Dispatch Dev and Nintendo Issue Statements on Game’s Switch Censorship

The developer of Dispatch, AdHoc Studio, and Nintendo have shared statements regarding the state of the game on the Nintendo Switch. In addition to detailing what happened, the developer of Dispatch has apologized for the situation, saying they’re “truly sorry,” and shared some information on how the team is working with Nintendo to try and fix the problem.

Dispatch originally launched for PlayStation 5 and PC starting in October 2025, immediately receiving significant praise and accolades. In addition to being nominated for game awards, Dispatch has received positive reviews and an impressive 96% recommendation from critics on Opencritic. Nintendo Switch owners were excited to get their hands on the game, but when it launched on January 28, Dispatch arrived with significant censorship with no way to disable it, and players haven’t been happy about it.

Dispatch Developer and Nintendo Speak Up on Game’s Censorship on Switch

Now, a few days after the game’s launch and subsequent backlash, the developers and Nintendo have spoken up on the issue. Nintendo made an official statement regarding the game’s censorship, explaining that all games on its platform must meet Nintendo’s established content and platform guidelines. However, Dispatch developer AdHoc has provided further detail, apologizing for the situation and explaining what happened with the game’s censorship and release.

AdHoc confirmed that Nintendo requires any game on its platform to be rated and meet its guidelines, and that while AdHoc thought that the uncensored mature content getting through on Nintendo’s systems in games like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 meant that Dispatch would be in the clear, they were wrong. As a result, the developer ended up releasing Dispatch in its censored state on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. However, the team also acknowledges that there was a mistake there, as the team intended a disclaimer to be present front and center in the game’s description explaining that the content would differ from what was available on other systems. This disclaimer ended up getting slotted into a different field entirely, meaning some players never saw it prior to purchasing the game.

Shortly after the discovery that this was the case, the developers had the store pages in the US changed to give the disclaimer better visibility, and other regions have subsequently been changed or are in the process of changing. The team explained that they are “truly sorry” and that they understand that people are angry, and that they have a right to be.

AdHoc Hints at Potential Changes to Censorship on Dispatch

While some players may feel placated by the apology and explanation, AdHoc went a step further, explaining that it’s attempting to work with Nintendo “on a path forward” with Dispatch. The team notes that they can’t make any specific promises at this time, but that they intend to update the game to address “at least some” of Dispatch‘s censored content. However, this could take multiple weeks to actually make it to players. From the wording, it’s not clear if the update will attempt to remove the censorship from some scenes, or if the game will be reworked in some way to censor what’s going on without resorting to black boxes covering the offending content.

For the time being, those who are interested in the game may want to consider picking up Dispatch on either PC or PlayStation to experience the full content without any censorship. At this point, it remains to be seen if the way that AdHoc addresses the censorship on the Switch and Switch 2 versions appeases players, but so far, many fans seem grateful for the transparency from the developer and the plan to try and fix the issue.

Released

October 22, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood, Crude Humor, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Developer(s)

AdHoc Studio

Publisher(s)

AdHoc Studio

Source: AdHoc