There was a big drama in my house recently that resulted in a lot of tears and depression for one of my family members. Officially, Lego is shutting down their Lego Universe game. My 10 year old son, who loved the game, hasn't been the same since, but is slowly bouncing back.
For those of you who might be unfamiliar, Lego Universe is the latest MMORPG game that has been released by the toy manufacturer. Admittedly, it was a beautiful game, having great detail, lots of levels of interaction, wonderful audio tracks, and so on. You can read more about the game here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Universe
Why did the game shut down? According to Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President of LEGO Universe, "...We have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue
model in our target group..."
When my son started to play the game, there seemed to be a few red flags that popped up, which made me wonder about the thinking that went behind developing a game as impressive as Lego Universe. First were the system requirements. My son, who grew up with computers and among computer parts strewn everywhere, searched through four computers before he could find one that could play the game. The one that he used to play Roblox, Maple Story, and even Rumble Fighter, was not able to handle the spec requirements for the new Lego Universe.
Next, came the price. At first, Lego Universe required full subscription purchase in order to play the game. His mother, a real stickler on paying up for games, talked him out of paying up front, as she said, "You don't even know what it's like. How do you know you will even want to play it?" Finally, Lego opened up a few free levels. When he realized this, he was able to convince his mother to pay up, which she did. His friends, however, as he later reported to us, didn't even know that the game had free levels.
It was then that I started to wonder if the great Lego had a full understanding of their target market, or as they said, their target group. Who was their target group?
Now, I've been to Target and Walmart and various toy stores. It seems to me that Lego is marketing to children, correct me if I am wrong. Toys that they distribute are always found in toy sections among other toys. Toys are modeled after kids shows like the latest Star Wars series, Sponge Bob, and Harry Potter. Not that there is no adult appeal for these things, but I don't think that is where Lego is going with these toys.
If you have young children who play video games, you know there is constant struggle between them and their parents. A big part of the reason is that parents just don't want their kids focusing too much of their time on video games. They want them to study, do homework, play. They immediately have a suspicion of video games, and they are cautious about throwing in too much support.
It seems to me that Lego threw up two major barriers that would prevent children from being able to sign up for Universe. The first came in the system requirements. Lots of kids get hand-me-down computers, which don't necessarily have the latest and greatest technology. Will parents spend money on new computers or video cards so their kids can play games? Unlikely. The second came in making a game that wasn't free. How were they going to enable their biggest fanbase, the kids, to be able to bargain with their parents to buy them something, if the parents didn't even know what they were buying in the first place?
A more common model is to give the game for free, and charge for upgrades and items, like the Zynga series, Maple Story, Evony, and so on. Doing it this way, kids can nickle and dime their parents out of hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. How many times have I had to go to 7-11 to pick up a gift card from Nexon, the makers of Maple Story? And I'm sure grandparents, while they might not really get the idea of buying virtual items, will be perfectly willing to re-charge a gift card for their little darlings. In fact, on his birthday month, my son was able to negotiate the
maximum allowable amount of Nexon cash from all his family members as
birthday presents for a total of $135.00. Maple Story banned him from
buying more virtual items for a full month!
It's because of this that in retrospect, I wonder if Lego Universe was doomed to failure. I don't think the intention was for Lego to simply release a game and retire it after a year or so in order to do a toy promotion. They're doing an awful lot of damage control right now for this. Check out this posting http://universe.lego.com/en-us/community/newsnetwork/story.aspx?id=359519&icmp=COHomeNewsUSLU. And they're giving money back! This smells more like a new revenue stream to me. But it looks to me like it lacks a revenue model that takes into account those variables that define its market.
What do we take from this? Know your market. Understand its limitations and its perspective. You can't sell meat to a vegan, but you sure can sell them fake meat.
