We have another developing delisting situation unfolding here in January and this time it’s the mysterious disappearance of LittleBigPlanet 2 from the PlayStation Store. Word about the delisting started spreading earlier this week but has come to a head over the last day or so with Sony still silent on the issue. Some reports are claiming that the original LittleBigPlanet is also delisted but I just checked online and on a PlayStation 3 here in North America and it remains available to buy. DLC also appears to be mostly in check although plenty of licensed content has disappeared over the years.
BlazingVictini on YouTube has a good recap of some recent LBP events that you might not have known about if you weren’t keeping up with the community. Another mysterious and unannounced disappearance happened back in November of 2020 when LBP.me, the official hub for user created content in LBP1 and 2, went offline. Community Manager, Steven Isbell, reassured that it was just some scheduled maintenance but the site has yet to come back online nearly three months later.
With the original LBP, LBP3, and the series’ PSP and Vita releases all still available, it’s hard to call this a systematic delisting of the series. However, the extended disappearance of LBP.me makes a stronger case that Sony might be prepping to retire the thousands of user created levels that the series has generated since 2008. That would be an immense loss. I’ll update this post as things develop. Thanks to everyone who pointed out the news to the site.