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.

Once in a while, a video comes along that is just so well-produced, and so clever that you can’t help but think it’s viral marketing of some sort. SeakittenCollective’s LittleBigRevenge is a perfect example of that, though I’m sure the turn for the worse this video takes isn’t the image that Media Molecule wants to promote.

Belgian couple Michael Van Ostade and Kaat Schellen had to find out the hard way that the Sackboys (Sackgirl? Sackpeople?) of LittleBigPlanet are always adorable, but sometimes vengeful when Kaat makes the mistake of wishing that the Sackpeople were real. I don’t want to spoil the video, so I’m just gonan shut up so you can enjoy the masterpiece that is LittleBigRevenge.

Source: Destructoid

The PS Blog reports that LittleBigPlanet will be receiving an update soon, including a multitude of fixes and improvements. The update notes are after the jump, and include such things as ‘the game doesn’t break much now’ and ‘it’s a bit better now’. Not really, but that’s the gist of it. The patch includes the ability to listen to your own music in some sections of the game, and a better way to manage clothing, as well as a few improvements to the UI and community aspects of the game.

This update addresses several outstanding issues with the game:

* There is a new music player which lets player’s choose their own music from the XMB to play during create mode and in their Pod
* Improved decoration mode makes it easier to customize your Sackboy

New options to help prevent profiles becoming full of unwanted community objects:

* Option to delete all (unhearted) community objects and photos
* Option to select whether to automatically collect community prizes and photos
* A number of improvements have been made to make profiles more robust and to recover from certain errors
* We now support Japanese and Korean IME for text chat.
* Emitter prediction has been improved (this should help fast-moving projectiles e.g. in MGS levels)
* The player proximity switch now has a ‘require all’ option in it
* An option has been added to cycle between various level information when viewing community levels on the earth
* Various LittleBigStore improvements

Via Dtoid.

Sony’s Hong Kong site has revealed a set of Metal Gear Solid 4 DLC for LittleBigPlanet today. The content features costumes (individual and a pack) and level content for the game. Fans will be able to dress their Sackboy as Meryl, Screaming Mantis, and Raiden, along with the already released Old Snake. Looking at the icon for the level creation pack, it looks like there will be plenty of MGS stickers, as well as the inevitable objects and materials. Sony might be milking the cash cow a little hard with LittleBigPlanet, but honestly this looks like it might be something I’m actually interesting in getting, if only to have a Solid Snake sticker.

Via PS3 Fanboy.

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!

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.

It seems that even before the game’s release, LittleBigPlanet has been having problems. The latest comes from the “moderation” of user-created levels. Now, I’m pretty sure everyone was expecting all of the penis-themed LBP levels to be the first to get the crackdown, but surprisingly that isn’t the case at all. Instead, levels that include copyrighted game material–such as God of War or even Playstation 3-themed levels–are the first to be removed. This isn’t simply a deletion from the online server; the entire level is deleted and you can’t republish it.

Complaints started on the forums of LittleBigWorkshop, where a user posted the following:

Has anyone had this happen to them yet? My level was moderated (read; deleted) and now I can’t re-publish. There was absolutely nothing offensive whatsoever in the level at all and I was given no explanation as to why they moderated it or why they won’t even let me republish, even after making changes. If any mods here have any insight into why things like this happen, please enlighten me, as this totally kills the enjoyment I was getting out of this game.

The user apparently had Sonic and MGS-related items in the level, which violate the EULA. One of the developers responded in the forum with the following message:

We’re reviewing the moderating system currently to provide better feedback on why levels are moderated. Primarily, any level that is reported using the grief tool will be checked over by a moderator, at which point they’ll examine it in line with the EULA. If a level is found to be in violation of the EULA it will be moderated and you’ll receive a message to that effect.

We’re moving towards a system where additional information is given, however for the time being if you don’t want your level moderating avoid anything unsuitable for users of all ages and copyright content.

However, there is one disturbing, unresolved issue when you look closer at these two comments. The dev clearly states that if you violate the EULA, you will receive a message saying that this is the case. But it seems that the user who first posted didn’t get any type of message at all–his level was just removed.

The result of this “moderation” is mixed. Some users have been completely turned off from playing or even buying the game, and who can blame them? After spending hours upon hours creating a level that gets removed simply for using the image of a PS3, why would you want to play the game anymore? Other users simply ask that the devs outline more specifications as to what constitutues a violation of the EULA.

What’s odd about this is the clear double standard. Doesn’t the Sackzilla trailer infringe on the copyrights of films such as Godzilla and Kill Bill (one of the sackboys is clearly wearing a yellow jumpsuit modeled after the one worn by Uma Thurman)? It seems a little unfair that the company promotes this type of creation in its own trailer, but denies it in user created content.

Source: Destructoid.com

In shock from scandalous accusations, Sackboy slowly saunters from the shadows and into the spotlight.  As indulgent as that alliteration might be, there really aren’t enough words to adorn LittleBigPlanet.  I asked whether the game could live up to the hype last month, which is ultimately for you to decide, but in my opinion LittleBigPlanet has launched itself into a whole new stratosphere of excellence.

So what’s changed since the Beta?  Now on Blu-ray, the textures have more pop, the art more polish, and the tutorials shine in high definition. This gives me a good opportunity to describe the even more beautiful LittleBigPlanet. Graphically, the game is a reality that’s been put through a mangle and reassembled in miniature. Like a mass Blue Peter make, the toilet rolls, yoghurt pots and tinfoil that once created Tracey Island now form Sackboy’s playground. Stuck together with glue rather than sticky-backed-plastic, the variety of real-world textures that shape disparate environments is nothing short of inspiring. Some of the best lighting and shadowing continue to stretch the realism, along with lovingly applied motion blur to give the impression of being filmed.

You’ll travel eight diverse worlds in the story mode, where 25 main levels and approximately 35 mini-challenges await Sackboy. The premise of the narrative encompasses every portion of what the game stands for: Creature Curators tend LittleBigPlanet’s creations and as they share their wares with the nomadic Sackboy, their creations start to go missing.  The culprit lies at the end of jumps, swings and puzzles; Sackboy will have to use all his talents to free the Planet.  The plot’s delivery is misty, mainly due to the eschewing of Stephen Fry’s narration in favour of short episodic text, but it does have a certain charm and becomes clearer as the game advances towards a spectacular finale.

The levels themselves glisten with Media Molecule’s creative juices, demonstrating what can really be achieved with the games creation tools as they grow in ingenuity.  It must be noted that LittleBigPlanet is not the carefree cakewalk you might expect.  Most levels rely on a solid grasp of the controls and when it comes to Sackboy’s physics based jumps, common sense.  You’ve never seen a real-time physics system as inclusive as LittleBigPlanet’s and so leaping from a springy platform might require trial and error. Yet, Sackboy is not an uncooperative lump of floaty stuffed cloth: once you understand LittleBigPlanet’s rules of movement, he is but your faithful puppet.

Adding three planes of depth was a work of brilliance, resulting in more complex traversals that brim with originality.  However, this depth can cause tricky situations if you’re not well versed with the controls, which is especially problematic when online creators neglect to take care of the planes. Nevertheless, LittleBigPlanet is in a relatively comfortable space between 2D and 3D and with plenty of spawn points to help Sackboy through his trials, you’ll rarely need to restart a level unless you’re targeting the perfect run.

At every hop, skip and jump your mind will be intrigued by contraptions you’ll want to create for yourself.  And with a canvas begging for Sackboy’s toolbox, you can.  The easy to navigate Popit Menu holds the tools and after Fry’s help you’ll be popping out levels to your hearts desire. The menu bursts with materials, lights, music, bolts, pistons and will grow as you traverse the story mode.  This is why collecting bubbles is so addictive for the Sackpeople – it brings them closer to discovering that next sticker, decoration or object to include in their own creations.

Create is LittleBigPlanet’s revolution. In stark contrast to the traditions of console gaming, LittleBigPlanet’s expansive and easy to use creation tools surpass anything similar you’ve experienced before. Moreover, since every object is physics based, your tweaking can create a dynamic living level that can be tested immediately by switching to Play Mode.

Nevertheless, some of my complaints from the Beta remain.  The rules of gluing remain a mystery: sticking objects together is relatively simple, but when it comes to ungluing one particular object, you might find every item in a structure un-sticks, resulting in collapse. A similar conclusion occurs if you neglect to give your structure sufficient support – under the strain it will overheat, causing sections to spontaneously combust.  These rare and solvable problems (use floating dark matter for stability) aside, LittleBigPlanet’s talent for creativity conjures something very special – an imaginative concoction that gets your creative juices flowing and fills your belly with tasty levels of your own design.

It’s in the discovery of others levels that stand LittleBigPlanet in good stead to last years of player input.  Sackboy’s smile may eventually tire, but the Planet will keep on giving.  This game is meant to played online (questioning the efficacy of a recall when an online patch was available) with a solar system of levels, ranging from nostalgic remakes and classic platformers, to eccentric dabblings and video game theme tunes. All are ready for your exploration, which is particularly gratifying when you’re not one for creation yourself.  Why create when you can play, play, play?

Levels can be voted and commented on and tagged with praise or damnation.  It’s a youtube of gaming that crowns the best levels. At least, that’s the intention. Teething problems have rendered the sorting comparatively fruitless, but if you find a gem, heart it, comment and invite your friends to join in on the fun.

LittleBigPlanet’s catchphrase “Play, Create, Share” denotes a trilogy of descriptions that can only be possible in this console generation. A new PlayStation mascot is here and Sackboy welcomes both the casual and hardcore.  Your family can express themselves with Sackboy’s emotions, and you can express yourself through complex creations.  What’s more, you can all play together in seamless four player co-op.

Although the game is certainly not perfect, with a slightly eccentric create mode and online struggling to be lag-free, there’s still no escaping the fact that without LittleBigPlanet, you’re severely missing out. LittleBigPlanet wears originality on its sleeve, with a nagging Sackboy waving his popit about and screaming “I’m creative!” Shame on you if you don’t take notice.

LittleBigPlanet Image Gallery

47 Photos

 

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.

After reading about the suspiciously low Metacritic user score of 6.3 for Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, I decided to dig into the story a little deeper. For those unfamiliar with the situation, allow me to fill you in.

Metacritic, who by and large is considered the main source for aggregated scoring on the web, offers two score flavors (one for critics and one for users). This is the case across most sites. The problem is, when you are considered the “go to” resource for pretty much anything, there’s a chance that people will make a big deal out of something on your site that they would normally overlook on another.

That said, this specific instance pertains to the scores currently presented on Metacritic for the LittleBigPlanet game. The first, a 9.5 at the time of this article, represents the aggregated score based on several well accepted gaming review sites such as GamePro, IGN, and EuroGamer. The second, more controversial score, is a 6.3, and is compiled via the average score given by a pool of 2,225 user votes.

Gaming news site N4G, which pulls related news from various websites around the web, features a blog post titled “Fanboys pull LittleBigPlanet’s Metacritic score down”, discussing this very topic. Reading some of the furious responses to the score piqued my interest, so I visited the Metacritic site to see first hand what all the fuss was about. Clicking on the “Read user comments” link near the overall user score brings you to the bottom of the page, where the following statement by Marc Doyle, the sites founder, awaits:

“My advice for our faithful users is to focus your attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game. This is a gaming community, and if people want to stuff the ballot box, there’s not much I can do at this point. When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won’t happen. We’ll post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game’s release. As always, thanks for using the site.”

This prompted me to contact Marc directly in order to get a more complete picture of the situation from his end. Specifically, I felt that gamers would want some clarity regarding the portion of his comment stating that most of the user reviews submitted for LBP were made “before said users [had] played the game.”

Firstly, I wanted to know if he would consider eliminating user reviews submitted before the full release of the game, i.e. reviews clearly submitted based on the open beta alone, or even worse, no experience with the game at all, to which he responded:

” … we won’t be clearing those old scores from LBP when it launches, but we will only post reviews from people who have clearly played the game. All the reviews from fanboys and haters who haven’t played it will just be left out. That is true for all products on Metacritic. Humans actually read all of those user reviews (so we can delete profanity, spoilers, etc.), and those humans are told not to post reviews from people who clearly haven’t played the game.”

He then added that the burden of proof they demand from users submitting reviews prior to a game’s release date is be much higher than those doing so after the fact.

Slightly confused, I asked Marc for some clarification as to how the game could have such a low score, if his team was manually looking over each user review submitted. He stated:

“All the [numeric] scores “count” in the overall user average and total votes tally, but we only post a subset of those as [written] user reviews.”

When talking about the future of the site, as well as other things they are doing to help eliminate this type of fanboy nonsense in the future, Marc had the following to say:

“There will be a Metacritic re-design in the future (can’t say exactly when), and as a part of that process, we’re going to beef up our user registration and community functions so that “stuffing the ballot box” won’t be nearly as easy.

The original idea behind allowing users to write user reviews (and vote on them) was to allow those people (like me) who see advanced screenings of movies and sometimes play games ahead of their true release date to write reviews and have them posted on Metcritic. That’s still the case now.

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.

Metacritic’s primary “product” is the Metascore, which is the weighted average of scores from professional critics. We include user reviews for obvious reasons, but because that score can never be 100% reliable, it’s given secondary importance on the site. For example, you can’t sort or search by user scores for any products. That will likely change with the redesign.”

Marc obviously has a solid understanding of the space, its evolution, and the challenges that lie ahead. The fact of matter though, is that currently, anyone can visit Metacritic and leave an abnormally low user score, skewing the average, without necessarily saying anything of value at all. I asked him if this was something the site would be revisiting in the immediate future.

” … nothing should change in this regard until we do the redesign. That tally will remain a raw tally, and only the printed user reviews will be “vetted” as useful reviews from people that we think actually played the game … “

He closed the topic by adding that the specifics of “whatever [they] do with the voting system moving forward [have] yet to be established.”

With October 27th just around the corner, LittleBigPlanet is four LittleBigDays away from being officially released. So while the current 6.3 Metacritic user score has been getting most of the attention on the net, I (like Marc himself), kindly ask that you shift your focus to the 95 out of a 100 Metacritic score the game is receiving from the mainstream media. Everything else will sort itself out in due time.

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.

As you all know, LittleBigPlanet was recalled, after already being shipped to the majority of retailers, due to Qur’an references in one of the game’s music tracks. However, those who’ve been able to purchase the game from non-chain shops, commonly referred to as “mom and pop shops”, are taking advantage of the delay.

If you want to play LBP early, it’ll cost you a good $150 or more, because that’s what the game is currently going for on eBay. Thank capitalists for this latest Sackboy scandal. *sigh* It was only a matter of time.

Source: Destructoid [Thanks Matt!]

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.

The LittleBigPlanet Beta brought us many innovative creations, but none as endearing and hilarious as this little ditty.  Sackboys and girls: put on your costumes and get ready to sing, dance and rap!  Their music taste is eclectic, their moves electric.

This is what you can achieve by conjoining Sackboy emotions, Sixaxis hip wobbles, analogue stick arm jiggles, and voice-chat lip sync. If only we had rhythm like Sackboy.

Directed and edited by Jemimaru. Staring Sackboy Jemi-maru, Sackboy Sniper_Amer and Sackgirl Yomiku.

To read up on my LittleBigPlanet Beta impressions, please follow this link.

Media Molecule are weeks away from shipping the quite possibly biggest PS3 game of the year (sorry MGS4), but they’re not resting on their laurels quite yet. Talking to Eurogamer, Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healy remarked on the possibility of a PSP version of the game:

There’s definitely scope for a PSP version. We’ve had discussions and talks…nothing concrete at the moment.

He’s even got the perfect idea for what it could be like – hit the jump to find out what LittleBigPlanetPortable could be.

It’d be great to make, for the people who are really into the Create side, some kind of companion products that allow you to create things while you’re on the train. One thing that I’d love to add is the ability to create your own music, for example, that you can import into the game. That seems like an obvious one to do and it’d be quite easy really.

Healy seemed to suggest that development wouldn’t be in-house, saying that Media Molecule likes to keep its team a tightly-knit group.

Source: Eurogamer via Shacknews

The Playstation Blog reports that thousands of new LittleBigPlanet beta codes will be hitting the web soon. IGN, 1up, and GameTrailers will all be receiving the codes for their users, as well as The Official LBP Blog. If the fiasco with Eurogamer is anything to go by, expect it to be difficult to get hold of one, even with the thousands of them floating about.

The LBP Blog has a sneaky post referring to Monday, which likely means that if you’re looking for a code, you will need to be around then. If you’ve got a beta code already, or if you get one from one of these sites, let us know how it’s going in LBP land!

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

Now tell me, does that box art look like it was made using PowerPoint? Didn’t think so.

Colorful, creative, and pretty freaking cool. Also, notice that SackBoy graces the cover bearing gifts. That’s right people, the boy has got the “whole world … in his hands.” Anyone else think that Media Molecule is trying to tell us something.

Source: Three Speech

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 from E3, and one of the most anticipated titles for the PS3, Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, has finally received a release date — in Japan.

According to the Sony Computer Entertainment Japan website (via MCV), the fully customizable, side-scrolling adventure is set for a release date of October 30th. For eager PS3 gamers in the West, the release date is still unknown.

LBP is just one of the few first-party titles coming to the PS3 this holiday season, which also includes Resistance 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift.

I’m expecting a North American and European release date for LBP soon, and hopefully, it’ll be released before Christmas.

Source: mcvuk.com

Media Molecule, developers of the upcoming LittleBigPlanet game, apparently receiving “not-so-nice” emails from fans who read the comments David Reeves (President of SCEE) made to PS3fanboy, stating that LBP would “eventually” allow community content creators to charge other gamers for the content they create.

MM responded calling the comments “hot air” and stating that it was “merely a case of ye-olde-internet-crossed wires”. Below is the post directly from the dev’s official blog.

Amidst all the madness on the way home, we were rather shocked to find a pile of nastygrams awaiting us. What could this mean? Did sackboy go out and throw up on someone’s new suede shoes? Ah no, it was merely a case of ye-olde-internet-crossed wires. Fear not, ye peeps of the intertubes, see here for calming balm: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=200029

but of course you’d much rather read something like this and not worry about all of that hot air…

indeed, just take a dip into any other of the articles libipl.net has been collecting, bless them. Right? Lovely. Tea. Drink it. Yummy.

So, you decide. Is this a pissed off developer doing their best to damage control to a truthful leak of information that came too soon, or is this just another case of an misinformed suit opening his LittleBigMouth?

Source: mediamolecule.com/blog