Last week ESRB announced that after the re-evaluation of
Manhunt 2 decided to re-rate the game. Instead an AO (AdultsOnly) rating the
Rockstar’s game has received an M (Mature 17+) rating.
In June Rockstar Games decided to suspend the release of the
horror title when the ESRB issued the AO (Adults Only) rating, which could meant
a potential financial disaster because the console makers, Nintendo, Sony and
Microsoft doesn’t support such titles for their gaming platforms.
In order to get the “M” rating Rockstar has submitted to the
ESRB a modified version of “Manhunt 2”, but nobody knows for sure what changes
were made.
As a result, the media watchdog Campaign For a
Commercial-Free Childhood requested a federal government investigation in
order to determine if the game isn’t still to violent.
Also in a press release issued yesterday CCFC publicly
accused ERSB of modifying its rating especially for the new title.
“The [CCFC] is extremely concerned that the ESRB has
downgraded its rating for Manhunt 2… Despite industry claims to the contrary,
M-rated games continue to be marketed and sold to children under seventeen. The
ESRB’s reversal of its earlier decision dramatically increases the likelihood
that Manhunt 2 – the most violent game to date produced for the interactive
Nintendo Wii platform – will be marketed and sold to children” the statement
reads.
Also CCFC added that ESRB declined to reveal specific
details about how the original Manhunt 2 was modified.
California State Sen. Leland Yee (D) adopted a similar
position and he requested to the ESRB explanations about how the game was
rated.
“The ESRB and Rockstar should end this game of secrecy by
immediately unveiling what content has been changed to grant the new rating and
what correspondence occurred between the ESRB and Rockstar to come to this
conclusion. Unfortunately, history shows that we must be quite skeptical of
these two entities”, he said.
As a response, ESRB reacted today by issuing a statement signed
by ESRB President Patricia Vance in which she defended the decision and said
that the rating process is confidential.
“Publishers submit game content to the ESRB on a
confidential basis. It is simply not our place to reveal specific details about
the content we have reviewed, particularly when it involves a product yet to be
released. What can be said is that the changes that were made to the game,
including the depictions themselves and the context in which those depictions
were presented, were sufficient to warrant the assignment of an M (Mature 17+)
rating by our raters” she wrote.
In her statement, Patricia Vance responded also to the
comments made by Senator Yee and CCFC.
“The FTC, the national PTA, the Kaiser Family Foundation,
and Peter Hart Research have all found that parents are overwhelmingly
satisfied with the ESRB rating system. Rather than publicly second-guessing what
is unmistakably a strong warning to parents about the suitability of a
particular game for children, which presumably neither Senator Yee nor CCFC
have personally reviewed, we feel a more productive tack would be to join us in
encouraging parents to take the ratings seriously when buying games for their
children”, Vance wrote.
Two months ago, Manhunt 2 became famous as the first game to
be banned in UK
in the last ten years after it was rejected by the BBFC (British Board of Film
Classification) the British equivalent of ESRB.
Rockstar Games decided re-submit the game for approval, but
the status of appeal is still unknown.
Following ESRB’s decision to re-rate the game, Rockstar
Games announced that Manhunt 2 will be launched in North
America in October.
