Producer says LittleBigPlanet will have 'global server'

by Jem Alexander { Aug 22nd 2008 at 8:00PM }

We're confused, Mr. Pete Smith, producer of upcoming platform-a-thon LittleBigPlanet. When we spoke to you during today's LittleBigPlanet breakdown session you said that "the game will have a global server." Now we hear that you told CVG something a little different. User generated content will be region locked? Normally we'd say "we're not sure who to believe" at this point, but seeing as both statements come from the same person, we're doubly confused.

Maybe you meant that the gameplay servers would be global. But what good is that if the people playing with each other can't access the same content? Will we be limited to playing with our foreign friends in one of the 50ish levels included on the game disc? Kind of defeats the point of the game, doesn't it? Sadly, we're not able to find out for sure until after the weekend, but rest assured we're actively looking to get confirmation either way.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Tags: lgc08, littlebigplanet, media-molecule

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Polkster @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:08PM

Or maybe the reverse? Gameplay is region locked but level sharing is global? Wouldn't that make sense? Considering other stuff like Home is region locked, so they figure keep that standard across all services. I mean Home's game launching feature would be pretty useless if it automatically excludes a significant portion of players with whom you could play LBP.

benny boy @ Aug 23rd 2008 9:34AM

An SCE developer has corrected this and sais that LBP is completely region-free on the EU playstation forums:

"Hi all, as many of you may have heard already in an interview at Leipzig the senior producer for LittleBigPlanet announced that the game is region locked. This is in fact not the case, and all shared levels in the game will be available worldwide. The confusion arose out of regional differences in how moderation will work as there are different legal rules each region have to play by, and at one point this looked like it may require the game to be independent in each region - however this has been worked around and there will only be one region for the game.... a LittleBigRegion.

Apologies for any confusion over this issue, however I'm pretty sure you're happy with the result."

benny boy @ Aug 23rd 2008 9:41AM

Link here:

http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=b_EN_GAMES_general_lbp&thread.id=3462

godlovesugly @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:28PM

"But we can move levels around on servers whenever we want."

They can put the levels on different servers it says right there.

Twoje @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:30PM

True, but they'd have to move them themselves. I want to be able to access every level made from every region, not some hand-picked or top-rated levels.

Liquid @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:53PM

So Americans can play with Mexicans any way?

Virduk @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:57PM

Jesus.

They really are trying hard to kill this game.

benny boy @ Aug 23rd 2008 8:38AM

What do you mean. This is actually the first bad piece of news I have heard about this game. It's still gonna be amazing.

Harvey @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:00PM

Great picture!

MetalGearsOfSolidWar @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:16PM

That picture is cute

Littlebigplanet>All

SnazzyD @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:52PM

Deep breath everyone. No need to sound the alarm bells. It makes perfect sense that level sharing is for everyone worldwide, and game launching could be region locked.

Or, perhaps that depends on whether the game is launched from within Home or otherwise. As far as I know, most if not all other online games are region locked anyway...

SnazzyD @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:00PM

Virduk said...
Jesus... They really are trying hard to kill this game

Whoah... lighten up there Mr. Heston. If there is one thing that noone needs to get upset about, it's LBP...

Amiculi @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:11PM

I find this especially annoying, most all of my friends who own a PS3 live over some sea or another. I certainly hope you can share specifically with friends.

If it just limits the searching criteria to your own region but still allows friends to swap levels, that's pretty okay, it could be better but I'm not horribly disappointed. But if you can't swap with people on your friends list regardless of their location...

Shashwat @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:13PM

I hope that its global sharing. LBP looks to be great.

I just played at a server in Warhawk called Ps3fanboy.com. Is that this site's?

shashu.singh @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:38PM

why'd my comment get deleted? :(.
I was hoping to see what the Japanese would make with LBP. Guess that won't happen. This greatly limits LBP's potential. People around the world the world have different perspectives and it would have been great to see what they come up with.

Shashwat @ Aug 23rd 2008 2:30AM

This is weird. my other comment showed up late. what's up with the comment system here? Normally it used to be instantenous.

iamkid @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:45PM

:/ this is confusing.....i have a few friends overseas, but i dont know if i would need to share lbp levels with them, although i dont doubt most of them would get the game.

adnananiqa @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:04PM

i dnt understand this game why is there so much hype about it cud sum1 explain this game 2 me

rehobothmarty @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:26PM

You can look on YouTube and find a lot of LBP vids, adnananiqa.

James @ Aug 23rd 2008 12:22AM

So stupid, why should anything be region locked at all? I can semi understand Home with Sony's greed but why LBP?

Having many friends overseas pumped for this game this really takes a lot of interest in my title since I may not either be able to play or share with them? What the hell?

So much for gaming 2.0, last time I checked I can share photos with friends in Australia or England if I'm in America.

First the potential paying of user created content and now this. Great.

Name: @ Aug 23rd 2008 1:46AM

What is the greed of Sony you speak of when mentioning "home"?

Capn P @ Aug 24th 2008 6:37AM

"Sony's greed"? Isn't home free? Region locking it hardly seems like it would be incited by greed...
Stop complaining for gods sake. Hasn't anyone paid attention to benny boy? Sam confirmed region locking NOT to be the case...

SnazzyD @ Aug 23rd 2008 8:47AM

This title will sell millions of copies. Let's say 1 million to be ultra-conservative. Then let's assume that only 1% of those game owners will create and upload one, and ONLY one game level to the PSN servers - ever.

That's 10,000 levels people! Where are you going to cram those onto the craft Earth?

Now, assume the game sells 3 million copies, and 10% of the users upload 2.8 levels on average. That's over 800,000 levels. How in hell are they going to manage that.

I agree that not being able to play a level with friends who have PS3s from other regions sucks, but the logistics are the problem here...

stargateheaven @ Aug 23rd 2008 9:11AM

The craft earth shows the one's you've downloaded.. It wouldn't put all of the levels on there, you silly lol.
It couldn't even fit 500 that way.

Capn P @ Aug 24th 2008 6:43AM

Yeah thats what he meant, why complain about region lock when there will be thousands more than you could ever download. But anyway as HolySmoke says below, and benny boy above, no region lock, all is hunky dory.

Also, very interesting numbers SnazzyD, really makes you realize just how stuff there will be to download :D.