In what feels like yet another blow to nostalgia in a time where it’s needed more than ever, the online content and services have been taken down and are no longer available for LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet (PS3), and LittleBigPlanet PS Vita.
The news came in the form of a tweet from the official LittleBigPlanet Twitter account and the news has not been taken well by fans and the video game community in general. Preservation, or protecting the existence of content and games, is an interest shared by much of the community, and actions like this typically become a rallying cry for better protection of the game content that so many love.
The tweet’s announced started with good news but it wasn’t balanced or impacted much by the bad news. Update 1.27 resolved an issue being experienced by PlayStation 4 players but in the process, the online services had to be shut down for all the other games. Or at least that’s what’s being said.
While many of us can only assume how things go on behind the scenes, it’s hard to imagine there being no other way to resolve a technical issue in this day and age. It’s also just hard to accept when technology fails us since it makes so much of our lives (and suffering) possible.
The biggest shared criticism from players speaking out and responding to the tweet seems to be from the lack of notice or warning. Game shutdowns do unfortunately occur but there’s usually some notice, even if it’s not a lot. Even Nintendo tends to provide relatively good communication on issues like this and it’s probably the most notorious company when it comes to unnecessary content removals.
Servers are still online for the most recent creation-based LittleBigPlanet title but players no doubt feel less inclined to engage with or create content given that it could be removed in the future without so much as a second’s notice. The latest title in the series, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, is a platformer title and not based within the same creation-focused gameplay so it shouldn’t be a problem.
