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LEGO Dimensions may be the reason you miss out on future LEGO videogames

It was recently announced the alongside the release of The LEGO Batman Movie, a videogame tie-in was in the pipeline.  

However, the videogame in question isn’t planned as a standalone title, but rather as an expansion pack for LEGO Dimensions.

For those out of the loop, here’s the deal; LEGO Dimensions is a toys to life videogame that requires the purchase of expensive, physical items to play.

To get theri foot in the door punters need to fork out for the Starter Kit. That’s an outlay of $90/R1 500 for a bundle for current gen consoles that comes with the game, four LEGO toys and a Toy Pad that you place physical LEGO on.

It’s a bit cheaper on previous generation consoles, but that’s a big ask when you consider that this is a “starter” kit, which means that you’ll need to fork out much, much more if you want to unlock everything in the game, or play as your favourite character.

If you want to learn more about how that works or if it’s actually worth the money, check out our review, because this article doesn’t really address that.

Instead let’s focus on Story Packs that are set for release. Alongside The LEGO Batman Movie, the new Ghostbusters and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are also being released as expansion packs for LEGO Dimensions. 

Unlike the other digital and physical DLC for Dimensions, these packs are aiming much higher and are hoping to add much more to the game. According to the site Bricks To Life, each will add six new levels that “re-tell the plot of the movie franchises”.

Now that last part is important because, before Dimensions existed, movies that received the Traveller’s Tales treatment were full game releases.

The most recent example is LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. More than six months after the launch of the movie, fans of LEGO games and/or Star Wars could play a game based on the movie with the distinctive LEGO flair. Incidentally it’s a really good game and we can’t imagine many people being unhappy with it.

https://htxt.co.za/2016/09/22/lego-dimensions-review-its-not-selling-out-its-co-branding/

Now let’s look at the Story Packs again. Each pack will cost $50 (no local price yet) and that means that they’re priced the same as, or similar to a full release.

That RRP puts these three new expansions, which can be interpreted as full games, behind a massive paywall named “LEGO Dimensions“.

This is disastrous for many people who look forward to these games. They’re now forced to either pay the extra money to buy Dimensions, or miss out on it completely.

This is especially true for PC players as Dimensions simply is not available on that platform. For those on console it’s a question of spending more money, but PC players have even less options.

There is good news, though.

Because Dimensions already exists as a finished product, new large expansions/full games can be built on top of this instead of being developed from the ground up. This should mean that the games release at the same time as the movie or other property.

For example: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set to land in cinemas on November 17th, and its Story pack is supposed to be out the next day.

The only other positive we can think of is that players still invested in previous gen consoles (including the Wii U) will continue to receive content for the ageing platforms.

Those two positives are just not enough to outweigh the negatives here. The only upside is that properties and franchises that aren’t included in Dimensions – mostly those owned by Disney such as Marvel and Star Wars – may see release as standalone titles.

If that’s the case, this may be because of the death of Dimensions’ rival Disney Infinity, but that’s a sore spot to press on another day.

 

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