Quran lyrics derail US release of new Sony game
Mixing verses to music offensive to some Muslims
Gamers will have to wait another week to play the highly anticipated new Sony PlayStation game “LittleBigPlanet” that was to be released Tuesday. Sony recalled the game following concerns about potentially offensive lyrics in the game’s soundtrack.
The company announced it would delay the game’s release until Oct. 27 in order to remove two lyrics from a song that quoted verses in Arabic from the Quran in a song by Muslim Grammy-award winning singer Toumani Diabate.
On Wednesday a fan posted a comment on the PlayStation blog pointing out the offending lyrics and seeking their removal.
“We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending,” wrote the fan. “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 game’s creators at Media Molecule responded “within 12 hours of hearing about this issue involving a lyric” and released a patch, according to a statement on its website.
But Sony decided to take the costly move of replacing the disks and delay shipping to North American retail outlets, said Patrick Seybold, director of communications for Sony.
“We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologize for any offense that this may have caused,” he said in a statement.
The company’s decision drew hundreds of comments from users dismayed by the decision to give into such pressure and from others who said they understood the need to avoid conflict from the outset.
One avid gamer in Dubai who is Muslim and has four different gaming systems including PlayStation, said he had not heard about the game but that he would be offended.
“I don’t know about this game, I never heard of it but if it has these verses I wouldn’t buy it. I would be offended,” 12-year-old Sheriff Ahmed Farouk told AlArabiya.net.
I don’t know about this game, I never heard of it but if it has these verses I wouldn’t buy it. I would be offendedSheriff Ahmed Farouk