magazines. What more can they do if not enough people are buying it? They must make enough LU-only generated profit to pay the LU mods, developers and to advertise the game. Apparently, there weren't enough people paying for LU to pay for all of that.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Roddy15 11/5/2011, 4:44 pm
There wasn't enough people paying for the game because the sub was too high which is up to the marketing team to know that for their game to sell it has to be competitive in the MMO market. Let's take a toy maker who say makes toy guns, every other toy gun for argument sake is selling at €20 and he comes along and sells his toy gun at €70 and it's of the same quality. Who on earth would buy it? Same case with LEGO, they are targeting people who have played the likes of Club Penguin, Mushi Monsters etc. and these other games have a lower price.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by LBK10 11/5/2011, 5:10 pm
Yes, you're right about that. $10 is alot of money to pay, and there are many other MMOGs that are much cheaper. I think that LEGO just overestimated how popular the game would be and, uknowingly, made the price that would make sense to a kid who has birthday every month or struck gold or something.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by abominable_FUZZ 11/5/2011, 6:56 pm
Roddy15 wrote:There wasn't enough people paying for the game because the sub was too high which is up to the marketing team to know that for their game to sell it has to be competitive in the MMO market. Let's take a toy maker who say makes toy guns, every other toy gun for argument sake is selling at €20 and he comes along and sells his toy gun at €70 and it's of the same quality. Who on earth would buy it? Same case with LEGO, they are targeting people who have played the likes of Club Penguin, Mushi Monsters etc. and these other games have a lower price.
This is definitely my thoughts on LU, as well. In the end, LEGO overestimated the amount of people who were willing to play the game for that price. It reminds me of the Restaurant Armageddon going down at the local strip mall. The restaurants that pay more for the same food as others are going away, which is always a sad sight, but it's what you really have to expect.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Seemefly 11/6/2011, 7:42 am
I know! I heard about this last night. Good thing I didn't buy the game or I would have lost money. Its sad I thought LU was going to be free but it was a subscription game and they still had bugs and problems after the testing!
Sad to all those people who brought the game.
I also had good memories in the LUCL and the beta test I hear that the alpha was better I wish I was in it.
Sad to all those people who brought the game.
I also had good memories in the LUCL and the beta test I hear that the alpha was better I wish I was in it.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Tomthewarrior 11/7/2011, 7:28 pm
If Lego and NetDevil didn't go about pretty much everything in the wrong way, maybe they wouldn't be in this mess and quite frankly it's too early to kill this off. You don't kill off an MMO because there's too many people playing, you kill it off because not enough people are playing.
So let's see, a lot of people are playing the free to play version. Okay, that means people love the game but might not thing the price is justified. So then we need to reduce the price on the subscriptions a few bucks using a sale or maybe drop it permanently. Because this isn't our building sets anymore, this is digital and thus inherently different. We can't charge them their souls and expect them pay up like our plastic bricks. Well maybe the price drop isn't an option, let's give them a reason to have a subscription since Free-to-Play isn't bringing them in. Something uniquely interesting.
Plus playing the Beta was a pain because it was only open like two days a week compared to most which don't have any restrictions other than don't share details.
This is a good read too: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/04/why-lego-universe-is-shutting-down-in-january-and-why-it-deserves-a-second-chance/
So let's see, a lot of people are playing the free to play version. Okay, that means people love the game but might not thing the price is justified. So then we need to reduce the price on the subscriptions a few bucks using a sale or maybe drop it permanently. Because this isn't our building sets anymore, this is digital and thus inherently different. We can't charge them their souls and expect them pay up like our plastic bricks. Well maybe the price drop isn't an option, let's give them a reason to have a subscription since Free-to-Play isn't bringing them in. Something uniquely interesting.
Plus playing the Beta was a pain because it was only open like two days a week compared to most which don't have any restrictions other than don't share details.
This is a good read too: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/04/why-lego-universe-is-shutting-down-in-january-and-why-it-deserves-a-second-chance/
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by CommanderXLegend 11/8/2011, 9:06 am
I'm hoping it's an advertisement ploy 
I hear they may come back in 2013, with a game very similar to LU. If they do bring it back (I doubt it) , no way am I getting it again. Unless they save our data
......
I hear they may come back in 2013, with a game very similar to LU. If they do bring it back (I doubt it) , no way am I getting it again. Unless they save our data
......
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Super Luigi Galaxy 11/8/2011, 1:24 pm
CXL: We are getting refunded (I think) From buying the game getting game cards and buying subscriptions so if they come back with a game similar it won't have our old LU Data
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Seemefly 11/8/2011, 3:25 pm
They should have had a similar concept as Roblox. And a more open chat that ONLY censors swears.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Super Luigi Galaxy 11/8/2011, 7:59 pm
Yeah. But people find ways to swear anyways >_>Seemefly wrote:They should have had a similar concept as Roblox. And a more open chat that ONLY censors swears.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Legostudios34 11/8/2011, 8:18 pm
I can't believe I haven't posted here yet - Basically, I logged onto LU the day it was announced. Rockoages and NarniaFreak97 sent me a private chat message seconds apart - Both said the same thing - LU was closing and that I should look at the forum on the message boards. I did so, and it was confirmed - LU would be closing January 31, 2012. I cried, I yelled, I sweared (I probably should have been a bit quiter since my 6 year old brother was in the next room ) But by the day after, I'm over it. I guess I'll miss it once its gone. But I've taken up a new hobby since I found out LU was closing - Model railroading (I've got my hands on an MTH SD70M-2 for Christmas 
). The real thing I'm gonna miss about LU is all my friends. And of course, the Red Parrot and Mosaic Jester Cap that took me sooooo long to get .
) But by the day after, I'm over it. I guess I'll miss it once its gone. But I've taken up a new hobby since I found out LU was closing - Model railroading (I've got my hands on an MTH SD70M-2 for Christmas ). The real thing I'm gonna miss about LU is all my friends. And of course, the Red Parrot and Mosaic Jester Cap that took me sooooo long to get .
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Seemefly 11/13/2011, 2:04 pm
I can understand working so hard on something then it all goes away...
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Legofanyoda 11/19/2011, 7:51 am
This stinks. LEGO closed it because $1,000,000 a month isn't enough money... Shame. 
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Super Luigi Galaxy 11/19/2011, 5:30 pm
WRong TWO MILLION isn't enough! 2,000,000 dollars isn't enough.Legofanyoda wrote:This stinks. LEGO closed it because $1,000,000 a month isn't enough money... Shame.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Roddy15 11/19/2011, 6:12 pm
Wrong again as over 50% of people playing LU were NOT paying due to the price.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Super Luigi Galaxy 11/20/2011, 8:25 am
There are people paying as well so the paying members add up to about 1-2 million a year (Sorry I said month I meant year)
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Roddy15 11/20/2011, 8:38 am
They are no way making 2m a year, too unrealistic. Shame LEGO won't tell us but I beat you they were making 1.5m tops!
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Legofanyoda 11/20/2011, 9:44 am
Roddy: WAY more that 2m a year. From all of the paying members (100,000 paying members x $10 a month) they collect a million per MONTH.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by Roddy15 11/20/2011, 9:48 am
Prove it then to me. Won't make any guesses because only LEGO know what they are getting and it's probably the reason they closed. Do you know how much it costs to pay hundreds of devs, mods, NetDevil and they have taxes and server costs.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by ErikMouse 12/4/2011, 11:52 pm
I sincerely hope this isn't the reason these forums are losing active members.
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Re: LU CLOSING IN 2012
by New Shupa Malleo Brudahs 12/5/2011, 1:32 am
Nah, Eet's cuz MLNT is goin' down fast.ErikMouse wrote:I sincerely hope this isn't the reason these forums are losing active members.
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