After eight years of development, an ambitious Lego Bionicle fangame has been forced to shut down. Bionicle: Masks of Power was only months away from having a playable demo when the Lego Group intervened, leading to its cancellation.

In a statement from the developers Team Kanohi, they shared, “The Lego Group has asked our team to shut down our project in its entirety, and remove Bionicle: Masks of Power from the public eye.” The developers insisted that they had consistently maintained the unofficial status of the game, including disclaimers throughout the project. The game had even received mentions on Lego’s official gaming podcast.

They further noted, “Unfortunately, it seems like the Lego Group’s stance on fan-created media has changed. While we can only speculate as to the exact reason why they have asked us to remove the game at this time, what we suspect is that our project was too easy to mistake for an official product.”
Despite the cancellation, Team Kanohi plans to apply their insights to a new original game called Project Rustbound and has rebranded the team to Unmasked Games.

The studio has indicated that while details about the new title are still under wraps, hints of a similar style to Masks of Power may emerge. They expressed both regret over the fangame closure and optimism for their upcoming projects, stating, “This has been heartbreaking news for our entire team, but we’re also incredibly excited about what the future has in store, and for what we’ll get the chance to create next.”