Micropayments Come to LittleBigPlanet

While many gamers wait for Media Molecule to smooth out online connectivity issues that have made the online portion of the game suffer from lag, the company has already begun to charge players for downloadable content. Since servers went offline in October, LittleBigPlanet has been patched and Media Molecule have made changes to their network to improve performance, but some connectivity issues remain unsolved. This week, visitors to the PlayStation Store can purchase new costumes for their sack boy in a variety of styles. The animal themed costumes sell for $.99 each, or $3 for the whole lot of them. In a truly cynical move, the company is also charging $1.99 to download an exclusive Motorstorm costume, which is essentially nothing more than advertising for another Sony gaming property.

Next month, look for the 'Corporate Bottom Line' costume pack.

Normally, we aren't keen on downloadable content, unless it adds a significant amount of new content to the core experience. This time, we are astounded that Media Molecule and Sony would even consider charging for these essentially trivial additions, especially when the core premise of LittleBigPlanet is so focused on the idea of sharing. We will consider buying downloadable content only when we feel that we have run out of great (free) content created by other users, thank you very much.

[Source: Sony]