In June 2007, Sony apologized to the Church of England after settingscenes in a violent video game inside Manchester Cathedral. On thatoccasion the game was not withdrawn.
Sony has postponed the global release of a much-anticipated video game due to concerns that it may offend Muslims.
Copies of LittleBigPlanet are being recalled from shops worldwide after it emerged that a background music track contained two phrases from the Koran.
Sony issued an apology for any offence that its use of the backing track might have caused.
The changed version of LittleBigPlanet will now go on sale on 3 November in the UK and 29 October in the US.
A statement on the LittleBigPlanet website said: “We’re sure that most of you have heard by now that one of the background music tracks that was licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Koran.
“We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence this may have caused.”
Speaking to the BBC LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule said it was alerted to the problem by a Muslim gamer who had been playing a beta, or trial, version of the game.
The music in question comes from a Grammy award-winning Somali artist and is known to have been available through online music stores for months.
In an e-mail the gamer who spotted the Koranic phrases warned that mixing music and words from Islam’s most holy text could be considered deeply offensive by Muslims. He suggested producing a software patch to remove the music.
Media Molecule said it did produce a patch but, following consultation with Sony, decided to go further.