Various members on our message board have been discussing the fact that Manhunt 2 maybe coming out for the Playstation 2. After further searching around various message boards i have been able to confirm that Manhunt 2 is scheduled to come out on the Playstation 3.

This was confirmed by various people, who said they had saw this in the December issue of US publication PSM's future releases calender for 2006 and 2007 also mentioned was the fact the game was barely in development. We don't know what to make of this news but until we or someone else get conformation from Rockstar, again you should also take comments as pure speculation and nothing more.

There are rumours flying around that Manhunt 2 has been confirmed as being in development in the US publication PSM, various message board users claim to have read in the future publications section of the magazine that the game is on its way.

Other sources state that the game is in early stages of development, which is highly questionable as Rockstar are known for only announcing titles mere months before release and once again with no back up, such speculation can be taken with a grain of salt.

News of a Manhunt sequel in magazine publications is nothing new, with magazines such as PSM2 and the Official UK PS2 Magazine making speculation for months now. In the past it has always been taken as hope on behalf of the reporter rather than actually being true, and with no official word from Rockstar or Take-Two all we can go on is speculation.

It is also worth noting that I have received a few conspicuous emails in the past week or so with such claims from sources, but with no proof to back it up I have been forced to dismiss them.

For the time being take these comments as pure speculation and nothing more.

If you know anything, be it rumour, magazine scan or source get in contact with us and let us know.

A lot of updates have been taken place on the site recently and I just thought I would summarise it all for you. If you check out the Story page you can see that it has been redone, it still isn’t finalised but it is certainly coming along. The Trivia page has once again been updated with some new information for you to check out. The Beta section now includes some new interesting findings about the pre release version of the game.

The Media Coverage page now contains over 65 articles of all natures for you to check out, while you are at it you may wish too look in the Gallery for some of the new scans and such. And the Misc Section was renamed to the more appropriate Features; here you can find the first 4 features that I have done, if you are a regular of the Forum then you no doubt have been waiting some time for these.

And the last but certainly not least update is the Dialogue page; I have gone ahead and redesigned the page so that it loads quicker for those of you with a slower connection. Currently we have re ripped the dialogue from the game and are looking for people to help us type up the missing pieces, if you are interested then sign up at the message board and get in contact with either me or Lazlow.

If after all that you are still looking for something to occupy your time with then IGN has an interesting interview up about Controlling Videogame Sex and Violence that you can view here.

The New York Post has reported that Take-Two is having serious discussions with various buyout firms and as fate would have it Elevation is in the leading. IGN has quoted the following reasons why this may be a better move for Take-Two:

- multiple shareholder class action lawsuits over its handling of the "Hot Coffee Affair" and its resulting negative financial impact on the company's earnings and stock price

- a lawsuit filed by the city of Los Angeles for the sale of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas related to the "Hot Coffee" fiasco

- the fallout over the resignation of the chairman of the company's audit committee due to her "concerns" about the company's accounting and governance issues involving its financial internal controls

- a potential Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation related to the company's accounting practices

- an Alabama lawsuit that alleges a teenager went on a killing spree due to the influence of the Grand Theft Auto series

- the company is burning through cash at a significant rate

Long story cut short, they believe Take-Two is more valuable when broken up into its various studios rather than being a single entity as such this would be a valuable move.

Bono of U2 fame has investment in Elevation Partners as does several former EA executives; the company also currently holds shares in Pandemic Studios and Bioware so the game industry is nothing new to Elevation. The deal is said to be worth more than $1 billion dollars.

You can read more about Elevation Partners by clicking here.

Take-Two have recently released their annual report alongside an overview of things that may come. Here is an excerpt from the report regarding the sale of GTA games.

Additionally, retailers may decline to sell interactive entertainment software containing graphic violence or sexually explicit material that they deem inappropriate for their businesses. Many of our Rockstar titles have received an M rating. If retailers decline to sell our M rated products or if our M rated products are re-rated AO, we might be required to significantly change or discontinue particular titles, which in the case of our best selling Grand Theft Auto titles could seriously hurt our business.

While this report mentions Grand Theft Auto in particular, Manhunt also falls under this category. So what does it mean in the long run? Does this mean that Manhunt will be discontinued? Unlikely, however it may suggest that further titles released by Take-Two (including all Rockstar games) could be more heavily regulated. It is also worth noting that other territories use different rating systems such as in the UK, they follow the BBFC rating system and as such it is possible that if cuts where to be made to a game then an alternate version of the game could be released outside of the US.

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Today Rockstar has announced the release of Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix for March of this year. Could this be the Rockstar sequel hinted at back in January. It is more complicated than that however, the game is more alike a special edition than a sequel and is part of the PS2 Greatest Hits program and the Xbox® Platinum Hits collection so it is not a true sequel as such but it was up until now, unannounced. Watch this space for further news.

Source: Take2 Interactive