GDC
GDC
Itamar Rogel

Player feedback embraces the latest “Lego Star wars” video game

What does a Danish construction toys company that started in 1949 and a major American movie studio have in common? Well, apparently, a lot.

 

The sixth and newest chapter in the massively popular video game combination of the Lego brand and Warner Brothers’ Star Wars franchise resulted in Lego Star Wars – The Skywalker saga, issued to the market on April 5th. Since the previous five editions of the video game alone, with the first one issued in 2005, sold collectively over 50 million units worldwide, expectations for the new version among players were high.

Player feedback embraces the latest “Lego Star wars” video game

Affogata tracked and analyzed player reactions and conversations regarding “Lego Star Wars” during the two weeks preceding the April 5th release and the two weeks afterward, and found a largely positive sentiment for the game.

 

The time period tracked 34,289 player comments and conversations all over the open web. About a sixth of the mentions occurred on the April 5th video game release date, with notable but smaller peaks occurring on March 21st when the game’s title was revealed, and on March 25th with the release of the Lego Star Wars – The Skywalker saga 2022 trailer on Youtube. Throughout the four weeks that Affogata covered, mainly positive sentiment was registered, with lots of hype and excitement appearing on many of the comments.

 

While enthusiasm and expectations for the game were building towards the launch date, Lego and Warner Brothers’ top management can celebrate the success of this release, as judged by the almost 5,000 positive mentions from players after April 5th. Players described just how much fun they had playing with many indicating that the game met their expectations. Five hundred of those mentions mixed nostalgic feelings with their appreciation for “Lego Star Wars”, commenting that the experience rekindled childhood memories for them.

 

In order to derive actionable insights, Affogata consistently lets companies take note of challenges arising from player comments as well. So besides the overwhelmingly positive sentiment registered for the game’s launch period, there were a few interesting groups of comments, albeit small in quantity, that both companies should consider acting upon.

 

A few players commented that despite the game’s richness in levels, variations, and the over 300 characters to deal with, they missed having the option to create characters by themselves. As is common in some other games, it is possible to mix and match characters if a player wishes to. In the new “Lego Star Wars” this option does not exist, and that disappointed several players, leading some of them even to state that they will not purchase the game at all.

 

A second issue, although also registering with very few commenters, was an overall negative reaction, namely with those calling the game “boring”, a “dumbed down version” and a “disappointment”. But since their numbers were very small, also when compared with the largely positive reactions, it seems that their voice represents a small minority of all players.

 

Finally, there were some “tech” complaints, as players complained about glitches and “black screens”. Other negative reactions referred to some characters fighting which led to the game crashing, causing games to continue playing only after restarting the entire game.

 

All that didn’t deter most players from enjoying “Lego Star Wars”, as it seems that the newest edition made both Lego and Warner Brothers happy. The product and brand both enjoyed a positive sentiment, and judging by the huge volumes of player comments, sales figures are expected to be very high yet again.