Keith Vaz, The UK’s Jack Thompson, Credited For Sales of Manhunt

The general manager of the ELSPA (European Leisure and Software Publishers Association) Michael Rawlinson has said that UK MP Keith Vaz (think Jack Thompson but knowing less about videogames) “has done more to sell Rockstar’s games than Rockstar has”.

Talking to VideoGamer, Rawlinson said that;

The original Manhunt was released, did diddly squat and fell right off the radar until the Stefan Pakeerah incident came and Vaz started shouting from the rooftops and then everyone went and bought the stuff.

The game was pulled from UK shelves after 17 year old Stefan Pakeerah was murdered. The parents of the murdered teenager claimed (supported by Vaz) that it was all the fault of Manhunt and attempted to sue Rockstar. The game was eventually absolved of all involvement after a court case.

Rawlinson’s statement comes along with the results of research conducted by the ELSPA which concluded that one of the main attractions of Manhunt was its 18 rating. Calling the effect of the 18 sticker “the magic 18″.

The MP, currently under investigation for interfering in a court case, stood up in the UK Parliament earlier this year and said, with full sincerity:

[S]omeone sitting at a computer playing a video game, or someone with one of those small devices that young people have these days, the name of which I forget. PlayStations or PSPs, something of that kind.

Well, whatever they are called, when people play these things, they can interact. They can shoot people; they can kill people. As the honourable Gentleman said, they can rape women.

Via: GamePolitics