PlayStation Plus users will soon see a free game pulled from their libraries

Last week, the developer of a PlayStation exclusive title announced that one of their games will be completely delisted from the PlayStation storefront.

I mean, I say "developer", but it's hard to actually distinguish between who made the announcement here, as it came from the LittleBigPlanet official Twitter account.

"After 10 years of playing, creating and sharing content in LittleBigPlanet 3, the game and our entire range of of LittleBigPlanet DLC will be removed from the PlayStation store on October 31st 2024", read the statement.

"Anyone that currently owns of purchases LittleBigPlanet 3 or any LittleBigPlanet DLC before it is delisted for sale, will still be able to access their purchased games and content after its removal."

Dead Island 2 was just added to PS Plus' extra tier.

So, that last bit of the statement sort of implies that anyone who owns it, regardless of how they've come to have it in their digital library, should be able to redownload LittleBigPlanet 3 whenever they want. Right?

Well, that's a little tricky to answer. If you outright bought the game digitally, then the answer is 100% yes. But what if you claimed it through PlayStation Plus, like for instance when it was one of the free monthly games back in 2017?

Then, according to the LBP Twitter, that's also fine - as long as you haven't downloaded it from the extra tier catalogue.

"If you have downloaded LittleBigPlanet 3 via PlayStation Plus", they stated in reply to another comment on Twitter, "you will still be able to play it after October 31st." This only refers to users who grabbed it from what we'd now deem the essential tier offerings - although in 2017, PS Plus had no tiers.

Now, here's the issue. While PS Plus monthly games aren't affected by delistings, games that are featured in the PlayStation Plus Game catalogue are. That means that, if this is how you've previously accessed the game in the past, you'll no longer be able to redownload LittleBigPlanet 3 using this method once we hit the 31 October.

I would also wager that even if you download it from the PS Plus catalogue and don't delete it, you still might not be able to access it - as these games are deemed as rentals. That means that once it leaves the catalogue, your licence for it will be revoked.

Those who downloaded it in 2017 will only retain access if they don't attempt to redownload it from the current extra tier catalogue. If you do, the license will be replaced and then revoked on 31 October.

The digital-only future video games are barrelling towards is starting to look darker and darker every day,