LittleBigPlanet release delayed in Europe [updated]

**Shrygue** · October 17th, 2008, 15:42

via Games Industry

The release of Sony's highly anticipated PlayStation 3 title LittleBigPlanet has been delayed in Europe.

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 shortly.

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.

More details to follow.

Posters' edit: It seems the delay is being caused by the discovery of a particular ingame song and passage from the Quran, spotted by Videogaming247. Here's a bit more info on a Google cached thread at Sony's website.

**Napalm-Death** · October 17th, 2008, 15:47

What the hell? WHY?!

**Shrygue** · October 17th, 2008, 16:02

I was looking forward to getting a copy of this, now it seems I and anyone else in the UK and Europe will have to wait longer. The question is, just how is the release Euro release being delayed? Problems in the disk production line? Or something else?

Edit: After looking around, the release is delayed because of stuff in the game referring to the Koran. Thread post is updated.

**jonezybaby** · October 17th, 2008, 17:01

why the hell are we in europe always getting screwed? wat the fuk is up with sony?

im gettin constantly annoy we get things last!! even wen the games are made in europe!!

**jonezybaby** · October 17th, 2008, 17:58

say why delay game? just patch it to stop the song bein played?

**Triv1um** · October 17th, 2008, 18:05

This isnt funny.

Im selling my xbox for this! Haha.

**Accordion** · October 17th, 2008, 19:44

Its good that the issue is being fixed, but it is a great shame the game is delayed.

There seems to be a alot of backlash on the news sites. Mostly in the form of "grow up Muslims"
Quite disgusting, the west has made every attempt to disrupt Islam to destruction. Any religion or culture that has managed to maintain their values against attack deserves nothing less than admiration.

The fall of Christianity should not signify the fall of others. The fallen should not insist all else is fallen.

**DPyro** · October 17th, 2008, 20:20

It's a worldwide delay:

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"), 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:

http://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 update, 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,
NSider