Following the story that Sony has recalled LittleBigPlanet for fear of offending the Islamic gaming community, developer Media Molecule has spoken out on the situation. Stating they are "shellshocked and gutted" over this late delay, the team revealed that they wanted to patch the offending item, but Sony wouldn't let it happen.
We learnt yesterday that there is a lyric in one of the licensed tracks which some people may find offensive, and which slipped through the usual screening processes. Obviously MM and Sony together took this very seriously. LBP should be enjoyable by all. So within 12 hours of hearing about this issue involving a lyric (in Somalian, I believe!), we prepared an automatic day 0 patch and had a new disk image ready; however a decision was made within Sony that the right thing to do for quality and support of people with no on-line was to replace existing disks. They assure us that they are doing everything in their power to get things straightened out as fast as possible, and will announce dates soon.
This whole debacle is very dismaying, and it's a shame that we as a society are so terrified of offending someone that huge upheavals like this have to happen. I just hope that LittleBigPlanet doesn't get overshadowed by this bottled controversy, as it is too ambitious a concept to be colored by such a ridiculous scenario.
All this over a few words. It's incredibly silly when you think about it.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
3:28 PM on 10.17.2008 | 
Sony/MM "Oh that's offensive? Really? Didn't know that, my bad. Let me fix that."
Kudos to MM/Sony for caring about what's in their out of the box product.
changing all the discs is HUGE!
I am a muslim and I don't find the song in the background to be shocking or hateful in any way.
people have been singing songs with quran excerpts for years so WTF???!
please don't use this occasion to hate on people who did nothing
and stop hating us please.
Seriously, I doubt anyone without an internet connection is going to buy LBP. Who doesn't have an internet connection these days? I hope Sony realizes that this is definitely going to hurt their sales. The average consumer who doesn't read up on the latest video game news is going to be in for a disappointment when they walk into the store next week. It's going to cost them a large amount of money to recall all of the discs that are already at the store.
Everyone is offended about everything. The Muslim population should have condemned the song when it was actually written, but no. It ends up in a game and they are suddenly offended.
This is ridiculous.
Okay, then, why would including a Muslim song have been offensive? I think it's pretty safe that using a Christian or Jewish song probably would have caused no problems whatsoever. As a Muslim perhaps you can tell us what would have been offensive about including a song?
(No sarcasm intended. I'm just really fed up with the extreme political correctness that is gripping our world as of late.)
I'd love your input, Jim (and others).
As MotoRobo so eloquently put it, Fuck Sony.
But besides him... we all luv everyone.
I liked the song... too bad they are taking it out. =(
I also can see someone recreating the song in one of the first levels when the game comes out.
This is why an online patch is a better idea.
You honestly couldn't pay for such publicity, no matter how hard you tried.
The Sony publicity machine must be thinking they have struck gold again with this.
Also this means every retail outlet that broke the release date are well and truly stuffed at trying to explain how they can not return there copies of the game for replacement.
I am going to hold on to my copy firmly and the retail outlet I bought it from can offer to buy it back for more than the inflated price I had to buy it for (just over £50 including postage) if they aproach me requesting it.
Oh, well... does that mean my copy is worth even more money now?
I may sell it on ebay soon if prices rise now that I've completed story mode..... hehehe... nah this one is for keeps!
No worries. Every religion (and even atheism/agnosticism) has its extremist minority. Those who paint the whole because of a few don't deserve our attention anyway -- like console fanboys, for example. :)
Exaclty thats what I was getting at as Sony felt a Patch was not good enough...I bet 99% of people who buy this game have internet access.
So they must of known what the English translation of the words was. They just must not of known it was passages from the Qu'ran and/or that if you combine them with music it is a sin.
Makes you wonder though how all these Muslim singers that do these performances do not get targeted by Muslims? Or why do they go against there own religion in the 1st place if it is wrong?
Also why do we have to listen to there mosc call to prayer every f*cking day? I find that offensive shoved down my ears, yet the government allows it, even defends the noise polution (But silences Christian church bells in some counties due to complaints).
Also the religion is the worst in the world and should be banned (along with all religion tbh) because it promotes peadophilia...
http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_query=muslim+underage&search_type=&aq=f
It's such a happy sounding song, how can it have lyrics about killing frenzies? Well, if they remove the song completely I won't be bothered. I personally dislike this kind of singing. Not based on the people who it come from, but I just dislike the sound.
/sadpanda!
After this it will be nothing but Screw mohammad levels and all those looneys that follow him!
I may make one myself if my acute insomnia allows it.
P.S. whats the best way to record video from PS3 to PC (I do not have camera phone or camcorder, I do have plenty of leads and can get software though if I know what to do)?
If I had a dump truck full of fucks
Nope, I wouldn't give none.
I'm rather surprised to find myself saying this, but I agree completely.
only loser here is sony this will cost them a fortune
PC bullshit, slightly reassuring to see it isn't just the UK thats affected by it... but it's still bullshit.
Exhibit A: Danish Cartoons.
It's too bad that we have to Cowtow to cave men because the west actually cares about preserving human life. Islam is incompatible with America. The draconian restrictions on free speech that come with the Quran are utterly incompatible with western ideals of free speech. They have every right to be pissed off about this, but since this is America, they have every right to turn around and ignore it, not light torches and kill innocent people with different opinions.
The song itself contained only a few seconds of scripture from the Quran so the 'offensiveness' as you put it varies from person to person, for me the fact that it was so brief and that it wasn't insulting to Islam in any way means that I'm not too fussed about it, however other Muslims hold the belief that having parts of their Holy book in a musical format is something that shouldn't exist, music itself is somewhat of a touchy subject in Islam (some Muslims don't listen to music at all) so you can imagine how the more devout Muslims would feel having holy scriptures with a thumping backing track.
The original artist, Toumani Diabate is a Muslim himself and he obviously felt that it was OK to have short parts of the Quran in his song, that's his opinion.
I think it's important to note that Sony and Media Molecule's response was to the request of one Muslim person who e-mailed in with his concerns, although he takes it upon himself to speak for the entire Muslim community the views expressed and his requests were his own, as far as I can tell no recognised Muslim authority has called for the removal of the track nor has there been mass condemnation from the Muslim community. Sony took what they felt to be the appropriate steps, in my opinion they're taking the smart option (even if it is a bit too drastic), at least now they're covered and the game can go ahead free from any danger of the issue cropping up in the future.
And I think you should cast your mind back to the Resistance saga, the Church of England threatened legal action purely because the game featured a representation of a building considered to be holy, it's basically the same thing.
Even the system bundles with the game may be available by then and count as copies sold.
Sony is still going to get as much publicity as possible out of this just like MicroSoft did with Halo 3 in main stream media coverage.
-_-
Cool. Thanks for the info. I do agree with you that they should not have jumped on the paranoia bandwagon like they did. They should have perhaps consulted with some higher authority figured and ask if they feel the line was crossed before engaging in this global disruption.
But this dislike for music is staggering. Technically, the call to prayer from the minaret is a song, hence there is music involved in the worship of Allah. (Feel free to correct me on that if I'm wrong.)
Or is this a situation where it's not so much that music is involved as much as it is the inclusion of instruments? I know that Jusef Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) has said that he is free to create music as long as it only involves the human voice.
Without proper trials they cut-off 'suspected' shop lifters hands, stone gays to death, have several underage pre-pubescent wifes if they wish... and get offended by this?
What are we supposed to get offended by that they do?
BTW check out this video too entitled 'ISLAMS WAR ON FREE SPEACH' .....
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JIq7tsVvEoY