Manhunt 2 "not an image issue" for Nintendo, says Fils-Aime

By GamesIndustry International Published 28 June, 2007

Doesn't sound like a fan though.

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has spoken out for the first time on the controversy surrounding Rockstar title Manhunt 2, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Speaking to Newsweek Fils-Aime said, "This is not an image issue. Wii welcomes games rated E, T and M. We haven't approved AO-rated games. I doubt we ever will."

According to Fils-Aime, Manhunt 2 is "a game rated outside our spectrum, outside any manufacturer's spectrum".

There have been some suggestions that even if Rockstar edited the content of Manhunt 2 so the PSP and PS2 versions could be re-rated as Mature by the ESRB, the Wii game might still retain the Adults Only tag due to the gestural nature of the control system.

When this was put to Fils-Aime the executive replied, "That's an issue for the ESRB and Rockstar to work through. And as I understand the ESRB guidelines, the Wii controls should not be an issue."

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Comments (37) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • moggsy #1 5 years ago

    Is it the hammer attachment for the controller which would cause the problem?

  • NegativeZero #2 5 years ago

    If it's not an image issue, then what is the problem? With the controversy around it it would probably sell a boatload on Wii, and Nintendo would stand to skim a tidy amount of money off it...

  • Kami #3 5 years ago

    Not really the point NegativeZero. Sega never allowed it. Sony don't. Microsoft don't. AO games are generally seen as a bit too out of the boundries and over the line, as such companies rather not be pulled down by the bad press they'd definitely recieve if they allowed such games to be sold on their systems. Yes, I agree that it'd do Nintendo's image the world of good but financially and perhaps market-wise with their new family-wide image, allowing Manhunt 2 would be a definite gamble that would not be guaranteed to pay off. Nintendo have taken enough chances without a third-party game undoing their work.

    The gaming market does need to catch up, no doubt about that when you look at the kind of movies that pass these days. When all is said and done though, it's the console manufacturers that have the final say. They don't allow AO, and I doubt they ever will.

    Truth be told though, I think stuff like Manhunt 2 is pushing it a little too much anyway. Not my kind of game and I do worry about the kinds of people that would buy it on the back of the press it's had...

  • brokenkey #4 5 years ago

    I thought GTA3 was rated 18?

  • Kami #5 5 years ago

    In some places, GTA3 was banned because the regional classification boards rejected it. Vice City got censored for most of these regions and San Andreas, without censoring, got past most places in the end (though Australia and a few other places did slap San Andreas with a ban after the Hot Coffee thing came to life).

    Ratings aren't worldwide, it's very much region-specific, and countries withold every right to ban a game or movie or TV Show from their lands.

  • zuljin #6 5 years ago

    @brokenkey
    Theres a difference between AO and 18. The same group of people can buy it, but AO games are not usually stocked by highstreet retailers.

    I think its a bit like porn, you can buy top shelf mags in a lot of stores, but the hardcore stuff you'll only be able to get in licensed sex shops.

  • Kami #7 5 years ago

    Manhunt 2 isn't kinky though to be sold in one of those places... so exactly where would you buy it is a perfectly valid question.

    Answers on a postcard to someone who cares.

  • Xerx3s #8 5 years ago

    The way I see it, ninty needs all the AO & 18+ games it can get it's hands on. Right now it is direly lacking in those fields.

  • aabyssx #9 5 years ago

    What? It's not a rythm game or a minigame collection. Of course it's an image issue! >:)

  • Brogan #10 5 years ago

    Kami, i would buy it on the back of the press it just had to see for myself. The same as i wanted to see Hannibal Holocaust and a load of other stuff after the ban was lifted on them wouldn't have bothered with this game (never played the frist one) or them films if they had been subjected to a ban.

  • Skeletor #11 5 years ago

    "I think its a bit like porn, you can buy top shelf mags in a lot of stores, but the hardcore stuff you'll only be able to get in licensed sex shops."

    Hehe, while this might be the case in the UK and Germany it's definitely not the case in the rest of Europe - in the Netherlands, Spain, and all the eastern European countries you can buy hardcore porn at your newsagent and most of the time it's not even on the top shelf;-)
    A couple of Austrian shops claim that they will be getting a small amount of uncut-rated PEGI 18 copies of MH2 on the 26.07.07.
    http://rmw-tech.at/XQ/ASP.index/justshow...

  • Skeletor #12 5 years ago

    ...Cannibal Holocaust.
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0078935/

  • Kami #13 5 years ago

    The line between curiosity of it's banning and people buying it purely to indulge in what they have been led to believe will be visceral violence is a fine one, Brogan. Especially if the ban is lifted. If it's unbanned in a few years time, I think enough time will have passed to look back and decide if it really was all that bad, but if say the ban was lifted next week and the game went on sale a few weeks after - that's a whole different ball game to me and something that I think should be cause for worry.

    I know it sounds really daft and sissy of me to say that. However, it's not the copycat or buck-passing things that worry me. It's the people who probably will take a lot of enjoyment from this game. The idea just doesn't sit right with me on this one.

  • ProtoformX #14 5 years ago

    Actually if Manhunt 2 on the Wii had a gestural control system I could understand the ban. Having to actually do the motions of bludgeoning someone to death is not something the bothers me hugely on a personal level, but I could definitely see the problem with the general public.

  • Brogan #15 5 years ago

    sorry Skeletor, did wonder why it wasn't shot in the alps and had fuck all to do with elephants :-)

  • zuljin #16 5 years ago

    @Skeletor
    Yea I know, it was just to demonstrate the principle. Something might be for the same age group, differently rated and sold in different places.

    I know what you mean tho, my hometown in Belgium sells hardcore, erm... "specialist" videos in the local CD shop. :)

  • AcidSnake #17 5 years ago

    It really is getting to the point where I am considering trying to import the uncut version (if it gets released anywhere)...
    And this is really only to see what the fuss is about, it isn't about the game anymore...
    Can my fragile little mind take it?

  • DjchunKfunK #18 5 years ago

    A game being rated 18+ opr AO doesn't automatically make it a good game, so why do Nintendo suddenly need more games in this age bracket. Surely they just need more games that are actually good.

    As for the Manhunt issue, I was reading a piece on IGN where the BBFC talked about how when rating games such as this they have to take into account the potential harm the piece of media may cause. WHen it comes to videogames a large number of people see them as things for kids and so take less notice of the ratings. An adult is very likely to just buy the game if their child pesters them just to shut them up no matter what the age rating system says as they don't see it as the same as the film ratings. I have experienced this myself when I worked at Game. A number of adults were quite willing to buy GTA for their children reguardless of the rating on the box. So the BBFC see it as their duty to take this fact into consideration when rating Manuhunt 2 and this is part of the reason why the game was rejected.

  • Ciaran500 #19 5 years ago

    "An adult is very likely to just buy the game if their child pesters them just to shut them up no matter what the age rating system says as they don't see it as the same as the film ratings."

    That shouldn't matter to the BBC, they are not there to account for retarded parents.

  • DjchunKfunK #20 5 years ago

    According to the BBFC they think they do.

    "We are required under the terms of the VRA to take into account potential harm - it's not spelled out, we're not told what that potential harm is. We're not even told that we have to prove it - we're just told that we have to take it into account and bear it in mind when we're classifying games. And so, in this case, we did look at this and we felt that, in the case of this game, because we felt that that was the only thing on offer, we felt there was potential for harm and obviously we were concerned about the possibility of younger aged viewers getting it. We know that games are very, very attractive to under-aged players, particularly the 18 rated games."

    Also it isn't about parents being stupid, but just misunderstanding that videogames can be as bad as films content wise.
    Edited by DjchunKfunK at 28/06/07 @ 10:52

  • JHuxley #21 5 years ago

    "the Wii game might still retain the Adults Only tag due to the gestural nature of the control system"

    So, basically it'll never be released on the Wii unless they adopt an abstract control system? Kinda defeats the point of the Wii. Shame.

  • Nithron #22 5 years ago

    Cel-shade it.

    Problem solved.

  • zuljin #23 5 years ago

    @Nithron
    Would the whole thing be cell shaded or do you think they could get away with not doing it to blood spurts? Making it cell shaded would be easy, I'm not sure how to go about cell shading particle effects though...

  • wombat987 #24 5 years ago

    Sign the petition!

    [link url=http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Manhunt2/
    ]http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Manhunt2/
    [/link]

    Woop Woop

  • mingster #25 5 years ago

    So what game is rated A0 and can they only be sold on the PC?

  • Overlush #26 5 years ago

    Well done, Rockstar: you've just invested thousands of hours and dollars into a commericaly useless piece of bile.

    Lessons to be learned.

  • smoison #27 5 years ago

    Lesson 1: For truly adult games, there is only one place alowed... PC.


    Thanks to this we can confirm

    consol = Kids = a Toy

    PC = Adults = not a Toy

    But don't worry adults can still play with consols, just not the other way around.

    Edited by smoison at 28/06/07 @ 12:34

  • Genji #28 5 years ago

    "But don't worry adults can still play with consols, just not the other way around."

    Ever played Counterstrike?

  • spongebob #29 5 years ago

    AO is exactly like the X/NC-17 in the films industry (in the USA). If you get that, you're boned, because most big theatres won't show your film.

  • NewYork #30 5 years ago

    Basically, Nintendo are sticking to policy.

  • Wayne #31 5 years ago

    Could they release a PC port of it unedited?

  • Skeletor #32 5 years ago

    Yes, they could. Whether they will is a whole different story...

  • zuljin #33 5 years ago

    @Wayne
    Yes and no. In the UK, the BBFC has deemed it a bit too far, hence it was banned. So it cannot be released uncensored. In America it has only gotten an AO rating, meaning Sony/Nintendo/MS as policy, do not allow it, but it is legal.

    It would be a bit of work to port it round tho, not sure if that is worth the extra effort since AO games are very limited in where they are sold.

  • MrE26 #34 5 years ago

    What i don't get is that the totally unacceptable AO rating is 18+. The M rating that nobody has any problem with is.... 17+. One fucking year. Really, what's the point?

  • zuljin #35 5 years ago

    @MrE26
    "What i don't get is that the totally unacceptable AO rating is 18+. The M rating that nobody has any problem with is.... 17+. One fucking year. Really, what's the point?"

    Like I said before, its not just about the age difference, it also governs which retailers can/will stock the product too.
    Edited by zuljin at 28/06/07 @ 16:30

  • Nithron #36 5 years ago

    @zuljin
    Actually i wasn't really being serious, but while i have no idea about the technical side of it, i know that Killer 7 was cel-shaded, and had plenty of blood.

    Of course, with all that blood, and the same gameplay, i'm not really sure if it would even solve the problem anyway. Plus it might remove the actual core idea of the game *anyway*... Although it's not like the actual current graphics engine is exactly photorealistic.
    I can't see it happening in any case.

  • smelly #37 5 years ago

    AO in dvd terms would be the difference between an 18 rated film and a porno.