Target May Discontinue Manhunt 2 Sales
Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog is reporting that retail giant Target may be pulling Rockstar's Manhunt 2 from store shelves and their online storefront. "This could be an interesting case: there is no content in Manhunt 2 that goes above and beyond what we've seen in other M-rated games without the extensive hacks needed to unlock the more graphic content. If Target wasn't seeing high sales of the game though, it wouldn't hurt the company financially to pull the game, and it gets to look family-friendly. From a public relations standpoint that's a win-win situation. My question remains: would Target be as quick to pull the game if it were a runaway success? " GamePoltics has up a discussion of the issues surrounding this move, with commentary from analyst Michael Pachter.
Target is a big box retail often found in the same cities as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, ShopKo, etc. and games stores like GameStop/EBGames, etc. No big deal if they pull them. Consumers will just walk next-door and pick it up. Now, if Wal-Mart pulled it, that would be something because a LOT of those other stores will follow Wal-Marts lead when they do things.
It's just more copies for the stores that are selling them.
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
That'll just make people want their game all the more! Thanks Target!!!
there is such a thing as bad publicity.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
You know that based on what? A game like that might sell well to parents of little kids. The "casual" gaming market is actually pretty big, and a lot of it is on the PC. It just doesn't garner much press.
Far as I can tell, pretty much nobody is actually playing Manhunt 2.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
I think I speak for the majority of gamers when I say "Who gives a rat's ass?"
I mean seriously, when the major marketing point of a game is whether it's banned, not the graphics, gameplay, and technical merit, one has to wonder whether anybody besides Jack Thompson is ever going to bother with the game.
Can we stop talking about this lame and pathetic excuse for a game now? Violence as part of a game is shiny. Crappy games that use it to sell instead of actually being decent suck, let's move on.
Unbreakable toys can be used to break other toys.
If it's marked that only 17+ can buy and should play it because of stated reasons (I believe that's the target for M rated games). Unless it's just sitting and collecting dust what good reason does a company have for pulling it off their shelves.
These are the same people who sell the "Unrated" version of movies to teenagers without a second thought but because video games are the hot button for "Think of the children" THAT'S what gets attention.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Indeed. If IIRC, the video game withe most copies ever sold is: Deer Hunter. A bargain bin queen sold mostly at Wal-mart.
Now, personally, I actually do hunt deer in real life, but the GAME was stupid. You click, get into the game, and these huge deer walk up to you within seconds (in game you'd never go more than 3 minutes without a monster buck walking up. IRL, it's not uncommon to go days without seeing ANY deer, and those huge trophy bucks are a once a decade thing, assuming you're not just paying some rancher to shoot big deer inside of his fence). Anyways, you shoot the deer, a "Good job!" sign pops up, and you do the exact same thing, again, and again, and again.
This thing sold in DROVES because it was a) cheap, b) easy, and c) didn't require any time investment.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I don't believe WalMart does the editing. The record producers create a 'clean' version and an 'explicit' version (look on Amazon, they sell both version). WalMart is choosing to only sell the 'clean' versions.
However, in the movie world, there is only one version, the 'explicit' version. I recall about a year ago a couple of companies that were doing the editing for parents (buy the movie, send it to them, they send you back a clean version), but I can't find a link to any of them right now. And I recall the movie studios going crazy because people were editing their movies.
Which I find humorous. Movies are edited for TV all the time. But you can't buy the TV versions of movies. I think there is a large group of people who would buy the edited versions of movies if they could. Just like they buy the edited versions of CDs.
Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.
No. (Kind of a silly question, isn't it.)
Players think the game sucks: they aren't falling for the enormous "carnage to the limit is cool" marketing campaign that's been going on here on Slashdot and elsewhere for six months. If anyone wanted it, the game would earn its shelf space. But...they don't, so buh-bye.
[I]t's not uncommon to go days without seeing ANY deer...
Would you really want to sit staring at a monitor for days on end when playing a GAME?
This thing sold in DROVES because it was a) cheap, b) easy, and c) didn't require any time investment.
Sounds like a perfect casual game to me!
Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
More likely, the game will never be missed, as buyers are drawn to games like Bioshock - intelligent, suspenseful and the perfect compliment for the XBox 360 and HDTV.
Of course not. That doesn't mean they wouldn't end up doing it in any case. See also: Don Imus' aborted radio career. It took an awful lot of pressure to bring him down, with all his political influence and the extreme financial rewards he reaped for his bosses. Manhunt and Take 2 have little to no political influence, and if their products aren't a financial success, who's going to be hurt if Target takes them off the shelves and sells them at firesale through another venue, maybe even eBay.
I suppose I should have clarified... "Would you really want to sit staring at a monitor for days on end without any action when playing a GAME?"
Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
Walk into Target.
Buy "Unrated" versions of Horror/Slasher movies on DVD.
Because, you know
- Roach
Me and a friend were discussing this the other day and decided that we liked the concept of the original manhunt, but the game was just too violent to be worth playing. If the game involves violence but has another focus (Tenchu comes to mind, it's a very similar game style) then the violent is acceptable, it's there as a means to an end and fits the setting, but when that flows backwards (The game is the violence not the violence is part of the game) it just loses all interest to both of us.
We're both 21, both been avid gamers since we were kids and both play games ranging from Mario to GTA:SA to Silent Hill, we're not the type of people to be overly conservative and avoid a game based on religious content or violence, but we expect a game to use these mediums and others in a way which enhances the game, rather than steals focus from it. If Manhunt was a good stealth game which just happens to be realistic in it's violence to the point of being uncomfortable we both would have picked it up, but being a violence game with a bit of stealth just makes it appeal to children (12-16 year olds) rather than appeal to the exact audience they claim to be aiming for.
These manhunt stories seem like iPhone stories to me now. The hype is feeding the hype rather than the product. The iPhone was on Slashdot daily, it was going to spawn undead and be the new hot drug on the street, instead it just faded into the mists and rarely gets mentioned any more, the hype is no longer needed and the content of the product just isn't enough to stand on it's own two feet. That's how I feel Manhunt is going, it's unlikely we will see a third, or they will attempt to be even more extreme by which time the crowd will have gone "bored of you beating nurses to death with a fetus, I'm off thanks" and it won't get hype or sales.
I like muppets.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
If they don't want to carry MH2, don't give them GTA4 (or any GTA titles) either.
I've built up so much character I have an alter-ego
"IRL, it's not uncommon to go days without seeing ANY deer"
Come to my back and front yard. I guarantee you'll see 20-30 a day. They're a pestilence in the northeast.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
That's what's still in the heads of many adults. Most games were actually played by minors until about ten or twenty years ago. But those gamers grew up and they stayed with it, and they want to play something other than Teletubbies in Lalaland.
I'm honestly surprised the thinkofthechildren crowd didn't discover Anime yet. Considering that "cartoons are for kids" is another stereotype hard to combat, and that many Anime cover subjects that are even by my standards not suitable for kids. And I'm not even talking Hentai here.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I seem to remember that the folks that bring you the expurgated versions say that they aren't modifying the original in any way, which is why they don't get hammered with the DMCA or any of the other copyright acts, but it seems a minor difference to me...
I played the first Manhunt for about a half hour and i didn't find it that fun or interesting. So how could Manhunt 2 be any better? I highly doubt it's decent, but i wasn't a fan of the Manhunt either, I prefer GTA.
Why don't they sell both types tho, so people like me can buy the uncensored version?
Something about hearing "old school" instead of "fuck you" in a rage against the machine lyric makes the song feel comical and not rebellious.
You'll buy your daughter a "Barbie goes to the mall" game on a whim, whether she wants it or not, and not worry about it much. You'd buy manhunt 2 for your child only if asked.
I think it's a pretty plausible explanation. Effectively this is just buying karma for when you need it later (like Manhunt 3, which everyone wants, and features full body degloving!).
So? Does a crack modify the original? If it can, I'd love to see it, it would be the proof that a DVD-ROM can write to an original disc.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.