In the never ending Manhunt 2 battle, Take Two has hit a literal brick wall. Something a game publisher usually doesn’t hit this late in the cycle. With the game being banned outright in the UK and Ireland, amongst other places, the AO rating which many retails will not stalk, Nintendo and Sony have both now gone on the record that they will not license the title on their consoles.

“Games made for Nintendo systems enjoy a broad variety of styles, genres and ratings. These are some of the reasons our Wii and Nintendo DS systems appeal to such a broad range of people. But as with books, television and movies, different content is meant for different audiences. That’s why the ESRB provides ratings to help consumers understand the content of a game before they purchase it. As stated on Nintendo.com, Nintendo does not allow any AO-rated content on its systems.”

This is really unfortunate. Does Manhunt 2 take things a little too far and perhaps deserve the Adult Only rating, sure does, but it’s sad to see that the title cannot be released as is. The ball is completely in Take-two’s court. Can they managed to upturn the ESRB decision? Pretty unlikely. The only step is to go back and tone things down to achieve an M rating. Right now the money is pretty much on it. No way would they throw out the finished title completely, but this has surely cost them a fair penny, with many final copies likely printed and waiting for shipment.

Read (Joystiq)