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Your Early Retail Copy of LittleBigPlanet Just Went Up In Value

Muslim holy text found on LittleBigPlanet soundtrack, game delayed worldwide.

We're right there with ya, little guy.
We're right there with ya, little guy.
Well, if you managed to find a retailer that was willing to break the street date for LittleBigPlanet and sell you one, hang onto it, because it seems to be something of a rarity now.

Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer that LittleBigPlanet has been delayed from its release date--originally scheduled for next week--and that no new date is available. That's a worldwide delay, by the way, not just a European delay.

Why? Because one of the songs licensed for the soundtrack contains bits of text from the Qu'ran. In an effort to not offend the Muslim community, Sony is recalling the game to edit out the song.

A thread found on Sony's European forums gives a bit more detail, claiming that the statements are made during the third level. Also according to this thread, the song is Tapha Niang by Toumani Diabate's Symmetrical Orchestra. At two points in the song, phrases that translate to "every soul shall have the taste of death" and "all that is on earth will perish" are heard.

I'll just point out here that those are fairly heavy statements for a game like LittleBigPlanet to be making, religious text or not. The offending bits can currently be heard here.

SCEE claims that a new date will be made available shortly. Most major US retailers seem to still be showing the original 10/21 ship date as of this writing.

[UPDATE] Sony's Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, Patrick Seybold, has posted an update on SCEA's official blog announcing that the game's release will only be delayed by one week, putting it on shelves during the week of October 27. That's a pretty fast turnaround!
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jeff

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Edited By jeff
We're right there with ya, little guy.
We're right there with ya, little guy.
Well, if you managed to find a retailer that was willing to break the street date for LittleBigPlanet and sell you one, hang onto it, because it seems to be something of a rarity now.

Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer that LittleBigPlanet has been delayed from its release date--originally scheduled for next week--and that no new date is available. That's a worldwide delay, by the way, not just a European delay.

Why? Because one of the songs licensed for the soundtrack contains bits of text from the Qu'ran. In an effort to not offend the Muslim community, Sony is recalling the game to edit out the song.

A thread found on Sony's European forums gives a bit more detail, claiming that the statements are made during the third level. Also according to this thread, the song is Tapha Niang by Toumani Diabate's Symmetrical Orchestra. At two points in the song, phrases that translate to "every soul shall have the taste of death" and "all that is on earth will perish" are heard.

I'll just point out here that those are fairly heavy statements for a game like LittleBigPlanet to be making, religious text or not. The offending bits can currently be heard here.

SCEE claims that a new date will be made available shortly. Most major US retailers seem to still be showing the original 10/21 ship date as of this writing.

[UPDATE] Sony's Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, Patrick Seybold, has posted an update on SCEA's official blog announcing that the game's release will only be delayed by one week, putting it on shelves during the week of October 27. That's a pretty fast turnaround!
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Drebin_893

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Edited By Drebin_893

Seriously? Wow, that;s a ridiculous mistake to slip through the net.
Well, either that or everyone has gotten duped.

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duxup

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Edited By duxup

What the heck.  Weird.  Too bad they didn't find it sooner.

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superjoe

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Edited By superjoe

it's the ocarina of time fire temple fiasco all over again!

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Boyling

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Edited By Boyling

Oh for fuck's sake...

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Marino

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Edited By Marino  Staff

While it sucks, it makes next week a little easier for me.  More time for Fable II.

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deactivated-5e0e0ee2ea170

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People need to stop getting offended so easily and worrying over pointless things that arn't even real.

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Torb

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Edited By Torb

Hahaha...that sucks hardcore. Wonder how they finally found it x.x

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daniel_beck_90

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Edited By daniel_beck_90

why is it that these Muslim  Duders are so sensitive ???

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irishjohn

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Edited By irishjohn

Man that sucks.

PapaLazarou said "People need to stop getting offended so easily and worrying over pointless things that arn't even real."

It's real to enough people that it needs to be recalled.  Dissing entire cultures never gets you very far.

As for the release date... this is all a Molyneux-driven conspiracy to save Fable 2 from obscurity!!
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UncleDisco

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Edited By UncleDisco

Poo... really... poo... if anyone is offended by this... then im offended by them...

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Geno

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Edited By Geno

Once again, religion must find a way to inject its bronze age thinking into our modern world.

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Funkofages

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mr_registered

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Edited By mr_registered

What's going to happen to all the 'offensive' copies? landfill? furnace? moon? What a silly waste of plastic.

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Boyling

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Edited By Boyling

It's come pretty far when they're taking such enormous precautions just to avoid stepping on someone's toes. The quotes are probably not even considered offensive by any Muslim anywhere.

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fokma

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Edited By fokma
"PapaLazarou said "People need to stop getting offended so easily and worrying over pointless things that arn't even real."

It's real to enough people that it needs to be recalled.  Dissing entire cultures never gets you very far."

No culture was being dissed... all that happened was a few lines from the Qu'ran, were included in the soundtrack. What is the big deal??? They're just prophecies from the Qu'ran.
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TheHBK

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Edited By TheHBK

It's just a cover to say that it would offend Muslims.  Why would it offend them?  Sony should really look into why anything like that would be in this game and find out who is a terrorist in Sony's camp.  Someone on the team put those lines in there for a reason.

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Gorlith

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Edited By Gorlith

ummm... so what will happen with my copy of the game i got last night? will the changes make it so that there's some weird version discrepancy that will ruining things for me? (as far as getting online with it, etc...) ???

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jlaudio7

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Edited By jlaudio7

WHAT THE FUCK?!

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radion_null

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Edited By radion_null

Oh well!  I'll wait.  I hope it doesn't get delayed like by a month because that would cut into my R2 gaming time.

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sionweeks

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Edited By sionweeks

Religion needs to stop being offended so easily and get real. Who gives a shit about some lyrics in a game.  They don't want them to be heard, but they don't give a shit about the lyrics being posted to places like here, at Giant Bomb. I do not care about whether or it's real enough to a certain amount of people. Yes, I am dissing the religion, because this is absolutely pathetic.

This is also a massive mistake on Media Molecules part. Why put the stuff in there in the first place?

This is a massive upset to sooooo many people. Having to recall millions of copies to please some over sensitive people... This just makes me sick. I'm sorry to be so opinionated, but this is yet another reason to hate religion.

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Edited By Aas

TheHBK said:
"Sony should really look into why anything like that would be in this game and find out who is a terrorist in Sony's camp."

'Cause everyone who reads the Qu'ran is a terrorist, right?

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bjorno

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Edited By bjorno

This wouldn't be happening if we just nuked all the muslims.

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Gorlith

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Edited By Gorlith

also i think its fine to be pc when it comes to not offending a religious group. stop bitching, this is just a game, where as the quran is part of a RELIGION. different scales of importance guys.

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MachoFantastico

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Edited By MachoFantastico

Got a US Version coming this Monday! YAY!!!


Pathetic reason to delay the game though, right before launch! Gonna cost Sony more then a arm and a leg. 

This is why I hate religion.
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Gorlith

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Edited By Gorlith

"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 update, and make sure that all future shipments of the game disk do not contain it."

just so you guys know the people who brought this to sonys attention did not want the game to be delayed, just patched. so stop mocking their religion, i want to state again that the importance of this game should not be held at the same level as somone elses religion.

also bjorno your an idiot spouting that crap

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drewm135

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Edited By drewm135

.....I'm gonna go lay down in a corner and cry now

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Vince

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Edited By Vince

Prediction: God of War 3 will be delayed indefinitely. It has FALSE GODS (among other evil, offensive things) !

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TheHBK

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Edited By TheHBK

Aas said:
"'Cause everyone who reads the Qu'ran is a terrorist, right?"

Did you read the lines that were put in there?  Regardless of where they are from, those lines are obviously there for sending a message of violence and death, ie a terrorist.  And why are you getting defensive...you look pretty sketch to me...

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Driadon

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Edited By Driadon

For those of you saying "What's the big deal?" I have to point out that the Islam faith forbids using quotes from the Qur'an in music. It may not seems like a big deal to the western world as it is to them, just as it may not be a big deal to them to see a piñata of Jesus being hit repeatedly.

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albedos_shadow

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Edited By albedos_shadow

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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rollingzeppelin

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Edited By rollingzeppelin

Wow...*facepalm*

I'm no fan of any religion, but Islam is probably the most rediculus of them all. It's funny how the less educated a country is, the more religious it is.

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Geno

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Edited By Geno

Driadon said: "For those of you saying "What's the big deal?" I have to point out that the Islam faith forbids using quotes from the Qur'an in music. It may not seems like a big deal to the western world as it is to them, just as it may not be a big deal to them to see a piñata of Jesus being hit repeatedly."

There's thousands of religions in the world, currently and in history. Like someone else said before, should God of War be banned because it might offend people who believe in Zeus?

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FuzzYLemoN

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Edited By FuzzYLemoN

lol, those lyrics are kind of a strange thing to hear in LBP, amirite? XD

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Gorlith

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Edited By Gorlith

The religions based on Zeus did not prohibit using Zeus in other things like music, so it would not be the same.
The muslim religion prohibits quoting the quran in music.

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burjeffton--defunct

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The herd needs thinning.

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Aas

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Edited By Aas

TheHBK said:
"you look pretty sketch to me..."

I'm not a sketch, I'm a mother-flippin' portrait.

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Ubergeist

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Ah religion. Man's worst mistake.

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Blinck

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Edited By Blinck

Religion Owns us all.

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BawaTheGamer

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Edited By BawaTheGamer

I dont see whats so bad about that. Its not disrespecting Islam or is it? All i know is that those Danish cartoons caused uproar because the prophet isnt supposed to be drawn or somthing like that.

Plus i actually think noone would have noticed. I mean ,how would someone be able to tell those exact phrases are from the Quran,unless that person had learnt the entire book by heart.

By doing this ,will only make more people aware of the fact and it may or may not cause more controversy.

Woudnt it have been smarter to make up some better excuse regarding the games delay then mentioning it quotes the Quran? They should have made somthing up. This will just blowup. I hope no serious riots or flag/ps3 burning takes place.

Was the line sung in a derogatory manner?

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Geno

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Edited By Geno

Gorlith said: "The religions based on Zeus did not prohibit using Zeus in other things like music, so it would not be the same.
The muslim religion prohibits quoting the quran in music."

Yeah but like all religions, only the priests are allowed to change the canon of the religion, so therefore the developers of God of War are performing blasphemy when they make up false stories regarding Greek mythology. Same for Hinduism, but you don't see them getting on the up and up when players summon Shiva in Final Fantasy.

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Scooper

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Edited By Scooper

Religion is junk anyways.

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am_dragon

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Edited By am_dragon
Simple solution. "Warning may contain offensive lyrics ."   

Why isn't that good enough here?

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sofakingcool

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Edited By sofakingcool

3 things.

1. Media is aloud to offend and shouldn't be afraid to do so.
2. How many games have come out that make fun of the judeo christian faith, without incident?
3. If these kind of conciderations were really being made.... How the hell does this get through testing?!

Bonus: This smells like a bogus excuse to me, but Sony needs this game to be huge and this doesn't help!

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Bad_JuJu

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Edited By Bad_JuJu

That's Sony PS3 this generation- More Mistakes, More Delays, More Losses.  Alright LBP, we'll see ya when we see ya.

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Crono

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Edited By Crono

sacks and stones can break my bones but the Qu'ran will never hurt me

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Gorlith

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Edited By Gorlith

By writing a story about a religious figure you are not changing the canon. Canon can only be changed be "priests" of whatever religion. I'm no expert on Hinduism, but I do not think that the religion PROHIBITS the use of their prophets, texts, and other religious figures. Technically some factions of Christianity don't allow this type of use of the Bible either, but Christianity seams to by the lazy mans religion.

All that aside, its not like some major Muslim religious head made a statement saying that Sony needed to remove the song. Some Muslim gamers noticed it and told Sony they might wanna patch it out. Sony decided to play it safe and recall, which is fine.

The point I am trying to make, is that its cool if your upset that the game is delayed, but I don't see a reason to start bashing religions so much. All of you that are doing so sound like idiots.

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coonce

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Edited By coonce

how is this not caught in the qa process? crazy.

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Geno

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Edited By Geno

This might be due to the encroachment of Islamism currently happening in the UK (Media Molecule, the developer of LBP is based in the UK). Muslim fundies are gaining more power since a lot of UKer's are too PC or afraid to go against them, and it may even be a possibility for Sharia law to become legal there (you know, the law that makes rape of women, owning slaves, and executing homosexuals legal).

This Islamic invasion appears to have spread even towards our much beloved games market :(, probably feeding on the hemhorraging stock markets like some sort of gangrene.

I wouldn't dismiss this as a small issue, this looks like an indicator of things to come; Sony wasn't very careful by delaying the game, now they have set a precedent. Look forward to more inane censorship in the future, especially for games coming out of the UK.