What Happened to LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet, a series of games where you can play, create, and share. It started its journey in 2008, but even for them, the world is going to end.

As we’re in the middle of 2026, I would like to discuss what happened to LittleBigPlanet. About five years ago, the servers have been doing so badly that they had to shut down all LBP servers for the PlayStation 3 and the Vita. But then in 2024, they shut down the servers temporarily in January, only for them to announce that they will not come back on in April, not too long after the 3DS servers shut down.

To be honest, even without regarding the server shutdowns and the PlayStation 3 losing relevance over time, the mainstream franchise has been dead. The last LBP game besides that 2020 spinoff to come out was LittleBigPlanet 3, which came out in 2014. That is more than 10 years ago.

If there’s anything that I would like to blame for the death of it, my two biggest culprits were the change in management and the toxicity of the community.

Change in Management:

Usually, when there’s a change in management when handling an IP, the result would become disastrous. It happened with SpongeBob when Stephen Hillenburg stepped down in 2005. It happened with Cartoon Network after the Boston Bomb Scare. It happened with Disney after Roy O Disney died. Even Star Wars created a worse trilogy after Disney bought it out. And LittleBigPlanet was one of the many franchises that suffered this fate.

In 2012, Media Molecule (the creators of LittleBigPlanet) left their project to start a new one. Sumo Digital acquired LittleBigPlanet. Also around that time period, LittleBigPlanet Vita was made by Tarsier Studios, and LittleBigPlanet Karting was made by United Front Games. Given their poor handling, LittleBigPlanet has not had a good game since LittleBigPlanet 2.

LittleBigPlanet Vita was actually successful for the console it came out on. It even had some memorable music, memorable characters, and a great plot. However, the console it came out on, the Vita, was a failed system, a failure so bad that Sony left the handheld market.

The two games that really killed the franchise were LittleBigPlanet Karting and LittleBigPlanet 3. For the former, while the idea of putting a Mario-Kart style game into a world of creativity worked on paper, how it actually came out failed. Compared to the creation controls LBP1 and LBP2 had, the controls were too complicated. It didn’t translate well in the 3D world, especially since it was based on 2D gameplay. It actually failed as a game, and it’s considered to be the worst LBP game. But, that was only a spin-off. The big loser was LittleBigPlanet 3. Despite outliving the first two games, it did not do too well upon its release. The game was rushed. Even if you didn’t consider the glitches, the game was too short. Not like LittleBigPlanet 1 (which had eight worlds) and LittleBigPlanet 2 (which had six worlds), there were only four worlds, with three of them being the mainstream ones. The levels themselves were also disappointing. The glitches also made it unbearable at the start. What I didn’t like about LittleBigPlanet 3 at the beginning was that my Move Pack content didn’t carry over when my LBP2 profile was imported in LBP3. So I thought about buying the Move Pack on the PlayStation Store, only for it to not be on there. This was the final straw with me, and I have not come back.

Even before Sumo Digital did a bad job on making the game, they also had some faults with the Cross-Controller DLC. While the story and theme was pretty good, the requirement of the PlayStation Vita and it’s flawed create mode made that pack one of their mistakes. It wasn’t even as popular as the Move Pack.

Media Molecule is also not exempt from making bad decisions. For example, before they left LittleBigPlanet, they had an update that removed the boo rating (their one dislike button).

• When the update first came out, I was opposed to it, because that destroyed the criticism system. When there’s hearting, there’s no point in the yay rating without the boo rating. As the months went by, the Cool Pages, one of the biggest controversies related to the community, deteriorated into spam, copied crap all made by the same creator with different accounts.
• One year later, I began to support the decision. While it did destroy the criticism system and made the Cool Pages worse, it also solved another problem. People have been abusing the boo rating. The purpose of it was for constructive criticism, but some trolls abused it to bully other creators on the PSN. I once had all of my levels booed by some troll too. Even I was guilty of misusing the boo rating, as I did it just to boost my statistics to earn pins. I took completion too seriously.
• Ten years later, I started to think that removing the boo rating is one the biggest mistakes Media Molecule made. Although it was a gradual process, many people have left since the removal of the boos. The lack of relevance LittleBigPlanet had in today’s world was what made me blame this decision.

Another fault on Media Molecule’s part was the absurd difficulty of the Move Pack Mini-Games. They weren’t thinking of their target audience when making these games. The biggest offender was the game The Tale of Claude the Field Mouse, where you need to use precise movement under time pressure to get all the prizes and the trophy. Other games had their problems too, like Pond Skater had beavers reaching too far from the other side and having an overpriced vending machine, and Defense Mechanism taking too long and having baddies moving too fast.

Community Controversies:

I would also like to blame the LittleBigPlanet community for killing itself. Except for the most talented of the creators that I used to talk to on LittleBigPlanet Central. But much of the community were trashy kids who abused or misused features to get everything they want and acted very cliquish.

Going back to 2012, using my own experience, here are the many problems with LittleBigPlanet’s community:

• The biggest one was the Cool Pages. It was nothing but spam, copied crap. Specifically bomb survivals, shark survivals, Mortal Kombat levels (which isn’t even real fighting, but rather some crappy controllinator machines fighting each other with unfitting music), and other kinds of low-grade levels. One person has been copying and republishing levels, and so many players enjoy playing these levels. One user on LBPC also noted that many of these copied levels also came from LittleBigPlanet 1, and Media Molecule allowed them to move over, giving these bomb survivals another run. Now booing a level may upset a level’s standing on the Cool Pages, but when that got dropped, the Cool Pages got worse. Sony has repeatedly banned accounts by the same player that’s been spamming the Cool Pages, but he kept getting around it, even going as far as getting another PlayStation 3.
• The Mm Picks weren’t so hot either. Back when they started, they used to be the best of honor coming from the community. But after a new community manager took over, it became easier to get Mm Picked, especially if you did a holiday level. Most of the Mm Picks from 2012 and up were pretty good levels, but they’re not worthy of getting an Mm Pick. The ones who complained about Mm Picks were also part of the problem, as they weren’t respecting Media Molecule’s choices.
• While adult gamers and some teenage gamers were pretty decent people online, the children who play LBP were rather trashy and act “mature” when they’re really being immature. Let’s forget about the sexual content or other mature content. Let’s also forget the many times kids cussed online. What we’re looking at are the “emo” trend where several children made “emo” costumes for their sackpeople, some also looking like whores. It was rather an annoying fad.
• While I’m on the topic of child behaviors, there was also kids who did H4H and P4P to boost their stats. I can understand the P4P (play for play), but H4H (heart for heart) seemed rather demanding, especially if all they’re making is a low-grade level. Requesting this can upset both master designers and fans of the designers. The ones who did follow the trend did get more hearts, despite not doing anything that deserves it, basically cheating for hearts. And let’s not forget those who advertise their levels on level comments of both other users and the official levels. Instead of making on-topic comments, they advertise their levels.
• While the removal of the boo rating was a mistake on Media Molecule’s behalf, they had a reason to do so. It’s because the boo rating has been abused by many players. Trolls wouldn’t even try the levels, and would instead boo all of their levels just to hurt them. But there were also some who did it specifically to spite others. They have been doing it past the point of moderator control. So Media Molecule went in and removed the rating. You can see how game developers punish everyone for the behaviors done by a few.
  • While they did that, they also introduced the feature where you can disable reviews and profile comments. Helpful it is indeed, but it also gave trolls another power. They can make levels that are worth making negative comments, only for them to not be able to do that. They can also bully and criticize others on their profile comments while blocking profile comments on theirs. While this wasn’t as big of a problem as the abuse of the boo rating.
• Costume levels aren’t necessarily a problem, nor is it the abundance of costume levels. But some professional gamers don’t like them.

If you thought the community was rather peaceful, you’re wrong. It’s normal for a gaming community to have toxicity within. I’ve seen it within the Nintendo fandoms. But what makes LittleBigPlanet worse than most of them was because the game was centered on creation, Sony had a more open network back then, and most of the people within the community were kids. Another thing I learned (after quitting LBP and moving onto the Nintendo fandom) is that between Nintendo fans, Microsoft fans, and Sony fans, the most toxic ones are the Sony fans. Guess what LittleBigPlanet’s community was made of.

So yes, long before LittleBigPlanet’s servers finally got the axe, the community has been toxic. I’m not sure if they’ve gotten better, but I do blame a dysfunctional community for ruining LittleBigPlanet in the long run. Now the real worst offender, I don’t know his name, but whoever hacked LittleBigPlanet Central not too long after LittleBigPlanet 3 came out, that was the worst.