The Lego Group has shut down a long-awaited fan project after eight years in development, just a few short months ahead of its planned demo. was a non-profit, open-world action RPG set in the universe of Lego Bionicle. It followed the Toa's quest to collect the masks of power and free the island of Mata Nui from the evil Makuta, and developer Team Kanohi was due to launch a playable preview in August, but now it is no more.

As someone just young enough to have caught the start of the Bionicle craze, it's always felt like a perfect fit for an action game. Yet with the toy line long discontinued, it's unlikely that we'll ever see another official release, even with so many successful Lego games on PC. Bionicle: Masks of Power promised to be the answer to that void; a sprawling open-world game built in Unreal Engine 5 with six playable Toa heroes to take on your adventure. Sadly, it has now been brought to a close.

Despite some hardships over the past year, Team Kanohi says in a new public statement that it "was in the final stages of bug fixing and polishing for the demo's release," and was planning a shadow drop on Sunday August 10, 2025. "Unfortunately, it seems that will no longer happen. 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."

As a way to archive its work, Team Kanohi has recorded a complete video walkthrough of the demo's current state, seen above. It reminds anyone watching that the build "still had three months of polish to undergo before launch, meaning that the footage contains many known issues. However, we are still incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished, and wanted to take this last chance to share it with you."

Team Kanohi says it has always "made an effort to ensure our project was in good standing with The Lego Group, carefully following its fair play guidelines." It never charged players for development, and has disclaimers explaining the fan-made nature of the work. "Unfortunately, it seems like The Lego Group's stance on fan-created media has changed," it remarks.

The developer says it has not been given a reason for this decision, but speculates "that our project was too easy to mistake for an official product. At the time of writing, searching 'Bionicle game' on Google lists the Steam page for Bionicle: Masks of Power within the first couple of links. An average person seeing our game for the first time could easily think that it was an official game at first glance, and no amount of disclaimers we could put up would be able to change that."

The good news is that it's not the end for the studio. Rebranding as Unmasked Games, the team is taking those eight years of development work and using that knowledge as the foundation for a completely original game. It's currently codenamed Project Rustbound, although it will naturally be some time before there's more to show. "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," it says.

As of right now, the game's former Steam page has been replaced by that of Project Rustbound. "From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us over the long journey to get where we are today," the message from the team concludes. "We've grown from just a couple of Bionicle fans trying to make the type of game we wished we had as kids into a fully fledged independent game studio. And the only reason we've been able to grow this much is through all of your support and love. Thank you."

PCGamesN has reached out to The Lego Group for comment regarding this decision, and will update this story with any response.

For now, you'll have to content yourself with our pick of the best RPGs on PC, or opt for one of the best indie games in 2025 instead.

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