LittleBigPlanet 3’s servers have been offline since January, leaving players unable to access player-created levels stored in the game’s archive. On Friday, developer Sumo Digital and publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the servers will stay offline indefinitely “due to ongoing technical issues.”
LittleBigPlanet 3 players can still play offline, with access to the campaign and user-generated creations already downloaded to their PlayStation 4 consoles. Players can still create levels, too, but won’t be able to share them. That means more than 16 years of player creations have been wiped for the majority of LittleBigPlanet 3 players — though LittleBigPlanet 3 was released in 2014, players had access to creations all the way back to LittleBigPlanet.
“We obviously share today’s news with very heavy hearts and thank you for your continued support over the years,” a LittleBigPlanet 3 representative posted from the official X account.
LittleBigPlanet 3 was released in 2014, a follow-up to 2011’s LittleBigPlanet 2 and the original LittleBigPlanet from 2008. The game itself is beloved for its creative, playful platforming campaign — but it’s user-created content is what’s given the game such an impressive lifespan. Problems began for LittleBigPlanet 3 in 2021, when servers were maliciously attacked. LittleBigPlanet 3 was eventually nixed for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, but came back online for PlayStation 4. Problems arose again in January, which led to the latest shutdown, which was supposed to be temporary.
It’s not a unique thing for older games to go offline, which can be a significant preservation problem for video games and video game history. LittleBigPlanet 3’s big problem is its lack of notice for the permanent shutdown; usually, when these types of announcements are made, there’s some time for players to say their goodbyes — whether that’s saving favorite levels or simply having one last go at the game. Nintendo did this in 2020 when it announced Super Mario Maker would lose support for online features, giving players until 2021 to upload new courses. Those levels — and all others — remained available to download until April 2024, when online services for the Wii U went offline. It’s still not ideal, but it gave players a chance to prepare.
LittleBigPlanet 3 players never had that chance. Thankfully, there’s still the LittleBigArchive, where players have spent years documenting their work. But players aren’t happy. “This is probably the worst way for the servers to have been shut down,” LittleBigPlanet 3 creator EpicLBPTime wrote on X. “For me and most of the community, we never got a chance to archive our levels. There was no warning or end date given. We were never given the opportunity to join up with our friends and play our favourite levels for the last time.”
They continued:
This really hurts. LittleBigPlanet played a significant role in my life, shaping who I am today. It’s the reason I started my YouTube channel.
In the end, I’m glad the servers lasted as long as they did. Thanks LBP for all the joy and happiness you’ve brought me throughout the years. I’m grateful to have experienced it and will cherish those moments forever
