LittleBigPlanet Bumped Back to October 27

Facing religious outcry due to the use of Qur'an verses in one of the game's songs, the North American release of LittleBigPlanet will now arrive the week of October 27.

Developed by Media Molecule, the physics-based PlayStation 3-exclusive platformer was originally slated to hit North American store shelves next Tuesday, October 21.

"Sorry for the delay, and rest assured, we are doing everything we can to get LittleBigPlanet to you as soon as possible," Patrick Seybold, a representative from publisher Sony Computer Entertainment America, wrote on the PlayStation.Blog.

The song in question--"Tapha Niang" from Grammy award-winning artist Toumani Diabate--contains two verses from the Islamic holy text Qur'an. The tune was released in 2006 and has not generated any controversy until now, according to Joystiq.

Developer Media Molecule was ready to resolve the issue with a day-one patch, but noted that publisher Sony decided the "right thing to do for quality and support of people with no on-line was to replace existing disks."