Media Molecule says it's "shellshocked and gutted" at the recently-announced delay of its long-awaited
LittleBigPlanet,
recalled on the cusp of launch after it was discovered that a song in the game contained verses from the Qu'ran.
"Obviously MM and Sony together took this very seriously.
LBP should be enjoyable by all,"
says the developer in a statement on its official website. Many Muslims consider the mixing of Qu'ran verses into a song to be an offense.
Media Molecule explains that "within 12 hours" of learning of the issue it prepared a day-zero patch and readied a new disk image -- but Sony decided that "the right thing to do," considering consumers that may lack internet access, was to fully replace assisting disks.
Today Sony
announced a new European release date for the game, promising
LBP in stores "no later than" November 3; the title releases in the U.S. on October 27th.
Apologizing to excited would-be consumers, Media Molecule says it, too, will continue to support the game. "We know that
LBP will be something that you can enjoy for a long time to come, when all of this is forgotten and all that remains are thousands of incredible levels and creations to play, create and share."
