A new free-to-play running game based on LittleBigPlanet is coming to mobile next month.
Ultimate Sackboy will be released globally on Android and iOS on February 21.
The game will be developed and published by UK/Malta studio Exient, under license from Sony.
It’s also available now for pre-registration on the Google Play store.
Ultimate Sackboy – trailer
Ultimate Sackboy is a 3D runner, played with a similar viewpoint to other runners like Temple Run and Sonic Dash.
In it, Sackboy has to take on the Ultimate Games, which is the most prestigious obstacle course tournament in Craftworld.
According to the game’s description, players will “battle familiar enemies, swing through crazy obstacles, hop, skip, jump and weave [their] way to the top of the Ultimate Games”.
Players will be able to take on rivals in head-to-head competitions, including in ‘Daily Duels’, to win gold and other prizes.
There will also be “thousands of clothing combinations to unlock and upgrade” with a “growing catalog of clothing options being added all the time”.
The game is not to be confused with Run, Sackboy! Run!, a side-scrolling endless runner which is still available on Android and iOS.
Although Ultimate Sackboy isn’t being directly handled by Sony, it highlights its larger aim to get more PlayStation properties on mobile.
A job advert spotted in April 2021 revealed that PlayStation was opening a new business unit to adapt its “most popular franchises” for mobile.
In July 2021 it then hired former Apple Arcade content boss Nicola Sebastiani as VP and head of mobile at PlayStation Studios to lead the company’s new mobile push.
In May 2022, SIE president Jim Ryan then said the company expects half of its annual releases to be on PC and mobile by 2025.
And in October 2022, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst stated that PlayStation was looking into “further investments in areas that will strengthen the expansion on to PC, on to mobile and into live services”.