Manhunt 2 heads to UK shelves, don’t expect it in Australia

Mike Bantick
Monday, 17 March 2008 12:38

Opinion and Analysis

In Australia advocates of a similar 18+ rating have long bemoaned the loss of mature content to the interactive entertainment industry.  Instead Australian gamers are left to either grey import such games when they effectively become banned through being unclassifiable by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), or be left with a MA15+ rated game that is a shoe-horned version of the original.

Locally when queried about Manhunt 2 getting onto Australian shelves, RockStar games indicated that the difficulties in getting a rating classification.  It looks like it is not even worth trying; “we have not yet submitted it for classification, and have no plans to at this time,” said a RockStar games spokesperson.

With any luck the Attorneys-General standing comittee discussion towards the end of this month can lead to a satisfactory and sensible decision in the area of interactive entertainment classification.