It’s a familiar story by now. First,a company representative at a trade show says something:
They wouldn’t talk specifics,but said they’re partnering with other companies to bring third-party themed content into LittleBigPlanet. The Sony rep mentioned Disney,for example –being careful to note that it was just an example –as a company that LittleBigPlanet could conceivably partner up with to provide new content.
It being a public event,all sorts of people hear only part of what’s being said,or get the info second-hand,or whatever. Humans being error-prone conveyors of information,what shows up on several forums at once is “LBP will have official Disney DLC”.
As the pros and cons of such a thing are debated on the forums,the news is submitted to the various news sites and social networks. From there it makes it onto the major video game blogs as well as LittleBigPlanet and Disney fansites.
Unfortunately,there’s little to be done about this process. It’s just the way things go,amplified by the popularity of the subject at hand. I can only be happy that most of the fanbase takes things with a grain of salt (I think we’ve learned the hard way),and Sony continues to let Sam spend some of his time clearing these things up:
It’s worth highlighting right now that LittleBigPlanet will have regular updates of downloadable content,and I believe it has been mentioned in the past that we have been in talks with third parties regarding themed downloadable packs. Disney was mentioned at PAX only in the context of being an example,so the article in question is speculative. There is plenty of work still to do at our end before we can announce what these packs will be and when they’ll be released,so as ever until you hear it officially announced it’s worth seeing it as speculation only.
So,while it’s certainly possible that one day we’ll be taking our Iron Man Sackboy in his X-Wing Fighter to attack the Legion of Doom along with Barbie and Cloud;nothing is real until it’s officially announced.
[Note: There are several forums that I don't link to directly,nor do I approve comments that link to them directly. If your comment didn't show up,this may be the reason. Either that or it got mixed in with the thousands of spam messages.]
Screwattack has a short video on LBP. Check it out.
http://www.screwattack.com/PAX2008/LBP
Oh man,your example sounds awesome! I can’t wait!
Also,what cons could possibly be discussed when combining LBP and Disney?
I absolutely cannot stand misniformation and conjecture / speculation. I am glad a site such as this is here to help clear things up for us LBP fans.
That said,I eagerly await my Iron Man sackboy and will now spread the rumour around everywhere that I heard it here as real news. ^___^
@Capn P;
The potential negatives would be associated with people putting characters which belong to a specific intellectual property in situations which the owners of that IP might not like. For instance,someone might put their Ariel sackgirl in mermaid form in a giant frying pan and have her jump around on fire –or other things along those lines.
Things always get a bit tricky when mixing IPs as well. Marvel characters running around with DC characters is something you don’t (and likely won’t) see very often,and that means that Media Molecule / Sony and the other parties would have lots and lots of variables to consider when trying to introduce different characters from different “universes”.
We,as consumers,won’t really be bothered by this. But the rights holders very well could be. And that is where the “problem”lies.
If you think about it,LBP would be a fantastic way to market PS3 games. If you have a game you want to advertise,you can create a LBP level and character costumes available for download on the PSN. It’s much more fun than the usual wallpaper or theme. I can really see this taking off.