LEGO CEO highlights digital play as vital for the company’s future

In a new interview, the LEGO Group’s CEO, Niels B. Christiansen, has discussed the company’s future and the importance of digital play.

The Financial Times has published an interview with the LEGO Group CEO Niels B. Christiansen, who according to the article, considers the new DUPLO train products to be a “pivotal” line, showing how physical toys and digital experiences can be combined.

“I don’t think digital is very different from other stuff, in that we still think the brick and the play system is at the core of what we do,” Christiansen told the broadsheet. “But digital is an opportunity for us to enhance that.
“We would like to be in between, and ideally my vision would be that the kids, they don’t think about ‘now I need to do digital’ or ‘now I need to do physical’.”

In the article, it is explained that seven LEGO employees worked on the product in collaboration with psychologists to understand how children play. The technology was added to an already solid toy, rather than simply being an imitation of other digital products.

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Christiansen explains that the company needs to be “visionary” when developing digital experiences, according to the article, “That means not taking as long with digital product development as its notoriously perfectionist approach to physical toys”. That may be slightly concerning for fans of the brand to hear, as if digital aspects are to be incorporated in LEGO sets, most will expect them to live up to the LEGO standard.

LEGO enthusiasts will be keen to see how the development of digital products continues in the years ahead.

Some of the recently launched summer products include a variety of digital enhancements, and are available to buy at shop.LEGO.com.

Author Profile

Graham
Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education.

Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

Graham

Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education. Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

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