Sony’s Little Big Goof Affects The Planet

19 Oct 2008

The first and most important question that comes to mind is: Why?

No, not why did Sony delay the release of the most anticipated game since Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet. The question is, why in the world would these lyrics be allowed in any video game:

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‘).

This is an ESRB “Everyone” rated game with these lyrics from the Qur’an. Again, the question that comes to mind is why? The only good thing that came out of all this is that Sony did the right thing by completely recalling the game and delaying it until October 27th. A lot of gamers are upset about the delay (for selfish reasons obviously) and don’t believe they should suffer due to other’s “beliefs”. I’m not surprised, really. This is a much bigger issue than “having fun” or “entertainment” or even what some believe are their “rights”. There isn’t a gray area here. It’s about as black and white as any situation can be.

The lyrics that are included in this game add nothing at all, and I now question the motives of the game writers. This is supposed to be a game about light-hearted fun and creativity, but Media Molecule felt it necessary to include Qu’ran lyrics regarding death and destruction to the entire earth.

Why?!?! Seriously, why in the world was this even considered let alone allowed? I could care less about the delay, in fact, I reiterate, that I encourage it. This game should not be released in its current form. I was part of the beta of LittleBigPlanet for about 4 days, and was very impressed with the gameplay. I’m saddened that this glaring mistake has tarnished the game forever. I don’t think I’ll have the same level of trust for Media Molecule or Sony ever again.

lazy sunday lyrics

Post written by Bwana

Tags: delay, littlebigplanet, PS3, quran, recall, sony

Joe

Licensed song from a Senegalese artist. Lyrics in Wolof were fine; no one realized that there were Arabic vocals in the background until it was almost too late.
http://intensedebate.com/people/bwana18751 Bwana

I'm trying to sympathize, but I can't. Someone dropped the ball hard.
http://www.whatilikeontheweb.com 4four1ones

not good…nope. not good at all. this kind of stuff is not excusable.
http://intensedebate.com/people/bwana18751 Bwana

And you know what's even more troublesome? Kotaku is complaining the song won't be in the final game! I swear, the gaming community is so self-centered, it's sickening. This can't be more wrong, and they're actually going to try to make Sony/Media Molecule the villain for removing it. They're like 8 year old kids man, if you tell them they can't have something, they insist on using all their energy to getting it anyway.
Joe

Just to play the devil's advocate, how would you have avoided the situation? Have a native speaker of every existing language listen to all of every track you've licensed?
http://intensedebate.com/people/bwana18751 Bwana

It's not really complicated. It's simple. Don't release a game that's rated "E for Everyone" by the ESRB with those lyrics. How that's prevented is irrelevant.
http://somethingthathappened.com Harold

Oh come on, there's enough Christian propaganda everywhere we go, and if you just think about it for a moment it's in our video games, too. "God bless us all." Yeah, whatever. We athiests have to put up with religious gibberish all the time; get used to it.
Marco

It is ridiculous. First of all, the lines in question were background vocals. Are you serious? Not dropping F'bombs, not a curse word, but rather lines from a religous text that were in the background. You can't have a whole team of interpreters for every single word in a song. Way to encourage additional expenses for small developers, media witch hunts, and censorship. All of which will result in less for gamers at more expense. I'd go so far as to say that if someone hadn't pointed out the text and translated it for you, you'd be happily playing for years without being any the wiser.
Marco

Just looking real quickly, "Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull" is rated "E" for everyone….should we rip it off the shelves becuase it has the word skull in the title? (I mean yes, we should rip it off the shelves but this particular title isn't offensive becuase of its title) Micky Mouse games that have scences from Fantasia should probably be for mature audiences because they deal with WITCHCRAFT!!! The dark arts, hide your children.
Marco

It's sad to me that it's come to this. My understanding is that this recall stems from a single post in a forum. Let's be honest. It just isn't offensive. You can put on your Joe Rightous shoes all day long and I couldn't care less. How do you reconcile that the text itself is from religous text, yet isn't appropriate for children? Are you telling me that the bible and the Qu'ran are not appropriate materials for children? I think you're being two faced, overly simplistic, and jumping on a band wagon.
http://blog.slaven.net.au Glenn Slaven

It should be pointed out that the song was performed by a muslim artist. Clearly he wasn't offended. The lines are verses from the Koran, I could pull equally 'aggressive' lines from any number of 'Christian' songs. Does anyone have the whole lyrics of the song? Do we know the context? They have pulled this from the game out of fear of a Danish comics repeat incident. I'm not going to even bother bringing up the double standards here. This was a non-incident that has been blown up. I'm not surprised by Sony's decision, but I am a little dissapointed
http://intensedebate.com/people/bwana18751 Bwana

Agree to disagree.