Manhunt 2 Escapes Revert to Adults Only Status

Finally, the verdict is out: Manhunt 2, the video game that became mired in controversy recently, would not get an Adults Only rating, unlike its original version. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board made the announcement Friday, after letting the suspense hang for about a week.

The video game became mired in controversy when on Halloween, news started doing the rounds about Russian hackers devising a way to reprogram the code for the PSP version of the game. The rumor was that the reprogrammed code could wipe out special effects that had been developed in some of the gruesome kills. The modifications required dropping off the game code on to a PC and then altering a few lines of code.

The rumors set off strong protests from the parents. The Parents Television Council and also the Senator for the State of California, Leland Yee, called for the Board to change the ratings for the game back to the original AO. The AO rating had, in fact resulted in the release of the game being delayed from June until this week.

Patricia Vance, the president of ESRB, said the alterations made would not cause the game to revert to the original, more gruesome version, the version that had initially received the AO rating. During a conference call with reporters, she said the investigation the Board had conducted into the matter had yielded satisfactory results.

Ms. Vance said the publisher of the game had disclosed all content of the newer Mature-rated version of Manhunt 2 to the ESRB. She also said the publisher had followed all guidelines the ESRB had laid down related to content disclosure.

Ms. Vance further said the ESRB investigation had revealed there were illegal versions of the game doing the rounds on the Internet. These versions had listed out how to alter the code so the special effects shielding the gory kill scenes could be stripped off.

Rockstar Games, the development studio behind Manhunt 2 and Take-Two Interactive Software earlier confirmed the game had been hacked. In a statement to GamePolitics.com, Strauss Zelnick, Interactive Chairman of Take-Two said while he supported the rating process at ESRB, it was a sad fact that nobody in the entertainment software industry could escape hackers.

Stating that Manhunt 2 was a video game for those who were 17 years and above, Zelnick asked people to enjoy the company’s games the way the company had developed them. “We hope consumers will not engage in hacking or download illegally modified copies of our games…”

Vance said the Manhunt 2 scenario was not the same as the Hot Coffee scandal that had erupted in 2005. In that case, a hacker from the Netherlands had discovered a half-completed sex game in the code for another popular video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

She also said the current ESRB investigation into Manhunt 2 centered on the PSP and PS2 versions of the game. The ESRB did not investigate the much-publicized Wii version as that version did not find mention in the Russian hacking attack.