Home

Manhunt

U.K. Retailer Pulls Violent "Manhunt" Video Game After Teen's Murder

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 29, 2004 - 4:10am.
London -- U.K. electronics retail chain Dixons has pulled video game publisher Take-Two Interactive's violent "Manhunt" title from shelves, after parents of a 14-year-old murdered by a 17-year-old blamed the act on the game. Developed by Take-Two's Rockstar Games unit -- which also created the violent top-seller "Grand Theft Auto" -- "Manhunt" takes place in a prison where players must kill people in growingly more gruesome manners in order to progress in the game. The title does feature an 18-plus label, and is not intended for sale to minors. Warren Leblanc, 17, has pleaded guilty to murdering Stefan Pakeerah, 14, via repeated blows with a claw hammer and knife. "Stefan's murder compares to how the game is set out, using weapons like hammers and knives. If games like this influence kids, they should be taken off the shelves," Stefan's father Patrick told Reuters. However, prosecutors in the case say that Leblanc lured Pakeerah into a park in order to rob him over an unpaid drug-related debt. A trade group of European video game publishers denied any connection between the game and the murder. "We reject any suggestion or association between the tragic events in the Midlands and the sale of the video game Manhunt," the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers' Association (ELSPA) said, in a statement.
tags: U.K | Video Games | Manhunt | Teen's Murder |

New Zealand Bans Rockstar Games' Violent Video Game "Manhunt"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:17am.
Wellington, New Zealand -- The country of New Zealand has banned video game publisher Rockstar Games' ultra-violent PlayStation 2 title "Manhunt," calling the game "injurious to the public good." Similar attempts to ban the sale of violent video games in the U.S. have run afoul of First Amendment free speech protections. The game, developed at Edinburgh, Scotland-based Rockstar North, is the first video game to be outright banned in New Zealand. "It's a game where the only thing you do is kill everybody you see," said Bill Hastings, chief censor for New Zealand's Office of Film and Literature Classification, which imposed the countrywide ban. "The only way you can accommodate the game's images is by an attitudinal shift… You have to at least acquiesce in these murders and possibly tolerate, or even move towards enjoying them, which is injurious to the public good." Controversy is not new to the company, as earlier this week it announced it would remove the line, "Kill all the Haitians" from its "Grand Theft Auto" title after complaints from Haitian groups and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. http://makeashorterlink.com/?O2F962BC6  http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=ret&aid=2707  http://www.take2games.com
tags: Games | New Zealand | Video Game | Rockstar | Manhunt |