A rating for Hi-Fi Rush on the Nintendo Switch has come up for Europe.
Pan European Game Information has given Hi-Fi Rush a 12 rating, for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. There is no big surprise here – this is the same rating PEGI gave the title on Xbox Series X|S and Windows when it launched last year.
PEGI explains the reason for their rating:
“This game has received a PEGI 12 because it features moderate violence and use of bad language. Not suitable for persons under 12 years of age.”
While Hi-Fi Rush launched for Windows and Xbox Series X on January 25, 2023, it debuted on the PlayStation 5 last month, on March 19, 2024. We know that this is one of the four games that Microsoft announced would be getting ported to new platforms for the first time earlier this year, but the belief had been that Hi-Fi Rush in particular was not ported to the Switch because the console isn’t powerful enough.
This rating does not necessarily mean that Europe will get Hi-Fi Rush on the Nintendo Switch, but it raises questions on why the game didn’t get released on that platform in the US. Tango Gameworks’ title isn’t tied up on any regulation that would control how it was distributed, in the same way that Activision Blizzard games are.
Microsoft has also yet to share publicly how well Hi-Fi Rush has performed on the PlayStation 5 in the US, but they have shared metrics for other games. In particular, Rare’s Sea of Thieves already saw huge pre-orders, and is set to be a huge moneymaker for Microsoft on PlayStation.
While Hi-Fi Rush was a critical darling and a fan favorite, this seems to be one of those titles that hardcore gamers will evangelize, but won’t be able to gather a critical mass of fandom. But a lot of fans did expect it to come to Nintendo Switch, because the game seems to cater very well to that platform’s community.
When we didn’t see it release on the Switch the first time, some theorized that the game was being prepared for the Switch’s successor, where it would hypothetically be better optimized. But this rating seems to bust that idea, and it’s possible that Tango Gameworks, or a dedicated port studio, got a satisfactory version of the game on the original console.
Perhaps the lack of a US release is part of Microsoft’s experiment. We may yet see the game come to the Switch in the US a few months from now, but for now, we only have this inconvenient fact to ponder.
