LittleBigPlanet’s user-created content could earn you money

22 July 2008

1 Comment

Posted by:Josh

LittleBigPlanet may pay you for great user-created content . . . earning money by creating in-game levels? Sign me up!

Of course, this is only talk for now . . . Here’s the gist of things.

The developers of LittleBigPlanet, have decided that all user-created content will be free to download, just as it is to create and share. Obviously, this means that the developers, Media Molecule, won’t be able to make any additional money from downloadable content. But there may be a solution to that.

They have discussed having Premium Levels, which would be the top tier best-quality levels created by users, and these are ones they could charge for. However the players who created it, would be the ones setting the price and would have to be screened first by Media Molecule in order to ensure that they will charge for only the best levels (they would have to have been very active previously by creating highly rated levels). Obviously the developers at Media Molecule would see a cut of whatever price you set, but the rest of the money would be yours to keep.

Here is an interesting quote from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves, “What we’re trying to do with LittleBigPlanet is almost iTunes meets eBay in the sense that once an individual or a developer has qualified by producing certain levels or certain add-ons, they will then be able in the future to exchange these and make money out of them.” A few more details came out as he added, “Even if you charge less than one euro, it doesn’t take many downloads if you’ve got a really strong LittleBigPlanet level for people to be able to make money. It’s a great way for people to show others what they can do.” And on that note he clearly holds high expectations as he optimistically proclaimed, “it’s feasible that you might well see the first LittleBigPlanet millionaire!”

Following that quote, this one was made from an unspecified Sony representative: “SCEE and Media Molecule can guarantee that all consumer-generated content will be free at launch. We know how important this is to the LBP community and what we want most is for people to enjoy playing, creating, and sharing their content.” They also explained Reeves earlier remarks saying, “Obviously, we’re also excited about the future and David was talking about how user-generated content could potentially evolve in the long term. Any decisions that are taken to evolve LBP in the future will include the community and focus purely on enhancing the user experience.”

Between the two quotes, here is what can be gathered:

*You cannot charge for content until Media Molecule looks at your past work and determines whether or not to allow you the option. You should have tons of free levels in your portfolio at that point.
*You can charge whatever you want, from fifty cents to five dollars or more.
*Obviously there will be a ton of free levels aside from the top tier premium levels. It seems this is the way Media Molecule can make money with DLC without splitting the userbase with stuff like new themes and new objects (as everyone would need that DLC to play certain levels).
*This seems more like speculation to the future of LittleBigPlanet, but it’s an exciting one if it ever pans out.

Via 1-Up