Sony drops iconic mascot from PlayStation Productions line-up
A staple PlayStation character appears to have been shoved to the side, as he disappears from a trailer ahead of the Until Dawn movie.
LittleBigPlanet was once a key franchise for Sony during the PlayStation 3 era, but its prominence has dimmed over recent years.
The last entry was 2014's LittleBigPlanet 3 on the PlayStation 3 and 4, which was the first mainline game not primarily developed by original creator Media Molecule. Since then, protagonist Sackboy has had his own platformer in 2020's Sackboy: A Big Adventure, along with a 2023 mobile game you probably didn't know existed called Ultimate Sackboy.
If it feels like Astro Bot has taken over as Sony's default family friendly mascot, and that appears to have been confirmed in a new PlayStation Productions trailer.
As highlighted by X user realradec, Sackboy has been scrubbed from the opening PlayStation Productions video at screenings of the Until Dawn film adaptation. 'I don't like this era of Sackboy erasure,' they wrote.
A screenshot of the character line-up in this version shows Astro Bot, Ratchet & Clank, Nathan Drake, the Psycho from Until Dawn, and others, but there appears to be no reference to Sackboy at all.
Sackboy prominently featured in the 2022 PlayStation Productions trailer (as seen below), which was played before screenings of Uncharted starring Tom Holland.
It's unclear why Sony would drop Sackboy from the line-up, but the character has popped up elsewhere recently. Last year, Sackboy briefly appeared in an episode of Amazon's Secret Level, so it's possible this lack of representation is just an oversight.
However, Sony hasn't treated LittleBigPlanet fans with much respect over recent years. In 2024, Sony permanently shut down the LittleBigPlanet 3 servers on PlayStation 4 after it was targeted by mods which threatened the game's security, wiping out access to millions of user-generated levels in the process.
This came after Sony switched off the PlayStation 3 servers for LittleBigPlanet 1, 2, and 3 in 2021.
An evolution of the user-generated levels concept was the basis of Media Molecule's 2020 title Dreams, but despite positive reviews, it failed to find an audience, and support for the game was dropped in April 2023.
It's unclear what Media Molecule is working on next, and if it will see them return to Sackboy, but the studio was hit by layoffs in October 2023.
Sackboy's last major outing – will it be his last? (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
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