Sophisticated interlocking brick system manufacturer LEGO Systems today introduced LEGO Fusion, a play experience that combines traditional LEGO brick play with familiar app-based game themes. LEGO Fusion uses mobile technologies — and children’s fascination with them — to create an entirely new way to engage in LEGO brick building and app game play for children ages seven and up. Available later this summer, the LEGO Fusion collection will include four distinct titles: LEGO Fusion Town Master, LEGO Fusion Battle Towers, LEGO Fusion Create & Race and LEGO Fusion Resort Designer.
Each LEGO Fusion experience consists of a distinct set of LEGO bricks, a corresponding free downloadable app and the new Fusion capture plate, a small brick building plate with a printed design that enables a smart phone or tablet’s camera to identify the size and colors of the LEGO bricks built onto it. In response to game prompts, children build vertically in 2-D on the Fusion capture plate, enabling the app to “see,” import and transform the creation into 3-D in the digital world.
Once a child’s creation has been imported into the game, a series of challenges and interactions requires that players turn away from the device and return to the real world to use their LEGO bricks to build new solutions in order to move game play forward. Each game encourages this back-and-forth between physical and virtual, keeping children engaged in both worlds.
The play experiences vary between town construction, tower defense, racing, and vacation resort design, depending on the set purchased. LEGO Fusion Town Master, LEGO Fusion Battle Towers, and LEGO Fusion Create & Race will launch in August 2014; LEGO Fusion Resort Designer will launch in September 2014. Each will be available for $35.
