It was sad news for PlayStation fans the world over as Sumo Digital revealed that LittleBigPlanet 3 will be staying offline indefinitely. Since January, LBP3’s servers have been sitting in an offline state, thanks to technical issues that plagued the game’s multiplayer-based offerings. Now, it has been announced that LittleBigPlanet 3 will stay offline indefinitely, with the developer admitting defeat and disappointing fans worldwide.
The news came as a sudden shock to those waiting for a new game in the series. LittleBigPlanet 3 was released in 2014 to a positive reception but was the last LittleBigPlanet game in the franchise. There were a couple of spin-off titles released, but not enough to placate the community that loves Sackboy and his adventures. Now, with no word on LittleBigPlanet 4, fans of the series are left with a disappointing loss and no real future to look forward to.
LittleBigPlanet Gone
It was stressed by PlayStation and Sumo Digital that this step only impacts the online portion of the game. That means that users can no longer share or appreciate user-generated content (UGC) in the game, but they can still play the campaign and create content to be stored locally. Despite the mitigation of the disappointment, it’s still a loss for fans who cherish this wholesome, light-hearted game that was released ten years ago.
There’s something of a trend emerging of late, with developers and publishers taking games offline and upsetting players. One key example of this is Ubisoft sunsetting the servers for The Crew, but that effectively kills the entire game as it’s online-only. That step warranted some players to seek legal action against Ubisoft, setting up petitions and threatening lawsuits. It’s not expected that shutting down the LittleBigPlanet 3 servers would go that far – but you never know.
LBP3 now joins a long list of games that have had their multiplayer servers decommissioned in recent years, such as:
- Killzone 1 – Shadowfall (the entire franchise)
- Gran Turismo 6
- MLB The Show 14 -18
- DRIVECLUB
- Demon’s Souls
On the Sony website, there’s a full library of the games taken offline over the years, including some of the best PlayStation 2 games. That’s how far back the catalogue goes!
It’s the nature of the business – not everything can last forever, and sometimes, things need to be taken offline to make space for new projects. That’s the hope that fans are holding true to now – there are many expecting an announcement regarding a LittleBigPlanet 4 soon.
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