Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan just announced that the LittleBigPlanet franchise will have its online services retracted, because starting July 31, the series’ online servers will officially shut down in Japan.
Players will lose access to the series’ online features, such as playing user-created levels as well as being able to upload their own. Multiplayer, and other community features won’t be available either.
It seems the franchise isn’t especially popular in Japan, because LBP 3’s online services are being revoked too, despite being out for a little under two years.
Here’s a list of the games affected by the shut-down.
- LittleBigPlanet on PS3, PSP and PS Vita
- LittleBigPlanet 2 on PS3
- LittleBigPlanet 3 on PS3 and PS4
- LittleBigPlanet Karting on PS3
Purchased DLC will still be available, however. But it isn’t clear whether the rest of the DLC on the store will be taken down.
NeoGAF user Tapejara points out:
Sony has LBP Portable scheduled to be shut down on July 31st and Karting to be shut down on August 31st in NA/EU regions.
LBP’s franchise won’t have much replayability going for it without its user created online levels, so it seems Japan is officially bidding farewell to Media Molecule’s popular series. Maybe they’re paving the way for Dreams?
How do you feel about LBP’s online services shutting down? Let us know in the comments below.
