
Yesterday when news broke that Manhunt 2 had received a preliminary rating of Adults Only from Take-Two, I shot a quick email off to Nintendo seeking comment on the issue.
Today they've confirmed that if the game's final rating is Adults Only it won't be showing up on the Wii... or any of Nintendo's systems.
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.
I think that pretty much seals the deal with the Wii version of the game. There's no way Rockstar can ship a game for the Wii without Nintendo's consent.











Comments
Ummm Sony forbade it as well. Biased.
very disappointed in Nintendo. VERY disappointed.
I keed I keed
ouch, that sucks for rockstar.
I'm selling my Wii. Not that I wanted Manhunt 2 but this attitude of catering to a younger audience has gotten out of hand. I realize that they want to sell as many units of this game as possible and the ratings will hinder their ability to do so, but fucking give us something to play already!
...anyone want a Wii for half price?
I said this in the other thread, and no one listened and thought I was crazy. It's in their policy to not sell AO rated products.
Ah good times with Nintendo. Started with Mortal Kombat and keeps on going with Manhunt 2. I mean honestly I cant believe this is getting an Adult rating when The Darkness gets M. :P
thats not good, well one things is sure, patcher was right...
I for one welcome this backlash against torture-porn.
And the shitstorm comes, everyone DUCK!!!
Maybe they should care less about the ESRB rating for a game and worry more about slapping the so-called "Nintendo Seal of Quality" on total crap. Anyone else remember how many absolute worthless games were released on the GBA?
everyone should call and complain to nin and sony. overwhelm them so they HAVE to let it be published.
I love how the last sentence of that quote doesn't at all follow on from the preceding ones. "The Wii and DS have a broad range of games that appeal to different ages. We don't want it to be too broad though!"
Tsc tsc Nintendo. This goes against your own Blue Ocean strategy... how will the mommies and the old fellas play Manhunt 2 now? Aren't they like, adults? :P
Nintendo needs to grow a pair.
@Toad: Nintendo has always been that way, I was shocked they were allowing Manhunt at all, much less an AO rated Manhunt.
Remember when Resident Evil 4 and Killer 7 came out on the 'cube? Tons of people were suprised to finally see something close to a adult game on that system.
WHHHHHHAAAAAT! I was looking forward to the death and the mutilation. That's one of the ONLY games for Wii I've been looking forward to for months. Damn you nintendo.....damn you. I swear, Metroid and Smash brothers better be two of the greatest games ever fucking made or I'm selling my Wii.
This just means that the game will have to be cut into an M rated game. Although, Rockstar should be public about what will be cut. It's still coming out, but probably early next year.
I guess I take my comment back when Manhunt 2 was first rated Ao. I guess Nintendo is a "kiddy" system. I find it horrible that Nintendo wants to cater to a "broad" audience yet will completely segregate anyone 18+.
You suck now Nintendo.
Hm, I dunno what to think of this. Quite surreal for me. Maybe the fact that I come from Amsterdam makes this difficult for me to believe.
@ARboom: Why SONY? SONY has had AO games released before and there not going to stop Manhunt 2.
Nintendo's policy is no AO games.
So Wii version is nixxed, or this means that they will be forced to censor the game to get it released.
Your all being unfair here.
Nintendo is FINE with M games. Rockstar wants this to be an M game. They probably will never release a AO version of manhunt for wii of the ps2.
AO are mainly sex games, so are all of you saying you want to DISown nintendo cause they dont allow porn on there systems?
Is M not good enough for you people?
SO M-rated games for 17 year olds where you chop people in half, blow their heads off, and claw your enemies to death with feral powers is okay. But when a game gets an AO rating which indicates only 18 year olds can play it is not, even though it hasn't been released yet and Nintendo hasn't played it yet. Wow maybe it's just me but something seems off. Really what makes Manhunt more violent then Resident Evil or any FPS shooter that's out right now.
How many AO games get published by anyone on a console in a given year? Just curious.
@Piscopink: That's cool and all, but it's a double standard issue when films like Hostel 2 get an R rating (17+ can see it) and a wide release, and video games get censored, banned, and canned.
Someone cited that this was a long time Nintendo policy a few days ago, so not surprising.
To be fair to Nintendo, they were okay with everything in this game up until it got an AO rating. It's not so much an objection to the content of the game, but the rating it received and the stimga attached to AO games. If Rockstar had been able to get an M for the game from the ERSB, Nintendo would still be in it.
You know...I want to feel sympathy for rockstar but, I simply can't. They openly court controversy and I suspect that Manhunt was another such ploy on their part.
I genuinely think that they have the any publicity is good publicity attitude and didn't see this coming. Maybe they thought that some press types would criticise the game or some christian groups would be up in arms. Banned or sold on the top shelf of seedy shops probably wasn't in their wildest visions.
Instead there has been no outcry just the ratings boards looking at the game and saying Adults only or in the case of the UK banning it's sale all together.
Maybe now they will start to make games with actual content as opposed to ultra violent or super controversial games that actually end up having very limited generic style gameplay.
The ratings boards are going to look at anything from rockstar with a magnifying glass from now on I suspect!
Toad: "I'm selling my Wii. Not that I wanted Manhunt 2 but this attitude of catering to a younger audience has gotten out of hand. I realize that they want to sell as many units of this game as possible and the ratings will hinder their ability to do so, but fucking give us something to play already!"
Well, you better sell your Sony products too, because Sony had said that they won't allow Manhunt 2 with an AO rating on the PS2 or PSP. :P
No surprise here, we've all been saying it for years.
Nintendo is for kiddies...and old farts now
Seriously - fuck Nintendo. This is nonsense.
"Remember when Resident Evil 4 and Killer 7 came out on the 'cube? Tons of people were suprised to finally see something close to a adult game on that system."
Try Mortal Kombat 2 on SNES for the real first example of them giving a little.
What?
I bought a Wii on the strength of games where I could slaughter people.
Does this mean there won't be any rape simulation games on the Wii either?
Man. This sucks.
Silly rabbit Wiis are for kids.
Screw you too Nintendo. What have you done for us lately. Delayed your games and banned this one. I didn't buy your system b/c it would look nice sitting on top of my 360. Give us games, and don't dare stop others from giving what you obviously can't.
@Toad: Well in this case I have to side with Nintendo if that's what they want to do for AO rated games. I have always looked at Nintendo as the "child" machine and im sure Nintendo looks at it similarly in the sense of it being stated by them as a "casual" console, I like my word better though.
Nintendo has no reason to allow games of that rating on their system if they don't want to in order to keep the systems appeal to everyone who owns one, and with all the hoopla about the grandmothers and older parents now wanting the system I can see where Nintendo is coming from. Welcome to owning a Wii.
@Kyle81
But it's so much easier to jump on the "Nintendo = Big Brother" bandwagon!
@dcdeveloperx
"Started with Mortal Kombat and keeps on..."
Ignore Mortal Kombat 2, it messes up your theory.
I understand they dont want AO games on there system but this game seems to be rated AO because of all the press it is getting.
@peacebyanymeans: Source? Only Nintendo has said it wont release it.
Manhunt 2 is looking like that poor and misunderstood kid completely rejected by society. Don't you all have any sympathy? Video games have feelings too!
And the rest of the world follows. Rockstar have probably already got an appeal in the works but if they fail, I don't think I've ever seen a game being completely banned before release.
I'm not really too bothered, I use my PC for serious gaming and my Wii/DS to unwind.
I love how people are claiming to sell their Wii merely because Manhunt wont be on their system...
My money is on Rockstar caving in to the pressure and editing its game to get it down to a [M], they spent too much money and time on this game to have it NOT be published.
@dcdeveloperx:
/agree
Though the point of being a true murder simulator might have something to do with it.
Oh boy, JT is loving this shit.
Though Sony has no problems with being able to watch AO tentacle sex anime's or porn on Blue Ray!
@ Kyle81
[www.joystiq.com]
Kotaku isn't the only gaming blog, ya know?
@Kyle81:
[www.gamespot.com]
So a game where you touch Anime images that can only be described as looking like little children is okay, however Manhunt, yeah that's just too much.
Now I agree with the AO rating. The very thing that people think is the best part about the wii is what very easily makes it dangerous. Making physical actions with the controller that physically depict the killing on the screen can't just be overlooked. But I do think that Nintendo's decision wasn't the best. The game being rated AO is already going to limit sales, so why shut the game down completely.
I do feel bad for Rockstar in this. I mean what can they possibly do at this point. I wonder if they have any way to recoup development costs from Nintendo because of this.
@peacebyanymeans:
No, just that blog you quoted is poop. Please dont do that again!
:-p
Nintendo claims that their system provides content for all ages, but apparently that doesn't include content for those 18+? I smell hypocrisy...
GAMES ARE ONLY FUN IF I CAN KILL PPL!! NITNENDO DSUX!!!! IM NOT A FUCKING RETARDED TOOL WITH NO CLUE WHAT GAMINGS ABOUT AT ALL!!!!11!11
Rockstar is really gonna gimp the hell out of the game to bring it down to M.
Okay Nintendo, you want to appeal to everyone? How about appealing to me. I like your cutesy games like Elebits and your 1st party games like Zelda. But I also like my dark games that involve killing things. I'm disappointed that you would shoot down a game like this. Because of you I will buy it on another system instead of on yours. Isn't refusing a game for your system a great business strategy?
@peacebyanymeans: Ironic that the quote from SONY states "microsoft doesn't"
LOL
@Giolon:
True Story!
brooooooooootal. Rock* kicked in the nads again. Although i have no interest in manhunt so I don't know if it is deserving of its rating or not.
Heh. Nintendo's a kiddie system. Little Johnny loves Killer 7 and Resident Evil 4 and Mario Party 6.
I just don't understand this whole brou-ha-ha. What makes this game so much worse than any game ever released before on a console? And really why won't Nintendo and Sony allow it on their consoles. I played Mario party 8 so I know Nintendo loves free money.
@HJungle:
Ah yea good point. I had to look it up because its been so long but you are corrent in that mk2 wasnt censored in the US. Thanks for informing me of that :). +1 Nintendo ,lol.
that's too bad I wanted to get Wii version and I am old enough of course but Rockstar needs to decrease or eliminate whatever made it get that AO.
@Kyle81:
Ironic that the quote from SONY states "microsoft doesn't"
Where do you see that?
@EnigmaNemesis
Oh, well, I'm sorry Enigma. [www.joystiq.com] I didn't mean [www.joystiq.com] to upset you [www.joystiq.com] with my linking [www.joystiq.com] to a blog [www.joystiq.com] other that this one. [www.joystiq.com] I'm also sorry Kotaku decided to not include the knowledge of [www.joystiq.com] Sony's refusal [www.joystiq.com] to have Manhunt 2 be [www.joystiq.com] played on their platform with an AO rating [www.joystiq.com] so that I had to post said link to cite my source [www.joystiq.com] to prove to [www.joystiq.com] another user that my [www.joystiq.com] information was indeed [www.joystiq.com] true.