MM "stepping away" from LittleBigPlanet

By Robert Purchese Published 1 July, 2011

"To focus on some new ideas."

The next big game made by Media Molecule probably won't be LittleBigPlanet 3, because the studio wants to do something new.

"We’re stepping away from Little Big Planet to focus on some new ideas," studio director Siobhan Reddy announced at Gamelab, reported by Edge Online.

As revealed earlier this week, Media Molecule will not be making the PlayStation Vita version of LittleBigPlanet. Those honours fall to UK developer Double11.

We do know, however, that Media Molecule is busy adding "much deeper" PlayStation Move support to LBP2. An update with the new and improved controls will be offered in September.

Media Molecule was founded in 2008 by former Lionhead staff, following the release of small indie game Rag Doll Kung Fu on a then fledgling Steam service.

Since then, Media Molecule has only ever worked on LittleBigPlanet-related games.

Sony splashed out and acquired Media Molecule in early 2010.

LittleBigPlanet 1 became Eurogamer's Game of the Year 2008, following a rip-roaring 9/10 review.

Eurogamer's review of LittleBigPlanet 2 also turned up 9/10.

However, try as Sony has, LittleBigPlanet and Sackboy have never reached the higher fame echelons of Mario or Master Chief or even Nathan Drake. Whether Sony will retire the LBP series forever remains to be seen.

The fantastic LittleBigPlanet 2.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • anthonypappa #1 11 months ago

    even though i love LBP, this is welcome news.

    let's see what else these guys can do.

  • WeirdbeardUK #2 11 months ago

    Nooooooooooooooooo.

  • Eighthours #3 11 months ago

    I maintain that LBP would have been more successful if MM had got the core platforming gameplay right. A platformer without good platforming can simply never fulfil its potential, no matter how amazing the creative tools are for making levels. I'm still very surprised that MM didn't sort this out between LBP1 and LBP2. Having the default floatiness still there was a big mistake. I know that you can assign your own control values for levels you create, but they should have been crazy-tight by default. They could have had an option to go back to LBP1 controls for existing levels that would have been "broken" by tighter controls.

  • PixelPirate #4 11 months ago

    I cant see Sony ditching LBP it might not do uber gangbusters sales, but it sells well and is a genre all of itself really.

    Its good to let the MM team move on to something else, LBP is now pretty established that other Sony studios can add their take on it and keep it fresh, leaving MM to come up with the next big thing.

  • X201 #5 11 months ago

    From Spaff @MM via LittleBigLand

    "Hi guys!

    I just wanted to write a comment on this before anyone panics :)

    Yes - we at Mm are currently in the process of thinking of new ideas and new crazy things we want to make for you to play, in order to do that, we need to take a step back from LittleBigPlanet. But we are not vanishing from your lives and nor is LBP - I'll get some more detail on that for you shortly, but for now DON'T PANIC! :)
    "

    http://www.littlebigland.com/mediamolecu...
    Edited by X201 at 01/07/11 @ 15:04

  • telboy007 #6 11 months ago

    Good, because LBP is utter garbage.

  • Mkwone #7 11 months ago

    I doubt MM/Sony will ditch LBP, but i don't think it's a game that needs a new sequel every other year. Keep releaseing a couple of content packs (either in house or out sourced) and i think most people will be happy for several years.

    Very much looking forward to see what they do next, and what'll happen to all the people MM hired on the basis of their LBP level creations.

  • paulf #8 11 months ago

    fledgling steam service in 2008? It had only been going for 5 years already

  • TeeHee #9 11 months ago

    Because of the nature of LBP i don't think it should be the type of franchise expected to pump out yearly sequals anyway.

  • Weezer #10 11 months ago

    Sorry, have to agree with negged telboy007. I really wanted to like it, but absolutely hated it. Each to his own, of course.

  • man.the.king #11 11 months ago

    @telboy007

    "Good, because LBP is utter garbage."

    Hmm, I see what you mean.

  • ShiftyGeezer #12 11 months ago

    There's no way LBP will be dropped. It does a roaring trade in DLC!

  • caspercat #13 11 months ago

    @paulf Rag doll kung fu was released in 2005.

  • Lunastra78 #14 11 months ago

    I once saw an interview with Lars Von Trier where he stated that movie directors would make far more interesting movies if they had a go at a genre they are not familiar with. Then you will hopefully end up with something fresh that does not follow the "rules" of any genre. I think this might be true for game developers as well.

    So I wish Media Molecule luck on their coming survival horror game. :D

  • taurus82 #15 11 months ago

    MM could/should partner with Tarsier Studios to get The City of Metronome finished.

  • Hamalot97 #16 11 months ago

    also NOOOO!!!

  • kingpin3000 #17 11 months ago

    I bet MM will have been moved onto working on a launch PS4 title. It has to be only 2-3 years away and we all know how long these games take to develop.

    And why else would Sony allow MM to drop LBP, a successful game that sells well.

  • Murton #18 11 months ago

    "And why else would Sony allow MM to drop LBP, a successful game that sells well."

    Perhaps because they successfully bucked the 2008 and 2010 trends in FPS flooding and managed to make a platformer of all things into a successful franchise with a massive following?

    Love LBP, but really looking forward to seeing what else mM can do, like mkwone I feel that LBP has achieved all it can for now, a nice steady stream of new creator kits every couple of months will make the game nigh on immortal through user content so we can get away without LBP 3 until at least late 2013 maybe even 14, plenty of time for mM to get something else out in the meantime.

  • Hindle #19 11 months ago

    Post deleted at 23:04:43 04-04-2012

  • alcides #20 11 months ago

    Hate to say it, but it's probably right to say decent platform physics would have helped the game's success.
    I'm not disappointed that they move along, although... Where is the awesome DLC for LBP2?

  • mrblonde #21 11 months ago

    Lets be honest, Sackboy didnt turn out to be the "next mario" Sony hoped for and its create, share idea never took off.
    LBP1 had very poor sales (2"s didnt really fair much better) and the games themselves had very average SP platforming and a time consuming , far to over- complicated toolset. Only very, very few gamers could design anything remotely worthwhile.

  • God_Octo #22 11 months ago

    I hope that they are thinking of moving onto the next level- a proper 3D platformer. We don't have nearly enough good platformers this generation, and I'm sure the very skilled guys and girls at MM could do it. I do love LBP though.

  • coolbritannia #23 11 months ago

    A good idea, badly implemented.

  • frunk #24 11 months ago

    This is one of the reasons I like Sony.

    MM are a Sony studio and are being allowed to focus "on new ideas" after some reasonable success.

    Nintendo can only rehash their old ideas - often very well but a rehash nevertheless.

    Microsoft would demand Franchise x+1, and as soon as it looked like it was not selling - just close the studio.

    Sony just seems to look after their studios better than most - and probably the reason they tend to get more interesting types of boxed product on the shelves.


    Before fanboys attack... I said "better than most" - not perfect. I also did not talk download games or 3rd party - where the XBox is far closer to Sony from an innovation perspective.