Rockstar has now apparently released an official statement following the High Court's ruling in favour of the BBFC which saw it overturn the Video Appeals Committee's decision to grant the release of Manhunt 2 in the UK.

We believe the VAC decision was correct and do not understand the court's decision to expend further public resources to censor a game that contains content well within the bounds established by the BBFC's 18-plus ratings certification.

It looks as though Rockstar is just as confused as I was yesterday when I read about the High Court's ruling. At this point it has gone way beyond questioning the priorities and sensibility of the ratings judicial system, there is definitely an agenda here and I don’t think it has anything at all to do with the concern of the wellbeing of those that could potentially consume the contents of Manhunt 2.

I never received the press release from Rockstar myself so I can’t verify that this is the entirety of what Rockstar had to say, I will update this news post should I receive a copy.

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GamePolitics reports that British politician Keith Vaz has been granted a meeting with British government officials to discuss concerns over violent game content and the sale of such games to minors. Or more importantly the games targeted are Canis Canem Edit (Bully) and you guessed it, Manhunt.

The following is a direct lift from GamePolitics:

Minister for Creative Industries Shaun Woodward, Minister for Industry Margaret Hodge and Vaz discussed violent games and their availability to children - specifically, according to Vaz, a pair of Rockstar titles, Canis Canem Edit (known in the U.S. as Bully)and Manhunt. As reported by MCV, Vaz said:

I am pleased that the Ministers agreed to meet with me and discuss this important issue. This is a good opportunity to raise concerns that many parents and I have on violent video games falling into the hands of young children. I do not believe that this is a question of censorship, but of protecting children.

As a British citizen myself I find it absurd that with all the problems we have in the world our government is more focused on trying to blame an almost 4 year old game and an unrightfully labelled game on the problems of today.

In Britain, Manhunt carries an 18 certificate and Canis Canem Edit (Bully) has been awarded a 15, what this means is that no one under that age is entitled to purchase the title without ID. The fact that Canis Canem Edit carries such a rating alone is absurd when you look at games like Resident Evil 4, Half Life 2 and Call of Duty 3 and movies such as Blade Trinity or Land of the Dead all of which also carry a 15 ratings. I think you will all agree that there was nothing in the game to warrant such harsh criticism, if they really cared then why couldn’t they have used the game as leverage on bullying and celebrate the fact that a company has took it upon them selves to make a game on the issue, not to promote it. By nature of the game existing or not, it does not detract from the fact that the problem still exists.

I don’t get what he is hoping to achieve by bringing Manhunt back into it either, is he hoping to get the sympathy vote of the uneducated over the unfortunate incident back in 2004? There is no misleading with the games packaging or whatever else they may suggest, a game with the tagline ‘THIS IS A BRUTAL BLOOD SPORT’ in bold, capital lettering and images of characters with guns doesn’t suggest to me this is a videogame based on Barney the dinosaur. What is suggests is that this is targeted at a mature audience with an understanding that this is only a game, if you buy it for your child and they don’t understand the difference then you have failed as a parent, not the developer who produced a quality adult game, that is for the most part appreciated by an audience that understands what is intended.

How about we stop blaming companies for the sociopath tendencies found in humans and take a look closer to what causes it rather than continuing to pass the blame on? But what is the point in that when continuing to blame Rockstar is so much easier.

If you rewind your memory back to May 2006 you will recall the closure of Rockstar Vienna. It had been heavily suggested to me that Rockstar Vienna had been working on Manhunt 2 (by multiple sources). Today the establishers of Rockstar Vienna have announced the creation of an all new company ‘Games That Matter Productions’.

The official press release reads as follows:

14 years and 14 days after establishing Rockstar Vienna (formerly known as neo Software) Hannes Seifert, Niki Laber and Jürgen Goeldner are proud to present their new company:

Games That Matter Productions GmbH.

A new company with a visionary game production business model.

The press conference to announce the goals and business model of Games That Matter will take place on January 25th, 2007.

At this point I would also like to remind everyone that Manhunt is a Rockstar owned property and as such this will make no difference what so ever to the status of Manhunt 2. I just figured some may be interested in reading about what has become of the studio that was gearing up to bring you Manhunt 2.

The guys over at GamePolitics.com (and JoyStiq) have published a quote from a financial analyst who has made a prediction about the unlikelihood of there being a Bully 2 due to lack of sales and time to develop, Joystiq then followed up on the article, but adding to that they had the following to say:

If Jimmy Hopkins' video game career is indeed one and done then it would go against Rockstar's standard practice (presumably encouraged by Take-Two). The developer has always molded its titles into series; The Warriors being the only Rockstar game that has yet to be revisited* (sequels to Manhunt & Red Dead Revolver are in the works). At the very least, we would expect Bully to be ported to PSP.

With all that said, they have not cited a source; I would be interested in knowing where they got this information from, as far as I am aware off there has been no other mention of Manhunt 2 on any other website, other than a few European websites that have referenced us and some magazine speculation many months ago.

Remember, none of the above is confirmed by Rockstar or Take-Two, it is just Internet hearsay. However I would imagine a PSP incarnation of Bully is more than likely on the cards as it was mentioned to me a few months back along side The Warriors PSP (prior to it actually being announced) and the alleged downgrade of Manhunt 2 to the PSP.

Back in November, while I was doing some early Christmas shopping I noticed that the casing for Manhunt had changes from a VHS cardboard mock up styling to a more traditional DVD style case, in line with the Playstation 2 and Xbox editions of the game. I never posted this on the news since I wasn’t sure of how new this change was, that was until today when it was mentioned on the forum.

The change in casing was likely due to the fact that the game has been on sale for almost 3 years on the PC, and plus it is harder to maintain the case in pristine condition, and a game in bad condition is less likely to sell.

For those of you that like to collect things, it may be worth purchasing another copy of the cardboard cased version of the game, if only to sell at a later date, games are notorious for rising in price via online outlets such as eBay, and with the original release of the game becoming rarer, you might just be able to make a nice little profit on the game in a few years time.

Orginal Boxart and Insert (left) New Boxart and Insert (right)

I don’t know if the change in casing has been put into place outside of Britain, however in some European territories the game is sold in jewel cases.