The LEGO Hidden Side App is disappearing in 2023
The companion app to the LEGO Hidden Side range will be unavailable from next year, exposing the downsides of the company’s digital strategies.
LEGO Hidden Side sets were first released back in 2019, offering a bold new approach to LEGO product design. Each set functions as an augmented reality marker, which (when viewed through a smart device running the companion app) triggers a simple ghost-catching minigame. Revealing coloured tiles hidden around each set unlocks new events for players to enjoy.
While the sets succeed on their own merits, the app is obviously a key component of the play experience. However, booting up the app now reveals this message:
Based on this text, it seems the app won’t be usable at all beyond an undetermined date next year. It’s possible you will still be able to download the app if you have it in your smart device app library. However, if you have any interest in the app’s functionality, we recommend checking it out as soon as possible.
Hidden Side is a memorable LEGO theme, but it was also something of a failure for the LEGO Group. The theme as a whole was discontinued in 2020 (a little sooner than expected for a theme of this type) and the company’s attempts to explore augmented reality elsewhere – in the LEGO VIDIYO theme – were similarly curtailed. It also exposes an issue with this kind of toy design: compared to other LEGO sets, we have a narrow window of opportunity to fully enjoy them.
That raises questions about other LEGO sets that rely on apps to work properly. LEGO Technic sets like 42131 App-Controlled Cat D11 Bulldozer demand a specialised app to access its many technical functions. Other control methods (like 88010 Remote Control) are too simple to offer the necessary control inputs.
That means that sooner or later, these expensive sets are going to become expensive paperweights without an alternative control option. With luck, a separate, dedicated control scheme will appear to support these sets in the long run.
The LEGO Hidden Side app is free to download now from the App Store of your choice. LEGO Hidden Side sets are largely discontinued, although 30464 El Fuego’s Stunt Cannon can be found on LEGO.com in some territories.
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Et voilà, pareil ici, mon petit de 7 ans decouvre une pub de lego hidden side, du coup go Pere Noel et hop, quelques jour plus tard plus d appli. Mr LEGO, ne me dites pas qu’avec le peu de bénéf que vous faites vous ne pouvez pas laisser quelques serveurs en marche. Surtout que ces set sont encore en ventes sur des sites en France. Navez vous pas une certaine obligation en ce sens? Je conseille à tous ceux qui sont dans ce cas, d’envoyer un courrier salé sur le site Lego officiel.
Both of my two sons has received a new LEGO hidden side product as a present for Christmas 2022,
the “Newbury Haunted High School” and the “Mystery Castle”!
Now, a few days later, the app has been disconnected !!
Shame on you, no more LEGO toys anymore for my kids !!!
Bonjour à tous.
Honte à LEGO d’avoir sorti une quantité de boîtes de jeu LEGO HIDDEN SIDE (qui sont toujours en vente actuellement en janvier 2023!) et d’avoir fait miroiter avec une application de jeu interactive qui est désormais obsolète à compter de ce 1er janvier 2023 (bonne année!!).
Des milliers, qui sait voire des millions d’enfants seront déçus une semaine après Noël!
C’est vraiment scandaleux avec tout le fric gagné avec ce produit!
LEGO se moque de nous et nous a pris pour des pigeons!
Je décide de boycotter LEGO désormais!
I cannot express my anger toward Lego. It is one thing to discontinue supporting the product by not releasing hardware compatibility updates, providing new app accounts via store, and even to eliminate the multi player. But to go and break the app completely seems really over the top, and that there is more to canning the product. I evidently wasted hundreds to see them waste away. SHAME ON YOU LEGO !!!!!!
Really upset the game is ending. One of very few mobile games that didn’t look at you as a wallet. I really hope that single player will still work after 2022, because they only made mention of multiplayer (which is funny Bc it received many crashes earlier this year which they just fixed). I hope we can gather online support for the game to prevent it from being discontinued because it’s a fun game a think many Lego fans enjoy. Also the sets will become undesirable on the aftermarket, and Lego’s already screwing that over with the Minifigure series boxes…
Nooooo, I had played it and was awesome, but at least will become a part of LEGO history with secrets agents, monster fighters and mixels.
My kid played with the app each time she had built a hidden side app. She played for a bit until it had completely drained the phone battery. This was after 5-10 minutes of play.