Lego Universe Servers Shutting Down Early Next Year

Tweet

The MMO market is among the roughest in the games industry to compete in, and as a result, we’ve seen many MMO games make a transition from a subscription-based model to a free-to-play model, hoping to attract more players and, by extension, make more money.

It has worked wonders for many struggling MMOs, which is why we weren’t surprised to hear that the Lego Group would be introducing a new free-to-play area in Lego Universe. The goal was to give players a small taste of the game for free, and then attempt to get those free users to switch over to its monthly subscription model.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that strategy worked very well, because the Lego Group announced today that it will be taking the Lego Universe servers offline entirely shortly after the new year. The game is scheduled to go offline on January 31st, 2012, and when it does, developer Play Well Studios will close its doors.

In addition to Play Well Studios going dark, Lego Universe‘s marketing division based in Billund, Denmark, will be shutting down as well. A total of 115 people will be out of work when everything is said and done, making the departure of Lego Universe upsetting on more than just a entertainment level.

It’s certainly never fun to report that people in the games industry will be losing their jobs, especially when it’s so many people at once, but unfortunately that’s the name of the game. Video games fail very frequently, and the risk of failure is compounded greatly when trying to snag a piece of the extremely crowded MMO market. Hopefully those people displaced by the shutdown of Lego Universe will be able to find work elsewhere in the games industry, and hopefully fans of the game will be able to cope with the fact that it’s shutting down for good.

What do you think? Did you ever check out Lego Universe? If so, did you enjoy it, or did it fail to capture your attention (and your commitment to its subscription model)? Head down to the comments section to share your thoughts on the soon-to-be defunct Lego Universe!