Manhunt 2 leaked by Sony Europe employee
Eye-gouging warez edition an inside job
A Sony Entertainment Europe employee has been fingered for the warez leak of Manhunt 2.
The as-yet-unreleased ultra-gorey game is the source of the latest fracas over violence in video games — a media cycle which more often than not transforms otherwise unmemorable titles into best sellers under the sheer weight of public outrage.
Last month, word got out that an uncensored beta of the game leaked into various BitTorrent sites. The warez build allowed gamers with modded PS2s to play the entire AO-rated version of Manhunt 2, made before Take-Two toned down the violence to placate government censors.
After reports of the breach made its rounds, Game Politics began sniffing for clues of the source. Its investigation revealed the culprit was an employee of Sony Europe — who apparently has already been sent packing after the developer got wise.
You know what we do to leakers
Take-Two released a statement today acknowledging the sleuth work:
"Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that a former employee of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has acknowledged his responsibility for the unauthorized online distribution of an unrated play-test version of Manhunt 2 submitted for the European PAL PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system."
The name of the employee and circumstances of the code falling into the wrong hands remains unknown.
Manhunt 2 has effectively been banned from the UK after the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) refused twice to grant the game a UK rating — determining it "unacceptable" over the fine point that it "constantly encourages visceral killing."
While the status of Manhunt 2 is still up in the air for Europe, the re-rated version of Manhunt 2 for the PS2, Wii and PSP will hit US store shelves on Halloween.
COMMENTS
RE:RE: No, YOU'RE missing the point, Andrew...
I think you're generalising over the whole of society and current industry we live in. What you're saying is completely true about the jews and world war two and also about street gangs and kids with knives and guns etc....
A previous comment was stupid enough to say why not do kiddie fiddling or concentration camps. i think this guy's the one people need to be wary of. i can think of numerous games i've played where i've blown off the head of a 'baddie' with a sniper rifle and smiled....so much so that some magazines encourage you to do this. What about the Hitman games that were out....there's a film being released end of november based on the game.....suppose all the fans of agent 47 are go out with a couple of highballer's (i think that's what they're called) and shoot out all and sundrie, oh and then of course you can strangle some of them too as to not to make a sound....calssic ha ha!
The reason i'm responding to this is that we're talking about this ONE game and not a general concensus on whether or not games/music/movies in general are bad.
The blame on kids immitating what they see and act in games is a reflection on learning the difference between right and wrong and that's instilled by parents....games and movies and even music with hidden messages are here to stay so we must learn to deal with it not go on about how it shouldn't be here!
what a great debate. pity reg closes them after a while
intention)
I like fps games because of the mouse and keyboard control is so immersive and fluid. i dont know why people bother trying on those console thingies. but yes i am still shooting people.
glad to see a couple of people of agree with me its going to far. at the end of the day censorship dosent work( case in point this version of this game isnt even available),
i suppose censorship can only work if responsible parents force it on their kids.
i also agree i dont want the govenment making decisions like that for me. freedom etc.
its like the plan to hike up booze tax because of binge hooligans - the rest of us lose out
"Counterstrike has less of a plot than Manhunt"
so does table tennis, but your playing real people.
steve said:
"I'm not sure that's really a very strong argument for censorship. I don't like lots of thinks, and I think the people that do aren't right in the head, but does that mean I should be able to say that they can't like those things (or at least can't have access to them)."
good point & point taken, but if those things are desensitizing gullible people (like the natzis in a later post), surely we should try to do something?
theres gotta be a line somewhere where it becomes dangerous.
reminds me of the usa's gun problem because of their "freedom to bear arms"
@ mark - regarding "Title" ie - Counterstrike
I play battlefield... therefore we're both habitual murderers...
I play need for speed - supposse I'd present myself now for 4000 speeding offences
I play GTA (san an) - which puts me into cartheft, hit&runs, gun crime etc... the key word here of course is "PLAY".
"constantly encourages visceral killing"... LM(funky)AO... this government is guilty of that - every time it tries to introduce another stupid law, the board of censors are equally guilty of winding everyone up with their draconian attitude to what is quite simply an idea for entertainment with a severely limited potential audience (I like that "Torture Porn" tag) - but look how popular this thread has become. In fact - when Manhunt2 finally gets whatever rating it is going to get I bet that the bulk of sales will be to people who only want to know what all the fuss was about... lets face it - this is just another arm of free advertising now.
RE: No, YOU'RE missing the point, Andrew...
No your still missing the point. I understand that this is a PS2 game and not next gen. My point was that WITH the next gen consoles the line between fiction and reality is getting thinner.
"You may aswell ban Manic Miner or Mario." you said which highlights the point nicely. I really doubt that anybody is going to confuse Mario with a real plummer or imagine that miners really do have to hack their way through monsters, toilets etc on a daily basis. If you look at tiles like Grand theft Auto and Saints Row the Gang 'n Guns culture is the whole point of the game that mirrors what is really happening in suburbs and inners cities right now. Now you cannot specifically place the blame on the aforementioned titles but I think its naive to be of the opinion it has no effect.
During the Holocaust Thousands of otherwise normal German soldiers were involved in the brutal extermination of millions of Jews. They did this beccause culturaly it became normal and accepted. No it may be an extreme example but the principle still applies. The kinds of Movies and Games we are playing are making brutal violence culturally acceptable to many people and unless we have appropriate measured in place its only going to get worse.
Not an Anonymous Coward.
Clarification.
I work in the same SCEE department as the guy responsible for leaking the game. There is no stunt here, simply a foolish person who wanted to claim bragging rights and it's cost him his job, and possibly a lot more. No one has much sympathy for him either due to the overly stringent security measures introduced since the incident that we all have to bare the brunt of.
