Rockstar's 'Manhunt 2' Launch Officially Suspended

NEW YORK - It's official, folks: Rockstar Games' ultra-violent Manhunt 2 is now one potential step closer to the chopping block.

After government censors in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere banned the sale of the game over concerns of what they call unacceptable, sadistic violence - followed quickly by the U.S. Entertainment Software Ratings Board slapping the game with the dreaded 'Adults Only' rating that is unacceptable to all three major console manufacturers, including Sony and Nintendo for whose respective Playstation 2 and Wii consoles were supposed to play host to the game on July 10, the controversial subsidiary of Take Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) announced on Thursday that release of the game has been suspended indefinitely, citing the need for more time to "review its options" even as the company continues to "stand behind this extraordinary game."

"We believe in freedom of creative expression, as well as responsible marketing, both of which are essential to our business of making great entertainment," the company said in a statement.

The Associated Press reports that the indefinite suspension of the game's release was "a setback for creator Rockstar Games, which has come under fire for its popular Grand Theft Auto series of urban crime games, and [for] Take-Two [itself], which earlier this year underwent a shareholder coup that ousted its chief executive and nearly all of its board."

Slapping Manhunt 2 with the Entertainment Software Rating Board's most stringent rating would, of course, likely doom sales as it is. Most of the big retailers, including but not limited to Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) won't stock AO-rated games, according to the AP report.

At the same time, the report continues, Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) "said their policies bar any AO-rated content on their systems. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has a similar policy, but Manhunt 2 wasn't planned for its Xbox 360." By comparison, games released for use on personal computers generally don't suffer from this problem.

Rockstar "was given 30 days after receiving the ESRB's suggested rating to present an appeal or make changes to the game," according to the AP report. As of Thursday evening, the official Web site for Manhunt 2 still reported the game as "coming July 2007."

But "critics said they were concerned with the game's content, which depicts the escape of an amnesiac scientist and a psychotic killer from an asylum and their subsequent killing spree," according to reports. For example, in "the Wii version, the console's motion-sensitive remote is waved around to control a virtual murder weapon."

Rockstar and Take-Two "have long been a focal point for debate over the effect of video-game violence on children," according to reports. The publisher's Grand Theft Auto series, for example, features "characters who develop underworld careers through bank robberies, assassinations, drug-dealing, pimping and other crime. Two years ago, Rockstar was forced to replace its first edition of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" after a hacker discovered a password-protected game inside it that involved a sexual encounter."

Additionally, because of the ongoing controversy involving the Manhunt 2 furore, it would not be a surpise to see the game cancelled soon after Thursday's announcement of the delay. Still, with all the blows the development team has experienced so far this week, it remains to be seen what Rockstar Games will do given the situation. Thus, if the game should indeed be scrapped after this setback, let us at least hope that it disappears quietly with little or no further buzz surrounding it's departure from the videogame landscape. Because given the circumstances surrounding , that would at least be the best thing that could happen at this point in time.

And if that does indeed come to pass, then perhaps it's all for the better.

Sorce material for this article can be found at the following URL:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAMES_MANHUNT_2?SITE=MOCOD&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-06-21-18-30-55