Oh Dear. LittleBigPlanet, the PlayStation 3's biggest game of the year, has been delayed by around three weeks.
Update: Sony has released an official statement confirming reports that LittleBigPlanet will be delayed.
Here's the statement from Sony:
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.
A new release date has not been given.
High street retailer Zavvi has emailed LittleBigPlanet pre-order customers to alert them of a release slip to November 14.
Dear Mr **** ****
The release date of a product you have ordered has changed.
Product Little Big Planet in order ******** will now be released on Fri Nov 14 00:00:00 GMT 2008
Kind Regards, zavvi.co.uk customer services team
It's not yet clear why this last minute delay has been brought into effect.
We've contacted Sony for official comment on the story, which will come as a massively blow for fans of the game. You'll just have to make do with re-reading our gushing review here.
Update: Looks like Zavvi is back-tracking a little. This just in.
Hello from zavvi,
We are emailing because you recently placed an order for LittleBigPlanet. You may have received an email informing you that the release date had changed to 4th November, unfortunately this was sent in error following an incorrect date feed.
We can confirm that LittleBigPlanet is still scheduled for release on 24th October. We would like to offer our apologies for any confusion or frustration caused.
Still nothing from Sony. Stay tuned.
Update 2: SCEE has told MCV that it will be issuing a statement shortly that is expected to confirm that LittleBigPlanet has been delayed in Europe.
Update 3: It's been reported in several places that the reason behind the delay has something to do with words from the Quran appearing in the finished version. More soon.
Ah well, zavvi will probably be too busy trying to get out the phenomenal amount of Hulk merchandise that will no doubt have been generated by the number of people, like me, who have accidentally clicked on one of the myriad of irritating links drowning this site!!!
On topic, that's a shame. Looking forward to LBP...
That just adds to the hefty list of games I 'have' to buy in November. Resistance 2, Guitar Hero 4, Motorstorm 2, LBP and the rest. My girlfriend will like all those games right?
Well, hopefully it will be an even better game for the wait. For some reason or another.
This story was posted yesterday morning, it was 2 retailers displaying a different date, but Sony were contacted by another website and they confirmed the released is still confirmed for 24th....c'mon CVG, get with it!
see i now i posted my comment just before the update but i was right why would u trust zavi cvg? really anyway it should be awesome cant wait for this its gonna be an expensive month
I doubt PS3 owners will worry too much, 3 weeks is nothing in Game time and Im sure there will be one or two games that may now get some attention now that LBP has been delayed.
This could be a very good marketing ploy by sony - why release it at the same time as 3 or 4 other big named titles, why not wait a few weeks and release it when its slightly quieter.
Im not too bother that its delayed - father christmas is popping this in my sock
So pretty much gives me time to learn the circuits in MotoGP 08, and have a crack with Far Cry 2
so...this delay thing is BS right, it's still coming 24th right? funny thing is i actually prordered it from zavvi so they better not tell me it's been delayed when other retailers are handing out copies left right and center. anyways, will someone just clear up these comments? cos theres still angry comments coming in when we've been told that it is not true.
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:
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.
The reason for the delay is one of the songs in the game contains lyrics offensive to Muslims... apparently.
Oh FFS! That sort of crap is really starting to wind me up. Why should I have to miss out on ANYTHING, videogame or not, just because it offends someone's bullshit beliefs?!
update 2 looks ominous. why would sony delay the biggest game of the year for them just because a couple of other lesser titles are coming out at the same time. that wouldn't make sense. maybe it's because of a shortage of blu plastic.
Littlebig seems to be the only planet our Muslim friends can enforce their disturbed religious views upon.
Dear oh dear, if this is the reason for it's withdrawal 'on religious grounds' then I demand the immediate removal of the Church from Resistance. It offends me and all my Christian Brethren.
and there's me thinking 5 days before release would be too soon to delay a game. Obviously, i was wrong.
Technically, (going by the update) the game still hasn't been delayed yet though has it? And the longer we go without any news, the more likely it is that it wont be delayed at all, or atleast you'd have thought.
It's nothing to do with muslims, it's to do with people being so shit scared of offending other peoples' 'beliefs'. Just because someone believes in one fairytale over another shouldn't affect my choice to play/do anything.
Probably coincidence but i can't help but notice that this means it'll now be coming out on the same day as Banjo Kazooie Nuts & bolts... which is quite a massive release for 360 especially as it's their version of a "physics" based game. Wonder if they've put them in competition directly?
Littlebig seems to be the only planet our Muslim friends can enforce their disturbed religious views upon.
Dear oh dear, if this is the reason for it's withdrawal 'on religious grounds' then I demand the immediate removal of the Church from Resistance. It offends me and all my Christian Brethren.
Bending over backwards for these people. Stupid.
god those muslims get me so angry!!!!!!!!
oh shut up you racist c**t. it's only been delayed by a few weeks, maybe you will have grown a pair by then.
It's nothing to do with muslims, it's to do with people being so shit scared of offending other peoples' 'beliefs'. Just because someone believes in one fairytale over another shouldn't affect my choice to play/do anything.
no it is a small minority of muslims who complain about everything they don't agree with and if they don't get there way they blow up s**t so the goverment listens to them and does everything they say bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
don't ban me
You bigoted, ignorant idiot.
Stop confusing 'muslim' with 'extremist'.
Muslims do not 'blow up s**t' when they don't get their way.
Littlebig seems to be the only planet our Muslim friends can enforce their disturbed religious views upon.
Dear oh dear, if this is the reason for it's withdrawal 'on religious grounds' then I demand the immediate removal of the Church from Resistance. It offends me and all my Christian Brethren.
Bending over backwards for these people. Stupid.
god those muslims get me so angry!!!!!!!!
oh shut up you racist c**t. it's only been delayed by a few weeks, maybe you will have grown a pair by then.
get lost you creep i am sick of your back chat
How can you be sick of his back chat when you've only been registered on this site for two days?
Oh wait, it's because you're tam/tam2 circumventing your ban.
Littlebig seems to be the only planet our Muslim friends can enforce their disturbed religious views upon.
Dear oh dear, if this is the reason for it's withdrawal 'on religious grounds' then I demand the immediate removal of the Church from Resistance. It offends me and all my Christian Brethren.
Bending over backwards for these people. Stupid.
god those muslims get me so angry!!!!!!!!
oh shut up you racist c**t. it's only been delayed by a few weeks, maybe you will have grown a pair by then.
get lost you creep i am sick of your back chat
we havent chatted before you f**king cretin. hard not to comment someone as retarded as you. get a life and stop trying to be a hard man.
It's nothing to do with muslims, it's to do with people being so shit scared of offending other peoples' 'beliefs'. Just because someone believes in one fairytale over another shouldn't affect my choice to play/do anything.
no it is a small minority of muslims who complain about everything they don't agree with and if they don't get there way they blow up s**t so the goverment listens to them and does everything they say bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
don't ban me
You bigoted, ignorant idiot.
Stop confusing 'muslim' with 'extremist'.
Muslims do not 'blow up s**t' when they don't get their way.
Well said.
I find it baffling that crimbo/tam/tam2 is asking not to be banned, despite coming out with one of the most ridiculously racist and uninformed statements I've ever seen on this site.
It's a game - just because you want it on a certain day, it doesn't mean that it's OK to potentially offend a huge proportion of the Worlds population. Learn a little patience....and some tolerance while you're at it.
Oh so it is delayed then. Well crap. Political correctness strikes again. Sick of this mentality in today's society, you can't do anything that may offend anyone.
Makes me want to try this... "I have noticed that the product Nintendogs contains dogs with 4 legs. My next-door neighbour's cousin's brother's friend's sister's granny's dog only has 3, due to a traumatic accident we now refer to only as "the shovel incident". It concerns me that this dog may be exposed to your product and take offense at the number of appendages attached to the torsos of the dogs depicted in the game."
Seriously, I reckon I could have Nintendogs off the shelves by Monday. That's how bad it's gotten.
Should they remove the song it would actually be descrimination as despite protests from some sections they have not removed Manchester Cathedral from Resistance.
Having done a little research I've found that he issue with the song isn't the content of the words but were the words originate from. The issue itself isn't shared through the whole religion though.
"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."
It's nothing to do with muslims, it's to do with people being so shit scared of offending other peoples' 'beliefs'. Just because someone believes in one fairytale over another shouldn't affect my choice to play/do anything.
no it is a small minority of muslims who complain about everything they don't agree with and if they don't get there way they blow up s**t so the goverment listens to them and does everything they say bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
don't ban me
You bigoted, ignorant idiot.
Stop confusing 'muslim' with 'extremist'.
Muslims do not 'blow up s**t' when they don't get their way.
Well said.
I find it baffling that crimbo/tam/tam2 is asking not to be banned, despite coming out with one of the most ridiculously racist and uninformed statements I've ever seen on this site.
It's a game - just because you want it on a certain day, it doesn't mean that it's OK to potentially offend a huge proportion of the Worlds population. Learn a little patience....and some tolerance while you're at it.
I think all sides should show more tolerance when religion is involved.
I didn't realise Muslims were a race of people. I always believed them to be followers of a particular religion. A religion that anyone can join if you abide by the correct rules.
So to criticise a religion is not 'racist'.
If this is the reason of course. Going by what is actually sung in the song isn't offensive to anyone, it just states 2 passages from the Quoran, both of which are 100% true. (we WILL all die and everything WILL eventually perish).
Unless singing the Quoran is as offensive as drawing Mohammed. I don't know enough to comment on that part of the belief system.
well i was always of the belief that we should be tolernat to other peoples beliefs as long as theyre not tyrannical and dangerous, but i have to say, DON'T F**K WITH LBP
well i was going to buy it, but now it clashes with motorstorm 2, gears of war 2 and COD 5, b******s to you, i can't play all of them at the same time, sony have just lost a sale! f**kers!
Hmmm... this isn't going to make muslims popular though is it?
Not that it's their 'fault' as such. But, you get my drift?
What annyos me is that it's not like the words used are i dunno, in a somehow offensive, or describing the religion, or the quaran in a bad way, it's just using words from the book. I know some say it's offensive, because your using words from 'the holy book', but it's not like they are now owned by the quaran, or muslims is it? I'd understand if the game was delayed in mostly muslims countries, but seeing as probably all of europe (?) isn't, then there shouldn't be a problem. Now, i know some will argue, well, that's unfair, as there's muslims in non - muslim countries too, and it's not just about the people living in the country, it's the idea too. Well, i used to live in Kuwait and hearing 'Allah akbar' 5 times a day didn't make me much happier, but you know what i did, i f**king dealt with it. And as should the muslims too. I guess MM just made sure it wouldn't come down to that.
Also, surely the problem would be with the song itself, so why isn't it the song getting 'banned', or rather, why didn't that happen previously? I bet it's because the singer is muslim or something. And LBP isn't. Which it can't be. So it's just unfair! I suppose, at the end of the day, it's not like Media Molecule were forced into doing what they did, they just outright shat themselves and thought it was worth the hassle. Which i sort of can't blame them for.
Surely this song was already released on CD. It's not like it was specially composed for LittleBigPlanet. And how come the song artist hasnt been in trouble??? Not like MM or SCEE wanted it to be offensive. Plus its not like Littlebigplanet is going to be publically broadcast into everyones faces. People offended by it now know it contains "offensive" language and so do not have to purchase it.
It's probably for the best. I mean, if they had left it in and Muslims had gone ape s**t, demanding fiery retribution, burning PS3s in the streets and bombing Sony stores, well, we wouldn't be able to defend against the next round of "video games cause violence" attacks would we.
for fook sake... if ever there was a game you would have thought wouldn't offend anyone its this. Although i suppose everything offends muslims these days. well the 1% of muslims who just give the other 99% a bad name with there overeactions about just about everything.
As reported on ThreeSpeech.com "SCEE's - Official Statement" --- SCEE has supplied us with the official statement on the situation regarding LittleBigPlanet…
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.
We will confirm the new launch date shortly.
We’ll keep you updated with further information as soon as we get it.
UPDATE
We’ve just been informed by SCEE that the delay to release is effective worldwide. ---
"During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet..."
Pardon me for asking, but if it has been reported by many web sites & blogs across the world that "LittleBigPlanet" has gone 'gold' why would a review process be undertaken after production of the commercial edition of the title had started?
Something about this doesn't add up. Let's hope this is 'old' news & the necessary steps to rectify the problem have been ongoing for a few weeks now, and Sony were hoping that the release date wouldn't be affected, but now they've released that they cannot meet next Friday's date.
Remember the fuss about a fictional first person shooter title that had digitally represented what Manchester Cathedral would look like if an alien race had descended on Earth in the 1950s was enough for Sony representatives to retrospectively apologise to The Church of England for being alive, or ever considering picking up a joypad controller in the first place?
With my "testing head" on, I would have to advise that a fundamental change to the underlying game code that affects more than one component would require regression testing to ensure that no other components had been adversely affected by the amendment.
i.e. The Beta Test Team members should expect a call-back.
Of course, this won't happen. Sony will recall all the already pressed & boxed Blu-ray discs from the logistics Companies who would be delivering them to the UK stores & online retailer warehouses next Tuesday/Wednesday at a massive cost (at a time they could do with a massive profit) & will receive no end of negative publicity because a release date has been missed... again.
Microsoft will re-advertise their already reduced consoles next week, probably to the extent they did on the Japanese release date of the PS3. Out of the 64 pages in the 17 November 2006 edition of the South East England “Metro” free-distribution newspaper only 19 did not mention or have an advertisement for the XBox 360, a game on the XBox 360, or XBox Live!
A Microsoft press officer will also ‘accidentally’ let slip that there may be a shortage of machines by mid-November, hoping this will target worried parents still waiting for their Credit-Crunch-adjusted Christmas Bonus & THEY will be ‘forced’ to go out & buy an Xbox 360 & “Fable II” as that other game ("LittleBigSomethingOrOther" little Johnny & little Jane wanted is not available at the end of October when Christmas shopping starts. Pre-orders of 80Gb consoles with the free copy of "LittleBigPlanet" will be cancelled as Play dot com e-mail every customer to advise that they cannot deliver & do not know when they can... but they do have other consoles available.
The launch of the 160Gb PS3 consoles will be over-shadowed by annoyed punters visiting GAME(Station), HMV, Zavvi, Woolworths & other 'good' high street stockists to keep asking if there is any word on a revised release date.
The copyright holders of the (so-called) offending licensed track will need to be contacted & their permission gained to change the original composition, and the revised track will then need to pass video game rating clearance in European, US, Asian, and other worldwide territories.
It's certainly not a quick process, but given Sony's recent turn-around of System Software Firmware Update 2.40 to 2.41 in six days in early July I have every confidence they are doing their utmost to ensure the title is revised & reissued in an expedient manner.
I only hope I can save face with all the people I have been 'selling' the PS3 to on the strength of the availability of "LittleBigPlanet" in time for Christmas. If only I was ‘on commission’… I would’ve earned enough to buy a “LittleBigPlanet” promo copy from eBay by now!
This year will be Microsoft's last ditch attempt to get their console under Christmas Trees (notwithstanding the imminent update to the Live Experience on 19 November paving the way for software piracy at the expense of trying to shift as many boxes as possible & saturating the market so word-of-mouth 'sells' the console in future). They're even giving away Memory Cards to all the early adopters who don't have enough capacity to run the update. Couple this with the three year warranty scheme that received loads of press in July 2007, and you have to think that Microsoft are now just playing catch-up with the Sony console. You never hear Sony representatives go on about the like-for-like exchange policy (wherever possible) after the initial 12 months have elapsed. Perhaps because they don't have to!
Sony should be running red rings around Microsoft by now. This should have been the year of the PlayStation. Let's hope that's not delayed too.
BFN,
fp.
PS. From PS3Fanboy.com... --- Media Molecule comments on LittleBigPlanet delay, new dates revealed
Posted Oct 17th 2008 2:15PM by Jem Alexander
Media Molecule has made a statement regarding the disappointing LittleBigPlanet delay. It’s clear they’re gutted about the situation (as are we), but overall the blog post remains upbeat. Apparently a patch and an updated master disc was ready less than 12 hours after the offensive material was discovered. This patch is ready to go the second the game is launched and will somehow fix the problem (we suspect it will just replace the music in question with something else — perhaps some 50 Cent would be less offensive?).
Sony has seen fit to recall the game and delay it, regardless. This is an ass-covering move to make sure that even those without internet access have nothing to complain about. Media Molecule apologises and looks forward to a time when this whole messy situation is put behind us and people are happily playing the game.
Update 1: A new PlayStation Blog post tells us that the game will now ship the week of October 27th in America.
Update 2: UK site Electronic Theatre has obtained an updated mailout which shows the UK release date as October 31st. Funnily enough this is the game’s original release date in the region, before it got pulled forward a week. Funny how things work out, isn’t it? ---
There is another thread in the official forums about a blasphemous song in Motorstorm 2 which a bunch of people are trying to get removed go take a look http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=411&thread.id=11045&page=1. I don't want MS2 delayed too!
There is another thread in the official forums about a blasphemous song in Motorstorm 2 which a bunch of people are trying to get removed go take a look http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=411&thread.id=11045&page=1. I don't want MS2 delayed too!
I assume nobody on that thread noticed that the guy posting James91 had a go at him for having a gif that said "Sweet Jesus". I didn't bother reading it all but someone wit a forum login should go on and start giving him grief. He seemed all for the idea they "took the lords name in vain..." I think its all a lot of b******s but it would be quality to start winding them up by playing the god botherers at their own game!!
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This country is going down hill fast with all this religious crap.
