With Death Stranding 2 releasing to critical acclaim, Ghost of Yotei just around the corner, and games like Marvel’s Wolverine, Saros, and Intergalactic lined up for 2026 and beyond, there is plenty to look forward to for PlayStation 5 fans. However, one recent rumor suggested that a remaster of a classic PS3 game would be joining this lineup, though the source – rightly so – raised red flags. According to a recent IMDb listing, the original LittleBigPlanet was being rebuilt from the ground up for the PlayStation 5, but it turns out that my dream remaster for Sony’s current console is nothing but fan fiction.
Obviously, the elephant in the room for this rumor was its source, with IMDb hardly being a reputable avenue for announcements. From films to video games, countless fake projects have appeared on the website, as any user can create a page and make it seem as realistic as possible. With this in mind, the supposed “accidental publishing” of LittleBigPlanet Remastered‘s IMDb page was always questionable, as it could have been someone toying with fans of the franchise, or a gamer who adores the series and was aiming to push Sony to talk about it again. Realistically, the listing being fake as opposed to a hint at an upcoming PS5 reveal was always the most likely scenario, and this has since turned out to be the case. The IMDb listing spotted by game reviewer @NextGenPlayer on X has since been updated, with it now being called “LittleBigPlanet Remastered Concept” and the description calling it “an old community pitch.” Much to the dismay of myself and many others, it seems like the dream of a new LBP is dead.
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The LittleBigPlanet franchise holds a very special place in my heart, as the first two entries were the go-to games of my pre-teen years. While I had a blast playing shooters like Call of Duty and sports games like Madden with my friends from school, I’ve always been someone who has craved a variety of video game experiences. LittleBigPlanet had always appealed to me for this reason, so when its Game of the Year edition released, I finally gave it a go. I was instantly hooked by not just the charm of the story, but the creativity of thousands of players, which was on clear display in the game’s user-generated levels. Whenever my friends were busy or hopped offline, I would jump right on LittleBigPlanet to see a random community creation or drop into someone’s pod to meet another player. This approach brought me so many fond memories, but unfortunately, I can no longer relive them – something a PS5 remaster could have changed.
LittleBigPlanet’s Countless Player-Made Are Inaccessible on PS5
I could spend hours just talking about all the cool things I saw while browsing LittleBigPlanet levels over the years. Some gamers made their own in-game talk shows to discuss upcoming levels from high-profile creators, while others made proper movies with original storytelling using LBP 2’s voice acting feature. Incredible homages to some of my favorite franchises like Dead Space were playable, as were addicting mini-games and first-person shooters, the latter of which was accomplished using some clever camera trickery. Even “bad” levels had an appeal to them, like the hundreds of copied and pasted Mortal Kombat levels where players did battle within some very clunky mechs that only had a few attacks. Sadly, all the hide-and-seek levels, tech displays, and collectathons have been inaccessible for over a year and a half.
For those out of the loop, the LittleBigPlanet servers endured regular bouts of start-ups and shutdowns before the plug was eventually pulled:
- In 2021, the PlayStation 3 servers for LBP 1, 2, and 3 were shutdown due to age and DDoS attacks, with the PS4 servers for the final game in the trilogy being the only way to access its predecessor’s levels.
- In March 2021, the PS4 servers for LBP 3 were taken offline due to a DDoS attack.
- Come May 2021, after the servers had been restored, hackers displayed vile transphobic messages in the game, again leading to a server shutdown.
- In the following years, consistent technical issues and DDoS attacks built up to the LBP 3 servers being temporarily taken offline in January 2024.
- Unfortunately, due to the servers being deemed too unsafe due to all the hacking, they were never brought back after this “temporary” shutdown, with April 19, 2024 (just over three years after the attacks really picked up) marking the official announcement that the LBP 3’s PS4 servers would be permanently inaccessible.
- LBP 3 and its DLC were delisted on October 31, 2024, making even its single-player inaccessible to those without a disc copy.
What made this downward spiral even more devastating is that, because of the temporary server shutdown in January instantly transitioning into a permanent shutdown in April, players never got a warning that the LBP servers were not coming back. This means that gamers did not get a chance to save their work, meaning that countless levels were instantly lost. While I have never been a creative person, and was someone who enjoyed other players’ content instead of making things myself, I was still devastated when this news broke. I had just been talking to my fiancée about getting into LBP again and taking her through all my favorite levels, but because of the shutdown, those gameplay sessions would never come to be.
LittleBigArchive is a community effort that has attempted to save as many resources as possible and make them accessible to gamers on PC. Fans have also started private servers for the trilogy and LBP Vita dubbed LittleBigPlanet Union.
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Even If It Did Happen, a LBP Remaster Would Be Facing a Huge Uphill Battle
While I personally am desperate for another LBP game to experience my favorite levels with the love of my life, I can only imagine how much more creators would want to see their work restored. Community-run archives should not be the only way to access the many great things made by Sackboys and Sackgirls over the years, as a modern LittleBigPlanet game available on the latest PlayStation hardware would be far more accessible. However, a remaster of the first game would raise a big concern.
While better server security is a must, and would surely be seen with a PS5 remaster of the first LittleBigPlanet, how such a game would handle old UGC is less clear. After all, the first LittleBigPlanet game lacked a lot of the features used in LBP 2 and LBP 3 levels, meaning it may not be able to support the content from those games. Additionally, a remaster of the original LittleBigPlanet would surely be a looker, so it begs the question of whether all the visually outdated player levels could be upgraded or not. The description on the rumored remaster’s page makes no mention of online levels, so there is even the worry that it would just be a remaster of the story mode. And though myself and many others adored the Media Molecule-made content, LBP isn’t LBP without the “create” and “share” portions of the “play, create, share” mantra.
Regardless of these concerns, and the fake IMDb listing that briefly sparked hope of a comeback for the IP, I truly hope PlayStation is not done with LittleBigPlanet. It’s a series that means the world to me and many others, and while I enjoyed my time with Sackboy’s Big Adventure and have loved seeing players make magic happen within Dreams, neither title scratched the same itch for me. So, even though this big PS5 remaster fakeout has been a big blow, and my mind is telling me there won’t be another LBP, my heart is telling me to keep on believing – and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.