PlayStation Sony is ending support for Dreams on September 1st. (Servers will remain up, and Media Molecule is working on a new project.)

[Krvavi Abadas]

As we continue to evaluate and evolve our priorities for the studio and Dreams, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue live support for Dreams after 1st September, 2023 to shift our focus to an exciting new project. You’ll continue to be able to play, create and share Dreams with others after September, but we won’t be releasing any more updates to the game or events such as DreamsCom, All Hallows’ Dreams or the Impy Awards. We’re incredibly proud of the work we’ve done in developing Dreams - such as our content releases, Create updates and live events - and we are endlessly grateful to the community for their belief and continuous contributions since launch.

oh no.

it's honestly astounding Sony even let Media Molecule support the project for this long, it was in active development since the PS4 was revealed.


and wasn't properly released until a few months prior to the launch of the PS5. most other AAA studios would throw them out years prior, but it looks like their luck has finally ran out.

as noted, the servers are staying up for now. in fact, they're planning to migrate to new ones in May that should keep it up for longer.

At DreamsCom last year we mentioned a big upcoming change to the Dreams server - a necessary update to preserve the security and stability of Dreams, which is home to millions of amazing creations from around the world. Our team has been hard at work on this update and we’re preparing to migrate to our new server in late May.

but this comes at the cost of removing various features. such as Twitch integration and the Prize Bubble system. and a set of hard storage limits for how much content you can upload. (however, previously uploaded content won't count towards the limit.)

Type	Online	Local
Storage Space	5GB	1GB
Photos	256	128
Creations	256	256
Versions	512 per creation	1024 across all creations

the last thing of note is the mention of Media Molecule's next project. the FAQ clarifies that it's not Dreams 2. so this unfortunately doesn't seem to be a case of them making a native PS5-only successor or anything like that.

they're definitely experts at doing proper single-player stories, as shown by Tearaway and Art's Dream. but some of the magic will be lost if they're no longer allowed to continue their ethos of "play, create, share." they've had since LittleBigPlanet.

 

[Mr Doggo]

Media Molecule is such a misfit with sony. Playstation clearly doesnt cares about their games since Little Big Planet, those games should never be exclusive to PS.

 

[Zeal543]

bizarre how this was never offered as a PS+ game, would have been perfect. I bought it and played around with it for a bit, maybe I'll give it a go soon and see what's changed over the years

 

[Nathan Little]

This software would do so much better on PC I feel.

 

[Pechan]

I hope their next project is something tearaway adjacent and not Dreams 2, that would be such a long project for them to tackle right now.

 

[xghost777]

The tools are incredible considering the main campaign was made with them, but it just seemed like an incredible amount of work to make something cool that wouldn’t have much reach. With support already ending, I guess the Dreams are dead.

 

[Imitatio]

 

[Rooster]

And just like usual dreams, it will be forgotten shortly after ending.

 

[JazzPotatoes]

It was an interesting idea for a game, but I'm still not sure who it was actually meant for.

It didn't have the simple pick up and play appeal of a level editor like LBP or Super Mario Maker.

It also didn't have the ability to export your final games a la proper game engine like Unity or Unreal.

It always seemed like it was trying to appeal to a demographic who wanted to spend time learning gamedev tools and creating their own games, but who also had no interest releasing their games outside a very small Sony marketplace and with no option to monetize your creations at all.

 

[Ryunosuke Naruhodo]

This is a game that has lived almost rent free in my head despite having only played it I think for about 6 hours or something, I dunno whether it is the fact it's how unique it is, that it's a British dev team or just how (so many) times people in certain places insisted that the moment Dreams will turn a corner was imminent (going viral on Twitch, VR, PS5 version/pack in for every console, revamped PS+ offering were all seen as moments for a revival) that never materialised but whatever the reason I just find this fascinating to look back on.

What I think is telling is that I've read maybe 100-200 comments in different places and not a single comment was from anyone saying how fun actually playing the creations made in this game were and even from MM themselves now that we've seen the last creation from them and that they are disappointed from a player's point of view rather than a creator's.

I think every disappointed Dreams player I've seen has been people who create things using it, and that matches up I think to an article I believe Polygon did a year or two ago where they interviewed some of the most dedicated creators who lamented how few people were playing their creations, saying it was nearly at rock bottom and that it was the main thing that needed addressing by MM. It was a fascinating article really and now unfortunately that will never come to pass.

I'm pretty certain the article was made after the initial launch of the game where it was inundated in meme games and copyright infringement and people just assumed once that joke got old the cream would rise to the top so to speak and the quality creations would get the spotlight and things would be fine. In practice once people got bored of making/playing Shrek games in it they just got bored of Dreams and moved on entirely.

I know I did, when Dreams launched in early 2020 Animal Crossing New Horizons was imminent, DOOM Eternal as well, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Persona 5 Royal, Final Fantasy 7 Remake both came out within a couple of months exclusive to the same console as Dreams. It was all too easy to spend my time playing these much, much more fun games instead rather than waiting on amateur randoms to pick up the pace. And I don't think I need to play every single Dream creation to safely say that absolutely none of them are as remotely as impressive as say DOOM Eternal, there isn't enough time to play all the 'AAA' games releasing, never mind all the indie games too, so add in these Dreams things and I think people made the obvious choice of which they could do without.

So yeah rant over, I just think it's fascinating to look back on this and wonder why it was made the way it was, and how it could have been different. MM ended up making a toolset for amateur developers but didn't have the wherewithal to lean into that and make PS's answer to Roblox so it's hard to not see this as a big waste or their time and ultimately to worry that this following Tearaway does not bode well if whatever they are making now isn't a success. At the very least they have completely moved on from this huge flop by confirming that they aren't working on any port/more content/heck even the weird little award shows they did are ending which is probably the first good decision they've made in a decade brutally enough.

 

[boris_feinbrand]

This project needed to be on PC first and foremost. But given how unwilling Sony has been at supporting Media Molecule games long term, it probably wouldn't have mattered either way.

Sad either way you look at it. It's a definitive loss

 

[Magic-Man]

What the actual fuck

 

[Síriocaz]

What the actual fuck

Definitively Dead Dreams

 

[Heron]

It seems like the "player-designed levels" game paradigm has kinda died a death, hasn't it? Media Molecule were one of the first to start that trend with LittleBigPlanet, and now this feels like the end of that trend. Even Mario Maker 2 which was an excellent game just kinda came and went.

What shocked me with Dreams was that I couldn't understand how any creators would want to learn and master this tool, and thought there'd be this huge playerbase starving for content. It turned out to be the exact opposite - tons of talented creators who were attracted by the tool itself, making content for an audience that didn't exist. Games are so cheap these days - many incredible games are F2P. So I guess people thought what's the appeal in playing prototypes and hasty scribbles by comparison?

The one tragedy is that it was an incredible showcase for VR art and level designs. I'm shocked that they didn't port it to PSVR 2 - it could have found a second lease of life there with the better controllers and a lot of already created VR content.

Also, never putting it on PS+ once it was clear that the game was struggling was just moronic. I guess somewhere higher up in Sony they'd decided it was a sunk cost at that point.

Favourite game on Dreams? Has to be that ball-rolling marble madness clone. That was fantastic.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

Considering how long it was in development that seems very early. It's only been out for like 3 years or something, what a waste.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

bizarre how this was never offered as a PS+ game, would have been perfect.

eh, it's been on sale for as low as $7.99
and even before then, if you bought it during the early access period (which is what i did) there was a decent discount applied to that.
regardless. i'd imagine launching it on plus first would have been helpful in the long term.

It also didn't have the ability to export your final games a la proper game engine like Unity or Unreal.

this was something they were planning to do early on, though i don't think it was ever properly implemented.

Wired reports that Dreams is being made with exporting in mind, letting players bring their creations into the Unity development platform or bring them into the real world with a 3D printer.

the FAQ in particular notes that support for 3D printing has already been canned entirely.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

(i suppose this answers your question, @Zeal543 )
not really a fan of them doing this the month prior to support getting wound down, i'd imagine the monthly games are planned out for a while. possibly even before the final decision on supporting the game was made.
they really should have waited to see how it does on Plus, then decided what to do next.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

for context, there’s been some recent rumors that a PS5 port (and a PC version) was nearly finished. But Sony forcing them to stop support lead to the ports getting canned at the last minute.

 

[Síriocaz]

for context, there’s been some recent rumors that a PS5 port (and a PC version) was nearly finished. But Sony forcing them to stop support lead to the ports getting canned at the last minute.

Thanks for putting that teary video, I got wowed the most by the Jurassic Park bit. Putting in the shelf nearly completed projects is a way too common occurrence in this industry, they should just release it.

 

[Lucifer]

I dabbled in teams every now and then, I always switched it off after 15 mins. This game only works for the most dedicated of creators who make time for an open tool like this. And that group is extremely small. That conclusion is obvious so I knew this wasn't gonna do great. I don't know how Sony or MM didn't come to that conclusion.