How ending TT's exclusivity deal might give Lego games a boost

With the recent release of the trailer for Lego 2K Drive, many questions have been raised about the future of licensed Lego games and how it could change the experiences provided by them.

(Image property of Traveller's Tale Games, Warner Bros. Games and Lego)

To get you up to speed quickly, almost ever since they started working together, Lego and Traveller's Tale Games (TT Games) have had an exclusivity deal.  In other words, since the first Lego Star Wars game, TT Games have been the soul developer of home console Lego games.  However, in January 2022, there was a damning report from behind the scenes on Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga which heavily criticised TT Games.  The report particularly focused on the treatment of its developers and the intense crunch that they experienced when making the game.

Fast-forward to this year and we have the announcement that multiple sports titles, based on the Lego brand, are in production via 2K.  This was a seismic shift for Lego and, as with all major direction changes in creative industries, is therefore worth discussing, particularly with regards to whether this will benefit the games being produced or not.

Out with the old

Commenting on ending their exclusivity deal with TT, The Lego Group had this to say, 'We consider all partnerships on an individual, case-by-case basis. Where concerns arise, we review the partnership and take appropriate steps.' (Via Polygon).  Now, as riddled with corporate platitudes as the statement is, that quotation is still rather telling, particularly the part about, 'Where concerns arise.'  

An old History teacher of mine used to say that questions about causation always fall into two parts: why something happens, and why something happens when it does.  To me, that line about concerns arising is most likely a reference to the difficulties that TT experienced making The Skywalker Saga with the many delays that the game underwent and the absolutely brutal crunch that the developers experienced.

(Image property of Traveller's Tale Games, Warner Bros. Games and Lego)

On this level, Lego's decision to end its deal with TT is a fairly admirable one.  It shows an uncharacteristic amount of backbone for a major corporation by refusing to accept unfair working conditions and deciding to disassociate its brand from them.  In many ways, this is perfectly in line with Lego's history of engaging with social issues in recent years, such as by achieving its renewable energy targets early and its open support for the LGBT community.  Whether or not its because Lego feels that there is money to be made it taking a stand on such issues, a stand is still something.

Furthermore, ending exclusivity with TT may also offer a bold opportunity for innovation.  As anyone creative can tell you, when you do the same thing for 20 years, there is bound to be some element of stagnation creeping in.  In TT's case, while they have made Lego games based around a wide variety of different intellectual properties, from Star Wars to Marvel, the games all follow broadly the same format.  All of them are action-adventure puzzle games, nowadays all with an added open world for exploration's sake.

For many, I think there was an expectation that somehow The Skywalker Saga would shake things up and blow some of the rust off the more aged game mechanics that the series held onto.  Even TT seemed to be aiming for that kind of game, albeit misguidedly, by forcing developers to work so gruellingly over so many years in order to make it work.  However, while the game did introduce several changes, it was still another Lego game in the same mould that TT has always made, just on a larger scale.

As such, I can absolutely understand the need for some fresh air.  Even before this news of ending exclusivity was confirmed, I was hoping for some kind of change before the next Lego game rolled around and, when you add on the news about TT's crunch culture, it becomes all the more necessary.

(Image property of Traveller's Tale Games, Warner Bros. Games and Lego)

In with the new?

Another particularly interesting wrinkle to this story is Lego's new choice of bed-mate, publisher 2K Games.  You see, while, as a publisher, 2K is not always directly connected to issues like crunch in the way that TT has been, it is hardly a stranger to controversy.

There have been a number of 2K-published titles that have been reported as having experienced major crunch, Bioshock Infinite being a prime example.  On top of that, 2K has also been at ground zero for recent debates, both public and legislative, over the anti-consumer nature of loot boxes in their online games, like the NBA 2K franchise.  In fact, while TT did court controversy with the January 2022 report, Take-Two Interactive, 2K's owner, were subject to a full-on lawsuit over the NBA 2K series.

To me, this seems incongruent with the idea that Lego is seeking to avoid controversy.  Surely, if you were to sever ties with a business partner over their in-house practices, you would not then immediately form a new partnership with an equally muddy contender.  No, in practice, this demonstrates that, while Lego may not entirely approve of practices like crunch, its decision to not renew TT's exclusivity lies beyond TT's practices and is, most likely, related to something that 2K can offer them which TT cannot.

Throw bricks at the wall and see what sticks

To me, the comparison between TT Games and 2K highlights Lego's shifting priorities well.  Rather than being about their in-house practices, the change from allowing TT exclusivity to now reflects an interest in variety.  2K has a far more varied history as a publisher than TT and has connections to a variety of developers, all with different skillsets and the ability to make a wide range of different games.

(Image property of Visual Concepts, 2K Games  and Lego)

With TT in charge, Lego has been able to build a profile in the video game industry.  However, as I highlighted earlier, that profile has been limited to only TT's brand of Lego games and without a breath of fresh air for the series, it might be in danger of stagnation.  The Skywalker Saga feels like a prime example of this risk.  One of the ways that the game marketed itself as being new and exciting was in the size of its explorable galaxy and its many collectibles.  However, my main criticism of the game when playing was that it didn't feel like it enhanced the gameplay.  It just felt like masses of collectibles for the sake of filling in a world that didn't need to be that big to begin with.

Therefore, by taking the opportunity afforded by the fallout from The Skywalker Saga to bring in some fresh blood, Lego is creating the chance for its brand to grow into a variety of new games.  It's no coincidence that the two confirmed Lego 2K games so far have been unlicensed sports and driving games, a strong departure from TT's track record.

Furthermore, it is also important to remember that just because Lego has ended its exclusivity deal with TT, that does not mean that the two will not continue to work together simply as part of a broader landscape of Lego games.  As such, by unshackling itself from exclusivity, Lego will potentially be able to retain its old audience that enjoyed TT's offerings while also entertaining new players that weren't interested in Star Wars or Marvel with a more varied line-up of titles. 

As a result, while it is a canny PR move to separate itself from TT Games in the wake of The Skywalker Saga, Lego's ending of its exclusivity deal with them feels like a very tactical decision at the same time.  Partnering up with 2K, a publisher with a strong and varied record, will hopefully allow them to expand beyond action-adventure titles and into new genres.  With any luck, for players this will mean more titles being released, each of which being more focussed around its chosen niche, leading to more refined, tightly designed and less-crunchy experiences.  Here's hoping.

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