Rockstar puzzled by High Court decision to overturn appeal
It’s been a grueling battle for Rockstar Games to release Manhunt 2 in the UK. Recently, they made a successful appeal to the Video Appeals Committee, but this was overturned by the High Court. Rockstar Games has expressed its dissatisfaction and bafflement at the decision of the High Court. Read Rockstar Game’s statement in the full article.
The Manhunt 2 ban in the UK has seen months of grueling battle between the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and Rockstar Games. It was only last month that Rockstar recently made a successful appeal to the Video Appeals Committee (VAC).
The story doesn’t end there though. The BBFC ordered a judicial review of the VAC decision. The case was taken to the UK High Court, which overturned the VAC’s appeal of the ban. The case was taken back to the VAC.
According to the hearing, there was a misunderstanding of the word “harm” in legal terms, resulting in an “error of law.” On hearing the High Court’s decision, Rockstar Games expressed its puzzlement saying:
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.
It’s been a few months since the ban of Manhunt 2 (Wii, PSP, PS2); it may be a few months yet before we see a resolution.