LEGO shuts down Bionicle fan game after 8 years of work

A team of developers who were working on a Bionicle fan game for years suddenly received a cease and desist from LEGO just months away from the public release of a demo, bringing all those years of work to an end.

The Bionicle series was once one of the most popular franchises LEGO had in the early to mid-2000s, with them making TV series and games to try and build out the lore of the universe.

However, the property has long been dead. New toys haven’t been released in several years, and it’s essentially a dormant franchise at this point that will likely never be brought back. At least, not in any official capacity.

Enter Team Kanohi, a group of fans who sought to bring the Bionicle series back from the dead. That is, until LEGO shut them down.

Bionicle: Masks of Power shut down by LEGO

Despite the Bionicle series being made for children originally, the actual lore behind the series is surprisingly deep. There are a number of passionate Bionicle lorekeepers who have connected the dots between every series and built out the universe more than the original creators probably intended. Some people are very, very big fans of it years after the franchise was discontinued.

Team Kanohi was among those fans, spending almost a decade on creating a game with their own original story that brings Bionicle back to life.

Similar to a third-person action game like God of War, it involved the player traversing a map to find upgrades and get through a central storyline. It had original music, Animal Crossing-like voice acting blurbs, an in-depth combat system, and a level of polish that shows the work they put in.

“Despite our efforts to work with them, we have been asked to shutter the project in its entirety. Transparently, we are surprised by this development given our project’s age and the LEGO group’s reputation for amicable relationships with fan projects. Nonetheless, we are beheld to their whims and have no choice to comply,” lead developer Jordan Willis explained.

Along with this message, they shared a full walkthrough of everything they developed to make sure their years of work didn’t get lost forever.

However, things get more shocking when you scroll into the description of that video and see the extremely long list of developers and contributors who worked on the project.

This wasn’t just a few fans putting together a game, they hired voice actors, had VFX artists, concept artists, an entire 3D art team with a senior leader, UI designers, lighting artists, a team of animators, a cinematics team, level designers, environmental artists, music composers, audio designers and more. This project was massive and was still planned to be released for free despite the amount of work they put in.

However, the dev team has now officially opened their own game studio by the name of Unmasked Games and are already working on their own independent project titled Rustbound.

“This has been heartbreaking news for our entire team, but we’re also incredibly excited about what the future has in store, and for what we’ll get the chance to create next. We hope that you’re all just as excited as we are,” reads their official statement.

So, while it’s the end of this fan project, these developers are trying to take it on the chin and make something even better with the experience they gained working on Bionicle: Masks of Power.