British regulators reject Manhunt 2 revision
- October 08, 2007 00:00 AM PST
British regulators rejected a toned-down version of Manhunt 2 for a second time on Monday calling the revisions "insufficient."
"We recognize that [Rockstar] has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version," said David Cooke, director of the British Board of Film Classification.
"The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient... they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature," he added.
Rockstar will need to appeal or resubmit the game with additional changes if it wishes to distribute the game in the U.K. maintained the BBFC.
"We are continuing to appeal the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) decision to deny the edited version of "Manhunt 2" an 18+ certificate and thereby ban its release in the United Kingdom," Rockstar said in a statement. "The changes necessary in order to publish the game in Britain are unacceptable to us and represent a setback for video games."
Manhunt 2 was delayed in June after the ESRB effectively banned the game from release on major consoles due to what was then an "Adult Only" rating. Nintendo, Microsoft, nor Sony allow such ratings on their platforms. The BBFC, however, denied any rating, thereby making it illegal for distribution in the U.K.
A less-violent version of the game was then resubmitted to both the ESRB and BBFC. In August, US regulators granted the game a "Mature" rating clearing it for release in North America for Wii, PS2, and PSP on October 31.
