Manhunt 2 Delayed - Thanks Alot Guys

Remember yesterday that I told you about Manhunt 2 receiving an 'AO' rating, thereby jeopardizing its release on both Wii and PS3 consoles? It has officially been delayed.

Frankly, I'm disappointed in the gaming industry, as it likely had a large impact on this decision. I'm most upset with Nintendo and Sony at their refusal to allow games marked as 'AO' on their systems. Some video games are violent, others are extremely violent. But can a game truly be so violent that you refuse to let your customers play it?

We have bought your consoles for years, and I think we're fully capable of deciding that something is inappropriate to play. So you want your consoles to be "family friendly," fine. But that term has always been such crap. What you really mean is "kid friendly." If you really meant that it was for the family, you would realize that in most people's family there are parents. You know, adults. Oh, but you don't allow games that are only for adults, just the ones that kids can play. So lets cut the "family friendly" crap and call it what it really is, "kid friendly."

By now you're probably wondering why I would get so upset over a game being delayed. It's probably because I was really looking forward to playing it, right? No, that's actually not my type of game. My problem is that video games are art. Just the same as a book or a movie is art. Essentially what Nintendo and Sony are doing is censoring the artists' work and telling them that if they want people to see it, they are going to have to change it to meet their standards. For this reason, I hope that they decide to keep the game as it is and release it for the PC. Sadly, I know that from a business standpoint this isn't feasible, so maybe they could go ahead and change it to comply with Nintendo and Sony's standards, so they can actually release the game. But also keep this original version and release it for the PC sometime in the future.

Yes, I know that Nintendo and Sony both have every right to police what content is allowed on their systems. I'm just disappointed in them for doing so. I also know what people mean when they say "family friendly," I just think it's a cheesy way to describe something that is meant to be safe for children. Here's a good question, does Sony block XXX-rated movies on the PS3? I know that it has to be feasible, since they had built-in parental controls in the PS2, why not just automatically block anything with a XXX rating? It's the same thing really, and those titles are definitely not "family friendly."

Take-Two decides to delay release of Manhunt 2 [via opposablethumbs]