THE BUZZ: LEGO Universe—the MMO that promised to take players deep into the unlimited world of LEGO—has, it seems, run out of bricks. Today on the game’s official forums, the announcement was made that—come January 31st of next year—the game will be shut down for good.

Here’s the official announcement:

Hello Adventurer, today we are very sad to announce that LEGO Universe will be closing on Janurary 31, 2012. This was a very difficult decision to make, but unfortunately LEGO Universe has not been able to attract the number of members needed to keep the game open.

We are thankful to have had the opportunity to share this adventure wiith an amazing community of players. We hope you will continue to enjoy LEGO Universe for the last few months. As a thank you, if you are a paying subscriber on December 31, 2011, we will provide you the full game for the final month for free.

Again, we want to thank the fantastic community of players who made LEGO Universe such a vibrant, fun and creative experience.

Sincerely,
The LEGO Universe Team

EGM’s TAKE: I always loved the idea of a LEGO MMO, as the concept of a game where players come together to build new worlds and adventure there together seemed fantastically fun. Thinking about it now, however, I guess I’ve kind of already received that game—it’s just called Minecraft.