Bad PR stunt is Best PR stunt?

A few days ago most gaming journalism websites were quick at reporting the news that LittleBigPlanet was going to be delayed because of the lyrics in one of the game's songs. Apparently it includes two quotes from the Qu'ran and doing so is offensive to those of Islamic faith.

This has lead Sony to retrieve all of the game's copies in order to replace them with "fixed" copies which don't feature said song. Not only that, it enraged most people who have preordered it, except muslim people, though.

While the corniest gaming websites were busy writing articles with titles like "Is LittleBigPlanet doomed?" gaming forums all over were flooded with threads where users started discussing religious matters. News websites and broadcasts have been mentioning this all around the globe.

Now, guys like Phil Harrison agree with Sony and say replacing the game was the best decision they could have made.

I have followed a few of those discussions and some of those were actually good. Though we might have been lead to believe it, not every gaming website is filled with hate-consumed tenage trolls.

What do I think about this? First of all I don't think recalling all of the game's copies is a good idea for several reasons. A patch that cut access to the song should suffice.

There are people who defend this is not enough and say that the people who don't have their consoles connected to the internet wouldn't "benefit from this correction to the game". Why would someone buy this game if they don't have their consoles connected to the internet? It is a major part of the game.

Well, even though I wish MediaMolecule the best of luck and believe their intentions are good, this sounds like too much luck to be just an innocent mistake. Because of this the game had a gigantic amount of free exposure and loads of people who didn't know this game was coming got to see bits of gameplay during primetime.


It seems like a trend like this could show up anytime:

1. Include something offensive in your game
2. Remove it due to pressure from the media
3. ????
4. Profit!