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LittleBigPlanet 1/2/3/Portable/Vita/Karting online services shutting down in Japan
- Thread starter miku
- Start date
Indeed.
CamHostage
Member
Is there any means of a radical alternative in how UGC is made available in gaming for the sake of preservation? (Not that companies care about content given that they can see numbers and weigh them against costs, but for developers, this must suck to see whole worlds and communities simply blink away, and I wonder if they might come up with a solution that subverts the problem.) What would be the possibility of client-side UGC storage ala torrents and Napster?
With a P2P file sharing system, the levels you have on your drive would be de-centrally shared to users, and index IDs in the UGC file would help the client app comb through content to identify duplicates. Sony would still have to operate a central handshaking app, but they wouldn't need to store files or host games (let's leave multiplayer online out of the equation for now.) There'd only ever be whatever content everybody's old PS3s or PS4s has on hand to share (which would dwindle in time,) but it'd be something if digital preservationists made the effort, and Sony would have hugely diminished operating costs (and if they made a Napster for UGC, the app for LBP might also be the app for Dreams and whatever other UGC service they ran. No insurance of safety, however (maybe some day somebody would find a way to write a worm into a LBP file? But then again, PC MODs are being allowed in Fallout/Skyrim, so not sure the difference?) It's a different approach (albeit 20+year-old P2P tech) to UGC distribution that's counter to how console manufacturers operate, but at some point, the business of creating UGC-based games will suffer if user-generated content becomes devalued, so there will need to be some solution. Server costs aren't coming down, virtualization doesn't seem like it'll ever save the day, and new games are going offline all the time...
woopWOOP
Member
Damn! In one fell swoop...
It's too bad these kind of creation sharing servers end up getting closed too, because it'd be kind of fun to boot up the game years from now and look at all the stuff that's been made over the years. Heck, I think I can still do so with Mega Man Powered Up for PSP.
It's too bad these kind of creation sharing servers end up getting closed too, because it'd be kind of fun to boot up the game years from now and look at all the stuff that's been made over the years. Heck, I think I can still do so with Mega Man Powered Up for PSP.
LelouchZero
Member
It's a real shame that the Japanese servers are shutting down, hopefully the other servers have a couple more years of life left in them. I really hate it when Sony shut down servers.
I will literally bawl hard as f the day the servers go down, LittleBigPlanet is the contender for my favorite game of all time next to FF7, this game changed my life and I made many great friends through it.
I will literally bawl hard as f the day the servers go down, LittleBigPlanet is the contender for my favorite game of all time next to FF7, this game changed my life and I made many great friends through it.
……forgetit
Member
Really not how that works nor is it feasible. I know it's frustrating and yeah, the appeal of the game really shrinks due to the lack of content, but just setting a minimum time isn't the answer. Imagine if the game completely bombed and the server storage was literally empty. You'd still have to hold it for essentially no reason costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars. You can't pitch something with that big of a downside.
A Link to the Past
Banned
I hope people work to preempt SCEA/E and prevent them from shutting down services.
DarkConfidant
Member
thatsallfolks.gif
Well, there goes the plug. :'(
Those games were all sooo much fun. Rarely on a Sony console can I invite friends over, and guarantee a couch 4 player game that we'll all love.
In high school, and even my first years of college, we had sooo many LBP runs through the series.
Well, there goes the plug. :'(
Those games were all sooo much fun. Rarely on a Sony console can I invite friends over, and guarantee a couch 4 player game that we'll all love.
In high school, and even my first years of college, we had sooo many LBP runs through the series.
stan423321
Member
The basic thing you need to understand is that vast majority of developers are not going to implement two systems, whether at once or in succession. Right now, Sony doesn't care about LBP. When they did, the system they had was good enough. Implementing sharing by connection instead of centralized content storage server would be a tremendous help to PS3 pirates and massive boon to everyone else for rather obvious scheduling reasons, so they would have to intentionally care about the game surviving the server removal.
A typical player-friendly PC dev would go and allow fans to create their own content servers, but as you said yourself this is sort of against the whole way console business operates, especially at Sony's. It's always all about the present.
Sorcerer Supreme
Member
why do people pay to play online again?
lol fuck sony
lol fuck sony
Jarod McChicken
Member
Well, you know.
LittleBigPlanet 3 entered at rank #33 on PS4 and #49 on PS3, back in December 2014. That's too low on the charts to give even a number. The game at #20 did 9K that week, for reference.
LPB 2 did 25K back in the glory days of 2011.
Basically, LBP is not dead in Japan with this announcement since it was never born to begin with.
LittleBigPlanet 3 entered at rank #33 on PS4 and #49 on PS3, back in December 2014. That's too low on the charts to give even a number. The game at #20 did 9K that week, for reference.
LPB 2 did 25K back in the glory days of 2011.
Basically, LBP is not dead in Japan with this announcement since it was never born to begin with.
I've been saying this since the Halo 2/Original X-box Live shutdown. I will never pay for online play ever again.
This. And little big planet Karting bombed everywhere. Basically Sony is shutting down the unsuccessful Lbp games in the areas they are being unsuccessful. This doesn't mean they will shut down the games in the west.
??
If the storage was empty and the server wasn't receiving any requests, it wouldn't be using any resources. How would that cost Sony hundreds of thousands of dollars?
MikeE21286
Member
bitbydeath
Member
Dick move Sony.
LBP3 should stay up for at least PS4's entire life regardless.
LBP3 should stay up for at least PS4's entire life regardless.
eyeball_kid
Member
Dreams looks to be a little more customer-friendly already as you'll be able to export any model you create in a standard format. But yeah, it would be far more damaging if Dreams eventually shuts down some years down the line, as it looks to be something you could create legitimate works of art in.
This kind of stuff is always worrisome and why I'm hesitant to support cloud-dependent games on consoles.
Yeah, they should give an offline alternative task, even if it is harder.
I'll take advantage of this week's sale and buy PS3 LB3 that is only 2,99. I did platinum both LBP1 and LBP2; LBP Vita online trophies are safe for me, and seems like I'll be screwed of LBP Karting platinum though, as my digital version just won't work online (0% trophies).
LBP3 might have a change so I'll try and plat it on PS3 for such a cheap price.
……forgetit
Member
The storage is just that, storage, that can be better used elsewhere. If no one is using it then they're losing by not allowing it to be used for something else.
somecrazymember
Banned
I might aswell advertise my MMPicked level one more time: go and play 'Madness is an option 2' pls
My avatar is made in LBP2. So yeah, this is a sad affair, I thought LBP3 would keep the franchise alive for a while (which I didn't buy, though.) I had bought both LBP1 and 2 on the PS3, and spent gazillion of hours making original circuitry.
Of course, this is the console world. There's not even a chance to keep things going by the fans.
What makes me sad is that the money from the 21 million ps plus users including me doesn't find its way to keep these services going.
Farewell my boulder dash remake
Hmm.. How about ability to export and import level files from other users? This would preserve the awesome and notable games with the game itself, which seems totally fair. I don't think it would be that hard, they'd need to form a wrapper to the uploader and downloader. Surely this will take programmers time, but Sony owes the creators at least this.
And bearing this in mind, MM should add such import and export from file functionality to Dreams before they even release the game, and only activate it when the shut down is due.
Of course, this is the console world. There's not even a chance to keep things going by the fans.
What makes me sad is that the money from the 21 million ps plus users including me doesn't find its way to keep these services going.
Farewell my boulder dash remake
Hmm.. How about ability to export and import level files from other users? This would preserve the awesome and notable games with the game itself, which seems totally fair. I don't think it would be that hard, they'd need to form a wrapper to the uploader and downloader. Surely this will take programmers time, but Sony owes the creators at least this.
And bearing this in mind, MM should add such import and export from file functionality to Dreams before they even release the game, and only activate it when the shut down is due.
stan423321
Member
Drives are resources. They need to be replaced, powered or ready to be powered, etc.
So, you're talking about dedicated storage space, sitting there empty despite no demand? I guess so. I would think they would be able to use it for something else and monitor demand so they could add capacity later if interest picked up. A management issue, I guess.
Well they would have to have servers for millions of levels running non stop. No way to change that based on demand.
This.
There are 21 million paid subscribers and at least some of that money could be used to keep these things alive. I don't think anybody can dissect the way Sony spends the PS plus money, but I don't think there would be backlash if Sony spent some of that money for the good cause: When you buy a Sony game, you would know you can boot it up several years later and still be able to use the online features of a game.
And also, scalable cloud solutions should make it easier to distribute and assign load to these old services.
Zap the useless levels through simple decision factors then, instead of taking down the whole thing. I don't think anybody would sue. Those that want to keep their level alive even though it doesn't match the criteria, could manually refresh.
Napalm_Frank
Member
I can understand every other game in there except 3, it's too recent even if it sold like shit in Japan. Give it a few more years.
Lastgengamer
Member
Gee this is getting really disappointing Sony and yes this has meant the death of series before. Just look at Socom and Resistance for reference. This should not be happening with forced PS plus for multiplayer.
LelouchZero
Member
Yeah StevenI definitely knows what's up, he's been the official LittleBigPlanet community manager for a couple of years now.
It's reassuring and good to know that LBP is here to stay for longer.
King Gilga
Member
That sucks, I still boot up lbp with the kids to play random levels every so often.
Yup, resistance stuff soured me on ever touching a Sony fps again.
Yup, resistance stuff soured me on ever touching a Sony fps again.
hymanator
Member
Thanks! I was in disbelief when I saw how big the community reaction was after I published that. My friend request notification was endlessly going off when I turned my system on the next day.
It really sucks to know that the servers will be coming to an end sooner than later. I'm guessing it's only a matter of a year or two tops for the rest of us. My best advice to anyone who created anything is to create lots of videos of your work to at least have some sort of memento.
Oof, I really hope this doesn't extend to America but if PSP and Karting are going down that might be a bad sign.
Really sad day if this is really the beginning of the end for this series. LBP was such a huge game last-gen, it's the one that made me buy a PS3. Sackboy fit so well as a PlayStation mascot...
At the same time I'm not too upset just because I haven't played LBP online in years. I know there are all kind of awesome levels but, for me, it's something I poured a ton of time into for a while but can't really go back to. I didn't put nearly as much time into 2 or 3 online, but it'd still be upsetting to see those options go away forever, it's definitely one of Sony's coolest and most creative franchises for kids.
Really sad day if this is really the beginning of the end for this series. LBP was such a huge game last-gen, it's the one that made me buy a PS3. Sackboy fit so well as a PlayStation mascot...
At the same time I'm not too upset just because I haven't played LBP online in years. I know there are all kind of awesome levels but, for me, it's something I poured a ton of time into for a while but can't really go back to. I didn't put nearly as much time into 2 or 3 online, but it'd still be upsetting to see those options go away forever, it's definitely one of Sony's coolest and most creative franchises for kids.
Gotta quote that again. We are safe.
DigitalScrap
Member
For now.
Hopefully we are good for at least a few more years. I personally love LBP, even 3, which a lot of people seem to dislike.
bitbydeath
Member
Missed this one, OP needs an update.
So content is all held in the global servers and the Japan servers switching off will not affect the game at all?
Not for anyone besides Japan. Japan will no longer get patches, be able to get their DLC, or play online. The Japan levels uploaded currently will still be able to be accessed by the rest of the world if I'm reading right.
EatinOlives
Member
Series stagnated really badly. Potential was there but they badly needed to streamline the creation tools and rework the physics engine so that Sackboys weren't floaty as all hell. This meant they did have to remove backwards compatibility, but given that the PS4 was coming out it was the perfect time to wipe the slate clean for the next platform.
And yet, what they did was just another expansion-pack sequel by not-Media-Molecule with all the baggage and engine issues from LBP1 still there. No wonder there was next to no interest in that game.
That's why I only make stuff for myself, really, in Mario Maker and in LBP.