LittleBigPlanet Launch Dates Pushed Back

Sony is now saying that its flagship title LittleBigPlanet will arrive in North America on October 27 while in Europe, the Middle East and Australia, the game will come “no later than the week commencing Monday 3rd November”.

The delay was caused by complaints from various Muslim groups regarding some of the content in the game. It seems that a few verses from the Qur’an were present in one of the music pieces which shipped with the game and interpretations hold that it is forbidden to put these verses to music. Initially, the groups only requested that Sony issued a patch which could take out that track from LittleBigPlanet, but the company chose to go with a full recall of the game rather than risk being targeted by critics from Muslims.

The title was due to arrive on October 21 in North America, but the fact that new game disks must be produced and then repackaged means that it will be in stores again a week later. In an effort to make the North American launch as smooth as possible, the release date for other territories, including Europe, is not set in stone. The Sony statement reads “no later than the week commencing Monday 3rd November”, which might mean that the game will initially be available in limited supply or even that it will only make it to shops at the end of the said week, on November 9.

LittleBigPlanet from Media Molecule is a PlayStation 3 exclusive title which pairs platforming with a very nimble level editor allowing players to design and share their own ideas and adventures. Since the beta stage of the title was launched, people have been creating levels which borrow the ideas of everything from Space Invaders to Shadow of the Colossus, highlighting the flexibility and power of the game.