In a totally surprising and unexpected turn of events, Rockstar parent company Take-Two interactive was spotted renewing the trademark for their highly controversial video game IP Manhunt. What’s interesting is that this comes after three years of inactivity on the brand.
Rockstar developed snuff film-esque stealth title Manhunt and it’s sequel Manhunt 2 has received lot of controversial press for the depiction of violence and gore and was even banned in certain countries with lawsuits pressed against the publisher. But this hasn’t stopped the game from being a cult classic and a sleeper hit. Fans has been demanding for a new game in the series for a while now and it seemed like Take Two wasn’t just yet ready to handle such a risk again, considering how much time and money they lost in legal battles concerning the first two games.
Justia, the American website specializing in legal information retrieval was spotted with listing Manhunt trademark renewed as of 05/06/2016.
Take-Two has not oficially confirmed any new game in the series. The IP being renewed could probably mean there’s a new game in development or perhaps Take-Two is just getting updated legal issues. Even if a new potential game could be in development, it remains to be seen how Take Two and Rockstar plans to handle such a sensitive and potentially controversial subject in this age of cutting edge graphics technology and political correctness.