Media Molecule News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Media Molecule confirmed that live Curation support for its PlayStation exclusive game Dreams will be coming to an end with a new update in April. Several changes will be made to Dreams in order for new and returning players to continue discovering content from the game's talented community of creators.

Between support for Dreams coming to an end, reductions in staff due to layoffs, and even the threat of being shuttered entirely, Media Molecule has suffered several blows over the last several months, though the studio best known for LittleBigPlanet and Dreams is continuing to trudge along. Last year, it revealed that it had started working on its next project, and though the developer did say at the time that this new game wouldn’t be a Dreams sequel, it was unclear if that meant it would be a new IP. Was it, perhaps, going to be a Dreams spinoff? A new LittleBigPlanet game?

A recent Sony job listing has confirmed that LittleBigPlanet and Dreams developer Media Molecule's next game will be a new IP. The project has been in production for around a year at Media Molecule, as the studio shuttered development on Dreams in 2023.

Sony has recently confirmed that LittleBigPlanet 3's servers will not be coming back online and will be shut down «indefinitely.» With the shutdown of these servers, thousands of player-created levels from LittleBigPlanet 3 are no longer accessible. This news comes after the shutdown of the servers in January 2024, which was initially stated to be a temporary closure.

Sony has indefinitely shuttered the online servers for PlayStation 4 platformer LittleBigPlanet 3, months after it claimed it “temporarily” took the game offline while it resolved technical issues.

Dreams developer Media Molecule has laid out new plans for its curation and community support, following layoffs at the studio.

Media Molecule has set a date for the last of its staff affected by layoffs announced last October to leave the studio.

Media Molecule has confirmed that its curation team is being let go as part of previously announced layoffs.

Media Molecule has reportedly avoided closure amid the continuing round of layoffs. In 2023, approximately 9,000 workers in the video game industry were hit by a round of layoffs and some of these workers included employees at Media Molecule. Perhaps the most shocking was the fact that these layoffs had hit the biggest companies, such as Hasbro, EA, Microsoft, and more. It seemed like that was the worst it would get, and many looked to 2024 with hope for the future.

PlayStation recently announced that it will be reducing its workforce by roughly 8 percent, which translates to around 900 layoffs, and given that number, it’s no surprise that the effects are going to be felt across the company. A number of major first-party studios are set to make job cuts, Firepsrite’s rumoured Twisted Metal game has been cancelled (alongside reports of workplace toxicity within the studio), while SIE London Studio has been shut down entirely.

Footage of what's claimed to be an «internal demo» of LittleBigPlanet Hub – the free-to-play PS3 exclusive announced initially, and expected to be released, in 2013 – has popped up online.

A PC version of Dreams, the PlayStation 4-exclusive toybox-slash-game creation platform from LittleBigPlanet makers Media Molecule, was nearly completed before being cancelled late last year, according to a new report.

This article is part of our Get into Games special, offering students insight on life in the games industry and advice on how to get into the business

This article is part of our Get into Games special, offering students insight on life in the games industry and advice on how to get into the business

This article is part of our Get into Games special, offering students insight on life in the games industry and advice on how to get into the business

Media Molecule, the developer behind Sackboy, is apparently planning to lay off dozens of staff members and reduce its headcount by around 15 to 20%. As reported by GLHF, Media Molecule will be laying off roughly 20 employees to make its headcount from 135 to 115 which has already been discussed internally through meetings.

With our latest Mm Original, Tren, out today in Dreams, we decided to catch up with Media Molecule creative director (and BeechCorp CEO) John Beech. Here, he talks to us about bringing his personal project in-house to Mm, how his childhood experiences of play inspired the toy train game, and how his relationship with toys and play has changed as he’s grown from a little kid into a big one.

Media Molecule’s Dreams will be free for PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers on August 1st. However, it’s also receiving a free new experience in Tren. In a new PlayStation Blog post, the arcade puzzler is the “biggest creation” from the studio since Dreams first launched and an “absolute labor of love.”