Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Lego is building up its capability to make its own video games as the world\u2019s largest toymaker invests heavily in developing its own digital play experiences alongside its bricks and mini-figures.The Danish toymaker had outsourced its video game studio as well as theme parks and other non-core activities after its brush with bankruptcy two decades ago.But Niels Christiansen, Lego\u2019s chief executive, told the Financial Times that after a strong period of growth, in which its revenues doubled to $10bn since 2019, it was adding new digital capabilities to its core physical toy business.\u201cWe can definitely say as long as we\u2019re under the Lego brand we can cover experiences for kids of all ages, digital or physical. [Games development in-house] is something we\u2019re building up,\u201d he added.Lego has enjoyed success with a series of video games developed by external studios, as well as its more recent tie-up with shooting game Fortnite, which has attracted 87mn players. It has invested several hundred millions of dollars in tripling the number of software engineers it employs since 2022 and beefing up its digital infrastructure. The toymaker has also released a number of Lego sets based on video games such as Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.Christiansen\u2019s comments came as the Billund-based company continued to outpace US-based rivals such as Mattel and Hasbro in both revenues and profitability, growing faster than a toy industry that has been weighed down by existential worries about digital devices stealing children\u2019s play time.Lego reported on Tuesday that revenues last year increased by 13 per cent to DKr74bn ($10.1bn) while operating profit rose by 10 per cent to DKr18.7bn ($2.7bn).Mattel\u2019s revenues were flat at $5.4bn in 2024 while operating profit rose by a quarter to $690mn. At Hasbro, revenues fell by almost a fifth to $4.1bn while it rebounded to an operating profit of $690mn.Christiansen said that Lego would not \u201coverreact\u201d to the threat of tariffs from US President Donald Trump despite importing most of its sets into the US from Mexico.He said Lego liked to \u201cproduce as late as possible\u201d to avoid having excess inventory so would not pre-ship any sets. He added that Lego had got through the Covid-19 pandemic as well as surging inflation and raw material costs \u201cby not overreacting, and it\u2019s the same approach here\u201d.He added: \u201cRight now, there are no tariffs, but there is uncertainty.\u201d Lego has announced a new factory in Virginia in the US but it will not open until 2027. \u201cIt will be good when it comes on stream. We made that decision before tariffs.\u201dThe chief executive concluded: \u201cIn the big picture, tariffs are not what keeps me awake. That\u2019s being relevant.\u201dHe stressed that there was increasing competition for children\u2019s time with digital products such as YouTube. Lego has tried new tie-ups such as with Fortnite and Formula 1 in an attempt to attract older children. \u201cWe have made quite a few investments in the future \u2014 I\u2019d almost rather overinvest. That\u2019s the benefit of being family-owned and long term,\u201d Christiansen added.Lego over-extended itself at the start of this century by moving into peripheral businesses and moving away from only making its iconic bricks. But Christiansen believes it has learned its lessons and is better able to support more activities as it is a much bigger company. Lego\u2019s founding family also bought back its Legoland theme parks recently as the company increasingly looks at the likes of Disney as a rival rather than toymakers.Video: Building blocks: Lego’s next move | FT Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Lego is building up its capability to make its own video games as the world\u2019s largest toymaker invests heavily in developing its own digital play experiences<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-236406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}