News / Entertainment
Manhunt 2 Suspends Release Due to Rating Controversy
Manhunt 2, the controversial video game that has already been banned in Britain and Ireland, is now having its U.S. release suspended after a ratings controversy has its publisher and creators in a precarious situation.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board handed “Manhunt 2” an Adults Only (AO) rating rather than a Mature rating and the affects would almost certainly damage the game’s sales. Mega retailers Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart do not stock video games that have been labeled Adults Only and popular game consuls from Nintendo and Sony bar content from AO games on their systems.
Manhunt 2 revolves around a scientist and psychotic killer who escape an asylum and then embark on a killing spree. It is that premise that led Italian Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni to call “cruel and sadistic, with a squalid environment and a continuous, insistent encouragement to violence and murder” by. Italy is now looking to join Britain and Ireland in banning the sale of the game.
Faced with the prospect of hitting the market with an AO rating creators of Manhunt 2 Rockstar Games and its producer Take Two Interactive opted to suspend the planned July 10 launch of the game.
Rockstar was given 30 days to appeal the ESRB’s rating or revise the game’s content.
