In a panel discussion about the early years of their studio, the founders of Media Molecule revealed that ex-Sony executive Phil Harrison tried to have LittleBigPlanet released as a free-to-play, downloadable title. Harrison chaired the panel and was also able to give his own version of the events surrounding the development of the game.
"(Phil) said it should be free to play, it should have a new business model, it should be downloadable," said Media Molecule's tech director Alex Evans. "It should do DLC, it should do user-generated content. Phil was basically raising the bar on what we were pitching."
That insistence puts Harrison well ahead of his time, as many are only now beginning to see the benefits in downloadable titles and the free-to-play business model. Harrison told GI.biz that he was looking to “challenge” the team with his idea.
"The challenge I gave the team was to make it possible for LBP to be a free to play downloadable service, not a product, and with a mechanism for monetizing user generated content that would allow the best creators to be to rewarded in some way for their for the innovation," Harrison said. "There were many good reasons why that didn't happen with LBP, but clearly the seeds have certainly been sown and it will be fascinating to see how the console platforms take on that challenge in future."
LittleBigPlanet did include DLC in the form of Sackboy costumes, but that was probably far below what Harrison envisioned. Would the game have been the success it was as a free title?
