LittleBigPlanet Beta Levels May Not Work in Full Game

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Update: The report below contradicts Sony's official PlayStation Blog, which says that "levels created here will be available for consumers at launch of the full title."

Both the Sony report and Little Big Madness's interview were posted today. Shacknews is investigating the matter.

Original Story: LittleBigPlanet, the customizable platformer from MediaMolecule sporting 10,000 beta users and over 1,000 user-created levels, will lose all the levels made during the beta process and the full retail release of the game will start from a clean slate.

"Everything is lost!" cried fan site Little Big Madness after interviewing producer Leo Cubbin. Cubbin suggested that some of the best levels may be converted over into the retail release of the game, but--in the words of the site--"they can't convert everything."

LittleBigPlanet will hit stores--sans levels created in beta--October 21 exclusively on PlayStation 3. Until then, users looking to create a masterpiece may want to stick to planning on paper.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 26, 2008 3:55 PM

    That's not all that surprising. Some items may have had to be removed from the gold release, the file formats may have changed, some of the items from the beta may now be pay items...it makes sense.

    • reply
      September 26, 2008 4:08 PM

      It's kind of weird considering the game went gold last week, but I can also see it being an issue of DRM post launch. Unique identifiers, a clean catalog, and full moderation going into effect post launch.

      Now, is Shack getting beta codes? Gimme! Please? With money on top? And cocaine? And a hooker to snort it off?

      Hey, that sounds like it has potential for a level.

      • reply
        September 26, 2008 5:52 PM

        The beta is meant to test the *servers* only -- it's a stress-test on their backend. It's not a test of the client (the game). The game version they're using is pretty old and it's not the same that went on the gold disk. So I can see why they'd just want to wipe the database once the test is done.

        • reply
          September 26, 2008 8:46 PM

          I knew it was a stress test but didn't realize it was an older client.
          Thanks for the info.

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