Sony still "investigating" LBP issues

By Tom Bramwell Published 30 October, 2008

Server problems remain after 1.03 patch.

Sony has said that it is still "investigating the cause" of LittleBigPlanet online issues. Meanwhile, copies of the game on both sides of the Atlantic have been patched to version 1.03.

The servers went down on Tuesday, but reports that all is now well seem to have been premature, judging by our own experience and those of others with early access. The game is out in the US, too, where there's obviously lots of moaning.

"We are aware that the online environment of LittleBigPlanet is having server performance issues, and we are investigating the cause," Sony told Eurogamer this morning. "We'll have an update to the online gameplay as soon as we possibly can."

Meanwhile, a source close to Media Molecule reminded us that a 1.03 patch has now been distributed, and that the main change was to do with lightening server loads.

Our source said the server problems should be under control by now, and that the developer is keeping an eye on Sony Computer Entertainment America's experience since the game's launch there this week to gauge whether it's necessary to issue additional fixes for Europe.

One day everything will be alright and we'll all talk about how amazing LittleBigPlanet is and forget about all this nonsense. The game ships in Europe next week and should be available in the UK specifically on 5th November.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (54) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dark_Stranger #1 4 years ago

    piss up in a brewery

  • jim1975 #2 4 years ago

    maybe a larger scale beta would of been a good idea

  • Valver #3 4 years ago

    This doesn't bode well for when a few more thousand people hit their already choked servers on the 5th, does it?

  • Buztafen #4 4 years ago

    M-I-C... K-E-Y..... M-O-U-S-E Mickey mouse, MICKEY MOUSE OPERATION!!!!!

  • Vanmunt #5 4 years ago

    ummm... seeing as this isn't even out over here, whats the fricken problem.

  • Prime #6 4 years ago

    Allah is angry!! :p

  • GamerG #7 4 years ago

    You'd think Sony would try and sort out their own first party line up's online

    Socom last week and now LBP, they come across as though they dont know what they are doing!

  • ducky280 #8 4 years ago

    Online is nutz ATM... Lets hope they get it fixed up ASAP and get a new patch up.. I think the game should kick into the pod then you can pick to go online or not!!


    But if you do get online try out the *FIND SACKBOY'S BALLS* level... Challenge is simple, Don't die, Complete the level while collecting all 10 hidden balls to get a max score of 100!!!


    My Name on there: Ducky280

  • rotmm #9 4 years ago

    @Prime:

    Got a chuckle from me ;)

  • andijames #10 4 years ago

    Think they need to invest in more server hamsters! Fifa 09 was bad online when it first came out but that's settled down nicely now. Just seems to be bad when everyone goes online at the start

  • Widge #11 4 years ago

    I would just like to have the game please :(

  • ducky280 #12 4 years ago

    The game is worth the wait folks.. Best game i've EVER played!! Sony and M.M will soon have the Servers fixed :)

  • Beano #13 4 years ago

    "M-I-C... K-E-Y..... M-O-U-S-E Mickey mouse, MICKEY MOUSE OPERATION!!!!! "

    Well said, Sir !

    Amazing that the server load comes as a surprise to MM/Sony... only their most hyped title of 2008... total amateur hour!

    JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!

    (I will recall the above statement if christians complain)

  • Fab4 #14 4 years ago

    CoD4 servers around Xmas time, on XBL...that was the proverbial piss-up in a brewery.

  • Beano #15 4 years ago

    "Socom last week and now LBP, they come across as though they dont know what they are doing! "

    I wonder if Sony have the phonenumber for Insomniac?

    Otherwise I will be happy to find it for them...

  • chrisjm #16 4 years ago

    LOL

  • udat #17 4 years ago

    Fucking amateurs.

  • Razz #18 4 years ago

    I'm kind of happy for the delay now. :)

  • Beano #19 4 years ago

    Yes ... Sony are closing servers only to advertise their game... makes completely sense now !
    Edited by Beano at 30/10/08 @ 12:09

  • adcworks #20 4 years ago

    that's what you get when you don't provide a central platform like Live.

  • chrisjm #21 4 years ago

    "In other news, a programmer at Rare working on a game that's not even announced yet accidentally forgot put a semicolon in his code and spent 2 minutes debugging it. "

    we've all done it, but we dont all get eurogamer coverage for it, cough $$

  • mcbi4kh2 #22 4 years ago

    @adcworks
    that's what you get when you don't provide a central platform like Live.

    Yeah, becasue Live has never had any problems. 100% up-time.

  • Beano #23 4 years ago

    Agree. Funny how people seem to forget XBLA problems - a whole month last year which forced MS to give away a free game.
    Besides this is isolated to LBP and not the entire PSN.

  • chrisjm #24 4 years ago

    LBP servers uptime will be 0% soon after LBP2's launch while LIVE will stay at 99% (estimated %!)
    Edited by chrisjm at 30/10/08 @ 12:19

  • Beano #25 4 years ago

    Nonsense. Troll spotted.

  • miiiguel #26 4 years ago

    "Funny how people seem to forget XBLA problems - a whole month last year which forced MS to give away a free game."
    I don't think "they" did, the diference is, as you said, that was a year ago, this is now.
    Anyway, I bet Sony will give its user base some PSN game.

  • IneptPercy #27 4 years ago

    xbox live may have the rare problem, but this is something else.

    the phrase "you get what you pay for" comes to mind

  • hammerstein07 #28 4 years ago

    The game is awesome, the online issues will be fixed. I don't know how the network infrastructure works, but I'm sure they're working very hard to understand why the beta didn't flush out the issue, even on a smaller scale. That's the difficulty in software development, "Works fine for me". I love the game, I just hope this doesn't harm it's reputation that people won't pick it up and appreciate it for all that it is.

  • Beano #29 4 years ago

    "Anyway, I bet Sony will give its user base some PSN game."

    I doubt... why should they?

    1) PSN is free

    2) PSN has not been down yet. The LBP server is down in the US which IS amateurish.

  • miiiguel #30 4 years ago

    "Anyway, I bet Sony will give its user base some PSN game."

    I doubt... why should they?

    1) PSN is free


    yeah, maybe they won't, but it would be a good move, to prove to ppl (like me) who are more than happy to pay 40 Eur/year for a responsible service. That would state that PSN users *can* complain... otherwise being free is not a virtue, is a burden.
    Edited by miiiguel at 30/10/08 @ 12:35

  • migasUK #31 4 years ago

    LoL , bad scaling, bad games, bad online services, i'm wonder when they will do something better than xbx

  • Widge #32 4 years ago

    what like not being breaky?

  • Beano #33 4 years ago

    @miiiguel : Maybe, but Sony's service is incredible stabile and has not been down and actually allows game to run smoother with less lag and more players while MS's premium service has been down several times and games are prone to lag. Oh the irony :)

    PSN's REAL downside (and where it lags behind XBLA) is it inconsistancy on the feature set and the amount of freedom developers/publishers have. For example all XBL games support voice-chat the same way, have global invites, etc. because it's a requirement to developers where Sony do not require that.

    Don't get me wrong - I think MS made the right choice by implementing these features into the 360 OS from the start and require online games to support a specific feature set. But that is not really something that cost money hardware-wise to run (their servers) and should really be free when most (if not all) XBL games only are peer-2-peer anyway and are not running on dedicated servers (which takes more bandwidth and processing=cost more).
    XBL is a great service but is really just a hidden cost for gamers and has nothing to do with the expenses MS have by running their servers.

    Also, I just don't think this inconsistancy would suddenly disappear in PSN games if Sony begin charging for their service - Sony won't get smarter with more money :)
    Edited by Beano at 30/10/08 @ 13:30

  • PrivateJoker #34 4 years ago

    Fucking xbox trolling wastes of space, no good shit for brains, aids virus with shoes on cocksuckers . Fuck off to a Swiss euthanasia clinic and post a video of your pathetic death on youtube so we can all breath a sigh of relief that there's at least one less fucking moron stealing our oxygen.

    aaaah...That's better. Time for lunch

  • ABXY #35 4 years ago

    dont see these problems with Xbox live! dodgy free service, i dont mind paying for a reliable connection......

  • mcbi4kh2 #36 4 years ago

    dont see these problems with Xbox live! dodgy free service, i dont mind paying for a reliable connection......

    Whats dodgy about it? Besides teething problems with new games (I'm looking at you mgs4, Socom) which happens on Live too (Halo 3) there is never any problems.
    Has PSN ever been down totally? I can't remember it being.

    @Beano +1

  • Mr_Dodger #37 4 years ago

    The beta did have these issues. When I first got on it was fine. Then (mostly over the first weekend) it was terrible. It wouldn't connect to the planet, the FF/RW in edit mode wouldn't work, and even the SP levels were bit jumpy.

    Then they did something server side, and it was fine again.

    Point being, they must have some idea what the issues are, and I'm sure it will get resolved. Hopefully by the time my copy arrives!

    EDIT:

    More to the point, have they fixed the "3-beep reset" when exiting the game that was resulting in corrupted data? Was pretty widely reported, and was causing lots of people to lose their work.
    Edited by Mr_Dodger at 30/10/08 @ 13:36

  • Beano #38 4 years ago

    They better...

  • Doctor_What #39 4 years ago

    @Beano: Well said. I've had my 360 for a couple of years now, and had Live for a few months during that time but not paid for it (RROD return freebies... Hooray?). Do I feel like I've missed out on £80 of quality online gaming time? Nope, not in the slightest.

    If someone said to you when you were buying your console: here's your machine, now pay me £160 to keep it online for the next four years, you'd think that they were ripping you off, but for some reason people seem desperate to argue that it's a reasonable price compared to the competition.

    Maybe I'm being optimistic, hoping for logic and rational discussion, but it was nice to see a balanced comparison of the services Beano. Thanks :)

  • miiiguel #40 4 years ago

    "but for some reason people seem desperate to argue that it's a reasonable price compared to the competition"
    Obviously I can't speak for any other person, but I can't imagine me being "desperate" for 40 Eur/year (or 400Eur/10 years, put it as you like..., lol). The thing is, if the the water company wanted to give me service for free, I wouldn't want it if that meant I couldn't complain if something went wrong. That's what I think when someone says "oh okay... but it's free."
    On the other hand, I'm not really interrested if the service is P2P or W4Y..., I just want it to perform, I'm at the end of the line I'm not analising the whole production line.

    That said, in the end, it is my money the one which is my pocket, as it is yours in your, so we do as we like.

  • Beano #41 4 years ago

    @miiiguel : Is caring about lag and stablity "analising"?... in that case... I am analising and proud of it :)

  • miiiguel #42 4 years ago

    I just tried to say I can't be bothered with the fact that a service provider is making a profit or not. I just need to know if I can pay, and if it deserves what I am spending.

    off-topic: guess it's ok to make fun of my funny english :)
    (I do try to make as few mistakes as possible).
    Edited by miiiguel at 30/10/08 @ 14:20

  • Beano #43 4 years ago

    If you are happy with Live, I have no problem with it - I was just trying to compare the two services objectively and illiustrate the advantages and weaknesses for both. And I don't see PSN as a disaster like some people want it to be ;)

    I'm not making fun of your english... just though the "analising" word was a bit harsh in relation to my opinion. I'm sure my english is broken also (I'm not english speaking natively either).
    Edited by Beano at 30/10/08 @ 14:29

  • mattigan #44 4 years ago

    So all PS3 online games are lag free now are they, don't talk shit.

    All online games are subject to lag, it is the nature of the internet, not the platform fukwit.

    Sure, net code has something to do with it, but latency is latency, there's no getting round it...

  • Beano #45 4 years ago

    "So all PS3 online games are lag free now are they, don't talk shit. "

    No, read my post. And please stop being rude.

  • miiiguel #46 4 years ago

    @Beano. right, now that we have our educated PSN vs XBL disputed sorted (for now, ahah!), I'll go completly off-topic..., I used to work with a very peculiar UK buddy from Newcastle (oh man..., he so hated London, for some reason I never quite understood..., also had a very hard accent), but now he's gone (went to work in Dubai), and my english is getting worse. EG.net provides me some training ground.

  • Beano #47 4 years ago

    :)

  • Darren #48 4 years ago

    Not very encouraging news for the UK release next Wednesday really... :?

    ... but I'm not sure I'd be playing this game much online anyway so it's not a deal-breaker for me on reflection. :)

  • Widge #49 4 years ago

    I had a couple of Newcastle housemates and christ, when I first moved in it was like they were speaking French or something

  • davisorle #50 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • Widge #51 4 years ago

    What, this article http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?art... ?

  • Vanmunt #52 4 years ago

    LittleBigPlanet just got a patch update to v1.03 -- the third update this week. What does it do exactly? Well, the major difference with the new patch seems to revolve around the fact that the servers are up. Not only that, but they're actually running smoothly. Looks like whatever LittleBigHiccup that was bothering the online multiplayer mode is now gone. Now go out there and make those silly Sackpeople do silly things.

    Lifted form GamesRadar... end of topic really, though I woulodn't expect any update on EuroFlamer

  • 200k #53 4 years ago

    It astounds me how arguably LBP is the biggest PS3 game to date and yet it is on 1.03 before it's even come out. And to still not have the online sorted even after having a "beta" test also seems pretty slack.

  • The_Game_Guy #54 4 years ago

    " jim1975
    30-Oct-08 10:53:05

    maybe a larger scale beta would of been a good idea"

    You mean like Metal Gear Online? XD