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Fight Over Manhunt 2 Could Get Nasty

Parents Object to Latest Violent Video Game

July 16, 2007 

The company, which developed the equally controversial Grand Theft Auto series, appears determined to release the game in the U.S.

The company announced in June that it would temporarily suspend the U.S. release of Manhunt 2 amid a storm of protests from parents groups, which are pressuring the Entertainment Software Rating Board to give the game an Adults Only rating, limiting sales to those 18 and older.

The company initially reacted to the British and Irish bans by saying it would suspend U.S. publication while it reviewed its options. Later, it hardened its position in a statement, saying, “we believe in freedom of creative expression, as well as responsible marketing, both of which are essential to our business of making great entertainment.”

U.S. Release

While Take Two Interactive’s Web site doesn’t mention the controversial title on its front page, elsewhere on the site Manhunt 2 is promoted as being “available this summer.” Rockstar Games’ Web site does in fact promote Manhunt 2 on its front page as “coming soon.” However, to view the game’s promotional page, Web surfers must verify their age to enter.

“With Manhunt 2 we have tried to create a game that stays close to the original concept of chilling suspense and stealth, whilst pushing the game design and storytelling forward,” said Sam Houser, founder and executive producer of Rockstar Games, in a statement on the site.

Critics say the game goes over the line. In banning the game, the British Board of Film Classification said Manhunt 2 “constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing.”

U.S. critics have now expressed an additional concern – the fact that the violent game is also being produced for Nintendo’s wildly popular Wii game system, which features motion sensitive controllers.

Wii Version

The same system that allows users to control a tennis racquet by swinging a controller also allows Manhunt 2 players to actually wield an ax or blunt object within the game’s story.

In a letter to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the child advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood said Wii’s motion sensitive controller makes the video mayhem all too real.

“In Manhunt 2, players can mutilate their enemies with an axe; saw their skulls in half castrate them with a pair of pliers; or kill them by bashing their head into an electrical box, where a power surges eventually blows their head apart,” the letter charges. “On the Nintendo Wii, players will actually act out the violence. One review of the game describes using a saw blade to "cut upward into a foe's groin and buttocks, motioning forward and backward with the Wii remote as you go.”

The group says rating the game anything less than Adults Only will signal an endorsement of marketing Manhunt2 to children.

An Adults Only rating, however, could be a death blow to the game, since Nintendo and Sony, maker of the PlayStation platform, currently have policies that bar AO-rated games for their systems. That would limit sales for use only on personal computers.

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