'Drunk' Microsoft exec once tried to take LittleBigPlanet from Sony
A co-founder of the studio behind the LittleBigPlanet series has said a “drunk” Microsoft executive once tried to nab the iconic series from Sony.
LittleBigPlanet is one of PlayStation’s most iconic exclusive titles led by the main character Sackboy.
Players take him and his friends through 2D platforming levels and gamers could create their own levels to share with others online too.
Sony recently shut down the online servers to LittleBigPlanet 3 meaning tens of thousands of community-made levels are no longer available.
Speaking to MixxMax, Mark Healey, who co-founded LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule back in 2006, revealed Microsoft had its eye on the franchise.
Media Molecule Co-Founder Reflects On LittleBigPlanet, Dreams, And His Exit – MinnMax Interview MinnMax’s Ben Hanson talks to Media Molecule’s co-founder Mark Healey about his recent departure from the beloved …
“The funny thing is, we didn’t have anything in writing to say that we were actually going to continue with Sony or they even owned what we were doing is my memory of it,” he said.
“Technically, we could have done, we could have been like, ‘yeah f**k it, let’s go with Microsoft. They are probably going to give us a load of money’.”
But Healey said he felt it would have been “morally corrupt” if the verbal agreement with Sony would be broken in this way.
Microsoft’s interest came about from a drunken night between Media Molecule and a Microsoft executive.
Healey said: “We went out and got a bit drunk and it was just as we were dropping the guy off at his hotel, he was kind of like ‘oh s**t, I was on a mission here! I’ve got to at least say something.’
“And he was, ‘oh you, by the way, guys, you know we would be happy to blah blah blah take you on if you want to jump ship to us’ or something like that.
“You could tell he was almost embarrassed to say it because it would have been a very naughty thing to do.
“We didn’t because, you know, we are nice people, and we were very grateful that Sony gave us that chance.”
Imagine that – a world where LittleBigPlanet was a Microsoft exclusive…
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