Last we heard of Manhunt 2, the game was effectively banned for sale in the UK and given an AO rating here. But did anyone expect Take Two, the game’s publisher, to throw in the towel so easily, and so quickly? IGN noticed that the game has completely fallen off Take Two’s release schedule, all the way into fiscal 2008. Extrapolating a little, we can assume that Take Two has shelved the game for the time being, perhaps until people forget about it or until all this bad press goes away.

What happened to Take Two? It used to be the bad boy on the block, publishing whatever it damn well pleased. Now it’s genuflecting to special interests. While I’m not “into” violent games, I was kinda hoping Take Two would make a bigger case for free speech or somesuch.

Manhunt 2 Falls off Take 2′s Radar [IGN]