UPDATE: Nintendo has shared this statement to GoNintendo:
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.
The original article follows below.
Adhoc Studio have themselves confirmed that Dispatch is censored on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 for its launch.
Dispatch is an adventure game about a retired superhero working with reformed supervillains. While it has nude scenes, Adhoc added an option for players to self censor. On Nintendo platforms, they only get the censored scenes.
Adhoc shared this statement to Eurogamer about the situation:
Different platforms have different content criteria, and submissions are evaluated individually.
… We worked with Nintendo to ensure the content within the title met the criteria to release on their platforms, but the core narrative and gameplay experience remains identical to the original release.
Video Games Chronicle speculates that Nintendo did not censor the game itself, but Japan’s regulator CERO.
Nintendo’s system allows players to switch regions and play the version of the game they own in that region. Japanese gamers could use that system to bypass CERO regulations and play games that would otherwise be banned in their country.
Video Games Chronicle’s hypothesis lines up with Adhoc’s statement to the letter, but we’ll have to wait for Adhoc and/or Nintendo to provide further clarity.