Sony has temporarily taken down the LittleBigPlanet servers after hackers used exploits to post transphobic messages in-game. The messages reportedly started showing up on May 21, 2021, along with some players being forced to “heart” other players’ levels via the use of scripts.
LBP Server Update : Due to the severity of the recent attacks we have no other option than to temporarily disable the game servers. We do not take these attacks lightly especially when they target our loyal community members. Thanks for understanding.
— Sackboy: A Big Adventure | LittleBigPlanet (@LittleBigPlanet) May 22, 2021
Due to the severity of the attacks, the official LittleBigPlanet Twitter account announced that there was “no other option than to temporarily disable the game servers” on May 22, 2021. It continued, stating that it “[did] not take these attacks lightly, especially when they target out loyal community members.” There is currently no update on the state of the servers or when they will be restored.
The attacks in question used error messages to cause the offensive content to show up on players’ screens. While the exact trigger for these error messages is unclear, it seems to be connected to visiting certain levels which include malicious scripts. These scripts can cause players to “auto-heart” other players’ levels without consent, and even cause the game to crash.
This isn’t the first time, either. A few months ago, Sony was forced to take down the servers after hackers found a way to rapidly create and publish levels in the game, causing the servers to crash. This was temporarily resolved in April before the servers went down intermittently in order to test out new security measures. However, LittleBigPlanet’s PS Vita servers have continued to stay offline since the March incident with no confirmation on its status.
Even before that, the game has had numerous security issues relating to script exploits. Many fans have spoken out on Twitter using the “#SaveLBP” hashtag to spread awareness of the game’s problems. The game’s modding community has also called on Sony to blacklist scripts in the game. These issues impact LittleBigPlanet 1, 2, and 3, and without the ability to go online, a huge part of the draw for these games is now gone.
YouTube user BlazingVictini has outlined the entire timeline of events leading up to the recent hate speech issues, explaining how the community has been dealing with modders and server outages for the past few months. They outline a number of other major issues that have cropped up due to these issues. You can check out his explanation video below:
Is the LittleBigPlanet server outage impacting you?
[Source: IGN]
