LEGO Fusion scans your creations into the mobile world
Further bridging the gap between physical and digital this week are the creators behind LEGO Fusion, a toy-to-screen environmental switch for iOS and Android devices. You'll be purchasing a LEGO set in the Fusion brand, creating sets, and effectively scanning them in to the LEGO Fusion app using your iPad, iPhone, or Android device.
LEGO Fusion will be launching with several sets, including Battle Towers, Town Master, Create and Race, and Resort Designer. Each of these sets exists in their own LEGO universe, and has their own gameplay environment.
Battle Towers
In Battle Towers you'll be tasked with creating a tower to defend. This set exists in the Castle universe – or Middle Zealand, if you prefer.
Create and Race
The set closest to Technic is Fusion's Create and Race. Here you're bringing the heat with your own race car, complete with wheels and an aim to bust up the track.
Resort Designer
Resort Designer lives in the LEGO Friends world. Here you're creating a set of houses and tiny buildings for your Lego Friends to live in.
Town Master
Town Master is very similar to Resign Designer, living in the LEGO City world instead of Friends. Here you've got more gender-neutral bricks to work with to create a while city.
Wrap-up and Release
Each set is limited to a 16-brick by 16-brick structure for the digital game, save the racing game. While LEGO has made no announcement of expansion, we must assume that more sets will be available in the future if this first wave is successful.
The LEGO Fusion collection will be launching this summer, each set sold individually for $34.99 in the USA, slightly more than you'd pay for an approximately—200-piece set.
NOTE: the technology you'll see in the base of these sets comes from Qualcomm. We first saw Qualcomm Vuforia back in 2012 with Sesame Street's Grover.