Small edits to the Terms of Service for one of the PlayStation 3’s most hyped holiday hits, LittleBigPlanet, allows Sony to resell user-created content.
LittleBigPlanet‘s appeal since its inception has been the extensive customization options, allowing players to build their own levels and gameplay mechanics using a deep development platform.
A recent discovery in the PlayStation Network’s Terms of Service states that Sony, which will be using its network to distribute LBP levels from players to the world, can resell users ideas for its own profit through direct resale, subscription access or advertising alongside player products.
The exact line from Sony’s ToS states: “You also authorise us [Sony] and our affiliated companies, without payment to you, to license, sell and otherwise commercially exploit your User Material.”
As long as Sony, which clearly stated that shared content from the beta would be sold on the release disc for Sony’s profit, continues to allow individuals to sell LBP content on the network for personal profit, then the company isn’t necessarily breaking any promises.
David Reeves, Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe, once explained the potential of LBP to become the “iTunes meets eBay” of gaming, where “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.”
If Sony is potentially taking the top private products for corporate gains, can gamers ever hope to become one of the “LittleBigPlanet millionaires” Reeves claims there will be?
Source: GamePro, I Have The Princess via GamePolitics
Published: Oct 20, 2008 03:04 pm