Netdevil's Mark Hansen, director of business development, has said the core driving principle behind LEGO Universe is to help kids bring their LEGO fantasies "alive".
A truly unique feature to the MMO is whatever players build online in the game they can then order the exact LEGO kit in real-life.
“What’s really unique now is that the technology is at a level where we can get more than just a single child into a single-player game,” Hansen said. “Now we’re looking at getting a mass of children into an area to play and interact with Lego. One reason for that is simply consumer demand – kids have been asking us about playing online with Lego and their friends. They see the space and the technology – things like Club Penguin – and they want something like that. We see the uniqueness of building a massively multiplayer online game to add on value to the physical product that we have. When the child sits and plays on the floor with an army and a castle and his Lego knights – that’s what we want to bring to the MMO experience, what’s in the child’s mind. It needs to be alive, we can bring that dream alive.”
While there has been no release date announced, LEGO Universe has been mentioned for a 2008 launch.