BBFC warns that it may take legal action to stop Rockstar's game getting to retail

Rockstar is still celebrating its successful appeal to get Manhunt 2 classified ¿ but the British Board of Film Classification has warned that it may go to the most powerful judiciary in the country to ensure the game never hits High Street shelves.
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Currently, Manhunt 2 is not legally available for sale in the U.K. but that could all change. Update: BBFC may grant the game an 18 certificate.
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Rockstar's appeal against the BBFC's decision to reject a modified version of Manhunt 2 has been successful.

The Video Appeals Committee announced its decision to allow the appeal today. Although the final judgement has not yet been released, the organisation says that it decided in favour of Rockstar by four votes to three.

"The BBFC will carefully study the judgement by the Video Appeals Committee when it becomes available," said BBFC director David Cooke, who revealed that the BBFC "played Manhunt 2 for well over 30 hours" before rejecting it.
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Kotaku's Brian Crecente has a leaked copy of the National Institute on Media and the Family's annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, set to be officially released tomorrow. This year's report card is broken into five parts:

¿ The MediaWise Video Game Report Card
¿ The Buying Guide
¿ The ESRB Rating System and Ratings Education Efforts
¿ The Retailer Ratings Education and Enforcement Surveys
¿ Annual MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll of Kids and Parents

Kotaku gives a quick summary for each part.
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California State Senator Leland Yee has issued a press release in which he advises parents not to purchase violent video games for their children during the holiday season.

Yee, who sponsored California's contested 2005 video game law, is a child psychologist by training. He cited research showing potential harmful effects on younger players and took a swipe at the ESRB, the video game industry's content rating body. He also singled the controversial Manhunt 2 for criticism. The press release includes a list of tips to help parents select games for their children and counsels them to avoid first-person and third-person shooter games.
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27th Nov, 2007 In what may seem the worst tactical move since Hitler started eyeing up Russia, the British Board of Film Classification has admitted during Rockstar's appeal against Manhunt 2's continued ban in the UK that "there is insufficient evidence to prove, as a fact, there is a causal connection between violent games and behavioural harm". The fact itself is not news, but the admission at such a key time for the BBFC certainly is. So where does this leave the ban situation? Well the ... » Read More

The BBFC has accepted there is no proven link between anti-social behaviour and violent videogames - but said more research is required to conclusively rule any connection out.

Andrew Caldecott, representing the BBFC, went on to observe that neither side had suggested Manhunt 2 was suitable for people aged under 18 at any point during the hearing. "For a young person, this is a disturbing game, it is a shocking game, and there issues about innocence and matters of that sort in relation to young people."

"In a Utopian society, you would have effective measures where the over-18s could play what was suitable for them without being cluttered by the fact minors will see them. But you can't make classification decisions without regard to the social prevalence [of games]."
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Tiga president Fred Hasson and psychologist Guy Cumberbatch were today called to speak in defence of Rockstar at the appeal against the BBFC's decision to refuse certification for Manhunt 2.

Hasson told the Video Appeals Committee panel he had played four levels of the game and was "surprised at how tame it is compared to some very graphical scenes I've seen in other games which have received certification. I expected it to be a lot worse¿ I can't believe that this has been singled out as something that is worth banning."
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Four U.S. Senators sent a letter on Monday to the ESRB calling for a review of the video game industry's content rating system in the wake of the Manhunt 2 controversy. Jump to the source to read what they sent.
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"It looks like Rockstar just can't catch a break, as four U.S. Senators are now calling for a review of the ESRB over their rating of the controversial game Manhunt 2. Sens. Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, and Sam Brownback have sent a signed letter to the president of the ESRB, Patricia Vance."
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20th Nov, 2007 Duck and cover people, its happening again… In a move likely to incite gamers to either rally to vocal outcry or roll their eyes and yawn, a group of US senators is still campaigning against Rockstars Manhunt 2, nearly a month after the game was passed and released. The group of four, consisting of Joe Lieberman, Sam Brownback, Evan Bayh and Hillary Clinton (surprise!) is now gunning for the games rating to be upgraded to the effective banning of an AO, even after its ... » Read More

NeoGAF member egmfan89 has posted score from latest EGM magazine:

"Mario and sonic olympics: 6,7,6
Geometry wars galaxies: 8.5,7, 8.5
Fire Emblem: 9,9, 8.5
Need For speed pro street: 8.5, 7.5, 7
Tony hawk: 5.5, 6.5, 7.5
Manhunt 2: 4, 5, 7
CoD 4: 9.5, 8.5, 9.5
Blacksite Area 51: 6, 5, 6
Kane and Lynch: 7.5, 7, 7
Uncharted: 3 8.5s"
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Alone among major video game retailers, Minneapolis-based Target has decided to stop selling the controversial Manhunt 2.

Local Minneapolis TV station WCCO covers the decision in this report. A Target press release, cited in WCCO's coverage, says:

"While 'Manhunt 2' was given a 'Mature' rating by the ERSB, we received additional information that players can potentially view previously filtered content by altering the game code. As a result, we have decided not to carry the game."

The station also spoke with Matt Helgeson, senior editor of Game Informer, also based in Minneapolis:

"It is not a game for kids, it is very much a game for adults. And any adult thinking about buying the game for their kids should really reconsider that. I would say there are probably ten movies I could walk in right now and buy in Target that are every bit as gory as 'Manhunt,' if not more..."
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A Nintendo fan site is reporting that an electronics specialist at Target has confirmed that Manhunt 2 is being removed from all of the retailers locations. Moreover, the journalist made a check at his local Target store and found that there was not a single PS2 or PSP copy of the game to be found.
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Evil Avatar is reporting that local Target stores have been pulling Manhunt 2 off their store shelves in response to the recent events where some hackers uncovered adult content within the game.

Even though the ESRB themselves remained firm with the game's M rating, it looks like Target is taking no chances and is removing the game from its stores.

According to the source, all Target managers are required to stop selling the game, including refusing shipments of the game for all systems. Also Take-Two agreed to take back all unopened copies of the game.
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Nov 2, 2007 As most everyone on the planet has heard by now, Grand Theft Auto publishers Rockstar made a game called Manhunt 2 that was so gory, they could only get it on store shelves by covering up all the nasty bits. But enterprising hackers have broken into Manhunt 2 and removed the visual filters that covered up all of that nasty stuff. And luckily for us, they're sharing. We've found a nice, long, completely uncensored version of the video lurking about the interweb's nether regions, so ... » Read More

ESRB president Patricia Vance just held a short conference call to address the growing furor surrounding the discovery that the unfiltered, Adults Only version of Manhunt 2 is fully playable on the Playstation Portable with the help of a hack.

In a nutshell, Vance said what happened with Manhunt 2 was not at all similar with what happened with Grand Theft Auto San Andreas' Hot Coffee.

"With Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, that involved a scene that was fully rendered in unmodified content on the disc," she said. "It didn't alter the content it merely unlocked it. That content was not disclosed to the ESRB... and it was easily accessible to PC users."
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California Senator Leland Yee has chimed in on the latest chapter in the Manhunt 2 flap, saying in a statement that "The ESRB and Rockstar continuously put profits before children." Yee, an advocate of legislation that would make selling violent games to minors a crime, went on to recommend that the game's original AO rating be restored, and that the Federal Trade Commission should investigate both Rockstar and the ESRB to see how the whole thing happened in the first place.
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A still-critical, but seemingly more reasoned, version of Dr. Phil made an appearance yesterday on CBS morning program The Early Show to discuss Manhunt 2.

Watching as game journalist Scott Steinberg played the "Sexual Deviance" level of Manhunt 2 on the Wii, Dr. Phil commented:

Clearly, it's not good. The research has been very, very strong over the years that when you're exposed to violence and when you actually mimic something like this the aggression can go up.

Now the truth is, if somebody plays this game and then they go and do this in their life, there was something seriously wrong with them before they got the game. But it's modeling.
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The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) condemned Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 on Thursday, claiming the game is a "irresponsible, stereotyped portrayal of people with mental illnesses."
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