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Players are returning their Dispatch copies due to Switch censorship (www.polygon.com)
submitted 6 months ago* by to c/games@lemmy.world
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Dispatch's release on Nintendo platforms today was poised to be another testament to AdHoc's tremendous success with the point-and-click superhero workplace comedy, but news of a platform-specific difference has overshadowed much of the excitement for fans hoping to play the episodic series on-the-go. Instead of celebrating the release, fans are launching campaigns against Dispatch's censorship, returning their purchases, or refraining from playing it altogether.

Normally, Dispatch contains nudity and sexually explicit scenes involving its gang of ex-villains. AdHoc allows players to toggle sexual content like this off on most platforms. Curiously, however, the newly-released Switch version automatically depicts censored versions of these scenes. There's no option to turn the setting off.

AdHoc confirmed the censorship to Eurogamer, but noted that the overall experience would still be the same for Switch players.

Mind you, Nintendo is cool with putting Doom and Duke Nukem on the Switch.

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[–] 62 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

The fact that they allow Resident Evil Village of all games on the Switch but don't allow this animated nudity scene is insane to me. RE Village was one of the most graphic games I have ever seen.

edit: I Just realized Cyberpunk 2077 was released on it no censorship. How did dispatch get censored but that was allowed through lmao

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  • [–] 31 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    It looks like CERO might be responsible.

    CERO is very strict about genitals and dismemberment. CD Projekt Red got around that by having two different versions of Cyberpunk 2077; the version sold on the Japanese eShop is censored so as to comply with CERO, while the European one isn't.

    AdHoc doesn't have the same resources as CD Projekt Red, so they might have just made the one version which they sell everywhere.

    It's still surprising that Sony is apparently being more lenient than Nintendo for once.

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  • [–] 19 points 6 months ago* (2 children)

    It's still surprising that Sony is apparently being more lenient than Nintendo for once.

    To be fair, the only real memory I have of the OG God of War games is that the first or second game opens up with Kratos motorboating two girls' titties. And that was in a time when nudity in mainstream games was still nearly unheard of.

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  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Unless you wanted some....hot coffee.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago* (2 children)

    That whole controversy was blown out of proportion. Not only because it could only be accessed by hacking the game apart, but also because it didn't actually have any explicit content. It was still fully clothed models just animated to hump each other.

    As a horny teen, that shit was the most disappointed in a rumored game secret I had been since being told if you beat Metroid fast enough you can see Samus nude.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    In a bikini. Not nude. Though I suppose you could make the argument it's bra and panties? There aren't enough pixels to say if it's a 2-piece bathing suit or underwear.

    My take on that was that Samus didn't wear clothes under her suit. So if you're a woman and you get into power armour, you're probably gonna wear at least a T-shirt and some loose fitting shorts, right? One would think. But I guess for reasons (like the fact that the suit can handle extreme temperatures both ways), it probably needs direct contact with a lot of skin to adapt, or something. So she strips down to bra and panties to get into the suit. Totally makes sense. It's not meant to be sexy, it's a utility, the suit is a tool for her as an intergalactic bounty hunter.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    You must not have grown up back then. The game does show her in bra and panties if you're fast enough. The rumor was that she was full on naked tho if you were even faster than the bikini easter egg. But that was some bullshit, and you couldn't just look at a wiki to know this, you had to find out for yourself.

    There were other similar rumors back in the day for all sorts of games. "Nudalities" in Mortal Kombat. The ability to actuslly obtain the Triforce in Ocarina of Time. Getting to play as Luigi if you collected 121 stars in Mario 64 (later was actually made real in the DS release, but you unlocked Yoshi not Luigi). Etc.

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  • [–] -1 points 6 months ago

    You've contradicted yourself, though. Do you see it? I'll give you a moment, and I'll put it in a spoiler. If you are as old as me or maybe older, and you've been a gamer about as long as I have (maybe longer, maybe nearly as long), you might appreciate a good puzzle. Try to find the logical fallacy.

    spoilerHow would I know what rumours about games you heard in your hometown if we didn't have a wiki or something like that? But you're right, because I've been gaming since the early 1980s. We had our friends, and we had magazines like Nintendo Power. One rumour I did hear was that there was a hidden chocolate factory in Super Mario Bros. (the first one). Note that this rumour was going around before Super Mario World introduced Choco Island or whatever it was called, so either it's coincidence, or the rumour made it back to Nintendo. As a kid I thought it was like a whole other game on the cartridge, different graphics and enemies and such. Later in life I figured it was just a palette swap.

    Furthermore,

    spoilerI remember one game where I didn't have help from people at school because no one really had computers back then. I was playing a game called Zak McKracken on the Amiga, and my father and his best friend were also playing it. We had a rule, no one would watch the others playing, but we would share tips. It was a point and click adventure, kind of like our generation's Life is Strange or The Walking Dead (Telltale). So you had to figure stuff out. And I even solved a couple of the puzzles and had to help the adults get through that part (or they let me believe I cracked the code for them).

    Two more things, outside the logical fallacy thing. There WAS nudity in an Atari game (Custer's Revenge was the name, IIRC) so it wasn't exactly unprecedented. And two... you don't get the Triforce in Ocarina of Time? I never completed it. I did not like the Nintendo 64. I bought it, didn't like it, gave it to my brother, and bought a PlayStation. I started Ocarina a few times. On the N64. On the 3DS (my wife's). On the Switch via Virtual Console. I even have it on my MacBook (Ship of Harkian). That save is still in the first dungeon (the deku tree). I suck at Ocarina (and 3D Zelda in general). Love the 2D ones, though.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    You were a teen in the late PS2 days, but still got tricked by nude samus??? I'm so confused by your timeline. I was a kid in the NES era, but still heard the samus stuff in the 80s. By 1990 we knew it was BS.

    I was in my 20s by PS2 late stage.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, Sony was very laissez faire back then. It's why the PS1 was so successful; Nintendo were notoriously strict, so Sony's policy of "Do whatever as long as it's legal" attracted both devs and players. It's not the only reason the first two PlayStations were massive hits, but it's a factor.

    Nintendo initially stuck to their guns but, after seeing Sony eat their lunch, afternoon snack, supper, breakfast, second breakfast, and elevenses, decided to cool it with the censorship at the ends of the 32 and 64-bit era. Beginning with Conker's Bad Fur Day they pretty much stopped enforcing rules on other devs and even published a few 18-rated games like Eternal Darkness.

    Then for some reason Sony started censoring hentai games in the PS4 era while Nintendo let them go uncensored, and gamers everywhere were bemused at how edgy Sony and wholesome Nintendo had apparently swapped positions.

    Perhaps the pendulum has swung back.

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  • [–] 12 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Unconfirmed, but the rumor I'm hearing is that AdHoc submitted one universal binary for all regions, and it's CERO who won't allow this content in Japan. FWIW, the JP version of Cyberpunk is also censored, but it's separate from the international release.

    It's also worth noting that the JP PS5 version just launched alongside it, separate from last year's international version. Haven't been able to find confirmation on whether that version is censored too, but if it is then it's definitely CERO.

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  • [–] 9 points 6 months ago* (2 children)

    I think this is very likely the reason yea.

    I'm also now finding out that they had to censor the coverart of the switch 2 edition a few weeks ago as well which I was unaware of. If it turns out they knew for awhile that it would be censored, and just chose not to tell anyone that is going to permanently damper my opinion of their studio. Like it's one thing to be like "This was forced upon us last minute so we threw a solution together" it's a whole different situation of knowing that it was going to happen, then refusing to tell the consumers about it since you knew it would lower sales.

    Along with that, we asked for comment from AdHoc concerning the decision to censor Dispatch’s Deluxe Edition artwork on the Nintendo eShop as compared to the PC/PS5 release, and if that indicated any censorship in the game itself. We were told that “unfortunately, the studio cannot comment on the topic at this time.” Along with that, it was said that if AdHoc is able to discuss the matter down the road, their comment would be shared with us.

    It sounds to me like they knew this change was going to be required at that point, but didn't want to publicly announce that, which puts a pretty bad taste in my mouth about the intent of the studio.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    GoNintendo got an official response from Nintendo

    Nintendo requires all games on its platforms to receive ratings from independent organizations and to meet our established content and platform guidelines. While we inform partners when their titles don’t meet our guidelines, Nintendo does not make changes to partner content. We also do not discuss specific content or the criteria used in making these determinations.

    Vague, but it definitely sounds like the issue is with a ratings agency, not Nintendo.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Neither was particularly sexually explicit IIRC.

    I dunno, though. Maybe censorship was an “easier” ask since the setting was already there.

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  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    Cyberpunk also has a nudity setting in all versions.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Ah. Then I don’t know.

    Maybe a bigger dev just has more leverage?

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    This is likely it.

    There is also the rumor that this wasn't a choice by Nintendo, but a choice of the dev's so they didn't have to have two separate editions to be able to sell in Japan(like they already do for the playstation edition). If that's the case this makes it even worse IMO since it wasn't like a last minute "BTW this is a thing" they had plenty of time to tell buyers that the product was altered

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