In a press briefing at the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2014, Sony announced that LittleBigPlanet 3 is currently under development and will be released this November, just as the holiday season rolls in.
The LittleBigPlanet series is a platform puzzle video game that chronicles the adventures of Sackboy, with the tagline "Play, Create, Share." "Play" corresponds to the traditional platforming style which was featured in the game's first two releases, but since then has been expanded to include mini-games and other activities within the game.
Players go through levels collecting bubbles, which earn them points and prizes. "Create" corresponds to the huge emphasis that the game places on level creation, where players can use the game's level creator, along with the prizes that they have won, to create playable levels. "Share" corresponds to the ability of players to share the levels that they have created by uploading them to the PlayStation Network, where there are over 8.7 million player-created levels available to download, with players welcome to review and comment on the custom levels.
A live demo at the E3 2014 by Sumo Digital, the game's developer, showcased new characters to join Sackboy in LittleBigPlanet 3. Oddsock has the ability to wall jump, and has a faster movement speed than Sackboy. He can use this super speed to power objects in LittleBigPlanet 3's levels. Toggle is the biggest of the new characters, which means that he's also the strongest with the ability to move heavy blocks.
However, he also has the ability to become very small to pass through small gaps that other characters can't fit into. Lastly, Swoop can fly and lift objects from above, to allow other characters to pass through. He can also lift other characters and move them around as he flies.
All of these new characters can be used along with Sackboy in the game's four-player co-op mode, using their abilities to help each other figure out the puzzles and progress through the levels.
The levels of LittleBigPlanet 3 use the more advanced hardware of the PlayStation 4 to provide visually stimulating environments. Levels that have been created with the past iterations of the game can still be played on LittleBigPlanet 3, with their graphics upgraded as well.
LittleBigPlanet 2 was released in 2011 for the PlayStation 3. In 2013, Sony unveiled the LittleBigPlanet hub, which is a free-to-play service that further promotes the level creation features of the game.
