The building blocks of a AAA partnership: Lego and 2K on their first game together, and beyond

gamesindustry.biz:

The Lego Group and 2K Games have today announced their long-rumoured multi-title partnership – and both firms tells GamesIndustry.biz that debut title Lego 2K Drive not only represents what to expect from this deal, but also the true potential for Lego in the realm of video games.

Reports that the two companies have been working together first emerged February last year, with leaks in recent weeks of Lego 2K Drive – which has officially been unveiled today – giving the industry and consumers alike a taste of what's to come.

We sat down with Lego Games' head of licensing Kate Bryant and 2K's vice president of global marketing Alison Bakunowich to find out more about how this partnership came to be.

Bryant tells us the initial pitch from 2K and the game's developer Visual Concepts quickly won The Lego Group over with their enthusiasm to make something intrinsically built on the beloved toy line.

"It wasn't only a commitment to making something incredible, but to make an incredible thing that's super, super Lego-ey," she says. "I was going to say 'game recognises game' but there was a little bit of that moment where it was, 'Okay, I'm already excited hearing these guys talking in the room about what they think they can be making and how they see the Lego brand showing up in games in a way that's super AAA feeling, ambitious, but also with that commitment to being funny and feeling super accessible'."

Bakunowich adds: "There are a lot of Lego fans at 2K and Visual Concepts, so a lot of that love, passion and attention to detail went into everything. From a game point of view, but also as a Lego fan, I think there's a lot of surprise and delight."

Since 2005, Lego has been best known to gamers for the Traveller's