LEGO Universe LEGO Universe closure and subscription numbers

[lol username]

There's one particular post from Lunibook that I feel is worth calling special attention to, posted by WBL member Flambridge on late Saturday, November 5, 2011, the day after the closure was announced:

 

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To All,

 

For those of you that were in live chat, I had the opportunity to speak with Figmentia on the phone today. There was not much said in terms of what happened, but I thought I would share what I could from our conversation.

 

first and foremost, Figgy wants you to know how much you all meant to her. She said the community gave her a reason to smile each day at work. She loved hanging out with everyone on Overbuild the day before the bombshell. It made her feel a bit like she got a chance to say good-bye. Unlike many of the other employees at Play Well Studios, Figgy had a job lined prior to the announcement. Talk about perfect timing. She was actually considering not taking the new job because of her love for the community. But certain circumstances necessitated the need for her to leave.

 

I specifically asked her about NFC and contests and if LEGO would honor the prizes that were promised. She informed me that it would be a decision by the LEGO legal team and that Primus was already in contact with them and starting discussion. I also specifically asked about what LEGO was going to do to keep the current players there fro the next 3 months. She said she knew of nothing. Apparently LU had about 100K paying subscribers...the rest (1.9 million) were all F2P players. LU has been a cost to the company for the past 6 years. The goal for 2012 was to simply lose less money.

 

On Thursday, all employees received and e-mail stating that they could go home at 3:30, but that there was a mandatory meeting at 9am. Figgy actually stayed late at work because she promised to be at the contest that was organized by the LUPs at Red Blocks later that evening. So, she said it was a spooky feeling in the office because no one was there.

 

That morning, she got an e-mail from me about my new prop and go to watch the first 30 seconds before she had to go to the 9am meeting. She said the meeting lasted 10 minutes. When it was over, she rushed to her comp to try to say goodbye. Her access was already taken away. WOW, that fast! Door access codes no longer worked, e-mail gone and cell phones turned off. Then, if things could not get worse, they posted the closing of LU under her name when it was not even her. That killed her. She said she loves you all so much and is sad for everyone. Open source will never happen. We talked about some of the new props that were going to come. I already knew about them because of my trip to the office. Sorry, I am still under NDA and if their is a possiblity that the game could keep going, they will want to use this stuff.

 

Another item of concern is that with the mod team not there, no one will be moderating props. Now, she does not know if this is the case, so I have to ask if ANYONE had a prop moderate on SATURDAY? ANYONE?

 

So, we will miss Figgy tons, just know that she truly cared for all of you. Lucky for me, I have her e-mail and cell number.

 

Now, I have been trying to get a hold of Primus ever since the news went down. Today I was able to reach him on skype. Here is our chat. Items have been changed and edited to hide our true names:

 

[12:49:57 PM] Flambridge: Listen, I know you are not on and I will try the best I can not to bug you. I am just trying to get to things answered for the community in that they look to SamuraiMaster and I for stuff. He on Overbuild and me on Storm

[12:50:31 PM] Flambridge: 1. What is the fate of the Nexus Force Championships? and other contests?

[12:51:00 PM] Flambridge: 2. What is the plan of the community team to keep players around the next three months? Or is there any plan at all?

[12:52:46 PM] Flambridge: Listen, if you need more direct contact, my cell is ***-***-****. Call anytime. You know we want to help out in this painful time anyway we can.

[5:47:23 PM] Primus: Hey Flam, I am still waiting for answers on all of this stuff too. Contests will be my 1st challenge to figure out what we are doing including the championships

[5:47:40 PM] Primusl: We are working out a plan next week

[5:48:50 PM] Flambridge: Thanks, I spoke with Figgy on the phone earlier. She said you would not know yet

[5:49:58 PM] Flambridge: I am so sorry for all of you, what heart break. The community is in tears literally. There is concern that props will not be moderated, if so, there is no point to building

[5:50:09 PM] Primus: Yeah man I was given little direction and am getting eaten alive on the mesageboards. THANK YOU for posting something!!!

[5:50:29 PM] Primus: I wil have to ask about that too, I have no idea where the mod team stands at this point

[5:51:09 PM] Flambridge: Well, we want to do what we can to help, there is another site called Lunibook where a lot of players chat, and I speak with them a lot

[5:52:01 PM] Primus: alright well when I get more direct messaging for the community I will share it with you guys so you can help me spread the word. I would assume that would happen sometime this coming week

[5:52:55 PM] Primus: Gotta run to dinner, I will be in touch with everyone next week and wil plan a voice chat with you guys too

[5:53:09 PM] Flambridge: alright, well, I won't bug you anymore. This has kind of consumed my friday between chats and posts. Just let us know

Primus: Ok thanks buddy! Wish this wouldnt have happened... but upper management had to make a call I guess. Just seems rather dramatic. Anyways I will be in touch this week. Dont worry about "bugging" me! Thats why Im here!

Alright, this post is a mile long, but I just wanted to get all this info, or lack thereof, out to all of you guys.

~Flambridge

 

It all speaks for itself, though there's one thing I wanna discuss. According to this, LU had 2 million players, only 100,000 of which were paying subscribers. The 2 million figure is backed up by the official press release announcing the closure:

 

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In spite of very positive player feedback and a large number of players in the free play zone, it has not been possible to convert a satisfactory number of players to paying subscribers. It has therefore been decided to close the game as of January 31, 2012.

“The LEGO Universe team can take pride in having developed and launched a great LEGO experience that many players will miss,” said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President, LEGO Universe. “Right now, we have almost 2 million players in LEGO Universe, and we get extremely positive feedback from players. Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game.”

 

There's one other number for paying subscribers I've seen floating around the internet though, 38,000. The source for that seems to be Brick by Brick by David Robertson, which has a whole chapter on the development of LU. I own a copy, here's the relevant part:

 

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When we visited the NetDevil studio in Colorado a few months before it closed, the LEGO Universe team tried to summon some cautious optimism, though the underlying mood was as dark as the afternoon thunderheads that swept over the Front Range's snow-capped peaks. On one hand, Universe had achieved a resubscription rate of 87 percent, which far exceeded the industry standard of below 20 percent. But it had registered just thirty-eight thousand subscribers, not nearly enough to sustain the business.

 

It seems they meant a few months before the closure was announced (to both the players and developers) on November 4th, 2011, not a few months before the servers shut down (Midnight of January 30, 2012)... There'd have been no cautious optimism at that point, nor a staff to be even be optimistic, besides the few left to maintain the servers. So the 38,000 number probably comes from around the time F2P was launched in August 2011, maybe slightly before. F2P would have then been responsible for the rise from 38,000 subscribers to 100,000 subscribers + 1.9 million F2P players in the few months until it was axed on that morning in early November.