Judicial review for Manhunt 2

BBFC seeks to keep Rockstar's violent video game off the shelves

British censors are seeking a judicial review after a ban on selling the Manhunt 2 video game was overturned last week.

The move from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) came after game developer Rockstar won an appeal last week to have the ban lifted.

Manhunt 2 was originally banned in June, for its "sustained, casual sadism". A revised version was also banned.

At a hearing at the Video Appeals Committee (VAC) Fred Hasson, president of Tiga, the national trade association representing the business and commercial interests of games software developers in the UK and Europe felt the game should not have been banned.

He said he was surprised at how tame the game was in comparison "to some very graphical scenes I've seen in other games which have received certification. I expected it to be a lot worse... I can't believe that this has been singled out as something that is worth banning".

This opinion was backed up by psychologist Guy Cumberbatch, who said: "In my own limited experience of playing Manhunt 2, it's fairly sanitised as a work compared with what you might expect in a film."

However, the BBFC said the decision by VAC to overturn the ban was based on an incorrect interpretation of the Video Recordings Act.

The BBFC's decision means Manhunt 2 will remain off store shelves in the UK until the judicial review is settled.