When the video game Manhunt 2 was banned in June 2007, it set in train a series of appeals that culminated in a landmark legal case. The victory for the game’s UK publisher, Rockstar, nearly a year later was well reported. However, the significance of the case and the fascinating judicial deliberations over it were not covered.
In the UK, 95% of games are distributed with an age classification using the Pan European Games Information (PEGI) guidelines. However, under the Video Recordings Act, if a work contains ‘gross violence’ (among other things), then it must be submitted to the regulatory body, the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), for a film type classification. Rockstar sought a certificate 18 rating for the game — the same as the first Manhunt. The BBFC refused this on the grounds that,
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