Sony will charge $60 for the September 8 Game of the Year re-release of LittleBigPlanet and claims that the additional content and a “limited-supplies-only” beta invitation will justify the price. When people try to justify anything, that means they’re already aware of skeptics (right here). I could easily be classified as a LBP fan; the game knows almost no bounds (as demonstrated by a very talented group over at NeoGAF). Still, at $60 you’ll have to really ‘wow’ me in to picking the game up..  AGAIN. Let’s see what’s being offered here, shall we?

Announced today, the new LBP will include the original game along with 18 levels created by top LBP users and commissioned by the game’s development studio Media Molecule. A Sony press release for the new edition states that the 18 users making these levels are have each “become an amateur video game developer” in the process.

Also included with the re-release will be seven costume and level packs that have been available for download to current owners. Sony listed each of the packs with its price on the PlayStation Network, so people can calculate the value of the deal:

Metal Gear Solid Level Pack – featuring the “Paintinator” ($5.99*)
Metal Gear Solid Costumes ($5.99*)
Monsters Costumes ($2.99*)
Monsters Pack ($3.99*)
History Costumes ($2.99*)
History Pack ($3.99*)
Animals Costumes ($2.99*)

Not bad, right? No Little Big Contra, but I’ll live. “Limited quantities” of the GOTY edition will also contain vouchers for players to participate in the upcoming online beta for ModNation Racers, an E3 2009-debuting racing game that Sony is promoting as being part of the same Build Create Share genre as LBP. Sold? Not quite, but we know how “Limited quantity” items go.

For more info and a video of the new stuff, check out the LBP GOTY post on the official PlayStation blog.