Reaction: Losing Dream support is a sad end to the PS4’s most incredible project

Wow, what a journey. In case you haven’t heard yet, Media Molecule has decided to shut down its live service operations for Dreams , its awesome and seriously underplayed PS4 exclusive. The game itself lives online, and you can continue to play and create to your heart’s content, but this marks the beginning of the end. After just three years, the studio is throwing in the towel and moving on to another project. It’s sad, but obviously, not unexpected.

We have always been big advocates of dreams. In isolation, this is a truly remarkable achievement; The intuitive-yet-deep toolset allows anyone with a PS4 to create whatever they love. Whether it’s a simple field filled with flowers, an animated music video, or an entire game with multiple levels, the limits are really only up to one’s imagination. It allows people to express themselves and share it with the world, and it has, in the end, paved the way for some seriously great works. This is a great game that contains some real magic, admittedly a high, concentration of nonsense. In a way, the somewhat chaotic nature of what you can find in Dreams only adds to its appeal, but that’s a whole other conversation.

Whether your goal is to create a top platformer or a series of interactive Wallace and Gromit memes, you will be able to do so even after September 1st. However, Media Molecule, which has been keeping things ticking over with annual in-game events and some In-Dreams original games, is getting out of it. Unfortunately, the reasons are pretty obvious – its player base is too small, it’s almost impossible to market, and there was no other way to make money.

Before Dreams, the media molecule was in a solid state. LittleBigPlanet and its sequels were highly successful side-scrolling platformers on the PS3, championing user-created content and finding a creative, positive fan base. PS Vita’s Tearaway, a slight step down from the creative side of things, never sold buckets of copies but was also very well received, and widely considered one of the handheld’s best. The latter was a more conservative effort from the studio, albeit an incredibly charming one, but no one could have guessed where it was planning to go with its PS4 game.

A very early prototype was shown alongside the console’s unveiling in 2013. Co-founder Alex Evans introduced it using 3D modeling technology. PS move Ended with a performance involving controllers, dancing puppets and a rock band to play it. It was an exciting prospect, the promise of anything you could imagine.

However, the road to releasing Dreams in 2020 was a long one. Media Molecule continued to show the game where and when it was capable, and it always looked interesting and awesome. But long-term development didn’t help the game’s speed one bit; For every dazzling presentation, there was a long wait to follow. On top of that, it became clear that, for all its noble intentions, Dreams lacked something special for potential players. You can create anything with this software, but where was its face? Being so admirably broad in its scope, the game never had its sackboy – something to symbolize it.

However, that didn’t stop eager players from running onto the field. From the very beginning, during the early access phase of the game, creative users quickly created amazing, bonkers and shocking things with Dream’s impressive tools. The promise was: you can create virtually anything and share it with everyone. This is something that is special in today’s game. While the player base may be small, their drive to create cool content will continue after Media Molecule’s final update in September, and that’s what matters.

That being said, the studio’s contributions will be missed. Regular in-game events gave the game a shot in the arm. All Hallows’ Dreams every October were spectacular, like the digital gaming expo DreamCom and the annual awards ceremony, The Impey Awards. Without these touchstones, the game would lose some of its pulse — but we have a feeling the community will aim to replicate these events themselves.

Dreams achieved what it set out to do in many ways, but there was always room for improvement. Porting the game to PS5 and PC will expand the audience, though given how complex a project this is, it won’t be a quick task. It is being included PS Plus Will probably help that too, and there’s nothing stopping Sony from doing so, even with the update off.

Still, it’s just a shame. We don’t have a warm stance on this; It’s just kind of rude. Dreams are wonderful, and deserve more, but it wasn’t to be. Media Molecule remains one of the most ambitious, imaginative studios in the industry, and of course we’re excited to see what happens next, but we’ll always look back on Dreams’ 10-year journey to wonder what might have been. could

What do you think about the end of media molecule support for DREAMS? Will you continue to play despite the lack of updates? Discuss in the comment section below.