At the Nintendo Pre-E3 2011 Press Conference, Lego City Stories was announced as an all-new exclusive being developed by Traveller’s Tales exclusively for Wii U and 3DS.
The game will be joint-published by Nintendo and Warner Bros. and marks the first time Nintendo has teamed up with Traveller’s Tales.
This partnership was brought about due to the high sales of Traveller’s Tales’ licensed Lego games on Nintendo platforms, games like Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman and Lego Rock Band have seen great success on Nintendo platforms including Wii and DS, so Nintendo hopes that netting an exclusive like Lego City Stories will go a long way towards selling the console.
Lego City Stories will essentially be Lego Grand Theft Auto, just without all the violence! The game is set within “Lego City” and is an open-world game. Vehicles will play a big part in the game and the screenshots suggest you may be able to build them as well. Lego City Stories will also mark the first sandbox, open-world game in the Lego series.
Here is the debut announcement for Lego City Stories.