from the Daily Mail, which had run a campaign to have the first game banned. On 10 December 2007, the Video Appeals Committee over-ruled the BBFC by four votes to three. However, On 17 December, the BBFC challenged the VAC decision in the High Court at the Royal Courts of Justice, claiming that the VAC had over-ruled them based on a "misinterpretation of the law" as laid out in the Video Recordings Act of 1984. This challenge superseded the VAC decision that the game could be classified, and halted any possibility of it going on sale. On 24 January 2008, the BBFC won their case in the High Court. Presiding Justice Mitting agreed with the BBFC's argument that the VAC had erred when considering whether the game could be considered harmful to minors. Whereas the VAC interpreted this as "actual harm", the BBFC and Mitting believed it referred to "potential harm and risk of harm". The BBFC also argued that the VAC based its decision on whether or not the game would have a "devastating effect on society", and argued that this "harm threshold" was too high. Mitting ordered that the same seven-member panel review their findings, and whatever decision they reach the second time would stand. The VAC did so, but they returned with exactly the same result as the first time - four votes to three in favor of classifying the game. The game was ultimately released on PS2, PSP and Wii on 31 October 2008 with an 18 certificate, a year after the US release and the same day as the rest of Europe. International reaction Internationally, Manhunt 2 proved just as controversial. The game was banned outright in Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand and South Korea. The uncensored version of the game was also banned in Ireland by the Irish Film Classification Office for a short time due to "gross, unrelenting and gratuitous violence", but was later allowed in its cut form under a PEGI "18" rating. In Italy, Minister of Communications Paolo Gentiloni expressed the desire to ban the game in the country, but no such ban came into effect. In Australia, where the original Manhunt was banned, the game was never submitted for classification to the Australian Classification Board. PC release On 31 October 2009, Rockstar started taking pre-orders for a PC version of the original unedited version of the game through Direct2Drive. It was