Common Sense Media CEO Trashes Manhunt 2; City Hall Press Conference Today

As the Manhunt 2 launch draws near, the hurly-burly over the controversial game shifts to San Francisco where watchdog group Common Sense Media will hold a 10AM press conference at City Hall.

On Friday GamePolitics reported that the organization was urging parents to boycott Manhunt 2. The game is scheduled to arrive in stores tomorrow.

There was a bit of an oops in CSM's Manhunt 2 bashing, however, as GP's Friday coverage pointed out. At least one gory scene detailed by the group - that of a police officer being decapitated by a shovel - apparently came from an early build of Manhunt 2 which was leaked online by an SCEE employee in September. A Rockstar press representative told GP the scene did not appear in the M-rated retail version of the game.

In the wake of Rockstar's denial, Common Sense Media issued a revised press release yesterday. The Associated Press picked up the story, which is now getting wide play in the mainstream media. CSM CEO Jim Steyer told the AP:

In my opinion, it's the most senselessly violent and offensive thing I've ever watched. It's disgusting. It's so violent, it struck me personally as pornographic violence.

The group acknowledged that the decapitated police officer image it released on Friday was from the leaked early version of the game:

Common Sense Media was able to download footage of an apparently unedited version of the game that is now available to download on the Internet. It is unclear which of the numerous gruesome scenes from the online version have been edited from [the retail version]...

CSM also wanted to know what changes were made by Rockstar that led to an M-rating from the ESRB:

Common Sense believes that parents, educators, and other consumers would benefit from knowing what specific parts of the game were edited or removed to get the rating reduced, but information about the re-rating process has been very limited. 

Meanwhile, the ESRB told the Associated Press:

[The M-rating] is a very clear and firm warning to parents that the game is in no way intended for children.

Publisher Take Two Interactive reiterated its denial that the police decapitation scene was in the retail version of Manhunt 2:

A spokesman... said the unrated version used a color encoding system common to Western Europe and could be played in the United States only using a Sony PlayStation 2 console modified without company permission.

Take Two media representative Ed Nebb told the AP:

The claim that an unreleased version of Manhunt is readily available on the Internet, and that children can easily download and play the unrated game, has not been proven.

At today's press conference in San Francisco, CSM will be showing video clips from the leaked version. From the CSM press release:

Common Sense downloaded a version of the game that is available online, and will be showing illustrative clips of that version to the press a day before the official title is scheduled to hit stores on Wednesday.

GP asked CSM if the location of the press conference at City Hall indicated that the San Francisco government was somehow getting involved, but a CSM representative nixed the idea. However, another source told GamePolitics that SF Mayor Gavin Newsome's press secretary is a former Common Sense Media employee.

California State Senator Leland Yee's district encompasses San Francisco as well, but a spokesman told GP that, as of last night, Yee was not involved.  Yee, of course, is the architect of California's 205 video game law, currently under review by the U.S. Circuit Court. Yee has previously weighed in against Manhunt 2.