Media Molecule, developer behind the critically acclaimed LittleBigPlanet franchise has made quite a bit of money from Sackboy's user-generated adventures. The studio made $5.3 million dollars in its last fiscal year, but that's not quite enough to cover the cost of the studio's ambitious R&D plans. According to a leaked financial report, the company has spent $6.3 million on research and development.

Why? Because the company must "remain at the forefront of technological advances, and must bring new and often risky innovations to market."

Sony acquired Media Molecule earlier in 2011, which should give the company quite a bit of security as it makes these heavy investments. According to Develop, the company has been researching "leading edge physics and dynamics, rapid world creation from laser data, innovative routes to market via web based interfaces, 3D stereo-optics for advanced simulation, and use of ‘hi-def’ data capture and processing techniques."

Clearly, the company is experimenting with quite a number of different techniques and methods. It's unclear what the fruits of this labor will be--but these efforts will help the studio become something more than "the LittleBigPlanet studio." The studio has already confirmed that it does not plan to continue work on the franchise.