LittleBigPlanet recently reached one million online levels, and the developers have deservedly begun to celebrate. A million levels, of which 999,990 are trophy-farming levels. The million levels have been played 244 million times; obviously this means that there have been 244 million cases of frustration over the stupid physics and jumping mechanics, and likely about a billion uses of the “hit the other player” wave of the control stick.

There have been rumors abound about some sort of Ghostbusters content in LittleBigPlanet ever since the jerks over at the Playstation.blog started tugging at our heart strings and teasing potential Ghostbusters content in the game. While I don’t actually own LittleBigPlanet (or for that matter, a Playstation 3) I’ve been waiting to see what Media Molecule and Sony have been holding back in the game. Today, the Playstation.blog finally revealed what we knew the entire time- that Ghostbusters costumes were indeed coming to LittleBigPlanet.

Some of you will be disappointed to learn that there aren’t any special levels or packs with this DLC, other than the costumes themselves. You can grab each costume individually for $1.99 off of the Playstation Network, or if bundlin’ makes you feel good, you can go for the full 4-pack of costumes for $5.99, and save yourself a Jefferson.

[via Destructoid]

The PlayStation Blog has revealed a new set of downloadable content for LittleBigPlanet today: a “level pack”. The pack, the first of many, will include costumes, objects, decorative items and stickers, and will cost $2.99. The two costumes above will be in this pack, along with a host of other stuff- but only until Jan 8!. Hit the jump to see what you’ll be getting.

- Two new Costumes – Christmas Tree headpiece and a Wrapped Sackboy.
- One new Create Material = Wrapping Paper (cardboard w/ giftwrap texture).
- Two new Objects = A Festive Sleigh and holiday themed light.
- Six new Decorations = A Festive Bauble, Bell, Wrapping Bow, Candy Cane, Card and Stocking.
- A ton of new Stickers = holiday themed of course, including a Red Nose Reindeer, Elves, Turkey images and many more.

Pretty nice selection of stuff. Worth $2.99, though? I suppose if you’re a big fan of Christmas and/or the game, it’s not too bad. Look out for the free Santa costume being released soon, too!

Why not? It seems the best way to promote your game today is to dress up Media Molecule’s lead character as that of your own. If you’re a fan of the Capcom fighting series, you will apparently be able to pick up the character costumes shown above individually and as a package deal. No word on price or release date just yet. Sit tight.

Source:psnow.es

I know some fanboys will read the headline and expect this article to totally slam the PS3 and Little Big Planet, and they will likely start posting hateful comments before even reading what this is about. Great. You are only making your fanboyism more apparent and showing the community what a massive dickface you are, so I welcome that.

What this article is actually about is in defense of Little Big Planet (or is it LittleBigPlanet, one word?). You see, a lot of websites (that I won’t mention because they don’t deserve the promotion) have been commenting on Little Big Planet’s sales and making the fantastically brilliant analysis that the game’s delay may have affected its numbers. More specifically, its October sales numbers in particular are not as high as they could have been because the release date was pushed back. Um, no fucking shit, you morons.

While a lot of fanboys and seemingly intelligent people have tried to reason with these websites as to why the sales were as “low” as they were (the patch caused people to be wary of buying it, lots of big releases in October, Sony didn’t advertise it enough, etc.), they all seemed to be missing one obviously logical explanation: it didn’t sell as well as it could have because it was only out for 4 fucking days!

Let me ask you this: do you think Little Big Planet sold less copies in October in 4 days than it would have if it was instead available for 11 days? Um, of course it did. It’s pretty simple logic, isn’t it? In fact, Little Big Planet’s sales of 215,000 units in 4 days was only right behind SOCOM’s sales of 231,000, and that game was available for a full two weeks longer.

Some people assumed Little Big Planet would be an instant million-seller, and some even predicted 5 million units sold. These October numbers now have people making all kinds of excuses. Let’s be real, people. The PS3 has only 17 games that have to date sold over a million copies (Xbox 360 has 47), and GTA4 tops that list with less than 5 million. Obviously, Little Big Planet is not going straight to the top with over 5 million copies sold. That’s just silly.

On the other hand, Little Big Planet’s sales of 215,000 copies in only 4 days puts it on track to sell a million copies fairly easily, a feat which is pretty impressive for a PS3-exclusive new IP (joining Motorstorm, Resistance, Uncharted, and Heavenly Sword). In fact, I would predict that Little Big Planet breaks the million mark by the end of the month, and if Sony decides to pack it in a holiday bundle, you can expect it to pass 2 million by year’s end.

So all these idiots pretending to be analysts need to just stop writing. If you want to talk about sales data, at least be logical about it… or don’t. At least if you keep doing what you’re doing I’ll have plenty of material for my own writing. So, uh, thanks for that… idiots.

A few weeks ago, we ran a story about LittleBigPlanet’s Metacritic user score: a measly 6.3. We spoke to the site’s founder Marc Doyle about the matter and were informed that it was only that low due to rampant fanboys on the warpath, attempting to sabotage the PS3 and its games. This inevitably continued with more low user scores: Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2. Well, it seems that now, fanboys have started trying to influence the critic’s score, by flaming LittleBigPlanet on the site’s forums.

While posting on this thread, an unnamed Metacritic user and certified fanboy claims they were wrongfully banned for what the cite deemed “crude and rude” statements. The complaint was then carried over by the user as an attempted news post on gaming news site N4G.

In the Metacritic thread itself, a series of users voiced concerns that not every 10/10 score for Sony’s huge IP LittleBigPlanet had been posted to the site. The users kick and scream because their favorite system’s biggest game isn’t scored as high as they’d like — beaten only by GTA4. We spoke to Marc about the matter, and he summed up the idiocy neatly:

As long as I have a page for a game on Metacritic, I post every review for that game from the publications I track. It’s not an automated process and we’re human, so we will occasionally make a mistake on inputting a score or I’ll miss a review. But when it’s called to our attention, we post the review immediately. But it is our policy to post every review from every publication we cover, so long as we have a page for that game on our site. We don’t pick and choose which reviews we post.

In case you didn’t realize already, Metacritic only syndicates review scores from registered publications- ones that are chosen by Metacritic to represent the critical opinion of the games. If your independent blog gives LBP a 10/10, and you’re not syndicated on Metacritic, it’s not going to be on the list. This means it’s not going to be listed as a review on the game’s page.

While the very nature of reviews is to be subjective (it is the reviewer’s opinion, after all), Metacritic is certainly not biased towards one console or another. In addition to this, the site never claims to have an exhaustive list of reviews for any given game; it just does its best with the resources available to it (in this case, the publications signed up with Metacritic).

LittleBigWorkshop is a site for those of us having trouble making our magnum opus in LittleBigPlanet. The site, while not only boasting the charming LBP aesthetic, provides a multitude of ways to get started on your new level.

The site links to your PSN account (you ought to have one if you’ve got LBP, you know) and allows you to view Workshops, user-created videos on how to go about creating your level, ‘Inspirations’, user-created snippets of text to inspire the greatest level the world has ever seen, and finally the blueprints feature. As you can see, I had no trouble in creating the plans for what may win every award you can think of (and some will be made up in order to commemorate the awesomeness).

It’s all very well done, and there are already plenty of users generating content for the site. It’s just a shame nobody will ever be able to top the Ripten party boat car level.

Since LittleBigPlanet hit retails shelves a week ago (though many people got it before then), there have been some pretty nifty levels coming out of the gaming populous. However, none of them so far have been as creative and mind-blowingly awesome as this Gradius level, fittingly titled “Libidius.jp”. Check it out after the break.

I haven’t even taken a crack at the editor yet, but I can assure you that nothing I pump out will be nearly as fantastic as that. I thought the working calculator was amazing, but holy shit. Holy shit. In fact, after watching that, I don’t think I ever will open the editor. I am not worthy.

RRR30000 (via: forum.beyond3d)

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Does anyone remember the GameDaily “Epic Fail: Games that will Probably Suck” list, because I sure as hell do. In fact, I probably went a little overboard in my response to their calling LittleBigPlanet a “glorified version of PowerPoint” with a future full of “crap content”.

Well, I guess that old PowerPoint presentation finally won them over, because they gave the Media Molecule IP a 9.0 “Excellent” score. Here’s a snippet of what they had to say:

“Until recently, we had trouble enjoying Sony’s ambitious PlayStation 3 video game, LittleBigPlanet. Its mascot, the adorable Sackboy, was shoved down our throats, and the level editor failed to thrill … Now our heads are full of grinning Sackboys, previously completed levels and our own designs. We’re hooked.”

“Buy LittleBigPlanet or we’ll kick you in your Sackboy.”

See, with a little less crystal ball gazing and a little more hands-on play time, even GameDaily was able to realize the “epic fail” error of their ways. I’m not sure threatening to kick people in their “Sackboy” will get them back in the good graces of MM, but it may be a good way to work off all that crow they must be eating right about now.

If you tried to play with your Sackboy last night, you likely powered down your PS3 with a LittleBigFrown. Yes, Media Molecule was forced to shut down operations due to some unfortunate reports of glitching experienced by players.

The following statement was issued as an update on the MM site:

Great gremlins and ghosts! The servers are down while we try to fix the glitching issues some players have experienced. They will be back online as soon as we have fixed the problem. Keep your browsers pointed at this post for updates.

So there you have it. Stay tuned as we plan to update you as soon as we hear something.

Source: mediamolecule.com

I recently interviewed Metacrtic founder, Marc Doyle, about what many were calling a suspiciously low LittleBigPlanet user score of 6.3 on his site. Those unfamiliar with Metacritic need only to know that it aggregates the scores given by critics on various websites around the web into one “metascore” and also allows users to submit their own scores which are aggregated into a separate user score.

The total amount of users who had submitted a score for LBP at the time of my article was upwards of 2,200 and the result apparently motivated a group PlayStation 3 fanboys to retaliate. The current user score for the upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive, Gears of War 2, is a laughable 4.1 comprised of roughly 375 submissions.

Marc’s comment regarding the LBP controversy is applicable once again:

“Over the years, people have, by and large, not exploited the fact that you can vote early. Only recently have people started voting en masse for (and against) games like they’ve done with LBP.”

It seems that fanboys on both sides will continue to disregard the negative effect they have on individuals who actually depend on the user scores given by those they deem to be their peers. Marc spoke breify about the future of Metacritic, stating that they plan to include a more thorough registration process in hopes of reducing the fanboy effect. In the mean time, I think we could all benefit from a little more self restraint.

Many of us believed that the recent delay of Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet was meant to allow for a recall, reprinting, and redistribution of the game after what some deemed to be offensive lyrics were brought to the attention of Sony.

While this may still be the case, it is also possible that the move to recall the game was nothing more than Sony’s way to ensure the impending LBP patch would be approved and accessible on PSN before the exclusive PlayStation 3 title hit stores.

Assuming you are one of the foolish fortunate individuals who bid their bi-weekly paycheck on Ebay for a copy of Sackboy’s debut IP, you can log into PSN and download the 57MB patch right now. Everyone else will benefit from the automatic update on November 5th.

Source: Neogaff (via CVG)

[UPDATE] – After speaking with our own Patrick Steen, who is playing the US release of the game, we have confirmation that the patch currently only applies to the EU version and that a US patch has yet to be released.

[UPDATE 10/26/08] – The US patch is now available for download.

Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet is proving that little is not only the new big (as the mini billboard shown above cleverly states), it’s also the new entrepreneurial cash cow.

While early copies of the game have been selling on Ebay for upwards of $150, the demand for everything Sackboy doesn’t end there. Miniature LittleBigPlanet billboards (which I must admit look pretty cool) are surfacing on Ebay with starting bids of around $35.

This is not good people. I’m afraid that the rush of attention may eventually overwhelm a young Sackboy, causing him to become emotionally withdrawn in his later years. Do you really want to see a reality TV show thirty years from now staring an overweight and drug addicted Sackman, sitting on a couch, sharing child star stories with Gary Coleman and Corey Haim? I didn’t think so.

Check out a few more of the LBP billboards after the jump.

LittleBigResistance: Delay of Sackboy

The recent controversy surrounding Sony’s decision to delay the release of LittleBigPlanet, over a Qur’an reference made in one of the tracks, has many gamers flexing their memory muscle in an attempt to illustrate a double standard.

The belief is that Sony’s 2006 decision to essentially ignore the Church of England’s request asking for the removal of the Manchester Cathedral from their Resistance: Fall of man game, paired with the company’s recent willingness to comply to the perceived wishes of a Muslim community, demonstrates favoritism.

Several prime examples appear as comments appended to Kotaku’s recent post regarding the recall. Here are excerpts from a few of my favorites:

“Where’s the balls you had when it came to standing up to the Church of England, Sony?? Fuck you and your double standard, you bastards.” - Lachoy

“Sony, clearly, not willing to lift a finger to defend Western values or preserve our sensibilities, but willing to bend over backward to appease Islamic twits. They take our market for granted.” - rateoforange

To all those bringing up the Church of Manchester incident as a valid analogy: where the fuck have you been for the past 15 years? Stop thinking in absolute terms: “Christians are OK with it, so Muslims should be too.” Yes, there is a double standard here, and no, it’s not the end of the world. - Antiterra

This got me thinking about the two scenarios from a pure business standpoint. Armed with only an opinion, my belief is that Sony isn’t demonstrating favoritism, rather they are making what they believe to be sound business decisions based on a bottom line mentality.

While opinions are nice, I realized that any level of convincing was going to require more than a hunch. I needed proof that the cost of a potential Cathedral replacement would drastically exceed those associated with the recent LittleBigPlanet delay.

Our own Dan Landis, who followed the 2006 Cathedral incident closer than I, was quick to point out one glaring difference: the Church’s complaint was brought to the attention of Sony after the game had already been released for several months. However, for the sake of illustrating my point, we’ll assume both concerns were voiced prior to each game’s release.

The first thing I wanted to figure out was how much it would cost for a team of developers, in terms of salary, to make a new level to replace the Cathedral, had Sony decided to pull it from the game. In order to do that, I needed a rough development time frame. The best answer I found appeared in a June 2006 GameSpot interview with Insomniac CEO, Ted Price.

GameSpot: How long has the game been in development?

Ted Price: We’ve been in production on Resistance: Fall of Man for several months now and were in preproduction for a long time before that. How’s that for a vague answer?

Alright Ted, I’ll go with it. Let’s assume “several months” adds up to six, and “a long time before that” represents about two years. Combine those numbers with the six months time separating the interview and the game’s release and you get three years.

Next, I needed to get some gaming related salary information. I came across a website which outlined ballpark salaries for the most common gaming industry positions utilizing data submitted via a Game Makers Salary Survey. Insomniac’s official site lists the company at one hundred and eighty plus employees strong, so I took a reasonable chunk of that head count and created decent sized team with the basic structure and pay scale outlined in the survey.

The estimate I reached for one month of development time, from a pure salary perspective, totaled $250,000. Taking that number and multiplying it by three years time adds up to $9 million in total cost. Whether this number is accurate or not, it is in line with the quote given by Epic VP, Mark Rein, in a 2007 Wired Game|Life interview regarding the estimated cost to produce Gears of War.

“We spent less than $10 million to make Gears of War. Somewhere between nine and ten million dollars.”

Granted, this may be a low estimate, but it will serve its purpose. Compiling everything I gathered, the hypothetical Resistance replacement level would cost $500,000 with a two month cap on development time.

Assuming the Cathedral itself took about the same time to create, that would be a total loss of $1 million to appease the Church of England. Therefore, had the request been made one week prior to the game’s release, it’s my belief, based on the business reality outlined above, that the change would not have been made.

LittleBigPlanet’s delay consists of an audio track modification, recalled product, and a reprint of the game. Using a baseline of one million copies, at a printing rate of 10 cents per unit (estimated and discounted based on a rate offered to consumers for a similar service), brings the total cost for reprinting to $100,000. Adding a generous amount for product recall and audio rework yields a result less than one-fifth the amount predicted for Resistance.

So while the LittleBigPlanet delay is complex in its own right, I hope the information provided here helps at least a few gamers consider business logic, not favoritism, as a deciding factor.

Afterthought: Do you think that Sony is at fault for playing favorites here, or do you think the entire thing is getting blow out of proportion? Does the game’s delay effect your decision to buy/not buy the game? Share your thoughts below.

If you’re like me – and I know you are – you have been enjoying the Schadenfreude as Republican vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin has been routinely savaged in the media.

It would seem now that Gov. Palin has now been rendered into a “Sackgirl” via LittleBigPlanet. Yes, someone actually took the time to make a Sarah Palin Sack Girl.

Yet the video seems to border less on the political auteur spectrum and more on the Rick James pimp-hand. Observe:

While such offerings illicit the appropriate “lullz,” I have to admit that this would have been better if it was Sarah Palin pimp slapping her daughters “baby-daddy” into another time zone.

The LittleBigPlanet game you may have heard a thing or two about lately is getting some more costumes for their dashing lead man. Sony’s Official PlayStation Blog announced that Solid Snake (Old Snake) and Sephiroth (from Final Fantasy VII) digs were confirmed for LBP moments ago on the Tokyo Game Show floor.

While the PlayStation blog itself makes no mention of pricing or planned method of distribution, a translated announcement made on the SCEI website points to the costumes being sold worldwide as downloadable content via the PSN.

Get a closer look at the two new sacks after the jump.

I’m not the creative type. LittleBigPlanet should have no appeal to me, but for some reason I’m consistently drawn to it.

After dwelling on this notion for hours (literally) I decided it’s the game’s combination of approachability (in both visuals and gameplay), and the platform it creates.

Media Molecule presents users with a tool set expansive enough to recreate Shadow of the Colossus in a condensed form, and in this specific case, revive the emotion previously evoked by the original.

The following LBP level, designed by PSN user Kirathian, recreates the theme song from Final Fantasy X, “To Zanarkand.” Yes, you heard me correctly — he recreates the song using the LBP level editor.

Hit the jump for the utterly awesome video filled with awesome.

Keep in mind that what you just saw was created with a beta version of the game, which is said to contain roughly half of the items that will be available in the full retail release of LittleBigPlanet just two weeks away.

Source: 1UP

A new GameStop commercial, which recently appeared on FX, has revealed some additional LittleBigPlanet pre-order specials.

In addition to the Kratos costume we reported on a two months ago, the spot unveils a new Medusa and Minotaur costume for Sackboy, as well as a God of War map pack.

Hit the jump to watch the commercial yourself.

Source: N4G

LittleBigPlanet’s Sackboy makes his way through a Super Mario Bros World 1 remake created using the LBP level editor. Hit the jump and watch Super Sackboy rescue the princess as only he can.

Youtube member pahndo claims credit for this awesome creation, so head on over to his page and show him some love if you enjoy it.

[Thanks Brian]

While you were loitering about last weekend, perhaps jamming out in your underwear to Rock Band 2, or consuming an entire case of Bawls in an effort to get as far ahead in Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, some people were making productive use of their time.

Some students over at NYC Parson’s school spent 24 hours with early copies of LittleBigPlanet in a creation competition. The contestants spent one day creating a level for the game, which were judged on categories such as most fun, best use of tools and most innovative.

But the overall winner took a concept from the PS2 and applied it, with exciting results. More than any ad campaign or story I’ve read, this got me excited for LittleBigPlanet. To see what they did with the game makes me feel inadequate in many ways, not the least of all for spending my weekend as the aforementioned boxer’d bassist.

Check out the videos for a glimpse at what has been dubbed, fittingly, the Shadow of the LittleBigColossus.

So. What’d you spend YOUR weekend doing? Did you hand-craft a giant moving level for a highly anticipated game that isn’t even out yet? Didn’t think so.

The infamous SackBoy and his LittleBigPaintbrush have painted their way onto the German cityscape just in time for this years GC in Leipzig. While I’m sure that SB himself created the masterpiece, something tells me that Sony and Media Molecule sprung for the paint.

See the mural from a few different angles by visiting the Official GC 08 Blog.

Source: gc-blog.de

That’s right. According the official PlayStation blog, the exclusive Kratos SackBoy rumors were true — but that’s not all. Those who pre-order the game will have other options outside of Kratos.

The full list contains:

• The Official “LittleBigPlanet Creator” MiniGuide by Brady Games
• LittleBigStickerBook – because everyone loves stickers
• LittleBigPouch – to protect your game
• Exclusive Nariko SackGirl
• Exclusive Kratos SackBoy

Kotaku is reporting the package as all inclusive, however my understanding, based on the statement below, is that you will be able to choose from the list, as opposed to getting one of everything on it.

“… we wanted to share early details of our pre-order campaign for you to decide which item you’d like.”

Regardless, the Kratos SackBoy gets my vote. Why you ask? Because the only thing better than shoving your buddies around a LBP map is shoving your buddies around a LBP map while screaming “I’m a GOD bitch, and don’t you forget it!”

More images available after the jump.

Source: blog.us.playstation.com (via Kotaku)

One of the most popular games among the Ripten E3 crew (check out our last day of E3 podcast) has to be Sony’s LittleBigPlanet.

Honestly, when I first heard of the game I wasn’t too interested. In fact, I wasn’t even going to play it at E3, but Chad told me to. Thanks Chad, because it easily became one of my favorite games of E3.

Developed by Media Molecule, LittleBigPlanet is a side-scrolling action game that focuses heavily on player-enabled customization. From creating your own character to customizing your own level, almost everything in the game can be user-created, leading to an unlimited amount of possibilities.

As soon as I got my hands on the game, I was impressed and having fun with it. The controls were easy to learn and only used a few buttons to interact.

I played with two other people, first trying out a mini-game that had a series of platforms coming from the bottom to the top. The objective was to keep dropping down from one platform to the other before getting smothered with toxic gas at the top of the screen. I’m guessing there will be tons of mini-games just like the one I played, making LBP a fun party game.

We then went on to play an actual level, which relied heavily on co-op play with different puzzles and strategies. There were all sorts of obstacles on the stage we played, like rolling logs on fire and swinging sponge-looking thingies that we had to grab onto to swing over to the next area.

Although the game relies on co-op gameplay and brainstorming with each other, it’s also a race to the finish, complete with points and grabbing items and goodies.

As you’re progressing through a level, each character will be awarded points by collecting these bubble-looking things and at the end of the level you’ll be placed in order of who finished the fasted, just for bragging rights. Oh, and you’ll want to be the quickest to grab all the customizable items like stickers and equipment for you characters.

Oh, and LBP is finally a game that really uses the Sixaxis controller! When you’re playing the game, you can move the Sixaxis to shake, bobble, and make your character dance around. Even better is the ability to control your character’s arms with the L2 and R2 buttons, smacking around the other players for purely no reason. Funny shit.

Each player was able to customize their character mid-game, everything from changing outfits to face paint. You could also change the landscape of the level mid-game, like adding stickers to the wall. Again, the game is all about user-created content.

My favorite aspect of LBP has to be online and sharing experience. Not only can you hop online through the Playstation Network to play with three friends, you can also upload and share all your created levels to the LBP community. Once you’re online, you can check out all your friends’ created levels, play on them, and even edit their levels to your liking and make it your own.

Overall, LittleBigPlanet looks wonderful and the gameplay is incredibly fun. I played for about 15-20 minutes and I just fell in love. For a game that I had no intention on playing, I was blown away.

Be prepared for tons of fun and laughter when LittleBigPlanet comes out for the PS3 this October.