@Adam the Great:

Don't you think the price difference between the PS3 and the GBA may have something to do with the disparity in units sold?

[Rockstar] accepts the game was leaked onto the web by an employee of a different company who had access to the preview copy. That person has been sacked....

Additionally, the people who sacked that employee were also themselves sacked. The game will continue to be produced in an entirely different method at great cost to Rockstar.

@Thefreemen:

LOL... we gonna see that everytime they mention the employee getting 'sacked'? :P

@Threfreeman

Where's my llama Manhunt 2?

I still see this as a win for freedom of speech and am very grateful that this unnamed employee took a hit for the team, so to speak. Stick it to the man!

@BlackIce

i suspect they'll go away even faster in 25 days when Assasin's Creed comes out.

Glad the guy got sacked. Leaking games when you work in the games industry is about as bad as it gets. Anyone did that at our place, and they would be lucky to have a friend left in the building.


@BlackIce, Leftie,

"And Bladestorm. Gotta love the Hundred Years War. "

Oh yes. Played the demo for ages yesterday, cant wait for release on the 2nd. :D

@Kentonio - I more or less said the exact same thing in the last MH2 story involving the "sacked" employee. Leaking a game is among the worst betrayals and insults, right up there with slapping someone in the crotch with their own dead dog.

I am not prone to violence, so I would not encourage my game dev team to hurt another person over leaked software (though I'm sure we would all like to). However, as I said in the last story, he's lucky to have ONLY been sacked. I'm glad to see now that proceedings are under way and hopefully some criminal penalties stick.

At least he's being punished for it.

But OH SNAP! The country JT had so much respect for with its rating system doing this?

*waits for him to cry 'Slow-Motion British Revolution'*

Ugh, another stupid act from Sony. Why am I not suprised.

I find it hilarious that all of you whom are normally strongly against censorship are acting as though the Manhunt 2 leak is a bad thing. You're all such hypocrites. This just goes to show that banning things only makes the situation worse. It wouldn't have been illegally leaked if Sony allowed the game to be sold on their console with an AO rating. Honestly just release the damn thing because somebody is going to end up leaking it anyway and what’s THAT gonna cost ya? Wouldn't it be more financially sensible for them to just allow AO games on their console and encourage retailers to stock AO games, rather than forcing developers to censor their games and encourage behaviour such as this? I'm sure so many people whom would have purchased the game have now gone "nah forget it, I got the uncut version for free, so what’s the point in buying the censored version?".

This also shows the ESRB and ratings boards around the world that regulation is better than banning. Now it’s far to easy for absolutely anyone to get a hold of the game. Yeah real nice. Banning has in reality, inadvertently promoted the game and forced it to be leaked, thereby creating a black market accessible to absolutely anyone. This is exactly what happened with Thrill Kill back in the day. People just don’t learn. I’m glad it was leaked, it’s about someone grew some balls and stood up for what they believe in, even if it means breaking the law. I can understand people being pissed off had he leaked some big blockbuster just to get it out to a few people early and look cool, but this? Come on get off your soapbox.

@ Dave

even if it means breaking the law

That is where you fail. Very few people (if any) support illegal acts such as piracy. We do want more consumer rights, such as AO games on consoles, removal of the DMCA and DRM. What we don't want are people "sticking it to the man" by committing acts of piracy.

This leak was done illegally. Take Two owns the rights to the game and the right to distribute it in whatever way they wish. This act violated that right. This person stole a copy of the game and distributed it contrary to the IP owners wishes. That is a crime. We don't condone criminal activity here.

The proper way of going about this is to voice our displeasure to the console manufacturers about their AO stance. We also vote with our wallet. Many people here have already stated that they will not buy this game because it is not the real game. Others say they will buy it just to annoy JT and other critics. Still others will never buy the game regardless of the version. Each person has their own way of handling this situation.

Again, criminal activity is not the way to solve this issue and no amount of it will make us raise a person up as a hero.

I speak of myself. I know that there are some who may dissagree and others who agree.

@BlackIce
I want Metal Gear Solid 4. That's why I bought a PS3.

Oh, and for the blu-ray.

And because they're going to remake Final Fantasy VII for it.

@Dave - While this sounds like a horrible PSA funded by a major conglomerate, you forget that leaking the software affects everyone involved in the game development, right down to the individual programmer.

If you have any idea of how things work in software development, it only takes one idiot to screw the pudding for everyone else. While we're at it, take a look at the larger picture that is making the news: "Controversial game banned in country reaches the hands of minors for free via illegal distribution." Wow, that really makes the industry look good.

Those involved in the creation of video games have enough hardship and stress to deal with, and one guy performing an illegal act isn't a revolutionary. Do you see hundreds of other Sony or R* employees following in his wake?

No, because he's thieving douche bag.

If you can't tell, I'm one of those agreeing with Knight.

[...] Enlace: Manhunt 2 Leak Came From PlayStation Europe Employee Escrito a las 17:32 | Envia esta nota por correo electrónico Por Paola Mejia | Lee más de: Consolas, General, Noticias, Playstation 2, Sony Otros blogs que comentan acerca de esta anotación [...]

[...] Link [...]

This isn't the first time Sony have leaked something, usually it comes from their TRC testers.

Isn't it about time Dave Bennett got the boot? It would happen to any other QA manager if it was leaked from their own company dammit!

People insult the person who leaked the game but he is in fact a hero. Thanks to this genius we got to play the game how it was meant to be played. I think it was very brave and courageous of him to have taken the initiative that he did by bringing the game to us.

In a world thats too over-ran by censorship this man took a bold stand. There are many of us who would never have got to play this game had it not been for this persons beautiful act of kindness and respect for those who were upset and angry about being denied the chance to experience this game by censors who wish to dictate what we play.

This man is a diamond and a legend in his own right and fully deserves a lot of respect and praise for his kind and helpful actions and many other people should be very grateful to this guy for giving us the wonderful opportunity to play Manhunt 2.

Leaks lead to forced delays and stronger anti-piracy measures. Congratulations.

@ Adam The Great

Also by your logic, the guys who robbed those 20 Gamestops would be heroes because the games they stole and are now selling on ebay allow us to avoid paying the high prices of retail.

"Seen worser bugs in other games"

Oh dear, stop talking!

I agree this man is a total hero and has fully enabled us to overcome censorship that was imposed upon us. I am totally straight and not into men at all but given what this guy has done for us, I really would consider sucking him off if he actually wanted it. Just as a token of my appreciation and on behalf of those that he made very happy that they did not miss out on a great game.

So they sacked one bad apple at SCEE for leaking a preview copy of Manhunt2. Yet the copy that was leaked is as everyone is saying obviously an early version. Wait a second... lets apply some logic here.

Every game that gets made into PAL version for any Playstation consol has to go through SCEE. Since it is was obviously such an early version of the game, it must have been part of an early submission that took place long before any rating board submission. That's just the natural order of development.

So this SCEE employee must have made his copy of this version of the game long before the ban was in place.

But wait... That can only mean this individual was merely pirating the game for pirating sake, and that this initial act had nothing to do with the banning because it hadn't taken place yet.

I think that's pretty significant because it means as a game developer, you can't have any confidence that any game you submit to SCEE to be put on a Playstation consol isn't just going to end up on the internet.

All I know is that as a game developer I would be mighty pissed off if I entrusted SCEE with source code for any game I'm working on, only to find out they leaked it on the internet.

@BlackIce, Leftie,

English of course! :D


@GameDevMich,

Aye, I think its a difficult one to explain to people (as many posts here have shown). We've had stuff going through SCEE in the quite recent past, and if that had been leaked we would have been truly gutted and very angry. Setting aside for a second all the financial implications, I dont want my work to be sent out into the world unfinished and unpolished. All I can think to say to those who are applauding this guy, is think how you would feel if you'd been working on a song, or a story or a picture, and that was shown to the world before you had had time to complete it. All those people not only seeing an unfinished work, but judging you on it, and deciding on its merit based on that. Its a deeply unpleasant precedent and one that hopefully will not be repeated.

[...] -Source GamePolitics [...]

Manhunt 2: Geleakte Version stammte aus Europa...

...

@Dave

I don't think we're really saying that it was a bad thing for it to be leaked, I'm just saying Mooses are dangerous. A moose bit my sister once, she was carving her initials into it...

Thefremen was sacked

@hurrah

Actually, that's rather good. Permission to copy it and use in arguements? Thank you.

Console wars and villain-to-hero worship aside, I have yet to see a counter argument from those supporting the culprit that addresses the legality of his actions and the affect it has on the industry as a whole.

- He stole something and distributed it to the masses. How can you applaud immoral actions? He took an item/game/code that DID NOT BELONG TO HIM. He's not Indiana Jones recovering an ancient piece of art to place in a museum. He took a game that a group of coders slaved over for months and released it in an unfinished state.

- The industry has come under heavy fire from politicians, watchdog groups, lawyers, and soccer moms. This isn't new, of course, but the past few years have shown increased legislation, fear mongering, and decreased knowledge of gaming. The ex-employee's actions could have ramifications or be used by "the other side."

As I've said in the past, I'd rather fight my own fight alone than have an idiot fight with me. I'd rather be the last game developer on Earth, with the entire world against me, than associate myself with a thief.

[...] Remember that uncut version of Manhunt 2 that hit the ‘net last month? Looks like it wasn’t hackers — named or unnamed — after all, but rather, an employee at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. It seems all of the people who were whispering that it might be an inside job weren’t too far off … they were just pointing fingers at the wrong people. [...]

[...] 24, 2007 Unrated Manhunt 2 Leaked by SCEE Employee Posted at 2:15 am in PS2 | Share This Tags: leak, manhunt 2, scee, take 2 games It has been quitea while since an unrated copy of Manhunt 2 had been made available on P2P and Warez networks worldwide. No one knew where the version originated from, until now. The originator of the leak was, apparently, an employee of SCEE. Here’s what Take-Two had to say: [We] have confirmed that a former employee of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has acknowledged his responsibility for the unauthorized online distribution of an unrated play-test version of Manhunt 2 submitted for the European PAL PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system. [...]

the man/woman took a game that the fat-cat-money-making-snobs wouldn't let us play and let us play it, anyone hating on this man/woman is a fool, and i pity fools.

@Mung

"This isn’t the first time Sony have leaked something, usually it comes from their TRC testers.

Isn’t it about time Dave Bennett got the boot? It would happen to any other QA manager if it was leaked from their own company dammit! "

Ahhh.... a fellow employee.....?
Yeah, I think Dave bennett should go. Actually, they could loose most of the management and supervisors from the QA dept. It's ridiculously over(yet somehow under) managed.

Reply: GameDevMich

Hate to say it, This world and all of its ppl are already knee deep into the foul cauldron of hell. As Americans ppl like Adam The Great, is ignorant toward ppl, opposing his ideals. He wanted this game to come out full AO rating and all.

Personally, I really dont care for ManHunt, after the 1st one, I got really bored. Its all the same thing over and over again, You kill someone and you keep moving on, and you kill someone else and move on, Untill everyone is either dead or your dead. Manhunt was a exciting game for the 1st few weeks playing it, then it just seemed liked the same thing over and over.

This reminds me of the Thrill Kill Fiasco, many years ago. Someone leaked it, it sucked real bad. Then again it was released for the PsO.

Leaked or not, I still think Manhunt 2 will suck eventually and become old news yet again.

I am a pretty laid back guy in real life and wouldn't even dream of hurting a fly, but damned if the completely brutal and graphic kills in this game aren't fucking kickass. I hated the game censored because it just seemed like a waste of talent on the developer's part when they put so much effort into the executions, making them realistic and oh so satisfying, just to have them covered up by a shitty blur/static filter that ruined the ambiance of the game.
I'm still laughing at the "saw through the top of the head" kill.