The highly expected video game “Manhunt 2” has been put on sale in the United States on Wednesday, when it has hit the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo’s ever popular Wii video gaming console. But in just hours since the launch, the silent war behind this highly expected video game has begun! It is now the game’s publisher Take-Two and its designing studio Rockstar Games that are being hunted by many important institutions and persons! But why is that? Why has Take-Two’s recent game started all this controversy?

After less than 24 hours since “Manhunt 2” has been released, its publisher (Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.) has had to admit that the hackers have somehow managed to unlock some previously-modified violent scenes on the PSP version of the game. Although the hack seems to work only on the PSPs that have been previously modified to allow unauthorized content, the problem has quickly become a major topic of discussion, involving the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which is the organization that applies and enforces age ratings to the video games, the game’s publisher and its designing studio, as well as other institutions such as the Common Sense Media NGO and even California’ Senator Leland Yee. All of these important people and institutions have started to quickly expose their opinions, to attack, or to respectively defend “Manhunt 2”.

So, the controversy has arisen because the video game is rated “Mature” by the ESRB, which means that it is intended for players 17 or older, but now, thanks to the hack, it should be rated “Adults Only”. Still, it is the hack, not the original version that should be rated like this, but the ones that are irritated by this issue don’t seem to think like that. For them it seems that there is one single “Manhunt 2” video game, which features highly video scenes (only on PSPs), and that’s all. But things aren’t like that and the ESRB seems to agree, as the organization has recently stated it will stick with the “Mature” rating.

However, the increasing furor against “Manhunt 2” seems to have come like this also because of two old problems. First of all, Take-Two and Rockstar Games have previously encountered similar troubles, when their video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” has been shipped with a hidden sex scene that has been easily unlocked by the gamers. At the time, the ESRB has changed the rating from “Mature” to “Adults Only” and the retailers have pulled the game off their shelves. But this should not be the case of “Manhunt 2” too, as this time it is the hackers and not the game’s designers that are guilty, and the ESRB has agreed on this. "I don't think there is much the ESRB can do to stop games from being modified. […] I don't think the ESRB should be held responsible." – Patricia Vance from the ESRB has said, confirming this way that what has happened with “Manhunt 2” is not similar with “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’” “Hot Coffee” scandal.

And secondly, another root of the recent scandal is represented by the fact that when Take-Two has originally submitted the game to the ESRB earlier in 2007, “Manhunt 2” has received an “Adults Only” rating. But Take-Two has made the necessary modifications and has blurred the problematic scenes and the ESRB has eventually rated it “Mature”.

So, it seems that Take-Two and its recently launched “Manhunt 2” aren’t too lucky during this period and that the context is simply unfavorable for them; but if one tries to understand things as they are, one would eventually understand that he or she has nothing to worry about. It’s simply necessary to buy the original game and not to download the hack. Take-Two’s chairman Strauss Zelnick himself has asked the gamers to enjoy the “Mature” version of the game.