LEGO Universe Already in Some Gamers' Hands

LEGO Universe producer Ryan Seabury sat down with us last week to talk about the future of the massively multiplayer online game. Seabury says that a core group of 50 LEGO users have already started messing around with the game, building in-world models and adding to their own private game maps. Some of that content may even make it the final game when it launches sometime in 2009. As they work on the game, Seabury says that NetDevil is trying to identify what is "really core LEGO play" and not create a directed adventure like you find in the Traveller's Tales games. In fact, he hopes that the game could get people to do the same in the real world. Right now, it seems that lots of kids buy the pre-packs to make the models found on the box cover. Seabury says playing the game inspires he and his child to actually take their virtual creations and make them with real-world LEGOs. Seabury also talks about how LEGO Universe will compare to LittleBigPlanet and Spore when it comes to user created content. It's a chunky, though interesting interview if you have the time.