GCSE Media Studies - Factsheet - The Lego Movie Video Game: Industry and Audience

GCSE

MEDIA STUDIES

Factsheet

www.ocr.org.uk/mediastudies

The Lego Movie Video Game: Industry

and Audience

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For full details see www.ocr.org.uk/mediastudies

Media industries

The following subject content needs to be studied in relation to The Lego Movie Video Game:

Key idea Learners must demonstrate and apply their knowledge and understanding of:

Media producers • the nature of media production, including by large organisations, who own the

products they produce, and by individuals and groups.

• the impact of production processes, personnel and technologies on the final

product, including similarities anddifferences between media products in terms of

when and where they are produced.

Ownership and control • the effect of ownership and control of media organisations, including conglomerate

ownership, diversification and vertical integration.

Convergence • the impact of the increasingly convergent nature of media industries across different

platforms and different national settings.

Funding • the importance of different funding models, including government funded, not-for-

profit and commercial models.

Industries and audiences • how the media operate as commercial industries on a global scale and reach both

large and specialised audiences.

Media regulation • the functions and types of regulation of the media.

• the challenges for media regulation presented by ‘new’ digital technologies.

For full details see www.ocr.org.uk/mediastudies

Media Audiences

Key idea Learners must demonstrate and apply their knowledge and understanding of:

Targeting audiences • how and why media products are aimed at a range of audiences, from small,

specialised audiences to large mass audiences.

• how media organisations categorise audiences.

• the ways in which media organisations target audiences through marketing,

including an understanding of the assumptions organisations make about their

target audience(s).

Technologies • the role of media technologies in reaching and identifying audiences, and in

audience consumption and usage.

Active audiences • the ways in which audiences may interpret the same media products very differently

and how these differences may reflect both social and individual differences

• theoretical perspectives on audiences, including active and passive audiences;

audience response and audience interpretation.

Uses and gratifications • the social, cultural and political significance of media products, including the themes

or issues they address, the fulfilment of needs and desires, and the functions they

serve in everyday life and society

• the ways in which people’s media practices are connected to their identity, including

their sense of actual and desired self

• Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory.

Changing audience

responses

• how audiences may respond to and interpret media products and why these

responses and interpretations may change over time.

For full details see www.ocr.org.uk/mediastudies

Media producers

• WB Games is the trade name for Warner Bros.

Interactive Entertainment. WB Games is a publisher,

developer, licensor and distributor of entertainment

content for ‘the interactive space across all platforms,

including console, handheld, mobile and PC-based

gaming for both internal and third party game titles’.

• WB Games started in 1995 by licensing their first

game (based on the plot of ‘Batman Forever’). They

continued to do this until 2003, when they co-

published their first video game, based on ‘Looney

Tunes: Back in Action’. In 2004, Warner Bros. acquired

Monolith, a video games developer. In 2005, WB

Games was launched. Together they developed MMO

(massively multiplayer online game) The Matrix Online

(with SEGA).

• TT Fusion is a British video game developer that is a

division of TT Games. In November 2007, Warner Bros.

Interactive Entertainment acquired TT Games as part

of their move into the video game market.

• The video game was directed by Matt Palmer (who

was known for his work with Tim Burton’s Corpse

Bride and The Animal Shelf ).

• As with the film WB Games had to consider Lego’s

status as a globally popular franchise that has left a

significant mark on today’s popular culture. Aside from

the iconic plastic inter-locking bricks, there is now a

plethora of accompanying merchandise, including

‘Minifigures’, construction kits and play sets aimed at a

wide variety of different ages. Both the game and film

had to be constructed to faithfully reflect and respect

the universal Lego toy brand.

• It is worth noting that Lego’s brand extends beyond

construction kits; there are eight Legolands globally

(Billund, Denmark, Windsor (UK), California, Germany,

Florida, Malaysia, Dubai and Japan) although owned

by Merlin Entertainments rather than Lego. There are

currently two further under construction in South

Korea and Shanghai and another planned for Orange

County, New York.

For full details see www.ocr.org.uk/mediastudies

Ownership and control

• Lego had been a well-established household brand

until 1998 - and it had never reported a loss. By 2003

Lego was $800 million in debt. With the appointment

of Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, the brand changed direction

(creating partnerships for their Legolands and digital

content) and raising the profile of its fan base.

• 2010 saw the online LEGO Universe launched, but

was then closed in 2012 due to the lack of success

of its monetization and fee-paying customers. This

was controversial as many of the 2 million players felt

abandoned and the closure of the associated studios

affected 115 employees.

• However, this negative experience supported Lego

in creating future partnerships for both its digital

content and video game development with TT Games

and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment.

• TT Games initially developed the Lego franchise

games with Lego Star Wars released to strong

commercial acclaim in 2005 and Lego Star Wars II: The

Original Trilogy in 2006. Before this, branded video

games aimed at children hadn’t always had the best

critical success but the Lego Star Wars series changed

this.

• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment purchased TT

Games in 2007 and the Lego video game franchise

continued with TT Games acting as subsidiary of

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment currently owns

the intellectual property (IP) to multiple high profile

video games and several video game developers

which now makes it one of the largest video game

publishers, outside of the ‘big 3’ (Microsoft, Sony and

Nintendo).

• The Lego Movie Video game saw the game characters

move like the ones in the film with animations and

likenesses mimicked to the style of animation used in

the film.

• Lego works with Warner Brothers in various ways.

The video game division of Warner Bros. Interactive

Entertainment is part of the larger Warner Bros.

conglomerate, which produces the Lego movies,

distributes the films to a large number of countries

theatrically, as well as using their own subsidiaries to

release the DVDs and BluRay discs. This is an example

of vertical integration.

• Vertical integration enables a business to maximise

the potential of brand, in this case Lego. It gives

the existing audience new experiences and further

pleasures outside of the film and to reach new

audiences e.g. non-cinema going video games

players.

• Today there is a successful global sub-culture of Lego

due to its vertical integration of films, games (on and

offline), magazines and competitions. As a result, the

Lego brand can reach out to a larger market through

its range of products.

• In 2015, Lego was named Brand Finance’s most

powerful brand of the year - over Apple and Ferrari -

and is set to be awarded this again in 2017.

For full details see www.ocr.org.uk/mediastudies

Convergence

• Digitally convergent media is when digital/online

media content, networks and technologies are

interconnected.

• Video games consoles are an excellent example of a

digitally convergent device; as well as play games you

can also access social media, surf the internet, stream

films and TV content and upload content into cloud

based servers.

• The video game offers 15 levels and 90 playable

characters, many of which can be purchased

as Minifigures, so the Lego brand benefits from

this as both the game and the film also act as an

advertisement for their consumer products.

• The Lego Movie Video Game was the first Lego video

game where everything in the gaming world was

made out of bricks. This allowed a cross-over for the

plastic construction bricks within a gaming world for

audiences and vice versa - although it was not a game

where you could use the bricks for construction like

Minecraft (which Lego Worlds arguably mimics).

• Cross-media products (Minifigures) were also available

in some of the products. For example Emmet was

available from EB Games and Gamestop, Radio DJ

Robot from Walmart.

• Cross-media content helps maximise profits and also

improve reach to new customers. The Lego Movie

Video game was released across all major video

consoles and platforms (Microsoft X360, Sony PS3,

Nintendo 3DS, Sony PS4, Nintendo WiiU, Xbox One

and 360, Sony PSV and PC) in 2014.

• In 2015 Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment made

the game available on Apple iOS.

• Lego Dimensions was released in 2015 by Warner

Bros. Interactive Entertainment. This followed the

toys-to-life format of using Lego Minifigures and a toy

pad, which is then played with the game. No more

expansion packs will now be developed, mainly due

to the lack of profit and the ever-increasing amount of

Lego figures on the market.

• Merchandise for the film and game are

interchangeable as they include the same characters

and worlds in the main.

• The Lego Movie Video game was launched the same

week as The Lego Movie.

• The mobile video game is a port of a console game

which meant there were two ways to control the

action on the screen. This was either using direct

touch controls or a virtual onscreen touch tad. The

trailer for the IOS is here.

For full details see www.ocr.org.uk/mediastudies

Regulation

• Lego were keen to ensure that their reputation with

parents was left intact and did not want the brand

connected with inappropriate language, extreme

violence and sexual scenes.

• Although The Lego Movie was awarded a Universal

film rating, The Pegi Award for The Lego Movie Game

is ‘7’ years of age. This is as the content of the game

includes ‘non-realistic looking violence towards

fantasy characters’ and ‘violence that is set in a

cartoon, slapstick or child like setting that could be

upsetting to very young children’.

Audiences

• As we know, media practices are widely connected

to Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory, in

terms of the audience’s sense of identity. The sense of

actual identity and aspirational identity can be seen

in the use of a first-person protagonist (to associate

directly with the gamer) and the ‘quest’ to explore

new worlds in The Lego Movie Video game. The theme

of good versus evil is often a key social value in video

games and is at the heart of this game too.

• Arguably the target audience for the video game is

younger than the film. This can be seen through its

level of difficulty, which provides a younger audience

with an entry point to the franchise, without needing

to watch the film. Criticism was mixed for the game

and its narrative as it takes elements of the film’s

narrative but lacks the cohesion and humour of the

film. Critics recommended seeing the actual movie

and seeing the gameplay as a stand-alone.

• The Lego Movie Video Game is a cross-media

promotional product as it advertises a range of

Lego characters and icons, like the superheroes

and ‘Benny the Spaceman’. Both the movie and

the video game are part of a larger Lego video

game franchise that existed before The Lego Movie

resulting in intertextuality for the audience and

a deeper relationship with the Lego brand. The

superheroes featured (Batman, Superman, Wonder

Woman) are also part of the larger Warner Bros./DC

superhero franchise so the video game also acts as

an introduction point to those characters and helps

to cross-promote this superhero franchise in terms of

other Lego video game products (e.g. Lego Batman)

and films (e.g. Justice League).

• Purchasing the game provided childhood nostalgia

for parents (a brand they might have played with

when young themselves) and allowed them to

play with their children. This also illustrates how

the audience for video games might interpret the

same product differently, e.g. young and old getting

different pleasures from the product.

• The Lego Movie Video game was number 1 in the All

Formats Chart, the sixth Lego video game to do this. It

was released available across a wide range of popular

console, PC and Mac platforms.

• The Lego Movie Game for mobile devices included

in-app purchases but required a larger memory (over

a Gigabyte of space) which met to further mixed

responses.

• In the same week (Feb 17th 2014) there were five

Lego video games in the top 40 All Formats Chart

meaning that Lego games made up one eighth of the

total chart.

• The game was released onto mobile devices due

to the market being worth around $21 billion in

revenues. As the game appealed to families and

children alike the hope was they would attract a

mixed-age audience.

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OCR acknowledges the use of the following content: Page 1:

Lego Movie characters - cjmacer/Shutterstock.com, Page 2: Lego

Movie promotion - EA Given/Shutterstock.com, Page 3: Lego

Movie game - Pe3k/Shutterstock.com, Page 4: Lord Business

figure - CTR Photos/Shutterstock.com, Page 5: Lego bricks -

cjmacer/Shutterstock.com, Page 6: Emmet minfigures - Levent

Konuk/Shutterstock.com, Page 7: Unikitty figure - CTR Photos/

Shutterstock.com, Square down and Square up: alexwhite,/

Shutterstock.com

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