LittleBigPlanet open beta will never happen

by Jem Alexander { May 8th 2008 at 9:30AM }

We had the opportunity to speak at length with various LittleBigPlanet producers at PlayStation Day, as well as get some hands-on time with the title. Top of our discussion list was the beta. We wanted to know as much as possible about when it's coming and have done since it was implied last July. However both Sam Bennett (Community Development Manager) and Pete Smith (Producer) maintained that a public, open beta will sadly not be happening. The game will go through a beta phase, obviously, but this will be performed by an internal group at Sony.

There's a possibility of a small number of gamers and press being invited into the beta phase, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Releasing the game in its entirety to the public, free of charge would be suicide. Instead, there's talk of a demo being made available, which will curb our monstrous hunger pangs for the game until its October release. What the demo will contain and when it will arrive is still being discussed.

Check out our gallery below for some new images of LittleBigPlanet straight from PlayStation Day. Also be sure to check out the video of the cute-but-ghastly Helghast Sackboys.

Gallery: LittleBigPlanet

Tags: beta, little-big-planet, littlebigplanet, media-molecule, playstation-day-2008

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

koehler83 @ May 8th 2008 9:47AM

Are they aware that this game is pretty much completely dependent on a flawless networking system? Its never happened in PS3 history, but they'll nail it with no help from a beta huh?

God it just never gets any better for us, does it?

GRT @ May 8th 2008 9:57AM

I wonder if this game is starting to lose its relevance... UGC is becoming more and more common. Look at that Boom Blox game for the Wii that just came out with its level creator...

Nathanical @ May 8th 2008 10:28AM

yeh but boom blox looks crap imo. And is far from the charm of LBP. UGC is not anything new anyway. I think the problem with games these days is theyre over hyped far too early on, and by the time the games are eventually released, the 'ZOMG AWESOMENESS' factor is already gone. MY interest in LBP on the otherhand seems to keep growing, and from hearing what ppl who have played the early builds have been saying, the hype isnt unjustified.
I think one of the things (among others) about LBP which makes it really stand out, is more than its game play, its its style. It almost has a soul. its that magic factor which is rare among games these days.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!) @ May 8th 2008 1:01PM

exactly. alot of these games blow their loads before they even come out. i would much rather these companies announce a game 6 months to 1 year before its coming out instead of telling us about a game as soon as they start thinking about making it. i mean ive been hearing about LBP, FFXIII, GT5, and Killzone 2 for how long now? and i have how many of them? they announced Resistance 2 at the beginning of the year and it will be out by the end of the year, thats how it should be. Killzone 2 was announced back around '05 and its not releasing until '09, what was the point of announcing it that early then? we know the games take that long to finish anyway.

if a game is close to coming out then im going to get excited for it. i dont need 3-5 years of hype to get excited about a game.

Finn123 @ May 8th 2008 10:22AM

I think the gallery URLs are busted

Eggy @ May 8th 2008 10:44AM

LBP owns, a public beta is not a very good idea. just look at MGO. Whiny little bitches galore.

Popfrogs @ May 8th 2008 11:28AM

Yeah, I'd say roughly 50% of the people in the MGO beta have no idea what the purpose of a beta is. They just call the whaaaaambulance 24 hours a day.

frankym @ May 8th 2008 10:57AM

Screw the beta and screw the demo..just get it out on time

True_Darknight @ May 8th 2008 11:30AM

Yeah let them spend time on getting the game to work. they already know how to make games work on the network.. so the most you have a a 4 player co-op, not that hard.

Now testing 1.2 million people trying to get a stage.. totally different.. but could be tested by computers.

Oh well. Just get me the damn game already. And yes sure add me to the closed beta too!

Wild Bill @ May 8th 2008 11:33AM

A mate of mine got paid £100 to play this game for a day and give feedback. Pretty good way to make money in my opinion.

He said it was "good".

BlackBeltJones @ May 8th 2008 2:51PM

booo

HektikLyfe @ May 8th 2008 2:58PM

I doubt there will even be a demo. This is the type of game that if you play for 10 minutes you've experienced the entire thing.

They will try to get you on the sale and won't release a demo, if at all, until all the early dunces (adopters) get their copy.