For those who are not aware, I grew up on PlayStation - the first console I ever got to own for myself was the PlayStation 3 and before that I briefly had a PSP for sometime. And although I had minor issues maintaining my PlayStation consoles, I still cherish many good memories of playing games like LittleBigPlanet during my youth.

However it has become abundantly clear to me that PlayStation has little to no regard for customer feedback and game preservation. The last straw for me was the immediate shutdown of LittleBigPlanet's PS3 servers last year.

When I first heard about the server shutdown, it was a hard pill to swallow. A game series that I grew up on and yet had a small but active fanbase surrounding it being snuffed out geniunely shocked me for a while. Particularly because there was little to no pre-emptive warning of Sony shutting them down, despite some server crashes in the months prior to the shutdown. The official reason as to why the servers were shut was due to DDOS attacks and low regulation of content being distributed within the game, this was not just a simple shutdown due to cost.

What upsets me the most about this to this day is that Sony still aren't offering any solutions to this issue. Although we have access to LittleBigPlanet 3's PS4 servers and you can still play created levels from previous games, it still doesn't feel like enough. What I think this series needs is a complete modernized collection of all LBP games including the PSP & PS Vita Editions.

We had a glimpse of this through the announced free-to-play game LittleBigPlanet Hub, which was advertised as game solely focused on user-generated content and challenges, also allowing you to play story & DLC levels from previous LittleBigPlanet titles. This game was quietly cancelled due to unknown reasons, presumably due to the fact that Sony stopped officially supporting the PS3 in 2016.

This is a concept that Sony should bring back if they want to salvage the LittleBigPlanet community, and introduce it to a new audience. LittleBigPlanet Hub sort of reminds me of Halo's Master Chief Collection, in the sense that it gives players a collection of legacy titles as well as new features such as medals and skulls to keep old players interested.

To be honest this server shutdown reintroduces a flaw with PlayStation's idea on game preservation; we already had fears of Sony shutting down the PlayStation 3, PSP and Vita storefronts which shows their disregard for digital media. Even some of the higher-ups at Sony Computer Entertainment don't see the true potential the game preservation could bring, which is startling to say the least. Perhaps with Xbox's successful game preservation program & recent news surrounding PlayStation's backwards compatibility, this should be a wake up call for Sony.