Following yesterday’s furore surrounding the BBFC’s refusal to give Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 an 18-rating in the UK – effectively banning it from sale - the North American games trade body, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has granted the PS2 and Wii game an 'Adults Only' rating in the US market.

According to ESRB policy, Rockstar has thirty days to modify and resubmit the game to its appeals board, if the publisher should want to obtain a lower rating.

Manhunt 2 is only the second game in history to be AO'd. The first one being Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which received the rating for a brief period until the ‘Hot Coffee’ content was removed.

Unless the game is successfully resubmitted, Manhunt 2 will in fact gain the dubious distinction of being the first game in history to be released under AO.

Rockstar responded to the decision with the following statement, “We believe the process of rating videogames is to help people make informed entertainment choices and not to limit them. Manhunt 2 was created for mature audiences and we strongly believe it should receive a Mature rating, aligning it with similar content created in other forms of media.”

The ESRB describe Adult Only games as follows, “Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

So, is AO the videogame equivalent of the ASBO? Your comments in the Forum please.