So the picture above shows the new European LittleBigPlanet PS3 Bundle! It comes with an 80GB PS3, LittleBigPlanet, a DUALSHOCK 3 controller and is being sold at €400 (USD$585) quite soon.
On to the Beta! Well, first you must learn of how Beta’s work and what all the terms mean:
Beta tests are described in a variety of ways, so here’s a quick breakdown of what these various descriptions mean :
Internal – a test conducted only with people who work for the company (beyond normal testing staff)
External – conducted with people who don’t work for SCE.
Closed – a beta test involving a finite number of people. Testers will be placed under Non Disclosure Agreement, meaning that they cannot discuss what they’ve seen in the game.
Open – a beta test that may be joined by a large number of people with no special requirements, usually with a straightforward form to sign up from . Testers may freely discuss the game on the internet.
Public – means the same thing as external.
Private – means the same thing as closed.
Limited – only a finite number of people will be able to join.
Invitation only – just as it says, only those invited will be able to join.Most important to note is that a beta should never be considered a demo of the game. Expect it to break, expect to be asked to give feedback and expect it not to work all the time. A beta test is part of the development process for games, it’s not a means of selling the game, advertising it or otherwise offering some kind of extended trial.
Pretty much how the LBP Beta is going to work is that it’ll be a Stress Test, to see how uploading, sharing, downloading and server loads will work (or not work) to make sure the game launches at the desired goal.
And now, what you’ve all been waiting for:
There will be a limited public beta test for LittleBigPlanet in September. If it will be possible to “sign up” for this test, full information on how to do so will be made public in advance of the test. Similarly if the test is going to be conducted in an invitation-only we will let you know ahead of time.
And lastly, if you make some awesome levels, you’ll be watched. Why? To possibly be hired to be on the dev team of course! They might not sell your content, the whole idea is to keep everything free, but with the LBP Tools and imaginative minds, who knows what’ll happen?
“If a user becomes known as being great at making levels, I can’t say we wouldn’t but I don’t think we’d want to take his level and then charge people for it, because it’s free – that’s the whole premise of the game,” said Pete Smith, “However, we will be aware of who those awesome designers are and certainly there’s the potential to get them building levels as part of the dev team.”
And they might even do commissions, this would have to be “like the top ten guys” if commission-based. Sounds pretty intriguing, I bet I like many others think I’ve got what it takes to make awesome levels, but who knows who will actually get the job?
Europe Gets A LittleBigPlanet PS3 Bundle [Kotaku]
Re: LBP Beta in Sept? [PS Forums Post by Sam_Protagonist]
Make awesome LBP levels, get job at Media Molecule [CVG]
