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PS2 Games Rated AO

Video games for the PlayStation 2 rated as Adults Only (AO) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ERSB) are exceedingly rare and difficult to come by. Due to the extreme graphic content required for games to achieve this rating, many major retailers refuse to stock AO games in their stores. In response, Sony has a policy that restricts AO games from being released on its PlayStation systems. Thus, the AO rating has become a sort of black mark on a game's development, forcing the developers to go back and tone down the content to make the game marketable. Despite this, however, one highly popular PlayStation 2 game has achieved an AO rating while another two major titles were toned down following their initial classification.

The warning label for games rate AO reads, "WARNING: Games rated AO are described by the ERSB as containing 'prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity' and can only be legally sold to persons at least 18 years of age. Extreme caution should be used when playing AO games in front of or near children."

Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas
- Thanks to the highly controversial ̶0;hot coffee mod,̶1; Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas was the first and only PlayStation 2 game to be designated as AO and still achieve widespread popularity. Released in 2004, the game was initially rated as Mature before the discovery of the mod by hackers in 2005 which allowed players to participate in a sexually charged minigame. The ensuing fallout resulted in the game being redesignated as AO and being pulled from a number of major retailers. The game was eventually released without the mod and reachieved its original M rating. The original version of the game, however, is still listed with an AO rating on the ERSB's official website.
Manhunt 2
- A gory game produced by the makers of Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt 2 also received an AO rating from the ERSB just a month before its original release date in 2007. Facing the possibility of dwindling sales in the United States, the game's makers went back and revised the game's more graphic murder scenes, censoring much of the blood and guts and using sounds instead of visuals to imply extreme violence. The PlayStation 2 version of the game is now rated M.
The Punisher
- One of the first games to be threatened with an AO rating, the Punisher filtered and toned down much of its originally violent content to earn an M rating before its release in 2005. According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter in 2005, the Punisher's original version featured nearly 70 different interrogation techniques where users were in complete control of the torture and coercion of enemies. The game was eventually edited, removing many of the bloody interrogation scenes and enforcing a penalty on players who needlessly killed enemies prior to their confession.

PlayStation 2