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Take Two Vows To Publish Manhunt 2
Despite Manhunt 2's bad reception in both UK and US, Take Two has publicly announced that it will publish the game at some point. Backing the title as art, once again, the company vowed to see the game released in some capacity or another. "The chairman added that Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games, which publishes Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series, sees itself as a producer of games rated M for Mature. However, Zelman did say Take-Two would stand by its game, even if it bore the dreaded AO for Adults Only rating. 'We don't see ourselves in the Adults Only business,' he told analysts listening to the call. 'Having said that, if we find ourselves in the Adults Only business, it would be because we have a title that we consider art and entertainment, that we consider if appropriately labeled AO, and that we would like to bring to market.'"
In some capacity or another, eh? Come on collectible card game!
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
AO is more like the NC-17 rating. ESRB's M is equivalent, in theory, to MPAA's R even though they're not enforced the same.
I'd like to see whoever it was that ran a sting operation and saw 69% of kids under 17 could buy M rated games do the same for R rated films like Hostel, Saving Private Ryan and Pulp Fiction. (Yes, I picked those films on purpose as examples)
Take 2 vows to try and eke some income out of a product they've already spent money on!
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Think of it....
I think I speak for a lot of people that would _love_ to see the AO rating go from "the dreaded" to the "hells yeah!" rating. I mean we all want these kinds of titles - we are growing up but dammit as much as I love nintendo I want my games to grow up with me. Honestly I cant figure out where the real problem is. Distributors refuse to carry it - why? I know the fact that Wal-Mart wont carry it is a real problem when you are looking at your bottom line - but thankfully they looked at a bottom line of zero and are deciding to go ahead.
What I could see this as doing for the future is this being remembered as that first title that said 'the hell with it' and went through with the AO rating and made the Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft's realize that there is a market here and it is worth expanding our definition of games. Take Two is an utter mess at this point - but that desperation is great for doing something crazy that just might work. Dont tone down the game - throw in those few bits you were scared would originally garner an AO rating and just sell the damn thing.
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