It was a bad day for Take Two and Rockstar yesterday, and it’s probably only going to get worse. This morning both Blockbuster Video and Gamefly, the online rental service, had less than positive responses to the situation when contacted by Joystiq. Gamefly’s spokesman said “Gamefly as a general policy does not carry AO rated titles,” and said that “there’s been no exceptions,” according to Joystiq. This is understandable. Although Gamefly has an 18 and up policy for their service, anecdotally, I know of quite a few customers under the age of seventeen.
They also contacted Blockbuster Corporate, but I could have just as easily clued them in on this one: “Blockbuster does not carry adult or NC-17 movies, or AO rated games.”
Nor does Gamespot, or any of the EB Games that are now Gamestops, or GameCrazy, or Wal-mart. Because of this, Wedbush-Morgan’s Michael Pachter believes that this situation will cost Take Two millions. He says that Take Two has three possible courses of action: Ship the game as is, edit the game in an attempt to appease the BBFC and the ESRB (and every other regulatory body that’s going to ban this game or rate it as illegal to sell to anyone under 18, of which there will be many) in an attempt to get a more commercially viable rating, or they can cut their losses and cancel the game. Pachter rightfully assumes canceling isn’t really an option for Rockstar and Take Two, and the content left as is will prevent the game from reaching a commercially viable audience, simply because it will be prohibitively difficult to find (Pachter believes that this will cost them half of the estimated 40 million dollars in revenue he was forecasting long term, and I think he’s being optimistic).
So what will Take Two do here? They’re caught between several difficult choices, and none of them is great. I would feel sympathy for them, but for them to claim that this is a surprise is absolutely ridiculous. Of course, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
“We are disappointed with the recent decision by the British Board of Film Classification to refuse classification of Manhunt 2. While we respect the authority of the classification board and will abide by the rules, we emphatically disagree with this particular decision.
Manhunt 2 is an entertainment experience for fans of psychological thrillers and horror. The subject matter of this game is in line with other mainstream entertainment choices for adult consumers.
We respect those who have different opinions about the horror genre and video games as a whole, but we hope they will also consider the opinions of the adult gamers for whom this product is intended. We believe all products should be rated to allow the public to make informed choices about the media and art they wish to consume. The stories in modern video games are as diverse as the stories in books, film and television. The adult consumers who would play this game fully understand that it is fictional interactive entertainment and nothing more.”
However, I have yet to see a reasonable argument as to why it shouldn’t have been rated AO, and this isn’t the first time content has been denied a rating by the BBFC. It seems like they expected special treatment for the title, and now they’re surprised it isn’t getting it. If this is what finally kills Rockstar, I wouldn’t be surprised. And now, unless something big happens, I hope I’m done writing on Manhunt 2.
(UPDATE: I lied. When contacted for comment by Kotaku, Nintendo officially stated the following:
Games made for Nintendo systems enjoy a broad variety of styles, genres and ratings. These are some of the reasons our Wii and Nintendo DS systems appeal to such a broad range of people. But as with books, television and movies, different content is meant for different audiences. That’s why the ESRB provides ratings to help consumers understand the content of a game before they purchase it. As stated on Nintendo.com, Nintendo does not allow any AO-rated content on its systems.
UPDATE 2: If there were a third shoe, it would drop now as well. In responses to questions from Gamespot, Sony has stated that “It’s currently our policy not to allow the playback of AO-rated content on our systems.”
Well, that about seals it. Fucked, and double fucked.)
-Aegies
Editorial Addition: Yesterday I wrote a piece saying how I thought it wasn’t that big of a deal that the game got the AO rating. However, I now wish to recant that statement because I was ignorant of the fact that their game would not be carried in so many places. I thought that the AO rating only banned it from big box stores and did not realize that not even GameStop carries AO games. Guess I’ll have to rethink what it means to truly warrant an AO rating.
Chufmoney