Manhunt 2 Leak

In september an early PS2 build for Rockstar's upcoming game Manhunt 2 was leaked to the internet. If you played Manhunt 1, you know that it can be gruesomely graphic. In fact, Manhunt 2 had to tone down the visuals enough to avoid the nearly inevitable AO rating, which means no releasing it for the Wii or PS3. This leaked version of Manhunt provides a glimpse of what the game should have been, were it not for Sony and Nintendo and their firm restriction of AO games.

Manhunt 2 was leaked by a former member of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) who had access to the code. Obviously, he was fired. This is where the debate comes in. There are a thousand places one could take this, but I want to stay strictly withing the arguement of freedom of speech, and was this guy in the wrong. Nintendo and Sony are hampering with Rockstars freedom of speech by not allowing AO games, and they can legally do that. But should they be able to? And what of the fired employee, who let the freedom leak over the internet? Should he still be fired?

Personally, console companies shouldn't be able to limit what goes into their systems. It is not that way with computers, and games are judged more harshly by the ESRB than movies are. And as for the employee, yes, he should be fired. Whether he did the right or wrong thing, he disobeyed his company and Rockstar by doing so, and should not get off scots-free.

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GamePolitics
Softpedia