Pre-order for LEGO Universe begins

Brian Ambrozy 17 Jun, 2010 at 1:12pm ET Article published in Gaming

I have been in the closed beta for the upcoming MMORPG LEGO Universe for some time now, and I’m not allowed to talk about it. I’m not allowed to tell you how freaking awesome the game is, and how I think it’s going to be the game that topples that other game—you know which one I’m talking about.

I am, however, allowed to tell you that today they’ve announced that pre-orders for the game, which is launching October 26, 2010, have begun.

The game itself is $39.99 and the monthly subscription fee will be $9.99. I don’t want to sound like too much of a fanboy here, but—ah screw it… This is a fantastic price for the game. Trust me on this.

The pre-order comes with an exclusive LEGO Universe-themed astronaut minifig, as well as a code to have the same outfit available to your character in-game.

When it comes down to it, for me the question becomes whether to re-activate my account in that other game for the expansion that’ll be coming out around that time, or diving into LEGO Universe. The answer, at least for me, is becoming quite clear.

Comments

17 Jun 2010 ~ 3:46pm mertesn I remember our meeting at CES. The demonstration looked really fun. I still don't care for the "buy the game and pay to play" business model common to the MMORPG genre, but I hope they do well with this title.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 4:29pm QCH I'm a fan of play and pay if you want more. I play D&D Online for that reason. I'll try out Lord of the Rings online for that reason. I will not be going back to WoW or trying Lego since I refuse to pay for something I may only play a few hours a month.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 4:52pm Thrax One meal out or hundreds of hours of gaming with friends. Pretty easy to justify.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 5:06pm primesuspect Yep, I share Rob's opinion on value. $10 a month is exceptionally cheap entertainment, especially considering what other forms of entertainment cost. For that $10 you are getting potentially hundreds of hours of joy, delight, excitement, and fun; what does a movie cost? What does a case of Pepsi cost? What does cable TV cost?
17 Jun 2010 ~ 5:56pm QCH I agree that $10 (I thought it was $14.99 a month) is cheap but I may only use it for 3 or 4 hours a month. DDO is free... mostly. :-)

Besides, 10 things at $10 may not seem like much but $100 a month DOES. Trust me, I've found that out the hard way.
18 Jun 2010 ~ 11:07am mertesn

primesuspect wrote:

Yep, I share Rob's opinion on value. $10 a month is exceptionally cheap entertainment, especially considering what other forms of entertainment cost. For that $10 you are getting potentially hundreds of hours of joy, delight, excitement, and fun; what does a movie cost? What does a case of Pepsi cost? What does cable TV cost?

I agree that it's a great price, but with as little time as I have to play games (outside of the weekly TF2, it's practically zero), the model just doesn't work for me. If I were inclined to make time to play something in the genre, it would be LEGO Universe. As previously stated, the CES demo looked incredibly fun and reasonably grind-free.
21 Jun 2010 ~ 8:50pm Froopshoop Considering most actual LEGO kits themselves cost more than $10 I'm impressed with that!

Heck, its like $7 to get a kit with 2 lego men and a catapult... A castle costs $80 bucks!

$10.00 a month? Sign me up! Long live lego!