Target Rips Manhunt 2 from Shelves

The controversy surrounding Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 continues to make waves. Last week, California State Senator Leland Yee and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) blasted the game for its extreme violence. Shortly thereafter, the ESRB held a brief conference call with media to reaffirm that Rockstar followed ESRB guidelines and disclosed all pertinent content.

Despite the presence of a hack for the PSP version that removes the blur from certain AO-rated scenes, the ESRB is maintaining its M ("Mature") rating for the game. National retailer Target, however, does not believe the game is fit to be sold – not in their stores at least.

Today a representative for Target confirmed to GameStop that they have removed Manhunt 2 (both the PSP and PS2 versions, apparently) from store shelves.

"Target strives to provide merchandise that will appeal to a wide variety of guests. We also want guests to be comfortable with the purchasing decisions they make at Target. All video games and computer software sold at Target currently carry ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)--from early childhood through mature audiences. While Manhunt 2 was given a Mature rating by the ERSB, we received additional information that players can potentially view previously filtered content by altering the game code. As a result, we have decided not to carry the game," the statement explained.

It should be noted that the hack requires a lot more legwork than the infamous "Hot Coffee" mod for GTA: San Andreas. Moreover, ESRB President Patricia Vance said that "we do not believe these modifications fully restore the product to the version that originally received an AO rating."