Manhunt 2 Controversy

Lynx

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So, Rockstar is releasing Manhunt 2 next month. The original Manhunt was basically a murder simulator. You're a convict who gets captured by a sick guy called the Director and has to murder people in creative ways. It was pretty graphic and got a lot of heat when it came out, but it was only rated M.

Well, Manhunt 2 recently got rated AO+, was banned in England and Ireland, and is likely to get banned in Germany and Australia. The problem with AO+ games is two-fold. First, major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Gamestop/EB refuse to carry AO+ games. And secondly, both Nintendo and Sony (And Microsoft, but its not coming out for Xbox) will not allow AO+ games to be released on their respective systems. This is basically a protection measure so porn games from not being made for those systems.

Personally, playing a bit of the original Manhunt, I have no problem with the rating Manhunt 2 got. Hell, Manhunt 1 should have gotten AO+. It was EXTREMELY graphic, more so than even GTA or God of War. I do, however, think it's not good business for Nintendo and Sony to not allow it, or for Gamestop not to sell it. I understand Wal-Mart and Target, simply because they're major retailers and try to put on the "family" image. But Gamestop? I don't understand why Manhunt can't be put behind the counter and still sell it. And Sony and Nintendo really have nothing to lose since its not a pr0n game.

Any other opinions?
 
So what is it coming out on? PC?

I wanted to play the original but it was banned in NZ.
 
Well, is Gamestop owned by a bigger corporation that does other sales business with Target or Walmart? That could be a factor. THey also might lose business from nintendo and such if those companies find that they are retailing the game.
 
So what is it coming out on? PC?

I wanted to play the original but it was banned in NZ.

They haven't said. They'd have to make another version, though, since it was only coming to the PS2, Wii and PSP.

The other two options they have is to go back and "tone it down" to an M rating, or go before the ESRB board and appeal the rating.
 
A friend of mine (okay WoW Guildmate) is U.K. Product manager for Take Two who are like the company Rockstar are subservient to...I think. I was chatting to him about it, and he reckons there's no chance it's gonna be manufactured. From what I heard it's banned in the U.S. and without the U.S. or U.K. markets there's very little point. I asked him if it was gonna screw them up financially 'Nah there problem is they have more money than they know what to do with'. GTA has made them very rich people, Bully did very well too, all they've really lost is the dev. costs

As for the banning, dunno how I feel, the original was pretty grim, all my friends just told me not to bother. Chums that worked in Game would get yelled at for refusing to sell it to mothers buying it for there 12 year old kids. There was that massive controversy where they blamed Manhunt for that kid murdering his friend. I mean that guy was obviously a nutbar, but if we can stop it from happening again....can't be that bad a thing right?
 
Why can't they just go back to making games like Metal Slugs? I was playing that last night and remembered having a lot of fun... Why do we have to get more and more graphic with each release?
 
Man, they should just release this in the parts of the world they can as a big "**** YOU" to the buisness.

Freedom of speech please!
 
I like Super Paper Mario.
 
I can see why Sony or Nintendo wouldn't want to sell it. Not Gamestop, but that's them.


Anyways, I see this as an equivalent to NC-17 rated movies. You're only going to have so much people buy it and won't make much money as lower rated games (movies) would make. If it was M, a different story would be told.
 
All I really know is that when I read reviews for Manhunt from the same people who praised all of the GTAs, the reviews were quite good in terms of gameplay, but the reviewers said that the game was 'sick' and 'wrong' and they deducted marks from it for that.

Interesting that it was banned over here, but I was probably never going to play it anyway.
 
All I really know is that when I read reviews for Manhunt from the same people who praised all of the GTAs, the reviews were quite good in terms of gameplay, but the reviewers said that the game was 'sick' and 'wrong' and they deducted marks from it for that.

Interesting that it was banned over here, but I was probably never going to play it anyway.

The game wasn't really that bad. I mean it was violent, but the the whole scene made it very unserious. The new game hower, looks very scary and violent.
 
Manhunt would've been better if it were actually more risque.

I'm not kidding. It was totally underwhelmingly lacking in balls.
 

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