Funcom grabs LEGO Minifigure licence for new MMO

LEGO’s iconic range of Minifigures are to be turned into an MMO developed by Norweigan studio Funcom.

The studio has scored the licence LEGO’s trademark characters. In 2011, the Minifigures series was the bestselling UK toy line – LEGO says that 340 million minifigures will be produced for its various toy lines in 2012.

The game itself will ‘be a prominent part of the LEGO Minifigures online experience’ at minifigures.lego.com which already has millions of unique visitors per month. The new title will also "focus on maximum accessibility".

The move also means Funcom is making a game for the booming youth online game market.

“The market for family-friendly online experiences intended for children and youngsters is brimming with potential,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas.

“Being able to work with a world-renowned brand such as the LEGO brand to develop an MMO for this audience is incredibly exciting to us as game developers and for Funcom as a company.

"This is source material we all know and love and we simply cannot wait to get started working with the LEGO Group on realising this exciting project.”

The LEGO brand is no stranger to video games – the Traveller’s Tales line of action-adventure games are some of the last decade’s best-selling titles – but in the online space it has mixed fortunes.

The toy firm commissioned NetDevil to produce a LEGO MMO filled with user-generated content, LEGO Universe, but pulled the plug on it last year.