LittleBigPlanet delayed worldwide, soundtrack at fault [Update]

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 17th 2008 at 10:41AM }

Uh-oh. LittleBigPlanet was due for release next week. Looks like plans are changing. According to GI.biz, Media Molecule's game is being recalled, and a new release date will be announced shortly. "Retailers are estimating the game may be delayed by three weeks until November 14."

According to our tipster Topsu, the cause for the delay may be due to a a song in the game's soundtrack, which quotes the Quran. Use of religious text in the game may be considered insensitive to some. We're currently investigating this story, and we'll update when we find out more.

Update: A post on the PlayStation forums discusses the questioned song in detail. SCEE responds: "During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur'an. We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused."

Update 2: The game will ship the week of October 27th.

Tags: delay, littlebigplanet

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

punkrockstu @ Oct 17th 2008 10:45AM

KarlW @ Oct 17th 2008 12:45PM

Yea, let's blame the Muslims.

While we're at it, why don't we add a Martin Luther King assasination to Syphon Filter? And Rosa Parks to PAIN?

In fact, why stop there? Let's get a Holocaust mode for Command and Conquer, and let's get Big Boss to join the Cheka.

Seriously - wasn't the US supposed to be this country of liberty for all? Just throwing it out there. If you want to disrespect everybody who isn't a white evangelical Christian, go ahead.

ryan @ Oct 17th 2008 12:55PM

damn, listening to it, it was pretty catchy too! lol

but i really wouldn't want these words secretly placed in this game:

'Every soul shall have the taste of death' and
'All that is on earth will perish'

lol. good that they changed it, sucks that it's delayed!

Kyle T. @ Oct 17th 2008 12:57PM

In this case, I sort of agree with Iron Man, as insensitive as it may sound - however - I'd be saying the same thing if this were the Christians, the Jewish, the Vegans, people who like basketball, etc.

The thing is, MM is being forced to CALL BACK ALL OF THE GAMES THEY'VE SHIPPED OUT and re-print them because some song in the damn game has a religious quote in it. Seriously? That'd be like recalling the original Saint's Row because the gang's hideout was in a church.

I'm sorry, but when you're to the point that you're so sensitive about your religion that when a scripture is quoted in a game the company is forced to recall, it's gone way too far.

I'm just hoping this is a hoax. It's just too ridiculous to be true.We really need to stop tiptoeing around certain groups and screwing the rest. It's hypocritical that these idiot Christians, no matter how much they protest, are ignored when they whine about Grand Theft Auto or whatever it's popular to whine about, but a game is recalled and delayed for three weeks because a song has some obscure quotes from the Qur'an in the background of it.

Archon @ Oct 17th 2008 1:06PM

Give me your anger, Snake!
Let it boil to the surface!
Let your fury flow freely!
Anger begets Anger!
Come on, show me your RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGEEEEEEEEEE!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyzyGh3I6PI

halebound00 @ Oct 17th 2008 1:11PM

As lame as it is...they gotta clean that up. I mean, honestly, you really don't want Sony to have a Little Big Fatwa on their hands......or do you?

Lars @ Oct 17th 2008 1:20PM

Wow.... with such a highly anticipated title, you'd think they would just release a patch for it instead. Sony's such a strict by-the-book company though.

I'm so sad... I was really really looking forward to Tuesday. At least give us the beta back now!

UncleCheeto @ Oct 17th 2008 2:32PM

That's it. I'm officially offended that this song is not going to be in the final game. I will not buy the game until the song is back in the game.

Nick @ Oct 17th 2008 2:48PM

Karl, why are you comparing deplorable acts in history to a few lines in a song from a book? The song is not promoting anything anti-Islam (or pro-Islam, for that matter), it just has lines from the Koran. If Muslims are offended by that then they need to get over it. Cultural sensitivity is one thing, but this is just absurd. I guess the eating of meat in video games has to be taken out, too, because Vegans may take offense to it.

KarlW @ Oct 18th 2008 3:33PM

If it was just "a few lines in a song from a book", there wouldn't be a problem.

The problem is that those are lines from a sacred text which apparently forbids its use in this context, and would be just as offensive as any of those things.

If you don't see a problem with it, you're not one of the people who are offended. I wouldn't be offended by a Holocaust mode in C&C, but that doesn't mean I should trivialise how offensive it would be.

macserv @ Oct 19th 2008 3:27AM

It's just as forbidden by the Bible or Torah for the word of God to be used in this way too. But hey, it's open season on Christians and Jews.

Alex @ Oct 17th 2008 10:47AM

Doesn't make any sense. Would that offend anyone in the whole world? Why Europe. Aren't there any NA people who are religous?

Kholar @ Oct 17th 2008 10:53AM

Well it's a little different here, while there are some people that would be offended, I think that most of America's religious problems are between people that believe and people that don't. Plus because we have so many different versions of Christianity to deal with, before someone ever starts mentioning Islam In Europe on the other hand they are more likely to actually interact and argue with people that believe something that is completely different.

Beano @ Oct 17th 2008 11:13AM

The game is allready out in the US and a recall would maybe not be possible or extremely hard.
That's my theory anyway ;)

Dadidito @ Oct 17th 2008 12:02PM

Things are very different in the U.S. when it comes to Muslim sensitivities. We don't particularly practice multiculturalism like Europe does. We are a society that accepts all (for the most part) as long as you play mostly by American standards pertaining to all cultures. Not Cultures defining national policy. Though there are those that would try.

Hotdj @ Oct 17th 2008 10:47AM

WTF?! NOW IM ANGRY! >:(

Hyams @ Oct 17th 2008 10:47AM

Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

But seriously, WTF? Who cares if it quotes the Koran in a song. Even the most conservative Muslims are gonna find it hard to be offended just because the Koran is *mentioned*.

Brodie-san @ Oct 17th 2008 11:01AM

http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=b_EN_GAMES_general_lbp&thread.id=23576

This is the source of the issue. The Muslim gamer brought it to their attention stating that it is offensive for ANY part of the Quran to be set to music or in a game.

In his/her defence the request here is that future editions of the game are changed and that a patch is issued. Not a full recall.

Hyams @ Oct 17th 2008 11:10AM

Yeah, I prefer the patch idea to the game being delayed three weeks.

Would it have been that hard to have a mandatory patch ready for release day?

Popfrogs @ Oct 17th 2008 1:30PM

I prefer that Sony ignore it. Nobody cared about the content of this guy's song before (2 years old), why should they care now?

Also it's super fishy how this guy showed up out of nowhere with an early copy of the game, posted 4 threads in Sony's European forums (public), then vanished. His user doesn't even exist on those forums anymore.

why sony?? @ Oct 17th 2008 10:55AM

why sony? why? why must you do this to us? the biggest game of the ps3's lifecycle so far (behind mgs4) and it gets delayed??? someone in upper management should be fired, seriously. age of booty is delayed too, unbelieveable. just throw lbp and age of booty in the bucket with killzone 2 and gt5. launch games, pffft, yeah right.

sparced @ Oct 17th 2008 11:53AM

shut your mouth idiot.

dip @ Oct 17th 2008 12:48PM

Use your brain, retard. It's not Sony's fault.

Jerses @ Oct 17th 2008 10:56AM

Just patch the damn song!! make a mandatory update tha put a BEEEEP sound when they say "fuck the couBEEEP" or why are they so insulted?

Beano @ Oct 17th 2008 11:18AM

My quess is that the reasoning behind a full recall vs. a patch, is that many customers will not play it online and therefore not get the patch.

It's really not a problems with gamers but instead a PR problem that would otherwise blow up in the press... "Sony hates muslims", etc. etc. There is such a thing as "bad PR" :(

But it should have be caught in QA/testing and not a few days before launch... idiots!!

Rasti @ Oct 17th 2008 12:09PM

Well Beano, if someone doesn't bother patching the game, their issues with it can't be too grave. A mandatory release-day patch would be MediaMolecules way of saying "We made a misstake, we did not mean to offend anyone, here is the solution".

dr tobias funke @ Oct 17th 2008 1:11PM

So then for the Muslims that don't have internet that would be offended by it, you can just as easily make an update to download from a computer and put it on the ps3 with a flash card. Also, it's not Sony's fault about this...some sound tech probably thought it sounded cool and put it in without even knowing what it means - IT'S IN ISLAM! Do all developers need to have people who know every language present in order to make sure noone is offended? Also, it's not that unique of a quote...the Bible has a ton of quotes like this...armageddon, etc. This is just ridiculous...to the people offended by it, wait for a patch...to those who don't understand islam...why the hell would it matter?

fiziks @ Oct 17th 2008 1:34PM

Islam isn't a language, dumbass

Mr. Joe @ Oct 17th 2008 6:50PM

dr tobias funke said...
do all developers need to have people who know every language present in order to make sure noone is offended?

the answer:
yes. if they're going to have a song in different languages, they need to have the translations pass.

also, islam is a religion. not a language.

Carlosm88 @ Oct 17th 2008 10:59AM

this could literaly kill me...

Topsu @ Oct 17th 2008 10:59AM

http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=b_EN_GAMES_general_lbp&thread.id=23576

This is the place I got my info.

Brodie-san @ Oct 17th 2008 11:02AM

Ooops. Sorry, I didn't see this when I posted above.

:)

Ranben @ Oct 17th 2008 11:00AM

Oh I'm glad I'm American.

darthug @ Oct 17th 2008 11:04AM

Jesus H Christ! ;)

JohnHype @ Oct 17th 2008 11:05AM

Ah, religion. Making the world a worse place one false outrage at a time.

Ben @ Oct 17th 2008 2:45PM

It's not about "false outrage" or "religions".

It seems pretty clear that Sony and MM are only worried about offending religions that use terrorism and violence to silence people. As we can see from this incident, terrorism and violence works.

fiziks @ Oct 17th 2008 4:03PM

wtf, terrorism has nothing to do with this, mediamolecule doesn't want to offend anybody, they want everybody to enjoy their game (everybody, together)... If there was a lyric that degraded the image of, or insulted the lifestyle of fucking eskimoes they'd recall this game, they want people to enjoy their game without controversy, if there was a lyric in the game that had a vulgar word or suggestive theme in it they would recall the game because THIS GAME IS NOT GRAND THEFT AUTO, this game was not intended to be demeaning or controversial... terrorism? what a joke.

JohnHype @ Oct 17th 2008 4:07PM

I, and many others, won't be able enjoy this game because I'm offended by religion inspired censorship. I guess they're going to recall it again so that they can please everybody?

Bull. They're just running scared. Maybe not of terrorists, but at least protests and Muslim anger boy burning Sackboy in effigy in the streets.

fiziks @ Oct 17th 2008 4:16PM

I doubt "many others" will not be able to enjoy the game because of the reason you stated, but, if so, that's good anyhow because now that muslims WILL be able to enjoy the game they'll probably make up for sales lost from you shallow, idignant people... so it's a win-win for those who made the game and those playing the game

ChodalBerryWagon @ Oct 17th 2008 6:26PM

@ Ben

are you serious?
I can't believe how many people don't understand this:
MUSLIMS RELIGION IS NOT TO KILL PEOPLE!!!

I'm not muslim, but I understand that a lot of terrorists are Muslim - this is because the area that's most negatively affected by America is predominantly Muslim!

HAAS599 @ Oct 17th 2008 11:05AM

just import it.

still have to wait a couple of extra days for shipping but thats better than a couple weeks.

jarhead906 @ Oct 17th 2008 11:05AM

If this is actually the main reason, I highly doubt this would have been noticed at all considering you are busy playing the game and not analyzing the music in the background. Just by making it publicly known has more repercussions than not making it known... does the NA version contain this song?

What I also hate with a passion is when individuals become 'offended'. What kind of childish reaction is that. I'm offended by what someone said to me about how I could have made a better purchase with my income than spending it on . When it all boils down, saying you're offended and lashing out at something is the result of an individual that is too incompetent to deal with life's ups and downs.

Kyle T. @ Oct 17th 2008 4:40PM

Nah it would've been noticed. The pricks who scoured the game to find it in the first place would have freaked the hell out of the game would have released as planned. The guy even said in the post that their group has requested the removal of "offensive" material in the past from both the Wii game Zack and Wiki as well as Call of Duty 4.

Sounds like the Muslim equivalent of Jack Thompson.