Microsoft once tried to nab LittleBigPlanet from Sony after a few drinks

Image credit: Media Molecule

Many moons ago, Microsoft once had its eye on the Sony-published LittleBigPlanet series.

Speaking with MinnMax, Mark Healey – who co-founded LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule back in 2006 – revealed that during the early stages of the game, the Xbox maker was “on the prowl” and was “kind of trying to steal” the studio from going with Sony.

“The funny thing is, we actually didn’t have anything in writing to say that we were actually going to continue with [Sony] or that they even owned what we were doing, is my memory of it,” Healey said of LittleBigPlanet, before sharing more on Microsoft’s poaching efforts.

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“Technically, we could have done [that]. We could have been like, ‘Yeah fuck it, let’s go with Microsoft. They are probably going to give us a load of money.'”

However, Healey said Media Molecule wouldn’t have felt right doing that, adding it would have been “morally corrupt”. As to how this proposition from Microsoft actually looked, well, it wasn’t with the slide of a contract and a sly wink. Rather, it was a booze-infused pitch at the end of a night out.

“[Media Molecule and a Microsoft representative] went out and got a bit drunk, and it was literally just as we were dropping the guy off at his hotel, he was kind of like ‘Oh shit, I was on a mission here! I’ve got to at least say something’,” Healey recalled.

“And he was just, ‘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. And you could tell he was almost embarrassed to say it actually, because it would have been a very naughty thing to do. And, obviously, we didn’t because, you know, we are nice people and we were very grateful that Sony gave us that chance.”

When asked if the rep had stayed sober and given a good pitch, could LittleBigPlanet have become a Microsoft project, Healey said no. “That would never have happened. We’d already built up a good relationship with [Sony], so it was a done deal really,” the developer said. He also mused that, actually, there likely was some kind of legal binding in place between Media Molecule and Sony at the time after all.

You can check out the full interview below.

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Healey left Media Molecule after 17 years, in 2023. His announcement came soon after Media Molecule revealed it was set to discontinue live support for Dreams.

Earlier this year, it was reported that a PC and a PlayStation 5 version of Dreams were previously in development. However, these plans are no longer happening, with the decision to abandon work on this project made alongside layoffs at Media Molecule last year.