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LittleBigPlanet
European and Australian LittleBigPlanet box art, showing Sackboy characters and the game's sticker feature
Developer(s)	Media Molecule
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Distributor(s)	SCEE, SCEA
Designer(s)	Mark Healey Dave Smith
Native resolution	720p[1]
Version	1.11
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3
Release date(s)	NA W/C 27 October 2008[2] PAL W/C 3 November 2008[2] UK 5 November 2008[3] See Release section for more information
Genre(s)	Platformer, User-generated content
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer, online multiplayer, co-op
Rating(s)	ESRB: E OFLC: G PEGI: 7+
Media	Blu-ray Disc
System requirements	600MB free hard drive space[4]
Input methods	Gamepad

LittleBigPlanet, commonly abbreviated LBP^[5][6] and developed under the title The Next Big Thing, is a puzzle platformer and user-generated content video game for the PlayStation 3 first announced on 7 March 2007, by Phil Harrison at the 2007 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California.^[7][8][9] It is developed by Media Molecule, a British company founded in part by Rag Doll Kung Fu creator Mark Healey, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Many saw the game as an important title for Sony and the PlayStation 3,^[10] the game received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from critics. It has been praised for its presentation, including its graphics, physics and audio, along with its gameplay and large array of customisable and online features. Additional praise was given to its scope and future potential based on user-created content; minor criticism was reserved for specific elements of the gameplay mechanics and level creation facilities. LittleBigPlanet won the AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Overall Game of the Year, in addition to several others.^[11]

A PlayStation Portable version of the game has been announced for release in the second half of 2009, which will feature new levels and content.^[12]

Contents 1 Overview 2 Main features 2.1 Core gameplay 2.2 Content creation 2.3 Online community features 2.4 Interface 3 Development 3.1 Marketing 3.2 Release 3.2.1 Beta phases 3.2.2 Future developments 4 Reception 4.1 Previews 4.2 Reviews 4.3 Awards 4.4 Sales performance 5 Sequel 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Overview

The game revolves around the player's control of a small character, known as a Sackboy or Sackgirl owing to their appearance, in a variety of platforming scenarios. Though the game features a set of pre-built levels for the player to explore, the game's customisable nature is equally important, from altering the player's character and personal space, to building entirely new objects and levels, and then sharing and playing them online as part of the LittleBigPlanet community.

[edit] Main features

In LittleBigPlanet, the player controls a small character called Sackboy (or sometimes Sackgirl^[13] or a Sack-person^[10]), owing to their material and appearance, which can run and jump and manipulate objects by hanging onto them or by dragging or pushing them.^[13] The player uses these abilities in several ways: to play and explore the environments that come with the game, which feature platforming elements such as jumping, pushing, grabbing and running, and which make use of the game's robust physics engine; to create their own content, such as simply placing stickers into levels, in addition to using the level editor to create, destroy, edit and manipulate levels; and, finally, to share creations, by publishing items such as levels and objects with the online community, and play these creations online with others. These three modes are described simply by the title's catch phrase: Play. Create. Share.^[10]

The player begins inside their own "pod", a personal space from which they can access the three modes of gameplay, and decorate the room with stickers and decorations.^[13] Initially, only the Play mode is available and the player must complete some tutorials, narrated by Stephen Fry;^[14] once the basics are mastered, the player is free to play the rest of the game, having completed the tutorials.^[15]

[edit] Core gameplay

The Play section of LittleBigPlanet consists of a number of levels that have been created by Media Molecule, and are based around different themes that draw inspiration from real-world locations, such as Japanese gardens, dry deserts, New York City streets and icy Russian stages.^[15] By completing the levels available to them (by reaching the scoreboard), the player may then advance the story and play further unlocked levels.^[16] The story mode comprises eight themed areas, with each area containing three or four main levels, and some of these levels in turn contain collectable keys to unlock bonus mini-levels.^[17] The main story mode comprises more than 50 pre-built levels in total.^[17]

To control their Sackboy character, the player moves by using the analogue sticks, jump with varying degrees of height depending on the pressure applied to the action button, and grab onto objects to either move or swing on them.^[16] In addition to regular left-and-right movement, and despite the 2D look of the game, levels consist of three levels of depth—the foreground, middle and background—and may be traversed between either automatically by the game itself, or by the player's command.^[10] The player can opt to emote their Sackboy by applying varying degrees of delight, fear, sadness, and rage,^[18] control each arm independently through the analogue sticks,^[18] slap other players by jerking the arm movement with the analogue sticks, and use the Sixaxis motion-sensing functionality to animate the character's head and body.^[18]

The player can access the Popit menu at any time.

A large variety of pre-built objects are present in levels which may be interacted with. Those, along with objects that have been constructed out of more basic elements, include materials, which act in a manner physically similar to those they represent. Examples are soft cloth, gripping rubber, and tough wood. Objects that are built with mechanical components, such as motors, pistons, jets, wires and springs also act similarly.^[17] Along with these objects, levels contain dangers that the player must avoid, and these include objects or platforms that have been set on fire, whilst explosives that can damage Sackboy if he strays too close can be used to blow up sections of the level.^[10] Similarly to being hurt if these level dangers are touched, Sackboy can additionally be crushed if trapped under or between heavy items.^[19] Should a player lose a life in this fashion, a checkpoint system ensures that the player may start again at recently passed checkpoints should they fail, albeit a limited number of times.^[16]

Each level contains a number of "score bubbles", initially known as "sponge" in early demonstrations of the game,^[20] which may be collected in order to increase the player's score to beat their own, and other players', high scores. Users may collect larger bubbles known as "prize bubbles" which contain collectable items. Many of these bubbles are hidden or are in hard-to-reach places, and contain items such as new stickers and decorations, or new materials and objects that may be used in the Create mode for the user's own levels. Some of these hidden items may be accessed by using the aforementioned stickers menu to place stickers on special parts of the level.^[16] Special clothing and accessories for the player's Sackboy is obtained by completing the levels without losing a life. In addition to the prize bubbles, collectable keys found in main levels unlock new mini-levels with unique goals, such as skipping a spinning pole or bouncing to grab bubbles, to speed levels such as bobsleigh racing.^[10][17]

[edit] Content creation

The player may customise their character in a range of ways. They are able to select a base colour and texture for their Sackboy from a range of materials and designs, and may apply any number of stickers to their character, along with giving them pre-made items including clothes, masks, swords and capes. The game also features items based on other PlayStation 3 franchises, such as a Killzone 2 mask^[21], and character models based on Kratos, Medusa and Minotaur from the God of War series,^[22] Nariko from Heavenly Sword,^[23] Old Snake, Raiden, Meryl, and Screaming Mantis from Metal Gear Solid 4,^[24] Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII,^[25] a Chimera from Resistance: Fall of Man^[26] as well as Ryu, Guile, Chun Li, and Zangief from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.^[27]

Although the Create aspect does include minor tweaks to existing levels whilst they are being played, such as placing stickers and decorations in levels, the main focus of this mode is the level editor. The editor incorporates a large number of editing facilities to create levels from a low to a high degree of complexity. The player may create new objects by starting with a number of basic shapes, such as circles, stars and squares, and then "painting" a shape into the level using one of the many materials. Objects may be glued to each other or to the level. More mechanical features are also available, such as connecting objects together with string, using bolts to spin objects, or using various kinds of triggers. Rocket motors can be attached to objects to propel them across a level.^[17] After creating custom objects, the player may save their creation to a library for later use, and even share their object by placing it inside a prize bubble in their level, so that other players who play the level can collect it and may use it in their own levels.^[10]

In order to facilitate the creation process and to accommodate any mistakes made, the editor features a manipulatable time system, whereby the player may "rewind" the editor, which acts as an undo feature, or pause the editor, which temporarily halts objects that run under the physics engine, such as gravity acting on falling or rolling objects.^[10] In addition to his narration for other parts of the game, Stephen Fry provides the voice-over for the large number of video and interactive tutorials that accompany the create mode, a number of which must be completed in full before unlocking a new set of objects for use.^[18] User-generated content is not limited to the player's region, but is available worldwide.^[28]

[edit] Online community features

A large part of LittleBigPlanet is the global community features through the PlayStation Network for the player to interact and share their "patches"^[29]—levels and other modifications—as well as online play. In April 2009, Sony announced that 275,000 levels had been published and the 4 million comments had been posted on community levels.^[30] The main focus of the Share component is the ability for level creators to publish their levels and objects to the online community for other people to play. Once a custom level has been played through, the player is able to tag the level with a list of predefined words, and may cycle through the word choice to find the most appropriate. This allows other players to quickly find their level of choice. The player can search by a specific tag such as "Beautiful". The player has a "heart" feature available to them, which allows them to specify which levels, stickers and decorations they prefer; in this way, people can heart to show appreciation for other people's creations, and visit their online friend's hearted items, or visit the creator of a hearted item, then view his or her hearted items, and so on.^[10]

An official community website called the LittleBigWorkshop complements the in-game sharing features. Logging on with their PlayStation Network IDs, users are able to create blueprints for level designs, view in-depth tutorials and take part in challenges. It is additionally the home of the official forums. Among its other features, the website allows users to upload in-game videos and photos.^[31]

LittleBigPlanet features a range of multiplayer options. Levels can be played online with up to four players, locally with up to four players or with a mixture of up to four online and local players. Up to four local users can play together in Create mode, whilst the ability to create levels with up to four players online will be added in an update at some point in the future.^[32] The way in which users undertake the level is dependent on the design of the level and how the users choose to play, allowing the players to choose whether they play cooperatively or battle against each other to get to the finish line first, or collect the most bubbles.^[20]

In the weeks following the game's release, some users reported on community forums that levels they had created had been taken down for "moderation", and were no longer available to play. A representative from Sony stated that once a level is flagged by players using the in-game Good Grief system, levels were reviewed by a moderator and only removed if deemed inappropriate. On 11 November 2008, SCE confirmed that around 200 levels —less than 0.5 percent of levels published — had been removed, the majority of which contained obscenity, while the rest were removed due to copyright violations.^[33] Media Molecule acknowledged there were issues with the moderation system and released an update in December to help rectify them. In addition to an on-screen message, users are notified with a PSN message when a level they have published is removed, along with information on the reason for its removal. They are able to play and edit the level themselves whether on or offline. The developers have clarified the rules regarding what is and is not appropriate and have made several changes "behind the scenes" which they hope will "alleviate most of the issues that creators have experienced".^[34].

[edit] Interface

The game's main interface is based around the player's "pod" and three planets, each of which is focused on the three areas of the game; "Play", "Create" and "Share". These are accessed using the "pod computer". The main Play planet is the "LittleBigPlanet". This is where users access the main story levels and also serves as the main gateway to user-created levels.^[35] The LittleBigPlanet features an interface into the PlayStation Store where users can access and purchase downloadable content.^[36] The Create planet, called "My Moon", is where players save and access levels they have created or copied. Each crater on the moon holds one level. The Share planet, or "Info Moon", is where players can access their friends list, gameplay statistics and their hearted levels and creators. The user can select a person on their friends list to view their published levels, hearted levels and hearted creators.^[37]

The Popit menu^[38] is a bubble which provides access^[39] to costumes, decorations, stickers, materials, editing tools and messaging features. It is contextual and displays certain sets of options, depending on whether the user is playing a level, editing or in their pod. Stickers can be plastered^[16] onto any surface in the game world. Stickers can be created from photos taken using the PlayStation Eye,^[15] whilst the ability to import images from the player's console hard drive is being considered for a future update. ^[40]

[edit] Development

LittleBigPlanet's origin lies in a conversation between Media Molecule co-founders Mark Healey and Dave Smith after a cinema visit to see Howl's Moving Castle.^[41]. Healey and Smith discussed a game that had character controls similar to their previous game, Rag Doll Kung Fu, that would be playable on a console. Healey and Smith left Lionhead Studios in December 2005 along with another Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans and art director Kareem Ettouney, and managed to arrange a meeting with Phil Harrison, the then-head of development for SCE Worldwide Studios. They created a prototype of their idea, a game called Craftworld, a physics-based, 2D side-scrolling game, with a place holder character called Mr. Yellowhead.^[42] Mr. Yellowhead's arms were controllable with the right analogue stick of the PlayStation 2 controller that Media Molecule had connected to their PC,^[41] whilst his legs were controlled with the left stick. The object of the game was to guide Mr. Yellowhead past a number of obstacles by grabbing onto objects and pushing or rolling them around.^[42]

They chose to pitch their idea to Harrison using their own software, rather than PowerPoint, which allowed for bullet point information as in standard presentations, but also for live, controllable movement of game characters.^[41] By their own admission, the pitch was vague and they had deliberately toned down the creative aspect of the game—which they felt may have appeared as "weird" for a console game—for fear of negative reception of their pitch by Sony. They presented the prototype purely as a playable game, and only briefly mentioned the user created content aspect; Evans relates that Harrison actually picked up on the creative side, and had asked them why they had chosen not to explore this element further. The meeting, which had been scheduled to last 45 minutes, eventually lasted 3 hours^[43] at the end of which, Sony agreed to fund the project for six months. After some further development, the team were asked to present what they had done to Sony in what Healey describes as a "Dragons' Den style scenario". Following this, Sony gave them a deal to develop LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3 in exchange for exclusivity and ownership of the intellectual property.^[44] Media Molecule became incorporated as a company in February 2006.^[41]

Despite backing from Sony, Media Molecule were unsure about exactly what direction they were going to take the game. They also worried about whether people would understand, or even like, the game, but these worries were dispelled after its first presentation. Media Molecule were aware of the fact that Sony wanted them to demonstrate the game at the upcoming GDC 2007 , but they were not told they were to be part of Phil Harrison's keynote speech until near the date it was due to take place. Healey stated that it was only when they arrived in San Francisco for the conference that they realised just how much backing Sony were devoting to the game—much more than Media Molecule had previously thought.^[45] Healey relates that although the revelation of Sony's faith in the game boosted their confidence, additionally, it increased the pressure on them with the realisation that their task had become much greater than originally anticipated.^[45]

The game was less than one year into development, when it was first shown at GDC 2007. Evans remarked that this public approach to the game's development meant they had been able to react to feedback from the community, and the game had been specifically designed to allow them to easily implement further developments in the future, based on demand from players.^[46]

[edit] Marketing

Both Sony Computer Entertainment and Media Molecule undertook a large-scale marketing campaign in the run-up to the game's release. In North America, SCEA partnered with several major online retailers to offer unique bonus gifts to customers pre-ordering the game from the selected retailers.^[47][48] These gifts include codes to access additional in-game characters, a sticker book, a burlap pouch and an official game guide.^[49] In the UK, SCEE partnered with online retailers to offer downloadable characters, such as the Nariko character from Heavenly Sword, to customers who pre-order the game.^[50] A temporary shop in the UK was set up in Manchester city centre, where people were able to play the game before its release. The shop moved to central London in October. In addition to a chance to play the game, it offered such activities as t-shirt making.^[51] To market the game to an online audience, a website campaign to "reclaim Pluto as the ninth planet", Proposition Pluto, was released as a marketing tool several weeks before the game's release.^[52]

[edit] Release

A demo version of the game was planned for release on the PlayStation Network in the fourth quarter of 2007,^[29] but was delayed until 2008.^[53] Original announcements pointed to a full release early in 2008, but Sony later said the game had been delayed until September 2008 in the UK.^[54] During the Sony PlayStation Day on 6 May 2008 in London, Sony announced the game would be delayed for one month,^[55] but also confirmed release dates for 21 October 2008 in North America, 22 October in Europe, 24 October in the UK and Ireland^[56] and 30 October in Japan.^[57]

Originally intended for a release in mid-to-late October, a last-minute delay involving a licenced song in the game's soundtrack delayed the game's release worldwide.^[58] It was released in North America and Japan at the end of October 2008, and in Europe at the beginning of November 2008.

On 17 October 2008, SCEE instigated a worldwide recall of LittleBigPlanet and announced the game's release be pushed back,^[59] after a PlayStation Community member reported the lyrics to one of the licenced songs in the game included passages from the Qur'an and could therefore be offensive to some Muslims.^[60] The song was entitled "Tapha Niang" by Malian artist Toumani Diabaté, himself a devout Muslim.^[61][62] The game was patched twice, the day before its release for players who had received the game early, before its intended release date. The first update did not affect the song, and was released to patch online issues, modify jetpack controls, and add further costumes,^[63][64] whilst the second updated the game to remove the vocals from the track, leaving only an instrumental.^[65]Some American Muslims responded to the recall and stated that they were offended by the restriction of freedom of speech. M. Zuhdi Jasser M.D., head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, was quoted as saying, "Muslims cannot benefit from freedom of expression and religion and then turn around and ask that anytime their sensibilities are offended that the freedom of others be restricted."^[66]

SCEA announced new versions of the game that would be shipped to North American retailers the week commencing 27 October 2008.^[67] On 20 October 2008 an SCEE press release stated LittleBigPlanet would start to appear in stores in the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand no later than the week commencing 3 November 2008 on a country-by-country basis.^[68] Later the same day SCEE confirmed the UK release date as 5 November.^[2][3]

[edit] Beta phases

A public beta version of the game was previously scheduled for the summer of 2008,^[69] but it was later announced that only private beta testing would take place; a public demo was mentioned as a "possibility".^[70] However, in a later interview, Alex Evans, Co-Founder of Media Molecule, said a beta would be released in September 2008 describing it as "a public beta, but limited at the same time".^[71] The first beta became playable on 23 September 2008, when gaming website Eurogamer began offering beta codes to its members on the same date, with a total of 5,800 codes available; the website quickly buckled under the influx of visitors, with many unable to load the site.^[72] Subsequently, several other gaming websites including 1UP.com^[73] and GameSpot^[74] offered beta codes to their users. Players were able to play the beta until it ended on 12 October.^[75] Although Sony had originally planned to erase all levels created by players during the beta period, an official poll was held to let the players decide their fate;^[76] the players voted to keep the levels.^[77] These levels were carried over to the final game, although save game data and progress made in the beta was not.^[76]

[edit] Future developments

A feature the title lacks, but was included in demonstrations, is the ability to create stickers by importing images from the console's hard drive. When initially asked about the missing feature, Alex Evans replied that its removal was due to time constraints, and that a patch before Christmas would enable the feature.^[78] A later forum post from a PlayStation official countered this by stating image import would not be appearing "for a variety of reasons".^[79] Further speculation arose when Media Molecule posted an image to their Flickr page after both statements were made, showing the image import tool in action,^[80] and a television advert for the game demonstrated family photographs in a custom level.^[81]

On 23 December 2008, weapons were introduced into the game with the release of a Metal Gear Solid game pack. A paintball gun power-up, called the Paintinator, can be picked up similarly to a jetpack and used in custom levels.^[82] The game pack includes new Metal Gear Solid themed stickers, music that can be placed in user-created levels and Old Snake, Meryl, Raiden, Screaming Mantis and Gurlukovitch Soldier costumes.

In addition to characters from other franchises appearing in LittleBigPlanet, Sackboy has also appeared in other video games. In March 2009, an add-on was released for the latest game in the the Everybody's Golf series which made Sackboy available as a playable character.^[83] Sackboy is also to appear in Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists Of Plastic, a game released on the PlayStation Network based on the 2005 PC game, Rag Doll Kung Fu by LittleBigPlanet creator, Mark Healey.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Reception

[edit] Previews

The unveiling of LittleBigPlanet at GDC 2007 elicited numerous positive reactions. In his BBC News blog, technology editor Darren Waters wrote, "LittleBigPlanet is perhaps one of the most dazzling demos I've seen in the last 10 years".^[84] IGN described the game as "beautiful" and reported that "even in the presence of Home, Sony's impressive new community software, LittleBigPlanet stole the show at Phil Harrison's Game 3.0 practice conference, and was the thing that everyone was talking about".^[85] 1UP wrote that "there are plenty of questions remaining about LittleBigPlanet … but it's clear from the reaction to the game so far that it has already won over many fans" and that "this could be something very special".^[86] Slashdot Games editor Michael Zenke suggested the game could be the PlayStation 3's killer application.^[87] Even Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, praised the product, but was unsure how the game would fare on Sony's platform.^[88]

[edit] Reviews

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 94%[90] (based on 67 reviews) Metacritic 95%[89] (based on 84 reviews)
Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com A+[91] Edge 10/10[92] Eurogamer 9/10[93] Famitsu 38/40[94] Game Informer 9.5/10[95] GamePro 5/5[96] GameSpot 9/10[97] GameTrailers 9.4/10[98] Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) 10/10[99] X-Play 5/5[100] IGN (UK) 9.7/10[101] IGN (US) 9.5/10[10] IGN (Aus) 9.2/10[15] Giant Bomb 5/5[102]
Awards Entity Award Edge[103] Best Game (2008) Best Innovation (2008) Best Visual Design (2008) Eurogamer[104] Best Game (2008) GamePro[105] Game of the Year (2008) GameTrailers[106] Most Innovative Game (2008) IGN[107] Best New IP (2008) Most Innovative Design (2008) Spike[108] Best PS3 Game (2008) AIAS[11] Overall Game of the Year (2008) Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction (2008) Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering (2008) Outstanding Innovation in Gaming (2008) BAFTA Award for Artistic Achievement (2009)[109] Game Developers Choice Awards Best New Debut (2009) Best Game Design (2009) Best Technology Award (2009) Innovation Award (2009)[110]

LittleBigPlanet has received wide critical acclaim from reviewers. The first major publication to review LittleBigPlanet was the UK edition of PlayStation Official Magazine. In their November edition they gave the game a score of 10/10 calling it "a beautifully elegant and powerful creative tool that puts unlimited potential in the palm of your hand".^[99] Eurogamer scored the game 9/10. Reviewer Oli Welsh commented specifically on the game's "unforgettable visuals" and that the accurate lighting was "as total a realisation of high-definition as you'll see anywhere in games this year". He similarly praised the multiplayer gameplay as "a loosely-structured scrum of competition, collaboration and sheer, joyful mucking around". Speaking of the game's comprehensive creation and community tools in contrast with its classic platforming gameplay, he calls the game "the future and the past of videogames, rolled into one".^[93] IGN (US) scored it 9.5/10 and said the game was an "instant classic". The reviewer, Chris Roper, also suggested that the game may even be a reason to buy a PlayStation 3; "If you own a PlayStation 3, you cannot miss this. If you don’t have a PS3 yet, this is the reason to get one."^[10] GamePro scored the game 5/5 and said that the real strength of the game "is the tremendous sense of freedom and creativity that it instils in you."^[96] Edge gave it a 10/10 and said "It's a multiplayer riot, a visual landmark, a feat of engineering, and one of the most charming games ever made. But even those accolades are dwarfed by its scope, its potential, and the apparent endlessness of them both."^[92]

Some reviewers have criticised the game's control system. Eurogamer's review stated that the jump timing sometimes feels "off by a fraction of a fraction of a second" and that this can be a minor annoyance when attempting challenges which require dexterity and timing.^[93] In IGN's review, Chris Roper also reported issues with the control system stating that the game's heavily physics-based gameplay "left a few corners on what should have been a razor-sharp control scheme". He goes on to say that the character acceleration and deceleration "isn't as quick as it could be" but that his biggest complaint is the way the game handles player movement between foreground, middleground and background on the 2.5D plane. He says that "there are instances where it doesn't do what you want it to do, and these points stick out like a sore thumb." This is an issue that has been raised by Media Molecule's co-founder Mark Healey who stated in an interview that "The Z [axis] movement is an incredibly hard thing for us to get right. There's times when it annoys me actually." He went on to say they would continue refining it, suggesting improvements via a future update^[111] IGN's review commented that the story mode ended "in a somewhat disappointing manner" and the story as a whole doesn't make sense.^[10]

[edit] Awards

LittleBigPlanet has been given numerous awards. It won Game of the Year by several gaming websites and publications including GamePro^[105], Edge^[103] and Eurogamer whose editors felt that while the single-player experience was nothing special, the mulitplayer gameplay brought the game into its own and were impressed by some of the user-created levels which inspired "gasps of wonder".^[104] It also received various other awards from gaming websites in 2008 including Best New IP and Best Platform Game from IGN^[112] and Most Innovative Game from GameTrailers.^[106] LittleBigPlanet was judged Best PlayStaton 3 Game at the Spike Video Game Awards^[108] and won in eight categories out of 10 nominations at the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards including Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Visual Engineering, Game Design, Game Direction and Outstanding Innovation in Gaming and was judged Family Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year and as Overall Game of the Year.^[11] LittleBigPlanet was also given the Award for Artistic Achievement at the 5th British Academy Video Games Awards^[109] and was given the awards for Best New Debut, Best Game Design, Best Technology and the Innovation Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.^[110]

[edit] Sales performance

LittleBigPlanet failed to sell as favourably as anticipated^[who?] during its first few weeks^{[citation needed]}. In the UK, the game entered the ELSPA video game charts at number four, then fell to number 19 in its second week of sale.^[113] By 29 November 2008, the game was at number 32^[114] and had sold between 100,000 and 200,000 copies in the UK.^[115] In the US, the game sold 356,000 units during October and November placing it fourth amongst all PlayStation 3 software sales for that period.^[116] It entered October's all-platform video game chart at number eight before falling out of the top 20 by the end of November.^[117] Sony defended the game's sales, stating the abundance of other released titles at Christmas was a factor. A representative from SCEE said "In other times of the year it would be a clear number one, so you have to put the chart in context."^[113] Due to the game's last-minute recall and subsequent delay, LittleBigPlanet was released mid-week and as a result, its first week performance indicators are based on four days instead of the usual seven. This has also been suggested as a contributing factor. Many supporters of the game have suggested that a lack of advertising has let it down^[118] although advertising campaigns were launched in North America and Europe which helped to boost the game's sales in the run up to Christmas.^[119] After the launch of the UK-based advertising campaign and a decrease in price, LittleBigPlanet sales increased by 58 percent and raised it from 32 to 16 in the videogame charts by mid-December^[120] and had sold over 300,000 units by the beginning of February 2009.^[121] In January 2009, Sony announced that the game had sold 611,000 units in North America up to the end of December 2008^[117] and that there were 1.3 million unique users playing LittleBigPlanet.^[122]

[edit] Sequel

In an interview with the BBC in October 2008, Alex Evans confirmed that Media Molecule is working on a sequel to LittleBigPlanet, but did not provide any details.^[123] The statement was later clarified in an interview with IGN, in which Siobhan Reddy of Media Molecule stated, "we see LittleBigPlanet as a platform... There will be a lot of additional content and it will vary in size and what it does. And we've already started that, yes."^[124] The "huge emotional investment" users have made in LittleBigPlanet, Alex Evans stated, is the reason he does not want to ship a traditional sequel. Because they don't want all the of the user-generated content to be made obsolete, their focus will be to "expand the game without partitioning the audience".^[125]

In a February 2009 press release, Sony announced a version of LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation Portable was being developed by SCE Studio Cambridge in conjunction with Media Molecule.^[126][127]

[edit] See also

• List of PlayStation 3 games

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official blog
• LittleBigWorkshop – Official community website
• LittleBigPlanet at Media Molecule.com
• LittleBigPlanet at PlayStation.com: UK, Australia, New Zealand, US
• Official YouTube channel
• LittleBigPlanet at the Open Directory Project
• LittleBigPlanet Wiki, an external wiki