LittleBigDelay? LBP may not arrive until November

LookingFor

Not confirmed yet, but sounds like there's been a f*** up somewhere along the line, forcing Sony to recall shipped copies of LBP, reprint them, and release it later.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/littlebigplanet-release-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.

Other sites are reporting that this is down to a song on the game's soundtrack whose lyrics could be offensive to some religious groups, and they need to take it out. Another is saying that there was a mess up at the disc replication facilities for Europe, and a large proportion of the discs are defective.

Grrrrrr! I was seriously looking forward to this next week. I really hope we don't have to wait another MONTH!

ongarite

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:BuPMgf6T4UIJ:community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message%3Fboard.id%3D611%26message.id%3D8388+%22tapha+Niang%22+quran&hl=da&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=dk

Here is the link. Its a problem with a song in the game.

LookingFor

If that's the cause, then.. WTF.

Good going Muslims. Another great incident for relations between Islam and everyone else!

noodler

The two lines in question seem strange proponents of offence to me but I don't understand Muslim tradition or religion.

The use of HALLELUJAH in a song for example wouldn't offend Christians.

ongarite

Seriously this is crazy.
Its a song by a Muslim containing some Muslim lyrics (abelt Holy text).

If it were a non-Muslim song with Quran lyrics, I MIGHT see the offensiveness of it.

wes

This is really really dumb. I am a Muslim and don't see this as offensive.

Its really sad that some message board denizen's have delayed the game for the rest of us, who aren't so easily offended. If they don't like the music, they should just not buy the game.

eddhorse

I agree, dont buy it if you dont like it.
No one would have noticed these songs until they were highlighted.
JUst release a Muslim copy for those who dont want to hear the song and leave the existing one for the rest of us who dont know or care what it means.

Sheesh !!! Ed shakes fist

ongarite

Its retarded.
This song has been out for more than 2 years is available to buy on Amazon, iTunes & Zune right now.
Unbelievable that it has been flagged as a huge issue on the eve of its release.

mayordenis

This is why I've become racist.
We're not allowed use words from your religion/race??
**** OFF

311

A load of arse crumbs.

ongarite

Its official now.
Game delayed worldwide. No new release date.

Sickening.

Kintarō Hattori

Muslims. I'm not racist but if anyone......

gloobag

Roll on the news footage of all the crazys burning a SackBoy effigy

If Sony had any sense they'd turn the beta back on for us while they sort it out.

mayordenis

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Muslims. I'm not racist but if anyone......

i've become racist, **** it.
and certainly not over this - not something to talk about here though - disgrace.

http://kotaku.com/5065076/littlebigplanet-faces-worldwide-recall-for-quran-references

giggsy664

*Cough* Microsoft *Cough*

steviec

I find it depressing that what has got to be the most inoffensive and really all round joyous product you could ever come across has had to be recalled for this nonsense.

If there's a plus side it means I may actually play Fable 2 after all, which was never going to happen with LBP being out the same day.

monkeyfudge

I guess they want to keep their heads down after all the problems with Resistance.... and that was Christians getting their knickers in a twist that time around, remember?

mayordenis

monkeyfudge wrote: »

I guess they want to keep their heads down after all the problems with Resistance.... and that was Christians getting their knickers in a twist that time around, remember?

resistance didn't get delayed - and we all laughed at the cristians that time too . . . YOU FAIL

LookingFor

It looks like it may be just a week's delay. It's been delayed in the US too, to Oct 27. Hopefully it's the same here (which would mean it'd come in Oct still..just..)

Here's the official US update:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/10/17/littlebigplanet-release-update/

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 apologize for any offense that this may have caused.

We will begin shipping LittleBigPlanet to retail in North America the week of October 27th. Sorry for the delay, and rest assured, we are doing everything we can to get LittleBigPlanet to you as soon as possible.

mayordenis

i'm sure the EU delay will be bigger as usual probably 7 or 8 years

LookingFor

mayordenis wrote: »

i'm sure the EU delay will be bigger as usual probably 7 or 8 years

:pac:

I'm still bracing myself for Nov 14th :mad:

ShaneU

EU release date is November 7th

Sharpshooter656

For f*** sake, I was going to get the game on launch day. Now have to wait another 3 weeks!!! Trust Sony for letting something like this happen. I know its not really their fault this time, but they really need to get their act together.

monkeyfudge

mayordenis wrote: »

resistance didn't get delayed - and we all laughed at the cristians that time too . . . YOU FAIL

But I'm saying they took a lot of flack from the media and from the UK government.

I was also addressing the fact people are saying Christians don't get offended by this sort of stuff.

LookingFor

lol, it seems the originator of this complaint is a Nintendo fanboy called Nsider on neo-gaf.com. He's currently getting a grilling there.

FFS, that's outrageous. And Sony is even more stupid for taking him seriously. The game is apparently even out already in the MiddleEast, and no one gave a **** except him and his buddies who thought they could stir the pot. And they have.

thelordofcheese

It's not like there is no presidence for this kind of thing, and Sony are perfectly right to do this.
Infact i'm very surprised how well it's been handled. Gamer spots something in beta that slipped by both MM and sony, writes evenhanded letter to sony, sony figure they've dropped the ball and fix it.

Besides, it's only three weeks. Calm down.

Helix

thelordofcheese wrote: »

It's not like there is no presidence for this kind of thing, and Sony are perfectly right to do this.
Infact i'm very surprised how well it's been handled. Gamer spots something in beta that slipped by both MM and sony, writes evenhanded letter to sony, sony figure they've dropped the ball and fix it.

Besides, it's only three weeks. Calm down.

its not something that needed to be changed

if they found it offensive, theres an off button on their ps3

i found last years pro evo offensive, but konami didnt call that back

qz

I'd calm down if I'd been playing the beta. Fúcking wánkers :mad:

KoA-Ollie

It looks like the new release day will be October 31st according to this website (assuming we will have the same release date as the uk) http://www.electronictheatre.co.uk/articles/archive/2008/littlebigplanetupdatedukmailshot03171008/

LookingFor

This is Media Molecule's statement, their site is down at the moment. I do feel very sorry for them above anyone else.

As some of you may have noticed, LBP has been slightly delayed in some territories. At MM we were as shocked and dismayed by this as anyone - shellshocked and gutted. We can’t wait for you all to get playing and creating!

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.

Apologies to everyone excited to play the game and I can assure you that when it arrives, it will be worth the wait! We want everyone to be able to enjoy the game, and this tweak should help - we’re just gutted it couldn’t be sooner. MM continues to work hard to support the game too. We know that LBP will be something that you can enjoy for a long time to come, when all of this is forgotten and all that remains are thousands of incredible levels and creations to play, create and share.

[EDIT Sony are going to announce new dates and information re discs for each territory soon. We’ll keep you posted! The patch is ready from our side and I imagine it will go live at the same time as the game. More info when we get it. ]

brendor

At the risk of being insensitive

NUKE ALL MUSLIMS

wes

brendor wrote: »

At the risk of being insensitive

NUKE ALL MUSLIMS

If your serious, your worse than the guy who complained about this in the first place. Dude, it sucks the game is delayed, but your over reacting just a little bit.

Mossy Monk

brendor wrote: »

At the risk of being insensitive

NUKE ALL MUSLIMS

Imagine if one lived within a mile of you.

thelordofcheese

Helix wrote: »

its not something that needed to be changed

if they found it offensive, theres an off button on their ps3

i found last years pro evo offensive, but konami didnt call that back

I'm fairly certain that there is no verse in any holy book that expressly forbids poor football games.
Try to compare like with like, you'll seem less foolish.

LookingFor

thelordofcheese wrote: »

I'm fairly certain that there is no verse in any holy book that expressly forbids poor football games.

They're just books.

What makes them 'holy' is your own personal belief that they're holy or whatever.

If I write a book that says PES is ****, and I believe it's holy, who are you to say otherwise?

Ditto, who am I to expect anyone else to adopt my beliefs?

It's the arrogance of certain religious people that gets us in these situations. Keep your beliefs to yourself, practise them yourself, but don't force them on other people.

Absolam

It is worrying that extremist religions who engage in terrorism (or the threat of terrorism) to support their point of view can exert this kind of influence. Sony didn't pull Resistance; there wasn't much chance of Christians firebombing their offices in protest so why bother? IMO freedom of speech should be paramount; Muslims who don't want to hear the offensive lyrics should just not buy the game. It's when people try to force their point of view onto others that the freedom of all suffers.

If strict Muslims form a sufficient proportion of gamers, the game will fail due to lack of sales and Sony won't include that kind of content in future. If the game succeeds, then there weren't enough people offended by the game to worry about.

ongarite

It exactly because of the church reaction to Resistance that Sony are doing this for LBP.
I can only imagine watching Fox News if the game had shipped with the offending track, with Bill O'Reilly saying that Sony supports Islamic terrorists (because of what the lyrics say).
It could have been a PR nightmare for Sony especially in America where they have positioned the game as their flagship title this year.

noodler

I think religious tolerance and respect is a two-way street and I think one side is all take and no give.

I nicked that from Eurogamer comments-I agree with that.

koneko

I think people need to calm down a bit, some of the responses here are just cuckoo. It's only a 1 week delay and it's not like there isn't plenty of stuff out next friday to keep you busy.

As far as I can tell from what he's said in posts, the guy who complained about this didn't set out to stop the game from shipping, just to alert Sony so that they can "patch it out" afterwards, all he was expecting was that they'd patch it at some point. Sony are the ones who chose to recall and delay, no doubt worried about press reactions (you know what the tabloids can be like).

noodler

I think you are missing the point. Its more the principle than the game being delayed.

Im not sure why its okay for one religion to have its words used in the mainstream and not for another.

EDIT: Although I obviously don't want to start a religious debate on a thread about LBP.

Ziggurat

Is there any definite word on the release date being Oct. 31? Because some sites report that and some report Nov. 14.

LookingFor

I wouldn't say anything's definite until Sony announces it.

The Oct 27 date in the US is also just when they'll start shipping the revised game to retailers there (though the shops should get it next day, or within a few days at most).

thelordofcheese

LookingFor wrote: »

They're just books.

It's just a game. Who cares if it's delayed a week or three then. It's just as game.

If we're going to rank things by triviality then religion is still higher up the list than a simple video game.

LookingFor wrote: »

What makes them 'holy' is your own personal belief that they're holy or whatever.

If I write a book that says PES is ****, and I believe it's holy, who are you to say otherwise?

Ditto, who am I to expect anyone else to adopt my beliefs?

It's the arrogance of certain religious people that gets us in these situations. Keep your beliefs to yourself, practise them yourself, but don't force them on other people.

When your book is the basis for law, life and how to live it for a huge chunk of the planet, i'll listen to you.

The original letter was very respectful, it threatened nothing (something alot of people on this thread would do well to pay attention too) and just brought the issue to Sony attention with a request to remove the offending track. Now, sony could have day zero patched it, they chose not to. If you're that upset prehaps your ire would be better directed at sony?

More to the point, i find it fucking hilarious that the same kind of rabid, foaming at the mouth insanity and rage that is the sterotype of the offended muslim is now better applied to fans of LBP who seemingly can't wait another few weeks.
At least the muslim sterotype has the semi-justification of being a religion, what's the hell is their excuse?

LookingFor

Wow, thelordofcheese, I don't think anything I've said makes me rabid! I just think it's an interesting argument.

If I can continue that argument...your argument about strength in numbers reminds me of the saying that insanity on a large scale is..religion. It might make more commercial sense to pander to those in greater numbers (hence Sony's actions), but it doesn't necessarily make those greater numbers any more correct. It is a double standard to pander to one person's unsubtantiated beliefs over another just because there's more of them..but yeah, it's an understandable double standard from a commercial POV. On principle, though, it's still a double standard.

No single 'holy book' is the reference on social behaviour. The legal system takes care of that. It has been influenced over time by religion, sure, but it's not tied to religion (just as various religions have influenced each other, and been influenced by other earlier philosophies and ethical codes that weren't of any religion). Personal religious beliefs beyond that are fine, but they are just that. They shouldn't impose on the rest.

My argument about the hypothetical holy book of crappy football games is..if one has a strong belief in such a book..no one can really tell them otherwise. Just because many more might believe another book doesn't make it any more correct. Beliefs are 'just' beliefs.

A lot of this isn't really suitable discussion for a games forum anyway I just think it's all very interesting how people react and counter-react to this stuff, and justify their various stances on it.

It's unfortunate LBP is caught in the middle, but you're right, it's not the end of the world.

wes

All a business cares about is making money. So if you are the only one with beliefs, your simply going to be ignored, as your hardly a big market on your own. If there are say several million or a billion, then people will listen to you as a customer, as you are then a huge potential market. The double standard simple doesn't matter, as all a business cares about is money. You know the whole point of capatalism, Sony wants to make money and they seem to think releasing the game in its original form, will lose them money.

If people are bothered by it they should email Sony, saying they won't buy the game, due to the delay. If Sony think they will lose money due to the delay they may make a change.

The simple fact of the matter, is that a Customer has a right to complain. No matter how silly you or I may think it is, that there right. They guy complaining did not threaten or force anything, but made a complaint as a customer. A lot of people could follow the example and make a complaint about the delay.

Basically if Christians, were to boycott Sony products of the Church in Resistance, and they taught it would affect there bottom line, then they would have done something about it. They clearly didn't think that was the case, and they didn't bother. Sony aren't doing this out of respect or anything. If that was the case of doing out of respect, then you would be correct to call it a double standard.

Anyway, moving on. I find the general exagerations, on this and many forums, just as silly as the original complaint. Hell, we have some talking about Nuking people over a delayed game above. That nuts, this whole thing has way out of hand, we have a silly guy being offended by religous music, that lots of Muslims actually listen too (my Mum has some of this stuff here and I have been to live performances), and then we have way over the top reactions to the guy making a polite, if silly complaint. Really, can't say I am surprised, this is how the Internet works, brings out the worse in people.

Still like everyone else, I am a bit disappointed the game was delayed for something so silly.

thelordofcheese

LookingFor wrote: »

Wow, thelordofcheese, I don't think anything I've said makes me rabid! I just think it's an interesting argument.

sorry, i didn't mean you specifically, i was sorta drifting from point to point with you as a spring-board.
But last i saw GAF had gone into near meltdown over this, Kotaku and joystiq comments havn't been far behind.

LookingFor wrote: »

If I can continue that argument...your argument about strength in numbers reminds me of the saying that insanity on a large scale is..religion. It might make more commercial sense to pander to those in greater numbers (hence Sony's actions), but it doesn't necessarily make those greater numbers any more correct. It is a double standard to pander to one person's unsubtantiated beliefs over another just because there's more of them..but yeah, it's an understandable double standard from a commercial POV. On principle, though, it's still a double standard.

Sony (and Media Molecule) are still in the entertainment industy and entertainment is what they do (I'm really refraining from a cheap dig here :P). Basically they have to play to their auidence, and as i just learned today, sony have a huge middle east presence and don't want to jepordise it.
I'm probably one of the biggest games-are-art fags on the planet, but i'm also not naive, money talks.

Yeah, it's a double standard, i never really said it wasn't, i said sony were right to do it. I didn't mean morally right more "it was the most sensible thing they could have done"

The other thing i find interesting is that i think the only reason this thread made it beyond four posts is because it's LBP. I know there was a game that was recalled near launch for the Xbox (the name escapes me, anyone else rememeber this) for more or less the same reason as LBP has been delayed, this game however never saw the light of day after that.
And there was barely a murmer from the internet about that....

LookingFor wrote: »

No single 'holy book' is the reference on social behaviour. The legal system takes care of that. It has been influenced over time by religion, sure, but it's not tied to religion (just as various religions have influenced each other, and been influenced by other earlier philosophies and ethical codes that weren't of any religion). Personal religious beliefs beyond that are fine, but they are just that. They shouldn't impose on the rest.

Just to go off the track for a bit, the Qu'ran is far more comprehensive than the bible when it comes to it's influence. It covers loads, not just general morality, but civil law. If the bible is a collection of morality tales meant to inspire us not to be a bunch of murderous dicks, the Qu'ran is a fully fledged instruction manual to life with diagrams and pop-up pcitures.
When something like that influences so much you can see kinda how things like this, which seem to innocent to us, can really be a big deal.

LookingFor wrote: »

My argument about the hypothetical holy book of crappy football games is..if one has a strong belief in such a book..no one can really tell them otherwise. Just because many more might believe another book doesn't make it any more correct. Beliefs are 'just' beliefs.

Well, it's easy to say that when we just have the bible as a basis for comparison, which isn't anywhere near as intrusive (the church on the other hand).
Besides we allready have a book of terrible football games it;s called "EA Sports's release schedule: '98-present"

(ohh come on, we all saw that one coming)

LookingFor wrote: »

It's unfortunate LBP is caught in the middle, but you're right, it's not the end of the world.

True, i'm more against the massive over reaction than anything else. People need to chill.

Nick_oliveri

This is a joke right? Can anyone share with us the context of these lyrics? I care not for LBP, but this **** has gone way overboard. I couldnt care less if a song in a game has Hallelujia or Allah-akbar in it, i think it sucks and all religion is kinda stupid, but jebus...some day i MIGHT get over it.

giggsy664

* MINI-RANT *

I mean, I wouldnt know how offended they are, I don't know that many Muslims, but if a game with hallelujah or praise jesus or something was to be released in the UAE or Saudi Arabia, I don't think the Christians would cause a huge uproar.

I really think won't have fu%ked up here. Couldn't they just patch the game with a downloadable update? Or ship out new copies to people who preordered and get the retailers to return "racist" copies?

This whole fiasco is retarded. Nsider or whoever can burn in hell for all I care. I hope people know what he looks like in real life.

/ * MINI RANT *

And read above post

Helix

thelordofcheese wrote: »

I'm fairly certain that there is no verse in any holy book that expressly forbids poor football games.
Try to compare like with like, you'll seem less foolish.

since when is something in a holy book law?

where was the furore about the original song when it was released 2 years ago?

prodigal_son

thelordofcheese wrote: »

It's not like there is no presidence for this kind of thing, and Sony are perfectly right to do this.
Infact i'm very surprised how well it's been handled. Gamer spots something in beta that slipped by both MM and sony, writes evenhanded letter to sony, sony figure they've dropped the ball and fix it.

Besides, it's only three weeks. Calm down.

It wasn't in the beta, The person who complained purchased a Promo disc and had been playing it before everyone else. They had been playing levels not on the beta

Nick_oliveri wrote: »

This is a joke right? Can anyone share with us the context of these lyrics? I care not for LBP, but this **** has gone way overboard. I couldnt care less if a song in a game has Hallelujia or Allah-akbar in it, i think it sucks and all religion is kinda stupid, but jebus...some day i MIGHT get over it.

The lyrics are as follows,

The words are:

1- "كل نفس ذائقة الموت" ("kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: 'Every soul shall have the taste of death').

2- "كل من عليها فان" ("kollo man alaiha fan", literally: 'All that is on earth will perish').

You can listen to the song, which is very good imo, on the guy who is a devote muslims myspace page.

http://www.myspace.com/toumanidiabate

the song in question is tapha niang....

giggsy664

Well, sackboy needs to die to complete the game
And
The whole littlebigplanet did get destroyed after the great beta on 2008

So the song isn't Muslim and is actually sackim?