Update:

As you can see from the screenshots on this page Play.com had already altered its proposed release date for Manhunt 2 today. The screenshot at the bottom of this page indicates a December 14th release, while the shot to the right shows February 1st 2008.

We are still waiting for comment from Play.

So, while Rockstar executives don their best suits and kipper ties and shuffle into the ongoing appeal to the BBFC's ban of Manhunt 2, Play.com has decided that the game will be freed! It's done this by making the game available for sale at £29.99 on February 1st, 2008.

You can, of course, pre-order it now.

This will no doubt come as somewhat of a surprise to the Video Appeals Committee, which is currently sitting in judgement at London’s The De Vere Hotel.

SPOnG, however, does not imagine a huge conspiracy within which the BBFC and subsequent appeals mechanics are involved in lining its own pockets in cahoots with the video games industry. The idea that all of these organisations are somehow making themselves more and more cash and publicity by elongating the process by which the game gets to the public is, frankly, absurd.

Nope, the fact is far more likely to be that someone in Play's e-commmerce pod has cocked-up. We have, of course, contacted both Play and Rockstar for comment. In the interim, you can check out the sale fun right here.