An upcoming racing game has leaked after rumors about it were just starting to circulate online.
The game in question is Lego 2K Drive, and it is a collaboration with Lego and 2K Games.
Lego 2K Drive isn’t a total surprise. Video Games Chronicle had reported last year that 2K Games won the Lego license, with the intention to make sports and racing games with it, as opposed to the action games TT Games has made under Warner Bros.
Video Games Chronicle’s report elaborated that 2K’s first planned games were a soccer game by Sumo Digital, and a racing game by Visual Concepts. Not confirmed but hinted at is the possibility for 2K to make a Lego NBA game, as they have both licenses.
On a recent episode of the Xbox Era podcast, Nick Baker revealed the game’s title, and supported Video Games Chronicle’s findings from a year ago. Nick describes it as a kart racer with closed circuit racing. He doesn’t quite agree that it’s a full open world, but it may have a somewhat open structure to access the different game sections.
Since Nick’s podcast, NintendoLife and Tom Henderson at Inside Gaming have been able to independently verify that the game is in development, and the name Lego 2K Drive. Tom says that the game is already on closed beta. This could mean that the game is scheduled to release as soon as this holiday. At the very least, we may see an official announcement as soon as this year’s E3 season.
But now we have to cover the latest news, as shared by GameRant. Images of the game, including a logo and renders of the vehicles and in-game graphics have leaked. Because these are leaked images, we won’t be able to share them with you here, but we can discuss what other information was shared.
Here is the description provided for the game alongside the leaked images, as found on reddit:
“LEGO 2K Drive PVP multiplayer gameplay is a “Mario Kart like” spin on the classic LEGO racing games we all know and love. There are many levels to choose from ranging from 2 to 5 minute races, and include lap races and sprint races, with multiple terrain and vehicle types such as on-road, off-road and water, with the vehicle changing automatically while driving.
Items/Powerups include: Jumping, Mines, Teleport, Ghost, Homing Missiles, EMP, Food Blaster, Web Crasher and Brick Wheels. You can also create custom vehicles as in other LEGO racing games.”
Of course, we cannot vouch for the veracity of this information, but it does sound like a reasonable description of the kind of racing game that would be made with the Lego license.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 52 million units on the Nintendo Switch alone, in comparison to the 5 to 6 million Gran Turismo 7 has sold on the PlayStation 5. Not that a Lego racing game was ever going to be a sim racer, but 2K was more likely to make it a kart racer than explore an open world, or other niche racing ideas that can still be fun, but aren’t quite as popular anymore, like futuristic racers or vehicular combat games.
