LittleBigPlanet servers are offline across a wide variety of LBP games, and it appears that a DDoS attack may be the cause. Sony and support studio XDEV have only confirmed “technical issues,” but the fan community suspects foul play.
Eurogamer reports that fans have expressed concern over community features being targeted by a disgruntled fan, who reportedly is unhappy with how Sony has been treating the franchise. The DDoS attacks have targeted content for various LBP games, though not LittleBigPlanet for PlayStation Vita. Fans also suggest the same attacker could be behind the social media site LBP.me, which has been down for months.
LittleBigPlanet was released by Media Molecule in 2008, with a single-player campaign and a robust set of creation tools. That was followed up by two more sequels and handheld spin-offs, with Sumo Digital taking over in 2014. The most-recent game from Sumo was a departure from the classic LBP franchise, instead putting the mascot character Sackboy into a 3D platformer without any creation tools. That game, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, doesn’t appear to have been impacted by this attack.
Fans are replying to XDEV’s tweet confirming technical issues, citing the DDOS attacks. Some are using the hashtag #SaveLBP or talking about the created content they risk losing if the issues continue.