Over the last couple of weeks, news that *Dispatch* was coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 generated a lot of excitement among players. However, that excitement has been dampened by the discovery of unalterable censorship within the game.
As the controversy unfolded, statements from both Nintendo and AdHoc Studio seemed to shift the blame between the companies. Recently, Nintendo issued a statement to GoNintendo that sheds more light on the situation, suggesting that ratings boards may be a significant factor in the censorship decisions.
Nintendo’s statement appears to indicate that, while the company enforces its own content guidelines, independent organizations—such as ratings boards—also influence how games are presented. In the case of *Dispatch*, the game may have received a rating from Japan’s CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) that required a separate version for the Japanese market. This version would remove options allowing players to disable censoring.
Some have pointed to *Cyberpunk 2077* as a counterexample, questioning how it could conflict with this explanation. However, CERO did rate *Cyberpunk 2077* with a “CERO Z” classification, which mandated a censored version available exclusively in Japan stores and on the Japanese eShop.
Furthermore, because *Dispatch* is a digital-only title and the Nintendo eShop hosts only one version of a game on its sale pages, developers may be compelled to create a single version that satisfies all ratings boards’ criteria worldwide. This limitation could explain why the censorship in *Dispatch* is unalterable across regions.
This situation highlights the complexities developers and publishers face when navigating global content regulations, especially on digital platforms with unified storefronts like the Nintendo eShop.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/147659/nintendo-statement-dispatch-censorship-ratings-cero