Description

Lego, the toy company that had recently bounced back from near bankruptcy, had set its sights on innovation. Their target: massively multiplayer online (MMO) video games. Despite their previous failures in the video game industry, Lego was determined to make a digital version of their iconic bricks a reality. They wanted to capture the audience who preferred virtual building, and they knew they had to act fast before someone else did. After reaching out to 51 different video game design companies, they settled on NetDevil to help bring Lego Universe to life. But as preproduction began, things got off to a rocky start...

Sources used in this episode

• Robertson, D.C. and Breen, B. (2014) Brick by brick: How lego rewrote the rules of innovation and conquered the Global Toy Industry. New York: Crown Business.
• Lego Universe Death of a Video game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvBa6Dcws-4
• PC, Gaming WIKI (LEGO Universe) https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Lego_Universe

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The Big Con Podcast: Emily and Dale dive into the wild world of business blunders and figure out where things went wrong (or right, but mostly wrong) and use the benefit of hindsight and a healthy dose of schadenfreude to look at where there was an impact on either their profit, their brand, or something much more dire. The Big Con examines the stories of businesses that refused to invest in strategy and where we can learn from their mistakes.