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Warner Bros has officially confirmed that Lego Dimensions is no more. The news follows a report from Eurogamer last week stating that the toys-to-life franchise had been canned a year earlier than planned, according to sources close to the company.
That doesn’t mean Lego Dimension packs will suddenly disappear from shelves, however, as existing packs will remain available for purchase, Warner Bros has assured MCV. It will also continue to provide server and customer support for the title.
"Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games and The Lego Group would like to thank fans for their ongoing support of Lego Dimensions," Warner Bros said in a statement to MCV. "After careful consideration, we will not be producing new expansion packs for the game beyond what is now available. We will continue to provide ongoing server and customer support for all Lego Dimensions packs. Existing packs will continue to work interchangeably and will remain available for purchase."
Originally set to run for three years when the game launched back in 2015, the third year-long phase will now never see the light of day. Eurogamer speculated the cause may stem from the sheer cost of making the Lego figures in the first place. While other toys to life series have benefitted from the production of cheaper, plastic models, Lego Dimensions packs were always made with real Lego. As a result of wanting to remain competitive, each pack was sold with a tiny margin, which meant that packs that didn’t sell well and were eventually discounted ended up making a loss.
Dimensions allegedly tried to rectify this in its second year by offering a wider range of franchises with a smaller number of sets. Franchises included ET, The Goonies, Gremlins, Knight Rider, Sonic and Harry Potter to name just a few. Developer TT Games also introduced three more expensive Story Mode packs that allowed players to redecorate their portal pad, as well as several expanded mini campaigns for various sets.
However, a combination of poor sales and an overly optimistic content schedule – across multiple platforms, no less – meant that Year Two didn’t quite live up to expectations. According to the report, development on Dimensions was pushed back at the start of 2017 in favour of TT Games’ other titles, such as this year’s Lego Ninjago Movie game and the upcoming Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.
With Lego Dimensions now joining Disney Infinity in the failed toys-to-life category, and Actvision’s Skylanders on hiatus, the news doesn’t bode well for other toys to life franchises currently in the works, such as Ubisoft’s Starlink. That said, with less competition in the market, it might just pave the way for Starlink to succeed. Needless to say, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Starlink’s reception when it launches at the end of next year.
