14 DAY TRIAL // Funcom has announced that the upcoming Lego Minifigures Online, a kid-friendly massively multiplayer online game set in the magical world of building blocks, will enter open beta this June, on PC.
The open beta will be held in "select markets," which is fancy talk for nobody knows yet, so we're still waiting to find out what it means.
Developer Funcom is most known for having created the mature-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game Age of Conan, allowing its players to soak in the blood of their enemies, and the modern-day conspiracy-horror MMO The Secret World, allowing Dan Brown fans to solve riddles by shooting faces instead of crossword puzzles.
Both of the games were considered to have some of the best graphics in the genre at the time of release, so Lego Minifigures Online is bound to offer a similar visual experience.
This will be second attempt to create a Lego-based massively multiplayer online game, although it has no connection to the now defunct Lego Universe, which closed down only a year after launch.
Funcom has announced that is managed to secure $1.6 / €1.15 million in funding, coming from YA Global Master SPV Ltd, under the management of Yorkville Advisor, a US investment firm.
"We are very pleased to have increased the company's financial flexibility with funds that will be used in preparing for the launch of Lego Minifigures Online. We have several times expressed a need for additional equity and have considered different alternatives to secure this. This facility has been available to us since 2012, but the timing has not been right before," CEO of Funcom, Ole Schreiner, commented on the matter.
As the name implies, Lego Minifigures Online is based on the hugely popular toy line that deals in overpriced plastic and imagination, and the game will allow the minifigs to come to life, as players collect them and embark on glorious virtual adventures through various thematic worlds, from pirates and medieval times to space and beyond, hopefully not including Pony Farms and Princess Play Castles.
Lego Minifigures Online is currently set to launch as a free-to-play game for PC, iOS and Android sometime this fall, and will open its beta doors in June. If you're interested in joining the test, you can register for the beta on the game's website.
If you're into Lego and can't wait until June to get your hands on some virtual blocks, you can give Mobile Frame Zero a try. It's a tactical game of squad-battles featuring giant robots that you get to build yourself.