LEGO To Dig Into Minecraft's Sandbox Dominance With 'LEGO Worlds'

In what must be considered one of the most obvious, inherently logical, and overdue moves in open world gameplay, the Internet, technology, commerce, business, marketing, etc., LEGO has launched LEGO Worlds, the company's entry into the sandbox gaming space.

Available through Valve's PC gaming Stream platform (Windows only, at this stage), LEGO Worlds players can procedurally generate their own landscapes using LEGO bricks that can be freely manipulated (virtual ones, of course), and they can dynamically populate their worlds with LEGO models based on real-world LEGO play sets (mini-figs, vehicles, creatures...other LEGO-branded whatnot!). The website speaks specifically of a "multi-tool" that players can use to shape their environments, be it in the creation of vast entities (mountain ranges!) or in the custom-crafting of whatever imagination calls for via a Brick-by-Brick editor.

LEGO Worlds is in "Early Access" status — meaning that it is unfinished and is missing some key open world gaming features, including multi-player function (which developer Traveller's Tales says is coming) — however, it is already proving to be quite popular, with over 90% of user reviews clocking in positive. That said, the debut of LEGO Worlds is at least a day late and perhaps more than a dollar short in the face of the manic global cross-gender and cross-cultural popularity of Minecraft.


The LEGO Worlds product is expected to remain in "Early Access" status through 2015, so it will be quite some time before LEGO's sandbox product can make any kind of a run at the space leader. Of course, the power and legacy of the LEGO brand — and the fact that the company has previously partnered with Minecraft creator Mojang on a range of licensed Minecraft play sets — demand that notice be paid, as does their seemingly bottomless pockets and a determination to wrest control of a market they no doubt consider theirs to claim.