Epic Games and The Lego Group are building a new, family-friendly virtual world. The companies haven't revealed too many details just yet, though they plan to "shape the future of the metaverse to make it safe and fun for children and families."
The pair have agreed on three principles they'll adhere to as they "build an immersive, creatively inspiring and engaging digital experience" for people of all ages to enjoy. They pledged to:
-
Protect children’s right to play by making safety and wellbeing a priority.
-
Safeguard children’s privacy by putting their best interests first.
-
Empower children and adults with tools that give them control over their digital experience.
Epic and Lego didn't announce a timeline for when their collective vision of a virtual world will open for business. Of course, Epic runs perhaps the foremost example of a kid-friendly metaverse in Fortnite. The battle royale modes, countless crossovers, concerts, movie nights and creative islands have helped Fortnite become a massively popular virtual space where people go to hang out.
Lego has experience in virtual worlds as well. Along with its long-running series of licensed games (including one that just dropped this week in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga), it was behind a sandbox game called Lego Worlds.
While that didn't prove to be quite the Minecraft competitor Lego would have hoped, perhaps its collaboration with Epic will stand a better chance. Their take on the metaverse is also likely to compete with Roblox. That platform has an enormous player base of mostly young people and measures in place to shield them from adult content.