The LEGO Group had “big internal discussion” around Overwatch

A LEGO Senior Product Designer has referenced a “big internal discussion” that happened around the decision to produce of licenced Overwatch products. Senior LEGO Designer Mark Stafford has revealed on the Eurobricks message boards that he is part of the team that worked on the Overwatch sets. LEGO Overwatch was announced earlier this week, with the new licenced theme set to launch in 2019. What is more, he confirmed that there was a lot of discussion around producing sets based on a first person shooter video game. Here is the text from the Eurobricks post:

I worked on these sets.

There was a big internal discussion about basing things on an FPS, but Overwatch has no blood, no realistic weapons (except maybe McCree) and a fantastic story universe with wonderful heroes and villains. Also Blizzard have big plans for the future which excited us.

I've been a player since beta so I was incredibly excited to be part of it.

For now that's all I can say, but I will be back in the future and will probably answer a few questions at that time (a month or three from now when things start to officially surface), but I can't answer any questions right now.

It should be noted that every time the LEGO Group enters into a new licencing arrangement, there are internal discussions. Mark specifically makes this point in relation to discussions about it being a first person shooter specifically, however. The reason that this is notable is that first person shooter video games are often perceived to be particularly violent and the LEGO Group has had a policy of avoiding overt violence in its products. This has softened over the years, as more modern style weapons were introduced in themes such as Star Wars and Agents, but the company still seeks to avoid realistic weapons and military equipment in its sets. What is great to hear is that someone who was such a dedicated fan of the game, right from its beta, had the opportunity to work on sets related to it.