Gamers cash in on LittleBigPlanet delay

PC Crowd?

The article clearly states that this is a PS3 title...

Hmmm

So it's bad to license a track with these words in it for a game, but presumably the CD it came from is perfectly fine. Note that no-one has named the original track name or artist name, and presumably if you so wished you could still go and by the music.

It's a bit of a double standard from Sony...

...but then Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells rarely fills his SUV with petrol and drives it into the side of an airport.

See Christians? If you want some respect, quit all that love nonsense and blow some stuff up.

Amazing.

I picked up a copy of this game late last week (hourse before it was withdrawn), and I have to say, it's simply stunning, I have never seen or playing anything as unique as this on PC or console. I would go as far as saying groundbreaking...

It seems the wait for the reissued discs is quite short, 1 week in the US, 3 weeks eveywhere else, so it will be in the shops early novemeber in the UK. Plenty of time for the Xmas rush.

Here's an idea

By all means let me know if it's a completely stupid idea, but when discovering said lines from the Koran, would it not be prudent to ask a Muslim Scholar or Imam(s) on whether they think it would be insulting/offence?

If nothing else this could be a lot of fuss about nothing, Islamics may not be bothered about it in which case this is just another PR story that isn't doing them any favours yet so far it doesn't appear they have had any say in it.

So the terrorists have won.

Because some stupid prats like to blow themselves up the entire bloody world gives them special treatment.

Religion (AKA My-imaginary-friend-is-better-than-yours) should just be banned from all media channels.

If anything is going to get censored it should be the intolerant views of a minority, not the perfectly harmless things that they get their knickers in a twist over.

I don't give a flying s**t about islam, it should not be intruding into my life like this!

...and the madness continues...

Quick! Ban the internet as it contains the entire Koran on some websites, and there are pictures and music and all kinds of things! Horror of horrors!

Let's note that Sony didn't relaunch the other game even though it offended Christians. Are Muslims getting special treatment (again)?

Could some please also ban electricity as it allows us to type Koran onto such an infidel site as El Reg.

Bah.

Lets be honest.

Those ranting about Sony not having the balls to release this as-is, would also be the first to complain if Sony had done just that. To these people, Sony can never do the right thing.

it's also clear that most of the posters here also can't grasp the fact that the lyrics are in a 3rd party song, that's at least 2 years old, and by a grammy winning artist. Hardly Sony or Media Moleclues fault.

The great news for Sony, is all the great publicity, and stupid "must have it" pricing of the title on ebay will just propell this title further into the public eye, and generate more sales.

No Publicity is Bad Publicity....

False comparison

To those equating with the Manchester Cathedral decision I think its completely daft.

1) Resistance Fall of Man

Deliberately chosen landmark which is major plot point and meant as part of the mood/character of the alien invasion and devastation of a city.

2) Little Big Planet Case

Accidentally included religious phrase in incidental music that producers were not aware of.

The difference is firstly the artistic intent and secondly the cost or effect of changing. It needn't be pandering to Muslims if artistically this phrase was undesirable when it was realised.

Would even Paris confuse these situations?

There's a HUGE difference...

There's a huge difference between this case and the case of Resistance: Fall of Man, and no, it's not jihads, bombs or kalashnikovs: it is the fact that while R:FoM was offensive to some people, it was neither blasphemy or sacrilege. However, the quoting of the Qu'ran outside of the appropriate context is indeed sacrilege to a Muslim.

I am a Christian, not a Muslim. While I can understand some people being upset about the cathedral incident, I can accept Sony's decision on the matter -- this is a subjective matter and you can't please all of the people all of the time.

However, they have certainly made the right decision here, as objectively we *know* that the usage of the Qu'ran in this context is a grave and serious matter.

As for the original recordings, I imagine that they are OK in that they're written by Muslims for Muslims, and are therefore considered "praise". Little Big Planet is not designed specifically for Muslims, so is considered "entertainment".

@Aortic Aneurysm

"when was the last time you seen a muslim from an impoverished country, playing call of duty on the xbox 360?"

They don't need to play it, they live it, name an impoverished country muslim country which doesn't have radical factions that go around shooting each other because "my faction interprets the Qu'ran differently to yours"?

People, please.

Just to clarify something... Mulsims != Terrorists, try not to generalise.

Sacrilege Boy

And what about the carbon cost of recall? Greenpeace should complain to Sony too.

Dont bring Manchester Cathedral into it!

"A few months ago they release a game set in an exact digital replica of a cathedral. The church complained (with some justification) that they were not happy about such a violent sequence being set inside an exact replica of their place of worship. Sony basically said STFU and released it anyway, because it is the Christians and no-one is bothered about pissing them off"

Slightly twisted view on what actualy happend. Sony released a game in November 2006 that didnt have one single complaint until June 2007 when the main complaint from the cathedral was COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT! The game was out for 7 months and during that time not one Christian played it? Or is it more likely lots of Christians played it they just didnt get offended by something so trivial. The Cathedral even shamelessly used a couple of shootings that happend a few days early to draw attention to their Copyright Infringement claim. They didnt want the game banned, they just wanted the images of Manchester Cathedral removed, not the cathedral completly just the likeness oh and a substantial donation as well.

"Note that no-one has named the original track name or artist name, and presumably if you so wished you could still go and by the music."

The song is Tapha Niang by Toumani Diabaté who is actualy a devote Muslim. The main point and probably reason for recall is the translation of the quotes. What they say is "Every soul shall have the taste of death" and "All that is on earth will perish". Now considering this is a family game and the main character is a very marketable plushy I would wager religion plays a very small part in why it was recalled

As a muslim..

Being a Muslim I can tell you the reason why *some* people *may* find it offensive is because we believe that the Quran is the word of God quoted directly and so should not be accompanied with background music or made into a song, but should be listened to in a quiet environment and be contemplated upon.

However the fact that this song exists and nobody has kicked up a fuss or burnt down embassies shows that most i.e. 99.99999% of Muslims are not bothered by this and have more important things to deal with in life, perhaps the PC brigade are being more Muslim than the Muslims?

The chances are if this game was released in its previous form most people would not even have realised.

Stop sign because I think we should all take life a lot less seriously.

Waste of money

What the eBay sellers are probably failing to note is that the second the game is released a patch goes live that will promptly remove the offending track from the game before you can even boot it up.

Unless you disable PSN functionality every time you play it of course, which means you'll never see any user-created levels, nor be able to publish your own, making the game pretty moot.

@ Ryan

> "If anything is going to get censored it should be the intolerant views of a minority, not the perfectly harmless things that they get their knickers in a twist over."

Just be careful ranting about the intolerance of others.

0 day patch was ready

according to MediaMolecule (developers for those not in the know) but Sony said no, because people who don't play online won't get it, er sorry but who the hell buys LBP for the single player story, I think you'll find every promo material for LBP bigs up the 'community' aspect

Sony really have let a lot of fans down on this and tarnished Mm's brand

ps a lot of muslim's on the PS community boards say there not offended, afaik only one complained, and the song was written by a muslim, it's on itunes too cant remember name though

Is the music of Toumani Diabate offensive on its own?

...or just when it is in a computer game?

The critically acclaimed artist has been around long enough to have given any particularly dogmatic cleric the opportunity to slap a fatwa on him if his work is truely offensive. If this had happened we'd have heard about it in a seperate bout of moral indignation. We havent, so it hasnt, so it isnt.

Combine the music with a computer game though its a different kettle of hobby horses. Sony have overreacted and the whole "Muslims vs The Rest Of Civilization" issue is another tiny bit more devisive.

To why not the other one

Simple answer really, Christians don't tend to go all *shock* *horror* and blow things up

Sony probably already worry enough about bomb carrying penguinistas to want to add our Muslim brethren to the list 8)

Some religious types

My son's mother's parents had a hissy fit when he defended his brother who had said 'For God's Sake!" He was made to sit on the stairs and miss his tea (he is 12). Fortunately he lives with me most of the time, in an antitheist household.

However, a great friend of mine, who is a _real_ Christian (i.e. always has homeless people sleeping on his floor, always working in a soup kitchen etc) was horrified when I told him and simply said, quietly "do you think Jesus would have made him sit on the naughty step?" He opined that a small minority of religious people, whatever their faith, think that religion is about rules for others and not about how you should live your own life.

When I first read this story I had the knee-jerk reaction of an antitheist, compariing it unfavourably with the R:FoM affair - if Sony had had the guts to stand up to Christains, why not Muslims? But by the time I had read all the comments I had changed my mind. However much you don't respect / disrespect other people's beliefs, why not avoid offending them if you can easily do so?

As often with El Reg, the comments are the best reason for reading. Now, let's all share the love and keep our conflict where it belongs: within the confines of video games.

pathetic

No doubt this comment will be removed from fears of some all powerful being but these muslim complaints seriously need to get into 2008.

We can say what the fuck we like about the Queen without being beheaded - to her face if desired (see Royal Variety Performances from numerous comedians) spend all day slating the Catholic church, what makes them so fucking special or over sensitive?

Absolutely nothing, and the sooner people stop pandering to this bullshit the better.

Next we'll have the pope requesting Pulp Fiction be destroyed because a passage from the bible is used in reference to violence.

pathetic

@ AC "As a muslim.."

"perhaps the PC brigade are being more Muslim than the Muslims?"

Wouldn't be the first time. I'm friends with a bunch of Muslims, and they get as confused and pissed off as I do when primary schools ban "3 little pigs" and Local Authorities (Sheffield Council for one) refuse to allow funerals of non-Muslims on a Saturday. Unfortunately, it's these idiots making these decisions that fuel anti-Islamic feeling because everyone assumes it's the Muslims themselves that are complaining, rather than a couple of middle-class white idiots and the occasional, equally-idiotic, Abu Hamza wannabe shouting about how "Merry Christmas" offends Muslims because it contains the word "christ".

</rant>

Black heli cos Abu has probably just declared a jihad on me.

Will probably buy this game I never heard of, kudos Sony marketing!

So I never heard of this game. Due to all the press, I've now seen screenshots. It looks quite impressive.

I'll probably be getting this game that I never heard of before all this.

Whether planned or not, Sony couldn't have done a better job getting the name of this game out there!

@AC: Do you remember what happened with the Mohamed comics?

Yes, what fun! Muslims running through the streets of London calling for our deaths, and what did the police do? Nothing. So much for the laws about incitement to riot, murder, terrorism, etc.

Do you remember the Gillian Gibbons affair? Oh, super joy joy. I have a little teddy bear called Mohammed sitting by the computer, reminding me that if there really were such a thing as an 'allah', it would've struck me down the moment I commissioned the creation of the little cutie.

As it stands, Mo sits there nicely, as does this particular Anonymous Coward - safe in the knowledge that one made-up deity is just as unlikely to strike me down as every other made-up deity.

All the fun.....

...of the Daily Mail without having to get ink on my fingers.

Tethered Goat

Is everyone 100% confident that this is about a dodgy song or is this a good way for Sony to effectively stagger the release of LBP (and load on their servers). It just seem odd don’t you think that a beta has been running for some time and no-one complained, apart from the operational boys who were stressing about the lack of inherent scalability of their back end.

Also, I find it amazing that a game capable of really breaking down barriers and bring people of all faiths together in one little big world has now incited more race hate than 911.

Alien, has I don’t want to be part of this world and was planning on moving into the little big planet on Friday.