Of course not, they never have here......

Horseshit. It's bad enough that the major retailers create this stigma against AO-rated games, but the entire industry itself has turned them into a black sheep. We need the game equivalent of an NC-17 rating. Almost every AO game ever released is a porn game with little or no artistic merit. The difference with Manhunt 2 is that is actually has solid gameplay. I hope they don't have to edit it too badly. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people telling me what media I can and can't consume.

Argh, at first I really didn't care about Manhunt 2, and now after all this hype I'm chomping at the bit to see what's gotten everyone's nose hairs in a twist.

Microsoft, you're my last hope...

Incidentally it is reported elsewhere that Microsoft also won't allow AO games, though Manhunt 2 wasn't slated for an XBOX release anyway.

Also I've seen it repeated time and again that AO games are only crap/porn... slightly off topic but Indigo Prophecy was also rated AO despite not exactly being a porn game or crap for that matter (though I admit there was sex and a strip tease in it)... us illiberal brits with our semi-demonic BBFC gave it a far more appropraite 15.

If nobody wants their player to even offer these games- why, then is there an AO rating in the first place?

@GameDevMitch

The ESA owns ESRB so we can assume they'll stand by ESRB.

Yea I know, it was just a silly idea to boost PS3 sales so the price could drop and I could afford one. Not to mention to give developers a safe-house so to speak to drop off their AO titles and to hopefully start a chain reaction throughout the industry so that AO rating would slowly become less and less of a big deal.

I hate these people that are stopping me from being able to enjoy a video
game like it was originally made. I do not want any damn cuts in
manhunt 2. America living up to our so called freedom is a bunch of
nonsense. I want to AT LEAST be able to play any video game in my own
home. These stupid idiotic groups need to leave games like this alone.
And by the way, if this countries rating system really cares about what
people witness then why is it that just a few months ago I went to see the
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at a movie theatre by which it
was playing at all movie theatres and it only got an R RATING by which so
many children would witness the very brutal content by just simply having
an adult bring them along thinking alright this is not NC-17 it is just rated
R. I tell you what I witnessed in that movie in its R rated form would make
most unrated movies that are available look tame. This movie shows the
full scene of almost all of the brutal killings including a brutal sledge
hammer bashing scene, of course brutal chainsaw scenes, and a scene
where Leatherface grabs a young girls head and literally slashes her neck
open and holds on to her head while blood is squirting out of her neck and
lets go of her head when she is finally dead. I dont know about you guys
yet I think that the rating system is already totally messed up whether it is
video games or movies. Just let the game come out the way it is.
Seriously with what I have said wouldnt you agree with me?

God Of War is pretty brutal. Brutal enough for me to call it delicious. Yea it was probably done more tastefully than a Manhunt title but the only way to describe it is delicious epic brutality. Pretty intense stuff, maybe the fact that your killing mythological creatures instead of humans is it...

Yea Insomniac made R: FOM but Sony was the publisher.

I consider myself fairly well informed about these kind of things, but I never realized that it was the policy of all of the major console manufacturers to explicitly refuse to play AO games. I'm flabbergasted.

I don't have any interest in Manhunt, and I'm not ever going to buy a "porn game," but I do, strongly, believe that there should be a place for games that explore serious, adult subject matter.

Games will never get the status they deserve in the minds of the establishment until they prove themselves to be a legitimate art form. Unfortunately, no form of art can flourish unless it can challenge people. Art can not challenge people in an environment of puritanical censorship.

Shame on the developers, shame on the publishers, shame on the ESA, shame on the console companies, shame on the retailers, and shame on all of us for not standing up for art and for free expression, no matter how vulgar it may be.

I'm glad people are being informed of issue of consoles not allowing games with an AO rating. Education is the first step and once people start realizing something is wrong it becomes much easier begin to make a little progress. So tell your friends, so they can tell their friends because I suppose many people out there that don't know this bit of information.

Evil Jez-

Your point is still valid, sony didn't make the game, just published it.

These Anti-game activist keep preaching about how violent games are muder simulators gets me excited so when one looks like its kinda starting to head in that direction a little bit I get happy and then when it gets this crap it makes me sad. :( --- sad face

And I say a little bit in that direction because sure you stalk, and in terms of wii you do the movement. But imagine playing an actual murder simulation. Now think about how intensely detailed it would have to be for it to be legitimately called a simulation.

"Now think about how intensely detailed it would have to be for it to be legitimately called a simulation."

Sitting on top of a building for 6 hours with a sniper rifle, waiting for the right moment to shoot at your target... Hiding in a dark alley for a couple of hours, hoping your target will walk past so you can strangle him then dispose of the body in a dumpster you'll set on fire... Nobody would play a game like that, because it wouldn't be FUN. Even worst in the case of serial murders rather then targeted killing murders, because then you'd have to waste days to prepare for your killings.

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6172830.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&t...

You know, it is up to the company that has its console and the licensing of that console to decide what they want to go on there console. This is not the first time that this has happened. Although this is the first time that a entire rating has been a target.

Personally I would not buy an AO rated game anyway. Call me a Care Bear if you must but I got all this kind of content interest out of my system a few years back. So for me it has zero impact. I understand others view of this being regulation that is un-needed and I respect that. On the flip side, as I said above, it is completely in the rights of a company to make this kind of restriction and I respect that as well.

I commend them for making a decision, lets see if it will stick or if they will backup.

Nothing is impossible what would probably be difficult is to realize there is so many ways to dispose of things, bury it, burn it, sink it, eat it ect ect. hehe.

Its just a sick fantasty game of mine but I'd buy it and play it. Yea it would be rediculously hard to make and hard to find people to make it but I dunno just because something doesn't float the mainstream doesn't mean it shouldn't be allowed.

I mean if that was the case we would live in a very, very dull world.

Does this mean they won't get to sell Manhunt 2 unless the appeal goes through or they water it down? Let's root for the appeal and send letters to the ESRB.

I believe after the nes a special lockout chip was used. However, there is a way around it. If Rockstar made a gadget that allowed you to plug an official Nintendo Wii game while at the same time having Manhunt 2 Playing, it could override the lockout chip. A company called wisdom tree did that for "Super Noah's Ark 3D," a clone of Wolfenstein 3D but with the Bible. Noah versus a bunch of goats.

Sorry for the double post. It would work similarly to an action replay. It could have two disk drives, and one would house an official nintendo gane, the other would house manhunt 2, and they would both go into the Wii's DVD slot. It could work in theory, but would cost a lot to develop just to piss Nintendo and Sony off.

There's various aspects to this, but this would be the big one for me: if you develop games for a console, you need development kits to do so. The dev kits are only obtainable from the console manufacturers.

If you tried to release or succeeded in releasing an unofficial game, your relationship with the console maufacturer would almost certainly be irreparably damaged. No more dev kits = no more games developed for that console by your company.

Strange, but I can't recall on either the PS2 or Wii box any message saying "for kids only".

@Ace of Sevens: Thanks for the clarification!

"The Wii, 360 and PS3 all have lockout ability, why not license AO games?"

How about "Because they don't want to and don't HAVE to." Sony and Nintendo can decide whatever they want to run on their consoles, even if you call FREEDOM OF SPEECH or whatever.

Also remember that both those companies are originally Japanese. You know, the country that produces tons of porn but censors all of it? The country that censors their history textbook so the kids don't have to learn about the Nanking Massacre?

I wonder what they would have to do to get the Rating to a M?

This is truly the most blatant corporate censorship the games industry has ever been involved in. They're hurting themselves in the end, though.

The ESRB and the ESA are weak. It's about time we accepted that. Sure, the ratings have no problems (except for AO, which I believe should be abolished alongside MPAA's NC-17) but instead of defending themselves, they do these weak slaps of an argument (GUYYYS CHECK THE RATING? PRETTY PLEASE?) The ESRB and the ESA have always been a joke, a thin, completely shitty line of defense against criticism against the industry. With a group as weak as the ESA and ESRB, no wonder government represents try to sneak around and waste our tax dollars shitting on the game industry.

Sony and Nintendo are weak for pussying out on an opportunity to give the middle finger to all the groups that have been hounding them. Rockstar is weak for not taking a more active stance in battling this absurdity.


Everyone involved is weak. Congratulations, games industry, you've dug your own grave this time.

Rockstar isn't weak man, they are taking the most active stance they can. They have tried to release a game in the horror genre and people seem to say its just a game that is made just to offend people. But thats said about many good horror movies and music that is related to that genre. Those folks don't know what they are talking about so I just laugh at the and shake my head because its sad they they actually effect its release.

Yea I agree that some people could to more to defend Rockstar but I mean R* itself has not only made the game but they tried to release it. And even after it was givin a AO rating they still stood by it. Only thing more active they could do is release it for PC and pretty much say "fuck the PS2 and Fuck the Wii". But such a company with that mindset doesn't exist because they do want to make money after all.... Maybe GTA 4 will push the envelope far enough to get an AO rating... That would create some intresting results.

What bothers me most is that nobody except for Take Two and Rockstar will suffer any financial hardship from any of this, and that there hasn't been one bit of change since Thrill Kill was kept from market.

Maybe if Rockstar were to license the Wu-Tang Clan and repackage the game, they'd get it through. It worked the last time.

@EvilJez
You make a very good point, it's frustrating that console makers are getting slack for games they didn't develop, and even more frustrating that this leads them to have to be on the defensive. I was just cracking myself up at the thought of a DVD player company that won't let customers play porn on moral grounds.

@Terrible Tom
I wish the idea of a console playing an AO game wasn't so silly.

[...] What a turbulent week for Take Two Interactive and its controversial Manhunt 2 project. After being banned in the UK, a preliminary version of the game received an “Adults-Only” rating in the US, which, as it turns out, means that neither Sony nor Nintendo will allow it to appear on their consoles. As it stands, the game is suspended, and while people speculate that Take Two will have the game modified and stress a new rating, its future is unclear at the moment. [...]

[...] After reading the Game Politics article about Manhunt 2 not being published by Sony or Nintendo because of its Adults-Only rating, I’ve come to the conclusion that both Sony and Nintendo are completely spineless. Are you guys really so worried about armies of Thompsonites coming after you that you are willing to preempt parental responsibility and freedom of choice? [...]

A good medicine tastes bitter.

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