These days kids have more choices than ever on how and with what to play. There are real toys, digital games, board games and so much more.
The choices are so big, that LEGO has done a survey to explore how parents feel about all of this. Especially considering the popularity of video games and digital devices as a whole.
The results of the survey shows that almost half of parents in the UK believe their kid’s problem-solving skills have improved thanks to digital play. There’s also another benefit of digital games – they have motivated a new era of interactive toys, as well.
As a result, 34% of parents feel that their child is better prepared for the future thanks to a mixture of digital and classic play. The introduction of new technologies like AR and others also improve the interest in kids. Overall 63% of kids say they have more fun when they play with digital toys.
But kids still like their normal toys, too. So, LEGO coins a new term – Phygital play. It’s the fusion of physical and digital play which kids seem to be enjoying quite a lot.
Also, 60% of kids say physical toys help them to be more imaginative. 68% say they want to see more toys that mix digital and physical play. Of course, parents still firmly believe in physical toys, too, as that’s what they mostly grew up with.
But still, they are slowly changing their minds when they see the overall benefits of kids playing with both physical and digital toys and games.
“We’ve always been focused on inspiring and developing the creativity of the builders of tomorrow and we believe that ‘Phygital’ play is a new, innovative way of doing so, blending our traditional bricks that sit at the core of everything we do with an innovative new solution”, Marius Lang, head of marketing for the UK and Ireland says.
LEGO is already working on that front with the LEGO Hidden Side line-up. It fuses AR tech with physical classic LEGO builds. And it’s potentially just the start of a massive lineup.
