The story adventure Dispatch was recently released for the Switch. However, the new version is causing discontent among fans, as the version for the Nintendo console appears to have been cut.
The superhero adventure Dispatch is one of last year’s big surprise hits. The story game from former Telltale developers became a crowd favorite within a few days and even won the award for best story game at the 2025 Steam Awards.
After a few months’ delay, Dispatch was also released for the Switch 1 and 2 on January 28, 2026. However, the Switch version is currently causing quite a stir in the community – because unlike the other versions, the game is censored by default on Nintendo’s handheld consoles.
What exactly is it about?
Dispatch is notorious for its suggestive humor. The game is brimming with offensive jokes, and the topics of sex and nudity are also dealt with explicitly in the game. On PC and PS5, players can choose in the menu whether they want to see these scenes in all their glory or only with censorship bars.
This feature is particularly useful for streamers who want to avoid having their videos deleted or demonetized for violating platform rules. In the Nintendo version of Dispatch, however, the censorship bars cannot be turned off; swear words are bleeped out and suggestive noises and sound effects have apparently been removed.
The community is up in arms about this, because in their view, the censored parts are an essential part of what makes Dispatch what it is. One player writes: on Reddit, he feels deprived of an authentic experience.& nbsp;On Twitter another fan commented:
I am very disappointed with the Switch port. There’s no way to turn the censorship on and off. I would have found it less bad if they had communicated this openly beforehand, but they held it back until launch. If I had known, I would have bought the PS5 version instead.
really disappointed on the Switch port of dispatch no toggle on and off for censoring I wouldn’t mind it if it was disclosed to us but they held this to themselves until after launch I would have bought it on PS5 if this was the case pic.twitter.com/GGbf9FLymJ
— Octocat (@octocatts) January 28, 2026
A other user writes: Dispatch is heavily censored on the Switch, which significantly impairs the gaming experience. I wouldn’t have pre-ordered this game for the Switch if I had known these changes would be made. Damn it, even the art books are censored.
What the developers say
Developer AdHoc has already responded to the censorship allegations and is trying to calm angry fans. In an interview with Eurogamer, the studio assures us that the core story and gameplay experience remain identical [on the Switch].
The changes should not affect the overall Dispatch experience, but in this case, existing Nintendo guidelines had to be followed:
Different platforms have different content criteria, and submissions are evaluated individually. We worked with Nintendo to ensure that the content of the title met the criteria for release on their platforms.
However, this attempt at justification is only partially convincing to fans. For many players, it raises the question of why nudity and suggestive jokes had to be censored in Dispatch when the Nintendo eShop simultaneously offers a variety of uncensored hentai games
and also allowed Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 could be released uncensored there. The Japanese company’s censorship criteria seem arbitrary to them.
However, the original reason for Nintendo’s censorship requirements is likely to be requirements of the Japanese age rating system CERO.
Even in the 18+ category there, explicit nudity is not allowed in games. In order to avoid having to create multiple Switch versions of Dispatch, developer AdHoc apparently decided to simply release the version tailored to Japan worldwide, thereby upsetting numerous fans.