Manhunt 2 banned by Nintendo and Sony
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 9:09pm by Jack
The Manhunt 2 controversy grows ever deeper today.
Nintendo and Sony have come together as unlikely allies to ban the game from appearing on their consoles should it retain the cooties-ridden AO ESRB rating that now resides on its shiny new case. GameSpot says Manhunt 2 and its glass shard to the head theatrics will not be on a Nintendo or Sony system unless the rating is lowered to the much more friendly and anti-Hot Coffee rating of M. Whatever you think of all this press that Manhunt 2 is getting, you have to agree the game is getting a hell of a lot of something in the media today. Oh, yeah, it’s called attention. Rockstar sent out bloody demo kits to advertise this thing with the press. They know what they’re doing.
GameSpot has confirmed with Nintendo and Sony that one of those options, which would be to accept the ESRB’s judgment and release the game with the AO rating, isn’t an option at all. Both companies forbid licensed third-party publishers from releasing games rated AO for Adults Only on their various hardware platforms. Though Manhunt 2 isn’t slated for any of Microsoft’s systems, the company has also confirmed that it does not allow AO-rated titles on the Xbox or Xbox 360.
So we know Rockstar will be appealing or toning the game down in post production, but what I want to know is: Does this mean another Leisure Suit Larry is out of the question?
June 20th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
UGHHHH i want this game
June 20th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
WOAH!!!! it’s gonna be rated AO!!?!?!?! holy crap!! too bad, I saw it in a game crazy ad today for preorder… it was gonna sell a ton. poor rockstar
June 21st, 2007 at 12:32 am
That sucks for Rockstar. Either they overhaul the game or they’ll suffer some terrible sales. I’m really excited for this game though. I’ll buy it if and when it comes out.
June 21st, 2007 at 2:59 am
they should consider the PC for it.
i was kinda interested to see how this kind of game would sell, and am surprised that sony wont accept AO games, though this is the first game to get it before it launched, so no president was set before now for any console.
i dont disagree with the rating though. the game does deserve the AO rating since its only purpose is to be as sadistic as possible, and basically revel in committing acts of horror. its surely past M level. sick people that can play this game beginning to end.
AO isnt death though, just on consoles. somebody suggest they port it to PC.
and no, them causing controversy does not help them, and they are idiots if that is their intention.
remember bully? that game was sandbox, rockstar branded, interesting concept, and if they had marketed it well, could have sold a million worldwide, but what did they do?
instead of telling the truth about what the game was like before launch, they kept taunting the parents, and scaring people that are typically paranoid about violent gaming. they got alot of press, but most of it bad, and it upset lawmakers which hurt the game, and gave it a bad rep all around. it sold around 700,000 total. not bad, but it could have been more coming from positive reviews and pedigree, as well as its concept. its been said that with taking 3 years to make the game, it probably broke even at best. they need to learn their lesson and stop being stupid and controversial, and push their games properly instead of being a rebel which doesnt win them anything.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:04 am
Yawn.
Since explicily violent games and movies got all popular, they totally lost their “unique selling point”, they are mainstream now.
So what do they come up with?
A better story?
More believable characters?
No, just more of the same: Blood, gore, sadism and torture. And no humor at all.
Well they won’t get my dollars …
June 21st, 2007 at 7:46 am
walter, I think it was the media, not Rockstar, that did most of the damage to Bully. And in this case I’m giving the gaming press a pass — it was all the mainstream media outside of gaming, like CNN, FOX News, et al. In this case, again, Rockstar has said very little about Manhunt 2, right? It’s all bozos like myself that are spreading the fire.
June 21st, 2007 at 8:57 am
Why did it end up AO? Did they add a sex scene or something? That’s usually the culprit in a movie getting an NC-17 rather than any acts of violence. You can commit savage acts of death and dismemberment to a most disturbing degree, but nudity or sexuality should not be viewed by the youth of our nation.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:40 am
I agree. Anyone can go see all the AO games out there. Just head over to Wikipedia and do a search on AO rated games. What’s the recurring theme? Not violence, that’s for sure.
We are such a silly species.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:24 pm
How bad is this game or how it will mentally affect a 30+ year old gamer ? I dont mind keeping it away from minors but not banning the game for that reason . The ESRB rated the game AO only, so what they call Adults only? is It worst than XXX rated? …it seems that Sony and Nintendo forgot that they are a large group of gamers out there ranging from the legal drinking age: 21/25, 25/30, 30/35 years of age. banning the game for such a small nitch group that is 10-/15, 15/17- years of age, it just shows how closed minded they are ..
June 25th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
[...] http://www.infendo.com/wii/manhunt-2-banned-by-nintendo-and-sony/ [...]
June 26th, 2007 at 11:26 am
no, for bully, it was definitely part rockstar.
they chose to leak out just enough info on bully to make it controversial instead of spreading the real game news early. the game had no real controlversial parts in it, and it would have died down alot faster if not for rockstars insistance on toying with the press.