Star Wars sees Lego through the recession

Despite the slump in global economy last year, Danish toy company Lego saw a 63% increase in profits, mostly in Asia and Europe with mostly Star Wars and Lego City sales. As a result of its growth, Lego has become the third biggest toy manufacturing company in the UK. The company saw its British revenue increase 28% – the fifth year in a row that Lego has seen an increase in the country, thanks mostly to the two most popular product lines.

The Star Wars children’s toy includes replicas of almost every ship and vehicle to be found in the famous George Lucas films. As a result of its enormous popularity among Star Wars fans and kids alike, Lego teamed up with LucasArts to create a Lego video game version of the original film trilogy featuring Luke Skywalker, Princess Laia and Darth Veda.

All three films (Episode IV: A New Hope; Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back; Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) all feature in LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy of the game. It’s tongue-in-cheek take on the classic films, gives players the option to play as one of 56 characters, modeled like Lego parts that fall to pieces when they’re defeated.

The next installment of the LEGO Star Wars video game, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars converts the film of the same name into animated Lego gaming. This next game is slated for a third-quarter 2010 release.

The game appears in PSP Star Wars Lego format, PS2, Xbox Nintendo DS and other popular platforms.