The origin of this rumor stems from a post on EvilAvatar.com by Dr. Finger, a prominent member of the community. Dr. Finger claims that he spoke to a “contact” of his at his local Target store. Apparently, an internal memo was released stating that all Target stores are to stop selling Manhunt 2, and that any copies the store has are to be returned to Take 2.

This announcement may have everything to do with the large amount of negative press given to the Rockstar title earlier this week. If the rumor is proven true, the question we all have on our minds is, will other department store chains follow?

With the game receiving mixed reviews, Target may have seen this an opportunity to increase publicity by stirring up the pot. It’s interesting to note that they have never pulled any title from the Grand Theft Auto series, even though publicity was markedly worse.

Below is the post by Dr. Fingers via EvilAvatar.com.

I just spoke to a contact at my local Target store, who informed me of an interesting internal memo. Apparently all Target stores are to stop selling Manhunt 2, going so far as to tell managers to refuse shipments of the title for all systems, with Take 2 agreeing to take back all unopened copies of the game.

Why is this action being taken? The extreme violence in the game is the given reason, but my contact (an employee but not a manager) was told that it was due in greater part to the unfavorable coverage the game got in the national press the last several days. Target stores had been selling the game since it’s launch, but it was only today that they were told to pull the product and refuse further shipments.

The listing for Manhunt 2 on the Target website shows that the item is “not available in stores.”

I’ve spoken to employees of several other large retailers (Best Buy, Gamestop and Circuit City) and none of them are, at this time, taking similar actions.

Source: EvilAvatar.com

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