Sony shuts down LittleBigPlanet 3 and Nuking Fan Creations servers

Sony has shut down PlayStation 4 servers for the puzzle platformer indefinitely Little Big Planet 3The company announced in An update to one of its support pages. The permanent shutdown comes just months after the servers were temporarily shut down due to ongoing issues. Fans now fear that hundreds of thousands of player creations that are not saved locally could be lost forever.

“Due to ongoing technical issues that temporarily took the LittleBigPlanet 3 for PlayStation 4 servers offline in January 2024, the decision has been made to keep the servers offline indefinitely,” Sony wrote in the update. First spotted by Deleted games. “All services are online including access to other players' creations Little Big Planet 3 “No longer available.”

The 2014 sequel starring Sackboy and other hand-crafted creatures was beloved for the creativity and flexibility it offered players to create their own platforming levels. Offline game features will still be available, as will user-created and locally stored content. However, players will not be able to share it or access any data stored on Sony's servers, which will likely make up the majority of the game's user-generated content.

While the servers for the PS3 version of the game were originally shut down in 2021 due to ongoing DDOS attacks, the PS4 servers remained open until January of 2024 when they were maliciously modified. Game security threatened. “We're taking a pause Little big planet “The servers are offline while we investigate a number of issues that have been reported to us,” the game’s Twitter account said announced at the time. “If you are affected by these issues, please be assured that we are aware of them and are working to resolve them for everyone affected.”

Some players were concerned that the lockout might become permanent. It now appears they were right.

“Nearly 16 years of user-generated content, millions of levels, some with millions of power-ups and hearts,” wrote one long-time player, Winnie Tortellini, on Reddit in January. “Completely featured levels are locked forever with no way to experience them again. For me, shutting down the servers is a big part of it.” Little big planetthe date. I personally have many levels that I did as a child. Digital artifacts that made me the creator I am today, and the only access to these levels is through servers. I would be devastated if I couldn't experience it again.

The permanent closure comes as online services across many other older games have been discontinued as well. Nintendo brought online multiplayer for Wii U and 3DS games offline earlier this month, affecting games like spoon And An animal crossing a new leaf. Ubisoft came under fire last week for not shutting down servers for the always-online racing game the crewbut Revoking PC players' licenses for the game itself also.

“This is of course a very sad day for everyone involved Little big planet I have no doubt that many people feel the same way. chirp Community Manager Steven Isbell. “I'm still here to listen to you all and will take time over the coming weeks to reach out to the community and hear from anyone who wants to talk.”

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