The British Manhunt 2 banning saga has seen yet another twist as a High Court judge overruled Rockstar's successful appeal to have the game released in the UK.
It all began back in June, 2007 when The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) refused to grant Manhunt 2 an age rating, effectively banning the game. Expectedly, Rockstar opted to appeal this decision. Six weeks ago, the British Video Appeals Committee (VAC) ruled in favour of Rockstar in the aforementioned appeal and BBFC decided to contest VAC's decision in front of the British High Court.
During the hearings, BBFC argued that VAC's decision would undermine its role as a watchdog, "not only in relation to video games, but generally".
Last Thursday, a ruling was reached and the judge ordered VAC to reconsider its decision. In the ruling, the judge noted that VAC committed a "clear error of law" in their decision which was based on their judgment that the game won't cause "devastating effects", while the law itself actually refers to any kind of harm arising.
Following the ruling, Rockstar issued an official statement:
"We believe the VAC decision was correct and do not understand the court's decision to expend further public resources to censor a game that contains content well within the bounds established by the BBFC's 18-plus ratings certification".
