When Sony are afraid someone will hurt them or their business, they will be very sensitive to any concerns that MIGHT be raised around their games. If they don’t feel threatned they won’t offer even a token apology, much less spend money on appeasement.

So no, “favoritism” is clearly the wrong word. But why Sony are afraid of the highly evolved and peaceful Muslim community is beyond me. The artist of the song, Toumani Diabaté, seems to have suffered no harm for performing this song.

Then again, let’s hope Sony’s actions doesn’t lead to this man getting in some very real trouble from islamistic militants eager to get some publicity…

If you insult a Muslims faith, he WILL be insulted, he will boycott you and not think twice about .. Had that game been released NO ONE in the middle east and anywhere in the world who was muslim would have purchased it. That’s a fact, they feel strongly for their book, EVERYONE of them does whether they don’t practice their religion or they do. There’s no insulting the book and they wont buy it.

Christians on the other hand on a vast majority would STILL buy it had it been insulting to their religion.. The writer gave a perfect example with resistence fall of man… how many of us christians still bought it … How many of us watch the simpsons mock christianity and not care how many of us idolize family guy’s jesus and god anticks…. ITS OUR FAULT NOT THEIRS..corporations don’t care about our beliefs they know we’ll buy it anyway even if it’s shooting up a church, YOU EVER SEE RESIDENT EvIL SCENE”S IN A MOSQUE?…Didn’t think so

Sony made a choice based on they know that people would still buy resistence and companies will STILL be doing things like this , yet no one touches the muslim world and for that EVEN I give them props, they protect their faith from anyone, and even made sony recall their game because of that…

I think you have to remember that muslims weren’t outraged by this, it was one person and sony decided to do this themselves. The damage is already done in muslim eyes, copies already exist, hell the story itself is generating more offense than the game would have. I can’t believe people argue that it’s the right thing to do though, it’s a complete waste of money to do this, and I’m really really offended that people can be offended by music in this way.

Kris – If this is true why can I buy the actual song from Amazon? Answer that one. Is that considered wrong by Muslims too? If so why is it still being sold?

And now I’m reading this guy who started this is wrong if you talk to most Muslims. Maybe these companies need to create boards for religions and discuss what really is acceptable. To me a small minority of Muslims cause all the problems for the rest of them. There are Jewish and Christian followers who are against a lot that goes on in games and other media. Why aren’t companies like Sony bending over backward to appease them too?

I should remind you that the Church of England demanded the game be removed from store shelves, an apology, and a substantial donation to the church. Financial reasons aside, their reasoning was that the depiction of the Cathedral was tantamount to ‘desecration’.

Simply put, the quotations from the Qur’an are fundamentally religious and the response would come from a fundamental religious standpoint. The response to the Church of England scandal was “give us lots of money and we’ll change our stance on it.”

To claim this is double standards is to define just how ignorant you are, and perhaps more compassion and understanding towards our Muslim community would easily close this gap. All those spouting hate because your game was delayed a week need to seriously look inside and determine just what separates you from primal apes. Take steps to rectify it because my guess is it isn’t very much.

However, the whole idea of the news stirring up sh*t as they usually do with sensationalist headlines claiming LBP is anti-islam and insinuating Media Molecule and Sony are as well is something Sony would rather avoid.

This is not about one Muslim gamer being over-sensitive but about avoiding unneccessary bad press for a game that may well be the biggest PS3 game this generation.

Truth be told, some Muslims may have gotten offended but most would not. In these situations, the news media often blow things out of proportion. Gamers need to just relax and chill.

I have read several articles and they do state that the lyrics in the content made by MM was not in an offensive manner. IMO they should of just released an online patch, better business plan! WAY cheaper, doesn’t slow down release… WIN WIN. BUT ‘Sackboy’ for Sony is what ‘Mario’ is for Nintendo, so would they want to risk a global merchandise over a one week late, $100k+ loss??

Bringing attention to it, angering a bunch of gamers, and costing a bomb to recall copies from all over the world – especially considering the cost of producing Blu-rays and then shipping them back again – I think the costs are too much.

Especially considering they could have just agreed with Media Molecule and patched the game – it is an Online game, which really needs online to prosper – so if people don’t have internet, they shouldn’t be playing LittleBigPlanet. Therefore, the majority of individuals would get the patch to remove the song. I feel that the costs over recalling compared to simply patching are far too high.

Other factors would include launch parties in London begining on Oct 24th – where they won’t have the game to sell to customers. Really the percieved backslash was much more severe than the reality. It puts a bad image of Muslims as easily offended – when really, that’s only the minority.

The article documents the potential costs associated with both solutions, had each been put into action by Sony, in an attempt to put an end to the double standard accusations.

Sony is a business like any other. If they can spin their business decisions in a more personal way, they likely will, but if they are faced with an expense they are not willing to pay, they will ultimately find a way to justify their actions.

In other words, it’s my belief that Sony isn’t making personal decisions with the intention of singling out specific religions or beliefs. I think it is much more about dollars and cents than it is gentiles and gents.