Project Lighthouse

Project Lighthouse
Developer	LBP Union Research and Development
Type	Custom LittleBigPlanet server
Development Start	October 2021
Launch Date	Private Beta: November 2021 Public Beta: March 6th, 2023
Platform	PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, RPCS3
Website	https://github.com/LBPUnion/ProjectLighthouse

Project Lighthouse is a LittleBigPlanet custom server developed by the LBP Union Research and Development team. The project aims to reverse engineer the now defunct official LittleBigPlanet servers to restore online access to all mainline LBP titles on console (with the exception of LBP Karting). Project Lighthouse is currently on public beta operated by the Union Space Corps, since March 6th 2023

Prelude

On March 11th, 2021, at the beginning of the LBP server shutdown crisis, m88youngling on the LBP Union Discord suggested that "If the [LittleBigPlanet] servers go down, there will be private servers for sure someday". Around this point though, various voices in the community claimed that private servers for LittleBigPlanet already existed, albeit without very concrete accessibility or functionality. However, the existence of these servers is currently unconfirmed.^{[citation needed]} There were also rumors that individuals allegedly responsible for the 2021 LBP server attacks utilized a private LBP server.^{[citation needed]}

Initial Talks

On September 9th, 2021, m88youngling brought up the possibility of private servers to the LBP Union Research and Development team as a topic of research, which involved team members such as LoganTGT, Nya0, Jvyden, and others. After discussion about the challenges of creating a custom LittleBigPlanet server, several packet captures were provided by m88youngling which served as a starting point for research.^{[citation needed]}

Initially, the R&D team attempted to see if custom servers could work with official firmware (OFW) PlayStation 3 and Vita consoles. A great deal of discussion occurred once the official LittleBigPlanet servers for PS3 and Vita were discontinued on September 13th, 2021. Jvyden suggested that it was likely not possible. That same day, m88youngling mentioned in a public Discord channel that the LBP Union R&D team was investigating the possibility of custom LBP servers. The following day, m88youngling announced to the public that the efforts to research and create new custom LBP server software would be called 'Project Lighthouse.'

I wanted to make a quick note for everybody, Yes, the LBP servers have shut off for PS3 and Vita. Yes, I am immensely disappointed and I was pretty down about it yesterday. LBP2 was my favorite game. However, this isn't the end. PS3 and Vita private servers are coming eventually, and our team is investigating what it would take to create them. There are others in the community as well. Dreamiverse is working on them as well. However, I can't say when Project Lighthouse will be available. It could take some time.

Development Begins

Project Lighthouse's initial commit on GitHub was made on October 5th, 2021 by LBP Union R&D Lead Developer Jvyden. The repository has received over a thousand commits since then.