Rockstar Fights for Your Right to Manhunt

And perhaps return on investment has something to do with the appeal too.

With so much money sunk into the development of Manhunt 2, Rockstar likely had little choice but to appeal the ban on the sale of the game in the UK. And so it was that the company this week started down that path.

Rockstar parent company Take-Two said on Wednesday that it is taking the necessary steps to appeal the ban handed down by the British Board of Film Classification.

"Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. confirmed today that Rockstar Games has appealed the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) decision that prohibited the release of any version of Manhunt 2 in Britain," a statement from the company reads.

The fate of Manhunt 2 now rests with the Video Appeals Committee, an independent body that hears appeals against BBFC rulings.

According to the VAC's appeals policy, Take-Two had 42 days to appeal the BBFC decision. The company made its move at the tail end of that period.

David Cooke, the director of the BBFC, said on 19 June that the decision to deny the game a rating had been made because its overall tone was much bleaker than the previous Manhunt - itself "already at the very top end of what the Board judged to be acceptable at that category".

"Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game," Cooke said.

Manhunt 2 tells the story of Daniel Lamb, a researcher at an asylum who gets caught up in a clandestine experiments gone horribly wrong.

The game was due to be released for Wii and PlayStation 2 in July, a date that came and went as ratings agencies the world over cracked down on the game.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo