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LittleBigPlanet Delayed Worldwide Due To Qur'An-Sampling Audio
by Leigh Alexander
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October 17, 2008
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Sony's long-awaited and much-buzzed LittleBigPlanet will be delayed worldwide. All all copies sent to retailers are being recalled after audio samples from Muslim religious text the Qur'an were discovered in the game's soundtrack, according to new reports.
According to a now-removed thread on the PlayStation Europe messageboards, the licensed LBP soundtrack song 'Tapha Niang' by Muslim artist Toumani Diabate's Symmetrical Orchestra uses voice excerpts from the Qur'an in its musical composition.
The post, by user 'Solid08', indicates of the specific references in the composition: "In the 18th second: "كل نفس ذائقة الموت" ("kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: 'Every soul shall have the taste of death')... almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "كل من عليها فان" ("kollo man alaiha fan", literally: 'All that is on earth will perish')."
It also comments: "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."
The Media Molecule-developed PlayStation 3 exclusive had previously been slated for an October 21st release in North America, the 22nd in PAL territories, the 24th in the UK and Ireland, and the 30th in Japan and Asia.
Sony hopes the highly-anticipated LittleBigPlanet, a platformer largely dependent on community creations and sharing, will drive PS3 console sales. It's received a swath of warm reception from fans and press ever since early previews, and a limited public beta launched in September has further driven eagerness for the game's release.
[UPDATE: 'Semi-official' Sony weblog ThreeSpeech has an official statement on the delay, confirming it is worldwide, and explaining:
"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."]
[UPDATE 2: According to a statement on the official PlayStation Blog, LittleBigPlanet will begin shipping in North America on October 27, the week after its original release date. "Sorry for the delay, and rest assured, we are doing everything we can to get LittleBigPlanet to you as soon as possible," it reads.]
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That's my message to you.
This entire thing is a silly non-issue but you'd rather piss in the face of your entire fanbase than risk offending a few fringe fanatics.
My response is that I will not buy your game, no matter how brilliant. With all the other software coming out this Fall and Winter, why be jerked around by a company struggling in last place?
Call me when you guys at Sony corporate grow some cajones.
This game is brilliant, and I can't wait!
xD
When a publisher makes a violent video game, they do so knowing the debates, knowing that their product will fall one side or another on that debates, accepting that as a risk, and perhaps even providing some commentary into the situation as they do so. They do not, necessarily, deliberately set out to offend, but they are quite aware of the potential offense, and have designed the game with that debate in mind. No moral judgment on those decisions, but they were in fact deliberate, directed decisions.
In this case, Sony lisenced a song without being aware that its contents included an element that is offensive to the very religious group that would be aware of it. They were not approaching this debate deliberately, and were unaware of the offense until corrected on it. Because it was not a deliberate comment, the choices of responses to being corrected on it *do* fall into a moral category -- cannot fall into a deliberate and planned academic commentary but instead are simply a response to the offensive. The decent thing to do if you unintentionally offend a group (especially one who frequently suffers prejudice and misunderstanding) is to say "I'm sorry, we had not realized it was offensive, we will rectify the problem and it will not happen in the future now that we know to be aware of it."
Making their userbase wait a little longer for their leisure product is irritating to the userbase, yes, but not hurtful to the userbase. Shipping it after having it brought to their attention that it was a religious offense would be both hurtful and irritating, and I don't see why getting a leisure product a bit earlier is worth that.
As for the delay, the original request was polite, did not ask for extraordinary measures (a patch available during the launch window and the modification of the new shipped copies, not the ones that have already been delivered), and was done after a discussion with peers (aka, other gamers) to acknowledge the problem.
I believe the main problem is that games are targeted to a very volatile segment (young people of between 8 and 25 years old) that are quick to anger when something affects them, usually mounting on prejudice. I do not agree with the idea that texts are sacred and blasphemous to invoke by untrained people, sung or just mentioned: I believe religion is based on teaching your way of living, not keeping it hidden for yourself or your own. However, I understand it is part of what they believe.
I praise Sony for solving a delicate issue the way it should. The ones who were going to buy the game will buy it regardless of what they say.
It's sad to see, whether the inclusion of this music was intentional or not. LBP looks like a cool game, and I'm sorry to have to wait for it.
That said, I'm not being muslim-specific here. I would also think it silly to recall a game that had background music offending Christians, etc.
What I am is an educated professional with disposal income and like any good consumer; I make my voice heard through my wallet. The Christian and Judeo bibles are respectively utilized, pulled apart and exploited constantly for the purposes of entertainment and nobody so much as raises an eyebrow. However, two measly little lines from the Koran are mentioned in a song written by a Muslim musician and that requires a full recall and postponement of a highly anticipated product?
Even worse is reading the musings of smarmy, self-indulgent, pseudo-intellectuals who spout off droll, politically correct nonsense in some vain attempt to seem enlightened. Sorry folks, but I’ve actually spent a significant amount of time formally studying world religions and the extremists who represent Islam are getting a free pass that literally no other religion in the word enjoys.
The real issue however is about screwing a consumer base over something that other religions have tolerated for decades. Were the lyrics offensive or condemning of the Islamic faith I could understand this move, but basically every one of us is being told we are not allowed to even print an excerpt of the Koran because that offends people of Islamic faith. That in turn essentially foists their belief system onto us while simultaneously impeding the release of something that I and many other people were looking forward to. It’s overkill regardless of how you spin it.
Now, my original post was harsh and sounded a bit puerile but my anger remains because this whole thing really is much ado about nothing. There is a line constructed of common sense that we as a society crossed ages ago and that lack of common sense is now bleeding into every facet of our lives, including something as benign as a videogame. Ultimately, I blame Sony for this fiasco and while it kills me to wave goodbye to one of my most anticipated games of 2008, if I don’t have this game in my hands on the promised date then I simply won’t purchase it. I will also cancel my preorders for Resistance 2 and Motorstorm 2 and spend my holiday budget supporting Microsoft and Nintendo instead. I don’t pretend that my paltry withholding will injure Sony but as a serious enthusiast of this wonderful medium, I can at the very least live with myself because this entire mess really is nonsense.
Yeah, I'm being sarcastic, I could hear the collective *fffwt* of a million eyes rolling when this news was announced. I'd be willing to bet that a number of Islamic gamers are now worried that they'll be viewed as humorless squares that are super-sensitive over their faith and will go totally nuts if anything in the least bit offensive trivially swings their way. Seeing as Sony is treating them as such.
Political correctness sucks. It's perfectly fine to make games of beheading topless snake girls with molten chains embalmed in the character's arms, then have irrelevant lovin' with two women in a sauna whilst bastardizing the very tenets of Greek mythology by defaming every one of their Gods...but cite the Qur'An in barely noticeable background music in a language the target demographic doesn't even speak and OH NO WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM!
It's not Sony's fault. I'm blaming humanity as a whole.
Yes I understand your points, however I disagree 100% with spending money and delaying progress over such ridiculous desires of such ridiculous caveman beliefs. So what Sony unintentionally ships a game with some sounds or words that did not go through a religous quality check. Anyone offended needs to grow up. It's not the responsibilty of Sony to follow any religous belief system or cater to those who choose to follow one. If someone holds something like this with such high value they should be rehabilitated in my opinion, not catered to. Where's the Separation of Church and Game? If nessicary I'd rather them just put a sticker on the box claiming it may offend crazy religous group (insert your crazy belief here) rather than let ignorant peoples fairytales dictate media developement and distribution. Yes believing in such nonsense is ignorance, not saying people are stupid, just ignorant of some aspects of the universe we share. I believe that religion should be ignored and left alone to shrivel in the shadows of the past. I am offended by the desires of Religious fanatics, can I whine to thier establishments and expect them to change...What gives them the right to expect anyone to change for them? I less upset with Sony and more upset with the dominate religions and thier nonsense.
Sony is putting a delay -- yes, at cost to them -- out of respect. People are still getting this game, minus one musical track, a short while after they were originally told they would. The sheer vehemence against this choice weighs on bigotry in many places in this thread, and definitely crosses the line into sheer entitlement ("I want it and I want it nooooowww!! How dare their respect for other people's beliefs delay my immediate gratification!!").
As for accusations of being a "smarmy, self-indulgent, pseudo-intellectual" spouting off "droll, politically correct nonsense in some vain attempt to seem enlightened," I'm going to drop that point. I don't believe that sort of accusation has any place in a discussion on a professional forum, nor do I believe there to be any value in attempting to cow people with your credentials (of which the people you are talking to have some as well) or to shout them down with ad hominem attacks.
Who does the fact checking? How do we know that these 'lyrics' / 'quotes' are offensive to the muslim faith in general? Is it possible that some random person just said "oh boy this is offensive", told Sony, and they believed them just because?
I wonder because, well, I find things like radioislam dot com slash quran , and it sure seems to have a lot of songs with text from the quaran... indeed, one may even say that is the point of that entire 'section' of their website.
There are actually countless hits for songs that reference the quran on the internets... and most of them are sung by people of the Islamic faith FOR people of the Islamic faith.
Which really leads me to believe that this is a reaction to a fringe belief, which would make as much sense as well... just about everything Corporations do for no apparent reason
If you want to try and knee-jerk react to this and "hurt" Sony by not buying their product then go ahead. It's a great game that the rest of us will be playing throughout the holiday season. Your loss.
How is this different than when Resistance used the Christian cathedral? Sure, the complaint came in post-launch, is it much different than a couple lines of text that happen to be in the Qu'ran (but could be taken from any number of pieces of literature). Case in point:
Genesis 6:17
I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
I really don't think the cathedral was used in an offensive way, and I understand that removing a level post-launch is impossible, but are these lyrics really so offensive? Especially with all the other games that get shipped to Muslim countries that have far more offensive content?
I suppose it would be fair to say that these lyrics are a "known" instance of blasphemy to Islam, and thus should have been considered earlier. Whereas it's hardly Christian doctrine to disallow the virtual recreations of churches. So obviously there's a difference.
Sorry but I don't find any admiration in respecting cultures that choose to ignore truths shared in our universe for an old historical book of make believe. And I can't believe that anything going on here has to do with respect. It's fear that drives both parties. Fear of offending a god and fear of decreased business. It's all non-sense and its potentially dangerous to the freedoms that I do respect and admire. Sony is doing the right thing, but the religous culture is not.
Now if you actually read the article CAREFULLY you would pick up on two very important things. First, the request (yes, it was a request, and a rather polite one, not a demand) was reasonable. Create a patch that removes the track from copies that have already shipped, and remove the track from copies that will ship in the future. They did not ask for a recall or delay. That was Sony's decision.
Secondly, the phrase "We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending." For those of you who are wondering what the big deal is, this explains it in part. Now unlike some people who have already posted, I haven't studied religions so I might not be 100% on the mark here. But from what I understand, traditional Islam contains some fairly specific guidelines about art and music. Obviously some Muslims feel that the use of their holy texts in this way is in violation of those guidelines or principals and is thus offensive. Whether we agree with them or not, it's their right to hold those beliefs and they should be respected as much as anyone's as long as they are expressed within reason.
They were. Again, if you actually look at the original request, it was very reasonable. It wasn't asking for Sony or Media Molecule to dramatically alter the game or take any course of action that would cause them an extreme amount of distress or financial loss. The fact that Sony reacted above and beyond the initial request is a whole other issue. Was it probably motivated by fear and PC bullshit? Sadly yes. But that's no reason to attack and insult the people who originally voiced a legitimate grievance.
And like I said before... it's one week... seriously, you don't have anything else to play this holiday season? To have patience for seven more days is not much to ask for what looks like such a brilliant game. And the sad thing is, if the delay was for any other reason, none of you would have a problem waiting.
Instrumentals are the way to go!
roversy)
Zelda: Ocarina of Time also had some revisions regarding removal of some Muslim chants in a background song and some symbols in the textures.
I say props to Sony for tackling this thing.
1) Freedom of Speech
Everyone in America has just as much of a right not to say something as to say something. If Sony doesn't want to have to worry about people not buying their game, or even suing them over offensive material, then that's their prerogative, and it's certainly not infringing on a constitutional right.
2) Sony loses money because they delayed the game.
I'm sure Sony has more facts and figures to back up their reasoning for this decision than any of us on the outside looking in, so if you're concerned for Sony's finances, I'd suggest you trust that they know what they're doing and aren't just acting on a whim.
3) I have to wait a whole week to play this game!!
You've waiting as long as you have up to this point, and now you have to wait one more week. There have been much more disappointing delays and I don't see why this will affect anyone's decision whether or not to purchase this game.
I can't speak as someone who knows what the lines are referring to in context, but doesn't it sound a little apocalyptic? Isn't that a better reason to remove the tracks than what I gather to be an alarmist response?
It seems that this community of "Arabic hardcore gaming" forum-goers have settled on a pretty hard-line response to this, it's never explicitly stated that to mix words from the text and music is amoral, or offensive. I can understand how you could reach that conclusion, but, here?
Not to mention, I don't think there would be a controversy at all had Sony not taken such sweeping measures, though having not read the discussions on whichever forums this took place, nor having quite as much to lose as Sony, I commend them for taking the VERY difficult decision to withdraw if indeed it transpires it was necessary.
Apologies for the wall of text!
because its not about respect, its about cowardice.
Why? Because I am muslim? No, I am not muslim, I have nothing do to with muslims...
But I live in the southern part of the world, and I see how your freedom of speech work, how your democracy work, how your capitalism work, your united states people behaviour (it is not even american behaviour, I am american too! your country is not america, learn that!) is deeply insulting and irritating to people of other countries and places, when Sony acted with a ethical reasoning, and not with racism or ignorance toward other cultures this is a reason of praise, not criticism, people that are critic to that are to me the sort of people that our population hates, yes, here good part of the population hates you all from "north america" (in fact people here has nothing against all people from north america, canadians are fine), I already saw people swearing that if they ever see a guy from united states here they would slain him in revenge of what they are doing to everyone else.
What? everyone else? Yes! Everyone else, in name of your "I want to play that now!" your country go around to fetch the needed resources, and this involve in killing and stealing from people around the world, I am not much into posting anything near political things on this site, but seeing how you insist in calling muslims several things that they do not deserve, or even call them fringe (did you knew that they are one of the biggest religions on the world?) are like when I saw a guy speaking in english in a restaurant with his friends, ignoring the fact that "poor" people like me could undertand him, saying how chinese, latinos and iraquis should all die, that we are plague and that we should get fucked so they get their products on market faster, so people stupid like you critics of sony can buy their products faster.
Some would say, oh, you are over reacting!
In fact I must say, this is not over reaction, altough I know that some people even do not know what this is about, my point is not against them, or against people that believe that sony is wrong for some other reason, but people that believe that sony is wrong because sony is not supporting your stupid american way of life, your way that make my history teacher have a deformed skull because a policeman cracked his skull in two when he was 16 year old and protested against your country helping our depostic government, your way of life where I know countless of people that got sent to amazonia to extract rubber from the trees to put in your tires and that now are stranded there without a way to return.
Seriously, I hope that someday your behaviour toward other cultures and toward each other get less egotistic, you do not know how many people have to DIE for you to have a product shipped in the deadline, you do not know how THE ENTIRE SOUTH AMERICA plunged into 30 years of depotism because of irrational fear of communism, you do not know that food riots are happening in the outside world or that there are places where slaves are "hired" to make your nice snickers.
Really, to all the world that do not speak english as mother language, Sony behaviour was a great one, and the behaviour of people like Bill inspire us not only disgusting but also inspire fear, because itis because of behaviour like yours that make the muslim words on that music come true.
So, would they be courageous if they decide to launch it anyways? Since when the correct solution is considered cowardice? Sometimes gamers do become as fundamentalist as the very few that blacken a demographic.
"But I live in the southern part of the world, and I see how your freedom of speech work, how your democracy work, how your capitalism work, your united states people behaviour (it is not even american behaviour, I am american too! your country is not america, learn that!)"
thanks for the geography lesson, but we can refer to our country and ourselves in any way we want, as you can your country and your people.
"is deeply insulting and irritating to people of other countries and places, when Sony acted with a ethical reasoning, and not with racism or ignorance toward other cultures this is a reason of praise, not criticism, people that are critic to that are to me the sort of people that our population hates, yes, here good part of the population hates you all from "north america" (in fact people here has nothing against all people from north america, canadians are fine), I already saw people swearing that if they ever see a guy from united states here they would slain him in revenge of what they are doing to everyone else."
so random killing of people because of their nationality is ok in you opinion? you seem to be indicating that this behavior is justified. it seems like you want 300 million americans to take the blame for what some have done. by that same logic, if these men were to follow through with this, YOU would be responsible.
"Some would say, oh, you are over reacting!"
you are overreacting.
"In fact I must say, this is not over reaction"
yes it is.
"sony is wrong because sony is not supporting your stupid american way of life"
yes they are. this is a business (money) decision. pissing people off = losing money = bad business.
"Seriously, I hope that someday your behaviour toward other cultures and toward each other get less egotistic"
thank you, i hope the same for you.
Also business decision is not a american way of life, american way of life is the that the government there want people to live, buying things that they do not need, and acting in a egotistic way blind to what is happening in other places.
Just to make sure: I have nothing against people of any country, I have against the behaviour of many people from united states (not that this behaviour is not elsewhere on the world, but it is much more common there, and is "exported" from there), this as result fuels a anti-united states behaviour of many people, something that is bad too (since it results in terrorism for example... killing 10.000 people inside two buildings is wrong, but the persons that the government claims that made this, have their point, to them is war, not random killing for pleasure)
I don't think Sony or anyone else should be giving one demographic group special veto power over the content of their product. Treating one group of people differently than everyone else in society doesn't help us get along in the long run.
That said, Sony didn't plan on it at all so on some level I can understand their panic response.
The last thing they want is for a game like LBP to be linked in the mainstream press with any kind of hot-button issue, and this one could easily get blown way way out of proportion.
Recalling the game won't make the issue go away, but it's probably the best way to have it die quickly and relatively silently. For them, it's a no-brainer.
The point in this debate should not be whether Christian should be allowed to feel deeply offended when someone quotes from the bible in a disrespectful manner. It should simply be that Christian have to accept that SOME Muslims feel deeply offended when they hear words from their holy book in a video game. Is it that hard to accept that? Does Sony really have to offend people so some of you can tell them "Get over it"?
This incident does however serve to demonstrate the risks of licensing an artistic work created by a different culture to say, myself, or your average Brit or American.
Also, Phil Shenk is right, this is a business decision and not a general "Muslims are scary" thing. There are no references to any of the big religions as such in any of sonys games, it's pretty much in the TRC for the games they publish.
You know it's true!