LittleBigPlanet video game tops 1 million user - created levels

Sony and Media Molecule, creators of LittleBigPlanet, have announced that the game now boasts more 1,000,000 user-created levels in its database. That’s an average of one level being created ever 21 seconds since LittleBigPlanet first launched back in October / November last year.

The staggering 1m levels have been played over 244 million times.

This figure is good for Sony in more than just sales revenue terms too. The game is single-handedly carving out a really unique niche for the PS3. Microsoft has done a sort of half hearted make-your-own-games thing with the recent launch of Kodu Game Lab, but basically user-generated game content has become Sony’s baby in this generation.

That’s not to say it has been too easy getting there, though. The game was famously delayed after Qur'an references were found in the background music. LittleBigPlanet’s giant level database has been criticised for being too difficult to find particular levels in and it has faced numerous problems with copyrights, because players naturally want to try recreating other games using the LittleBigPlanet level creator. Players have also complained in the past that their creations have been unceremoniously moderated (aka deleted) for reasons unknown, although Media Molecule has since rejigged its rules on level moderation to help players out rather than annoy them.

But it’s working, clearly, and Sony is going to continue capitalising on LittleBigPlanet’s success in future – the game is due to get a PSP outing, which will only serve to widen the appeal of making custom levels once you play them on the train or at work.

Furthermore, the concept of ‘Play, Create, Share’, under which LittleBigPlanet was born (or vice versa), is also being rolled out to other games, including ModNation Racers, a racing game announced back at E3. Essentially it’s a kart racing game much akin to Mario Kart, but you get to design all the cars, tracks and racers yourself.

The Media Molecule CEO has also hinted that more LittleBigPlanet news would be coming on August 18th.

Source: T3

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment conquers respected yearly list of planet's best studios

Today sees the publication of the fifth Develop 100, a respected annual listing of the world's most successful games developers.

The book is published, in association with technology firm Emergent, by the editorial team behind Develop magazine (www.developmag.com) – the leading international publication for games developers.

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment takes the top spot, knocking last year's number one Nintendo down to second place.

Generating over a billion dollars in revenue every year from both online transactions and boxed product sales, Blizzard is responsible for one the most famed massively multiplayer online games ever with over 11 million players.

The Develop 100 is an invaluable guide that throws light on the real winners in the world’s fastest-growing creative industry. The list is put together by the magazine's editorial team, taking into account a variety of criteria including key sales charts made available by the likes of GfK-ChartTrack, NPD and Famitsu, success of online business models, Metacritic scores and industry standing.

31 studios from across Europe feature in the list - 26 of them in the UK. These include the likes of Rockstar North (third on the list and responsible for the Grand Theft Auto franchise), LEGO Star Wars developer Traveller's Tales (11th) and Media Molecule (18th), the developer of LittleBigPlanet - and the highest placed independent UK studio on the list.

"Our yearly Develop 100 has become an essential read for games industry executives the world over," said Develop editor-in-chief Michael French. "It is read by everyone in the sector, from the tiniest independents to business leaders at gaming giants like Electronic Arts HQ in America to Kojima Productions in Japan. With widened criteria which better reflect the fast-changing and various business models adopted by studios across the globe, this edition is no different."

The listing, from 1 to 100, plus a free digital edition, can be found at www.develop100.com. More analysis and data can be found at www.developmag.com

Develop 100 is sponsored exclusively by Emergent.

LittleBigPlanet Judge Dredd Sackboy...

Found this poster over on MediaMolecule announcing the launch of Judge Dredd costumes and stickers coming soon to LittleBigPlanet...


More LBP posts on gamezplay here...

Half a million user created levels on LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet flourishes with a community of nearly two million users

The critically-acclaimed LittleBigPlanet for PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) has marked the coming of age of gaming as it moves into a new realm defined by creativity and community.

This best-selling title from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) allows players to build their own levels and share them via PlayStation Network. Nearly two million players worldwide have joined the LittleBigPlanet community since its launch in November 2008, where they, rather than developers, drive the experience by creating game content to share with others.

Each of LittleBigPlanet’s 725,000 user-generated levels is unique. Many are inspired by films, TV shows and games titles, including levels “LittleBigPlanet Takeshi’s Castle”, “LBP Jurassic Park” and “LBP-MotorStorm”, while others use in-game tools to show-off impressive engineering such as the “LittleBigCalculator”, circus-themed “Uncle Fritz’s Funhouse Frenzy” or LittleBigPlanet community favourite “Huge Pinball Machine”. Some players create music levels, requiring the player to push buttons to create a song, while Japanese rock-pop group the Beat Crusaders recently developed their music video for Phantom Planet with LittleBigPlanet. Others play tribute to family and friends, hobbies and passions, while levels like “Illumina Garden” come only from the most active imaginations.

The LittleBigPlanet community is growing rapidly day by day, and since launching, the game has been played more than 125 million times with players posting more than four million comments on game levels - many begging creators for sequels to their favourites.



Mark Hardy, European Marketing Director – Content and Platforms - at SCEE, says of the game’s success:

“LittleBigPlanet is giving people from every walk of life the opportunity to express themselves creatively. The game is just the start. This is Creative Gaming; never ending experiences that take on lives of their own through their players.

LittleBigPlanet appeals to a generation shaped by their networks and thirsty for great experiences to share with friends. Where LittleBigPlanet goes from here is up to its community; it is theirs to shape however they like. This makes it much more inclusive than gaming has ever been before.”

LittleBigPlanet teaches players to create as they play. Sackboy™ is your very own customisable character; a walking toolbox of building skills and materials that allows players to create new objects, landscapes, puzzles, characters, weapons, prizes, narratives and more. Players can also upload their own photos and media into levels straight from their PS3.

With so many different entertainment features, PS3 makes a strong case for pride of place in the home – storing photos, video and favourite TV shows via PlayTV™ – as well as offering Blu-ray Disc™ playback and the Internet access. It also supports a growing number of communities through its own PlayStation Network, including the SingStar® and Buzz! communities where people share their finest singing performances and create and share their own quizzes.

Little Big Planet patch 1.12 Cornish Yarg update details

The announcement of the latest LittleBigPlanet patch 'Cornish Yarg' doesn't give a release date but it does let us know what the patch update contains...

The patch update addresses several problems with the game:

• There is a new music player which lets player’s choose their own music from the XMB to play during create mode and in their Pod
• Improved decoration mode makes it easier to customize your Sackboy

New options to help prevent profiles becoming full of unwanted community objects:

• Option to delete all unhearted community objects and photos
• Option to select whether to automatically collect community prizes and photos
• A number of improvements have been made to make profiles more robust and to recover from certain errors
• We now support Japanese and Korean IME for text chat.
• Emitter prediction has been improved
• The player proximity switch now has a ‘require all’ option in it
• An option has been added to cycle between various level information when viewing community levels on the earth
• Various other LittleBigStore improvements

Spielberg wins his first BAFTA for a video game, Call of Duty 4 leads the way with two BAFTA's and the 'GAME Award of 2008'

Steven Spielberg claimed his third BAFTA mask, but this time it was not for a film but for his début as a games creator with his Boom Blox winning the BAFTA in the Casual category, outplaying Guitar Hero, LittleBigPlanet, Singstar Vol 2, Wii Fit and Buzz! Quiz TV.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare which plunges its players into the frenzied epicentre of a 21st century war zone won for Gameplay, Story & Character and also proved to be the public's game of choice, winning the GAME Award of 2008 with a record 60,000 gamers casting their votes this year. The shortlist of titles in the public award category were derived from the top-selling games sold in GAME stores in 2008.

The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards which took place at the London Hilton on Park Lane, were hosted by games aficionado Dara O'Briain who described these times as a 'Golden Age' for video games. Consoles like the Wii, and handheld devices like the PSP, DS and iPhone have revolutionised the gaming world and made games accessible to all ages, making what was once described as a rather solitary hobby for teenage boys into a very social and stimulating leisure pursuit for the whole family. This year's winners certainly showcase the creative innovation taking place in the games sector.

Dead Space, the bone-chilling, deep space, horror survival game took the coveted BAFTA mask in both sound categories (Use of Audio and Original Score) evoking a genuinely scary atmosphere onboard the game's deserted space ship. One of the most fiercely contended awards, Artistic Achievement, went to the stitched and glued 3D world that is LittleBigPlanet while the Technical Achievement BAFTA went to Spore, which allows players to control the development of a species from its beginnings as a single cell organism, to an intelligent and social creature, a tribe, a civilisation and then once uploaded to the internet, interacting with other civilisations.

In the Strategy category, Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, the latest iteration of a game which first appeared 15 years ago, proved that strategy games requiring clever thinking, tactical planning and logistical exploration are as compelling today as they were last century.

FIFA 09 and Football Manager took on Wii Fit, but it was Race Driver: GRID which outraced the monster trucks and rally cars of Motorstorm Pacific Rift and the off-road quad bikes of PURE to claim the BAFTA for Sport.

Left 4 Dead took the BAFTA in the Multiplayer category, Fable II won in Action and Adventure, while Professor Layton and the Curious Village was victorious in the Handheld category. This year's highly-prized Best Game went to Super Mario Galaxy which fought off very stiff competition from Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare, Fable II, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV and Rock Band.

The Academy is keen to nurture and encourage the up-and-coming stars in games, as well as recognising those at the peak of their talent. This year's ceremony also included The BAFTA Ones To Watch Award. Working with the University of Abertay and its Dare To be Digital competition, this award was contended by three groups of university graduates who had each designed a new game prototype. The winning game was Boro-Toro, designed by a team calling themselves DarkMatter Designs.

The climax of the evening saw Jonathan Ross present the Academy's highest honour, the Fellowship, to one of the founding fathers of the video games industry, electrical engineer, entrepreneur and founder of Atari inc, Nolan Bushnell. Credited by many for kick-starting the video games revolution, his Pong was the first video game to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home console markets.

In an exclusive Q&A at BAFTA on March 19, Nolan Bushnell will discuss the past, present and future of social gaming*.

UK - Play.com slash LittleBigPlanet price to £12.99 or 16.99 euros

Grab it quick here on Play.com Save £32

There's not just one way to play. Players craft their own individual experience based on their own creativity.

Unlimited possibilities for user-created content - players can customise everything: their characters, the landscape around them and their own patch on LittleBigPlanet.

Players learn new skills and discover new items to aid them on their creative journey Explore the massive single-player game or go online to find user-generated content.LittleBigPlanet will change every day as players contribute their own levels.

Online and offline multiplayer modes - play alone, work as a team or get competitive.

LittleBigPlanet global community for players to get involved with: includes player comments, rankings and easy communication with new and existing friend.

Littlebigplanet how to get Sackboy crowned

How to obtain the rare Community Prize Crown DLC.

SCEA information...

In order for Sony to contact you, you must have a PSN account in the US, and have opted-in for marketing materials (under Notification Preferences in PSN Account Management.)

No 1 – A “Gold Star” on the LittleBigWorkshop
Frequently, when we’re on LittleBigWorkshop.com, every so often, we come across a submission, whether it is an inspiration, workshop or forum post that makes us smile. As a small token of our appreciation, we like to put a smile on your face too by giving you a Community Prize Crown.

No 2 – Raising our Eyebrows
Every once in awhile, LBP fans do something that immediately grabs the attention of a few people, spreads on the web, and eventually is talking about it. We love it when this happens, and as a sign of thanks, you may just get a Community Prize Crown in your mail box.

No 3 – LittleBigChallenges
We’re in the process of coming up with more LittleBigChallenges, so get your creative thoughts together and stay tuned next week for LittleBigChallenge2.

Now you have more chances to be LBP royalty!

Thank you all for your continued support and contributions! Every time you share your creativity, you make the LittleBigPlanet better for everyone.

Full list of BAFTA video games nominations for 2009

The Academy today announced the nominations for the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards which this year feature 39 different games and reflect the growing diversity of games capturing the public’s imagination.

This year’s host Dara O’Briain, an avid gamer himself, recently described these times as a ‘golden age’ in video games, and this year’s nominations showcase the breathtaking imagination and creativity of the development talent working in the Video Games industry today. The Awards recognise the very best in artistic, creative and technical innovation in video games, and will be held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on March 10.

THE NOMINATIONS

ACTION & ADVENTURE

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Dead Space
Fable II
Grand Theft Auto IV
Prince of Persia
Tomb Raider: Underworld

ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT

Assassin's Creed
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Dead Space
Gears of War 2
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

BEST GAME

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Fable II
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

CASUAL

Boom Blox
Buzz! Quiz TV
Guitar Hero: World Tour
LittleBigPlanet
SingStar Vol. 2
Wii Fit

GAMEPLAY

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Grand Theft Auto IV
Left 4 Dead
Mario Kart Wii
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

HANDHELD

Geometry Wars: Galaxies
God of War: Chains of the Olympus
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Patapon
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Soul Bubbles

MULTIPLAYER

Buzz! Quiz TV
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
Mario Kart Wii
Rock Band

ORIGINAL SCORE

Assassin's Creed
Dead Space
Fable II
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

SPORTS

FIFA 09
Football Manager 2009
Motorstorm Pacific Rift
Pure
Race Driver: GRID
Wii Fit

STRATEGY

Advance Wars: Dark Conflict
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
Ninjatown
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
SOCOM: US Navy Seals Tactical Strike
Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

STORY AND CHARACTER

Assassin's Creed
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Fable II
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Mass Effect

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Assassin's Creed
Fable II
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
Spore

USE OF AUDIO

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Dead Space
Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
Super Mario Galaxy

BAFTA ONE'S TO WATCH AWARD in association with Dare to Be Digital

Boro-Toro
Origamee
VegeMe

GAME Award of 2008
(The only award to be voted for by the public)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Fallout 3
Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Guitar Hero World Tour
Left 4 Dead
LittleBigPlanet
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Wii Fit
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Videogamer's top 5 video games 'moments' in 2008

1. Microsoft's shock Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 E3 announcement
2. Dennis Dyack versus NeoGaf
3. LittleBigPlanet's delay
4. Grand Theft Auto IV's all-conquering launch
5. Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain Leipzig presentation

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Spanish levels for LittleBig Planet

Mayhem Studio develops levels for Sony's Little Big Planet

Mayhem Studio, in collaboration with Sony Spain , has developed various levels and promos of the game of the season, Little Big Planet.

Mayhem Studio, Digital Jokers's development study has been working with Sony Spain designing and developing several levels for Sony's blockbuster release, the PS3 videogame Little Big Planet.

Some are more promotional in nature, others are dedicated to Spanish cities (Sevilla, Bilbao or Valencia,... ) where the game has been promoted.

Sony Spain choose Mayhem Studio's team based on their experience and creativity that had previously shown in this and other platforms, but mainly developing videogames for mobile phones and iPhone .

Levels developed by Mayhem Studio for Little Big Planet are:

- LittleBig Valencia
- LittleBig Barcelona
- LittleBig Sevilla
- Munich Big Planet
- Don Quixote de BigPlanet
- SackPinball
- Humor Sackamarillo

On the other hand, Mayhem Studio has also made a number of joint promotions in which it has had presence in some way, Little Big Planet. They include:

- The Spanish Tv Show: "El Hormiguero"
- The Spanish version of USA tv Show: MythBusters (Discovery Channel)
- The Spanish version of USA tv Show: American Chopper (Discovery Channel)
- For the videoclip of the Spanish band: Sin Rumbo

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Street Fighter on Little Big Planet this Thursday (Dec 8th)

Capcom will team up with LittleBigPlanet to bring you the rumored Street Fighter costumes for your Sackboys and Sackgirls.



Available from the PlayStation Store to download for $1.99 or buy all four for $5.99 as a custom pack.

Watch my video on gamezplay.org YouTube channel here...

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Best games of the year LBP, F3, AC,

With the games industry outpacing both Hollywood and Music sales in 2008 lets look at some great, and some turkey games you may want to consider or dismiss...

LittleBigPlanet on Sony PlayStation 3 - Create your own levels and share them around the world in this platform for the 21st century. The game never ends as your friends can join you and explore never ending levels of games play... Around $60 (but discounts can be found) Rated E (6+) All LittleBigPlanet gamezplay.org posts here...

Animal Crossing - City Folk on Nintendo Wii - Update of the popular GameCube game where you create your own towns and visit other towns to meet friends. Another game that allows players to customise almost everything about the game. Runs in almost real time allowing the celebration of holidays, birthdays and festivals. Around $50 Rated E (6+)

Fallout 3 on Microsoft Xbox 360 - A role-playing-game (RPG) offering a massive playing area with hours of game play. Warning: Can become addictive... Around $60 Rated M (17+)

Now the Christmas turkeys...

Chicken Shoot on Nintendo Wii - Chickens that shoot eggs at you with awful graphics and boring game play - don't bother with this chicken, sorry turkey!!!

Rig Racer 2 on Nintendo Wii Maybe trying to fool you into thinking it's RiDGE Racer but alas no. Racing big trucks can be fun but not here as you have no control at all! Save your money for Animal Crossing...

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Street Fighter Sackboys to download for LittleBigPlanet

Ripten dug out of a Spanish PlayStation blog that little tidbit above — that Chun-Li, Guile, Zangief and Ryu are inbound for LittleBigPlanet.

Rumor has it they're gonna be available for download individually or as a package deal.

No date or pricing info yet, but SCEE has asked two other sites to take down the image (might we be the third?) so it sounds pretty legit to me.

Full post here on Kotaku here... (unless Sony have asked for it to be removed!)

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LittleBig Planet dissapoints in games charts

LittleBigPlanet only managed 4th place in the UK all format games chart and fell to 19th a week later. This can only disappoint Sony as the game received rave reviews and 100% scores from magazines and websites.

Sony put the 4th place down to the competition at this time of year with Christmas just around the corner.

Gears of War 2, FIFA 09 and Fallout 3 were all released the same week.

Sony hope that word of mouth will help sell the game coming up to Christmas but Sackboy may need a strong advertising campaign to help.

If you remember the game was delayed due to problems with the sooundtrack (see other gamezplay posts) and that didn't help.

Then lots of user generated levels were deleted due to copyright reasons, if ever a game got off to a shaky start then Sackboy's Little Big Planet was a great example.

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LittleBigPlanet players continue to defy Copyrights

“LittleBigPlanet” levels I highlighted last week should have disappeared in the recent infringing content purge by Sony.

All three are still there, though, as of this morning. They’re not the only ones, either.

Even though Sony has told “LittleBigPlanet” creators that copyright-infringing content will be deleted, there are plenty of levels based on “Super Mario Bros.,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Mega Man,” “Ghostbusters” – you name it, you can still find it.

Are players not taking Sony seriously? Maybe they’re not aware they’re doing anything wrong or this is a risk they’re willing to take. When they wake up and find their level removed, however, they just might change their minds.

Why are people are still producing infringing content, readers?

Source: MTV blog

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'LittleBigPlanet' coming to PSP in 2009

LittleBigPlanet will arrive on the PSP in 2009, according to US games magazine EGM.

Kokatu reports that the magazine, which is not yet on the shelves, reads: "The LittleBigPlanet universe will also continue to evolve next year with the release of the PSP version. Q-Mann hears it's fantastically ambitious and will further flesh out the PS3 LiitleBigPlanet experience."

EGM goes on to say that development duties will not be handled by LBP's creators Media Molecule.

LittleBigPlanet was released in the UK on November 14 and is currently number one on the PS3 chart.

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LittleBigPlanet glitches and things NOT to do...

Watch the YouTube video here...

LittleBigPlanet moderation, censorship and outrage...

LittleBigPlanet on PlayStation 3 is no stranger to moderation, censorship and outraged users, and now that user-created levels are starting to be removed by game moderators, the users are angry once again. "So many cases have no questionable content in sight, even ones with humorous light hearted violence have been taken down, like the popular [God of War-referencing] Demon Skull level," reports Kotaku.

Said another user: "Some levels I've seen now unplayable due to moderation: Pacman, Batman, and Scrubs related level." Users are reporting that levels are being permanently deleted upon moderation, sparking forum members to advise one another to save copies of their work before submitting them to the online world.

The pattern among deleted levels appears to be references to various intellectual properties despite earlier reports of multitudes of levels with Sackboy-populated homages to games like Super Mario Bros. and Mirror's Edge. However, the deletion of levels based on the PlayStation 3 itself and one entitled "Failure to Launch"--which shares a name with a 2006 romantic comedy film--has raised eyebrows about the moderation system in place. Media Molecule community manager Sam_Protagonist wrote on the PlayStation forums that the team is at work on a new moderation system.

We are working on a system whereby any level that is moderated will inform the creator of the level why the action was taken, as there could be unintentionally unsuitable content in the level, or a cultural offense which is harmless in one country and offensive in another - either way we want to ensure that creators' levels are only permanently removed if they warrant it. In most innocent cases a simple tweak to the level may be required and that's what we're working on communicating.

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LittleBigPlanet levels removed over copyright issues

While one of the biggest draws for the PlayStation 3 game is the ability for users to create their own content, such freedom is providing a headache for the developer faced with moderating submissions for download.

Simply removing the offending content has sparked some complaints from the fan community, but Media Molecule has said that it is working on a solution to better communicate with users as to why levels have been deleted.

"We're reviewing the moderating system currently to provide better feedback on why levels are moderated," said a spokesperson for publisher Sony on the official forums.

"Primarily, any level that is reported using the grief tool will be checked over by a moderator, at which point they'll examine it in line with the EULA (End User Licence Agreement). If a level is found to be in violation of the EULA it will be moderated and you'll receive a message to that effect," explains the post.

"We're moving towards a system where additional information is given, however for the time being if you don't want your level moderating avoid anything unsuitable for users of all ages and copyright content."

Levels featuring content from games and other media including Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda, Batman and Scrubs have all been removed from the servers – with users complaining that they have spent hours creating content and have no back-up of their work.

Sony has said it hopes to inform users how they can tweak their creations to make them suitable, rather than be forced to delete the entire level.

"We want to ensure that creators' levels are only permanently removed if they warrant it. In most innocent cases a simple tweak to the level may be required and that's what we're working on communicating," said Sony.

Source: GamesIndustry

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