Sony’s upcoming game, called LittleBigPlanet, won’t be launched when it was scheduled to due to the lyrics of a song that plays in the background at the beginning of the third world. The game is supposed to be one of the most innovative games created this year, as players will be able to create levels and share them with others.

Apparently, the song "Tapha Niang," played by Toumani Diabate, contains some verses from the Quran in Arabic that can be translated as "Every soul shall taste of death" and "All that is on earth shall perish.” This is a sensitive issue and because of this Sony postponed the launch of the game on the market for October 28.

The funny thing is that those verses taken out of context actually sound harsh and, why hide it, stereotypical. The fact is that, in context, those verses actually are a reminder that everybody will someday die, it’s “memento mori” but spelled differently. Sony’s decision to postpone the launch of the game in order to remove the song must be driven by the fact that, usually, the media explodes when it comes down to things like this and the game would have suffered from negative advertising.

Also, maybe the verses from the Muslim holy book don’t really belong in a game about a sock puppet that experiences all sorts of adventures.

All in all, the fact that the game won’t be released when it was announced it would be may cause the PS3 sales to drop even more, as competitors Nintendo and Microsoft are thoroughly prepared for the upcoming holiday season.

Last year, The Church of England has repeatedly voiced its dissatisfaction with the “illegal” use of interior shots of Manchester Cathedral in one of the most popular games on the PS3 platform, Resistance: Fall of Man". Accordind to the church officials, the in-game recreation of the cathedrals was sending “wrong signals” to the young audience. Sony apologised to the Church of England, but it didn't withdraw the game.