I am very fascinated with LEGO Factory, a website enabling users to download a program with which you can build virtual 3D LEGO models and upload them to ‘LEGO Gallery’ and display them for the online LEGO community. The user and other users can purchase the ‘kit’ (i.e. the LEGO pieces necessary to build the model) and then build the model in real life. When the user purchases his own model it is mass customization, but by making the model mavailable online for purchase by other users, LEGO proposes a new business model.

When the user purchases his own model it is mass customization, but by making the model mavailable online for purchase by other users, LEGO proposes a new business model.

LEGO Factory is a hit with customers and enthusiasts, and LEGO is harnessing several thousand customers’ ideas and input to develop new products and models.

LEGO brought us Mindstorms and Mindstorms NXT and were reasonably quick to adapt their licensing and business models to support users’ desires to hack and modify the system. Initially, LEGO restricted hacking and considered (and perhaps even did send1 ) cease-and-desist letters to users publishing their hacks.

After a while, however, LEGO chose to embrace their customers and their hacks and released an API and SDK. Now, Mindstorms is a fantastic platform for techies around the world to experiment with their computers and LEGO kits - e.g. for building robots to play connect four and Rubrik Cube solvers.

Now, LEGO is working on the LEGO Universe, a MMOG2 platform for creating games in the LEGO universe, i.e. with LEGO building blocks and characters. This is a very interesting new approach and business model, which could be LEGO’s new block buster and, in any case, will definitely provide highly useful experience for the company. It will be interesting to follow the development of this new initiative.

  1. Does anyone know how far LEGO went with this? [↩]
  2. massively multiplayer online game [↩]

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