An article on the Gameindustry website discussing apparent double standards with how the UK Censor body deals with Films and Games. In particular they compare Rockstars Manhut 2 which has yet to be rated and David Cronenberg's latest sick-flick, Eastern Promises which has been granted an 18 certificate.
That's the point. At the end of the day, it's not really about violent content, it's about the politics of the industry, and the pundits who have chosen to latch on to VG as the great evil of the entertainment medium. The great irony is that Rockstar has become Public Enemy number one, and they are LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT! The politicians are inadvertantly building hype for Rockstars game with every self-serving condemnation that comes out of their mouths. As the old saying goes, there is no such thing as bad press, the more the politicos rail against rockstar, the higher their Q rating goes!
Take-Two Interactive has 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.
I really don't understand how significantly more violent Manhunt 2 is compared to every other game that it gets this much ratings attention. All this attention is only going to get more people aware of the game...I'm not sure the goverments are doing themselves favors here.
"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."
"The changes necessary in order to publish the game in Britain are unacceptable to us and represent a setback for video games. The BBFC allows adults the freedom to decide for themselves when it comes to horror in movies and we think adults should be similarly allowed to decide for themselves when it comes to horror in video games, such as Manhunt 2."
The BBFC has again rejected Rockstar's Manhunt 2 despite the developer making cuts to the game after it was initially banned back in June.
"We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version"
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