LittleBigPlanet release delayed worldwide
UPDATE: Game delayed due to Qur'an references on soundtrack, US to see release week beginning October 27
The release of Sony's highly anticipated PlayStation 3 title LittleBigPlanet has been delayed worldwide.
The title has been delayed due to references to the Qur'an on the in-game soundtrack.
"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," admitted the company in a statement.
"We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused."
Earlier, GamesIndustry.biz reported the game was delayed in Europe, but it is now understood this issue affects the worldwide release of the title. Sony is expected to recall all copies of the game already shipped to retail.
The game was due for release next week, October 24, but now some retailers are estimating the game may be delayed by three weeks until November 14.
However, GamesIndustry.biz understands that the title may not suffer such a long delay to retail, and a new date is expected to be announced by Sony next week.
LittleBigPlanet has reviewed incredibly well in the specialist press and anticipation is high from consumers who have already had access to the beta of the game.
Sony has said that the game is a system seller for the PlayStation 3, and the title is considered one of the most important releases for the home console this Christmas.
EDIT: :(
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Chris Hunter-Brown on 17th October 2008 3:48pm
"As you may already be aware, the UK release date for LittleBigPlanet has changed to Oct-2008"
Oh well, looks like I'll just be playing FarCry 2 next Fri...
I better be careful that my 7yr old hasn't heard it and make sure he doesn't get on his Star Wars bike and try and take something out.
Does anyone know if it's going to be patched online or are the discs being recalled?
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jim Webb on 17th October 2008 5:01pm
To: Sony Computer Entertainment & Media Molecule
While playing your latest game, "LittleBigPlanet" in the first level of the third world in the game (titled "Swinging Safari":smileywink:, I have noticed something strange in the lyrics of the music track of the level. When I listened carefully, I was surprised to hear some very familiar Arabic words from the Quran. You can listen to part of the track here:
mt14.quickshareit.com/share/p...lip22503c0.wav
The words are:
1- In the 18th second: "كل نفس ذائقة الموت" ("kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: 'Every soul shall have the taste of death').
2- Almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "كل من عليها فان" ("kollo man alaiha fan", literally: 'All that is on earth will perish').
I asked many of my friends online and offline and they heard the exact same thing that I heard easily when I played that part of the track. Certain Arabic hardcore gaming forums are already discussing this, so we decided to take action by emailing you before this spreads to mainstream attention.
We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending. We hope you would remove that track from the game immediately via an online patch, and make sure that all future shipments of the game disk do not contain it.
We would also like to mention that this isn't the first time something like this happened in videogames. Nintendo's 1998 hit "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" contained a musical track with islamic phrases, but it was removed in later shipments of the game after Nintendo was contacted by Muslim organizations. Last year, Capcom's "Zack & Wiki" and Activision's "Call of Duty 4" also contained objectionable material offensive to Muslims that was spotted before the release of the final games, and both companies thankfully removed the content.
We hope you act immediately to avoid any confusion and unnecessary controversy, and we thank you for making such an amazing game.
Regards,
yasser
While I'm not laying out a conspiracy theory here but it does seem the best way to get your game known on the cheap is to do something controversial.