An bold and celebrated fan venture based mostly on the cult franchise Bionicle has now been pulled by Lego – however the group is constant.
Three years in the past, we reported on a long-awaited fan venture that aimed to rework the favored Bionicle figures from the early 2000s into a contemporary open-world role-playing sport. A playable demo was imagined to be launched this yr, however that may not occur, because the rights holder Lego has determined to scrap the sport. Nevertheless it’s not utterly over but.
Makes an attempt had been made to adjust to Lego’s tips
What sort of sport is it? The venture was known as Bionicle: Masks of Energy and was imagined to be obtainable for followers to obtain at no cost. The motion role-playing sport follows the story of the Toa, who got down to discover the Masks of Energy to free the island of Mata Nui from the evil Makuta.
Masks of Energy was developed in Unreal Engine 5 and wished to ship you into an open world modeled after the lore of Bionicle with six completely different Toa.
Lego steps in: Lego nonetheless owns the rights to Bionicle, though the franchise has been dormant for a few years. Nevertheless, Masks of Energy apparently turned too huge for the Danish toy producer, and Lego requested the event group to discontinue manufacturing. Naturally, they complied.
Unmasked Video games has issued a public assertion on Steam saying that the demo is theoreticallyin its last phases and just a few bug fixes and last touches areleft to finish it. It was initially scheduled to be launched as a shadow drop on August 10, 2025.
To acknowledge the laborious work that has gone into the sport, a whole walkthrough of the demo in its present state has been launched as a two-hour video on YouTube.
Precautions had been taken: Unmasked Video games goes on to write down that each effort was made to adjust to Lego’s honest play tips No cash was ever requested, and there have been quite a few indications that Masks of Energy was a fan venture. Sadly, the Lego Group’s perspective towards fan-created media appears to have modified.
Though the group by no means obtained a proof for Lego’s resolution, they believe that it may have been simply confused with an official venture.
On the time of writing, the Steam web page for Bionicle: Masks of Energy seems among the many high outcomes when looking for Bionicle sport
on Google. A mean particular person seeing our sport for the primary time may simply suppose it was an official sport – and no quantity of clear disclaimers or disclaimers on our half may change that impression.
Bionicle followers don’t should throw within the towel simply but, although. One other promising fan venture is presently within the works that would fulfill all of our editor Fabiano’s childhood desires.
For Unmasked Video games, the journey is simply starting
Till Bionicle: Masks of Energy was discontinued, the builders had been often known as Staff Kanohi. The group is now utilizing its expertise and achievements to create a brand new sport with its personal IP. This was adopted not solely by a reputation change, but additionally by the conversion of the Steam web page for Masks of Energy to a brand new venture.
There you’ll now discover the upcoming sport Venture Rustbound. The hooked up pictures are nonetheless from the Bionicle venture. It will possibly due to this fact be assumed that improvement will not be ranging from scratch. Maybe there’ll even be a non secular successor to Bionicle. It stays thrilling!
Issues are additionally shifting ahead at Lego. After the toy producer posted report earnings once more in 2024, the corporate now desires to speculate extra closely within the online game market.
