Sony responds to lacklustre LBP sales
"Sackboy hasn't even hit his stride yet."
Sony UK has told Eurogamer that the company is "pleased" with sales for LittleBigPlanet, and believes "Sackboy hasn't even hit his stride yet".
The comments came in response to a lacklustre UK all-formats chart performance for the game, which debuted at four then tumbled, this week, to 19.
"We're really pleased with the initial reaction to LittleBigPlanet, which has been our highest scoring game ever, I believe, with a Metacritic score of 95 per cent and a huge list of 10/10s or 100 per cent scores. We are also pleased with its commercial performance," a spokesperson for Sony UK said.
"In other times of the year [LBP] would be a clear number one, so you have to put the chart in context. This is an incredibly volatile time of year and the chart reflects that."
Sony has backed LittleBigPlanet as the Christmas "hardware seller" for PlayStation 3, and also adopted character Sackboy as "the next emblematic character for the PS3".
Sony said launching an original IP can also be a struggle, but feels LBP has coped better than most.
"Our industry is littered with examples of brand new innovative titles that have been lauded by the critics but have sold dismally. LittleBigPlanet has broken this stereotype by not only being brilliant and original, but also by selling really well on a global basis," said the spokesperson.
"LBP is breaking many preconceptions. There are some games that are hardcore experiences where the kudos lies in getting it first. LBP is excellent on day one but even better as time goes by."
Sony UK went on to highlight the user-created content side of LittleBigPlanet, which boasts over 80,000 community-made levels - a number that will continue to grow.
But despite the promises of an ever-evolving game, some users are finding their time-consuming creations deleted for too closely resembling other videogames or brands. Explanations for removal are not given, and some have seemingly disappeared for no apparent reason - leading to frustration across the community.
Media Molecule is addressing this, however, and Sony is confident that word of mouth and a rather meaty Christmas marketing campaign, which starts in December, will pay dividends.
"This game gets better and better as an experience and as a value proposition. It's also a game that will benefit enormously from word of mouth and from people trying it out with friends or in-store; it drips fun and charm in equal measure," said the spokesperson.
"Also, the bulk of our marketing including our six figure TV advertising campaign doesn't roll out until December, so we genuinely believe that Sackboy hasn't even hit his stride yet."