LBP Servers Returning Soon: Error Code 0xffffffff, Certificate, & More
Updated: Sep 7, 2021
After several months of downtime, the LittleBigPlanet servers remain offline. However, there is evidence that the LittleBigPlanet servers are still being worked on and may be returning sooner rather than later. Let's talk about recent updates from the developers, LittleBigPlanet's newly uncovered security certificate, brief server uptime, and a mysterious new error code.
A Quick Recap...
On May 22nd, the LittleBigPlanet servers were shut down after transphobic and hateful messages were spread using script abuse. We discussed how the LittleBigPlanet team could prevent this from happening again in our article about how to Fix LBP.
However, despite this roadmap of how to get the game in working order, the servers are still not back yet. It's clear that there is more behind the scenes that we cannot yet understand, it may be best that we don't understand it. The less that we know, the less likely that the server abuse will continue.
Many online have begun to lose hope of the servers returning. However, there is a great deal of evidence that shows that the LittleBigPlanet developers have not given up and are continuing to work to bring online features back to our favorite game starring Sackboy.
Brief Server Uptime
On July 2nd, our bot Agent Washington began monitoring the status of the LittleBigPlanet servers once per minute on our Discord server. Over the course of the past few months, Agent Washington has detected several instances of server uptime. The most recent incidents were August 4th and August 10th. During these incidents, the LBP servers were online for 60 seconds or less. This suggests that the servers are still being worked on by the developers.
On August 4th, the servers were online for 60 seconds or less at 4:08 AM EDT.
Then, on August 10th, the servers came online four separate times for 60 seconds or less each.
Both of these recent incidents suggest that the servers are still being worked on. Although it's unknown what these brief periods of uptime were caused by, some speculate that they were in fact tests. A slightly longer incident occurred on July 28th that lasted for four minutes. You can learn more about the server status history with our Server Status Dashboard.
New LBP Server Security Certificate
According to Alkaline Thunder (aklnthndr), lead developer of the strategy game Socially Distant, the LittleBigPlanet servers have a new security certificate.
A security certificate helps guarantee privacy for users when connecting to a website or web service. This new security certificate was issued on August 6th, 2021, and is valid for two years. This certificate follows the server uptime incident that occurred on August 4th, and prior to the incidents on August 10th.
The fact that this certificate exists at all is evidence that Sumo Digital continues to perform maintenance on the servers, but what does it mean?
LittleBigPlanet Error Code 0xffffffff
Some users online noticed on August 11th that the notorious 'error code 403' no longer appears when attempting to connect to the servers on LittleBigPlanet 3. Instead of displaying the 403 message, it displays LBP error code 0xffffffff.
The following gets a little technical, so bear with me!
This error code does not seem to appear in LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2. However, Undying Star on our Discord server demonstrated that it does appear on LBP Vita as well.