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LittleBigPlanet Vita is on sale today at Gamestop, well ahead of its September 25th release date in North America.
LittleBigPlanet for PS Vita is on sale today at GameStop, well ahead of its September 25th release date in North America. The retailer says the change in dates were triggered by the publisher.
NeoGAF posters were the first to find the game in stores; we've confirmed with several GameStop locations that the title is available now. When asked why the game's launch had been pushed up so drastically, a GameStop representative told Polygon, "Sony changed from a street date to a launch date (this is channel wide) for LBP Vita," referring us to Sony to learn the difference between the two dates.
However, a Sony representative told Polygon that "the release date hasn't changed," which seems to be reflected by the title's Amazon listing, which still shows the September 25th launch date. Other retailers we phoned, including Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart, all were also honoring the original release date.
Also, at the time of this writing, LittleBigPlanet's servers are offline, preventing players from jumping into levels together, publishing levels, and playing Community levels. We've reached out to Sony to see if this was a reactionary measure to the game's early launch.
The do-it-yourself platformer is one of the Vita's most anticipated titles, and was received quite well in Polygon's recent review, which called it "polished, addictive, and precious." If you're planning on picking it up, in cases like this we suggest calling your local GameStop to ensure they've got the game before you make the drive.
We've contacted both GameStop and Sony for more details about the rescheduled launch, and will let you know when we hear back.
Update: A Sony representative has confirmed to Game Informer that retailers can begin selling LittleBigPlanet as soon as their shipment arrives, explaining why GameStop pulled the trigger early. We're still waiting to hear back from Sony about whether the game will be pushed onto the PlayStation Store before its official September 25th launch.
