Source: Kotaku
Quote:
"Against this background, the Board's carefully considered view is that to issue a certificate to Manhunt 2, on either platform, would involve a range of unjustifiable harm risks, to both adults and minors, within the terms of the Video Recordings Act, and accordingly that its availability, even if statutorily confined to adults, would be unacceptable to the public."
Apparently they had people go through the game with cheat codes and such, read through the entire game script, and have done any other test necessary. However, even with the game being severely edited, it was STILL too graphic, therefore it had to be banned.
So what's your opinion on this? I'm honestly not surprised that this would happen. I was surprised the first one made it to stores.
Well I never have played Manhunt(or any survival horror type game for that matter) but i've seen and rea and heard stuff about it. It's pretty twisted. I mean I guess they do have the right to ban it. I wonder do movies ever get banned though...games already have enough of a bad rep. =/
The BBFC know what they're doing, they've not banned a game for over 10 years. If that game was banned, it puked on the line.
I think "imitating the killing blow with the Wiimote" may be a bit too contraversial, anywho.
Just how far does banning a game go in the UK? If I were UKian, would there be any way for me to obtain it?
Import from Europe?
Movies used to get banned. The three that stick out in my mind is: Straw Dogs, A Clockwork Orange and Cannibal Holocaust.
Thunder storms are lol. BRB
Ahh ok I see. Wow this game must be sick then. So they don't ban movies anymore, JT?
I can't think of any recent ones. But they might do again, especially seeing as we are going forward into a more blame culture society.
There was another game that was banned by the EU (not the BBFC)- Rule of Rose (something like that.) But that was crap, so it doesn't matter. Kind of.
Seeing as the BBFC banned it, It's quiet likely that the EU will follow suit.
I wasn't going to get Manhunt 2. And I can't understand why they are making a sequel to Manhunt in the first place, it didn't sell well.
But, I do applaud Rockstar for pushing the boundaries now so in the future we have blood in our spin off titles starring Shadow and stuff. *salutes*
Speaking of Manhunt 2, the Wii version might get a Adult Only rating in the US if this watch group get their way.
I consider this a win for the ESRB. By rating it AO, BEFORE the watchdogs got involved, they take away from any arguments that it's being marketed to children or that they bowed to those groups.
The downside being that most major retailers won't carry the game now, which means lost revenue for the publisher.
Well Rockstar has their income coming in big in '08 with GTA:IV and Midnight Club LA. But yea still revenue is revenue. =/
This is the second game to be rated AO for it's intense violence, the 1st being Thrill Kill on the PS1. However, I don't think Thrill Kill saw its way to stores because EA denied publishing the game, because of how twisted and demented it was at the time.
GTA: San Andreas, for a short time, was re-rated AO when Hot Coffee hit. Afterwards, new copies of the game were back to M when Rockstar pulled the offending code (as is my understanding).
Correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't follow Rockstar news all that religiously. Though I do love me some San And.
Yeah, that's correct. However, I don't think that's going to be the case with this game though.
What if they rename the game "People Full of Ketchup"?
Answering your availability question, Acrio:
You could import it, but your supplier would be liable to prosecution for supplying banned material, and that has big penalties attached.
As Craig said, this is the first time the BBFC's reacted like this in adecade - and I've actually been very surprised at how relaxed their new Chief Executive's been with his ratings recently. I'm seeing stuff passed at PG and 12A now that I'd have seen at 15 a few years ago.
If this guy says it's over the line, then I'm inclined to trust him.
I disagree with this banning as I disagree with all forms of institutional censorship on principle. I don't care how offensive any media work is, adult citizens should be treated as just that - adults - and allowed to make decisions for themselves as to what content they want to observe. In this instance I think America's done the right thing in the ERSB rating the game Adults Only.
If only the BBFC had a rating for extremely offensive cotent over and above what's allowed by the 18 rating and prevents media with that classification being sold anywhere except specially licenced adult stores.
Pity it's only for porn. I see no reason why it shouldn't be expanded to cover media featuring extremely graphic violence as well as graphic sex. It would be no different from how I understand the ESRB's AO rating to work, except that BBFC ratings are legally binding. If they rated this game R18, it would still be available to reasonable adults to decide whether or not they want to play it, but it would be much harder to obtain and nigh impossible for children to get hold of unless an adult bought it with the intent to supply it to children, which would presumably be illegal.
I'm aware that that last bit I mentionned already happens with 18 rated games: parents undermine the ratings system by buying n-rated films, games, etc. and letting their kids of age less than n play/watch them. In some cases that's bad parenting, in which case it's a problem you aren't going to legislate away, in my parents' case they just felt I was emotionally mature enough to be exposed to such content. YMMV. However, by rating the game R18, I should imagine most parents would be a lot more hesitant to buy the game for their kids as they would only be able to get it in sex shops. How many parents do you know that let their kids watch porn?
That's true - but porn has a fractionally better press here than ultra-violence.
Despite cases like Fred and Rose West's (also here), the UK's been far more reluctant to see porn as a potential cause of criminality than violent imagery. For a nation that's stereotypically repressed, we get away with a lot in comparison to the US.
It's still got far more of a reputation as seedy and dodgy, but not responsible for large scale delinquency in the way that was seized on after the Bundy trial in the US.
Look like Manhunt 2 won't be manhunting in Ireland either. Also Blockbuster Video and Game Fly won't be carrying the game in the US because of it AO rating.
...I didn't know that. oO
I guess that qualifies as a Limit Break.
~Tobe
So basically the AO rating is nothing more than a death certificate.
It's like NC-17 in the movie inudstry. There has never been a top selling movie rated higher than R.
In fact, R ratins tend to hurt sales too, according to half-assed research.
Sounds to me like this was a win situation. And bravo for the companies who won't peddle that sort of game on their systems. We already have enough filth (and I do not use the word lightly) readily available out there for people who want to find it; no point in more companies helping the process along or unintentionally assisting minors in getting access to this sort of thing.
Unless of course me and my mom want the game which we do. I don't feel like we need anyone elses permission.
'Cause there's a time when you're right
And you know you must fight
Who's laughing baby, don't you know
And there's the choice that we make
And this choice you will take
Who's laughin' baby
So just leave me alooooone
Leave me alone
Leave me alone
Leave me alone-stop it!
Just stop doggin' me around
Out of curiosity, if Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft all state they don't allow AO rated games on their systems, is there a reason to have it? You may as well just ban the game in the first place. It has the same effect.
To be a bit more on topic, this announcement doesn't bother me unless it starts affecting games to large degress (which, trusting the BBFC, it won't). I had no interest in Manhunt 2, so obivously I'm not concerned. While I can't vouch for the game's content, however, I do feel it could have been possible to restrict sales, either by limiting stores that have them or by banning showing them on shop shelves, so that you can only buy it if you specifically ask for it, would be a way to distribute it to responsible adults with less risk of it falling into the hands of children. A mature and stable adult should be free to make their own choices, and shouldn't need a parental figure to judge censorship for them necessarily... *shrug*
I assume AO would find it's place mainly with PC titles.
The ESRB, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo do not have the power to ban. Though this seems pretty much the same. 
It's not an official ban as much as it is effectively a ban - If no companies will allow your title to be published on your consoles, you might as well BE banned, right?
And I looked at the list of AO games. Almost all are PC games, so yeah.
But if Microsoft doesn't allow AO games on their products...:crazy:
And lo, the appeal to the UK's classification body begins.
EDIT: Practicing a little topic necromancy for an update.
And another update.
All this fuss...over a game. 😛 Rockstar should forget about it and move on to Midnight Club LA, because it's going to be so good no one's going to be playing Manhunt 2 anyway. 😛
The game really wasn't that great, anyway.
