"Dispatch": Developers have to tone down superhero adventure for Switch 2

The superhero adventure "Dispatch" is also released for the Switch 2 – in a restricted version. Sexual elements had to be toned down.

(Image: AdHoc Studio)

at 9:17 am CET

3 min. read

By

Daniel Herbig

The superhero adventure “Dispatch” is coming to the Switch 2 in a toned-down version. Developer AdHoc Studio has confirmed to the gaming magazine Eurogamer what many reviewers of the port reported. Accordingly, black bars are visible in some sexual scenes. Audio playback has also been restricted in sexually explicit scenes.

“Different platforms have different content criteria, and submissions are evaluated individually,” AdHoc explained to Eurogamer. The content restrictions of the Switch version are apparently due to the requirements of platform operator Nintendo. Nintendo's guidelines are not publicly accessible; accordingly, it is unclear where the Japanese company draws the line.

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“Dispatch” is an adventure game with a focus on dialogue and decisions in which the player takes on the role of an operations coordinator in a world with superheroes. You have to accept emergency calls, sort information, and send suitable hero teams on missions. A large part of the game, released in eight episodes and described by the developers as a “workplace comedy,” consists of romances between the main character and other characters.

Sold 3 million times

Things can get quite explicit at times, with genitals visible during gameplay, for example. The PC and Playstation versions also come with an optional mode in which, for example, breasts are obscured. The developers call this mode “Visual Censorship.” It is intended for streamers and YouTubers who might fear for their advertising revenue when depicting sexual content. While “Visual Censorship” is optional on other platforms, this mode is pre-set on the Switch 2 and cannot be deactivated.

“Dispatch” is one of the most successful indie games of the past year. The PC version is rated “overwhelmingly positive” on Steam by over 150,000 reviewers. By the end of 2025, “Dispatch” had sold over 3 million copies.

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Adjustments for different platforms necessary

Different game platforms have different standards for what content is acceptable to them. Steam is considered relatively relaxed in terms of guidelines. But even the Valve game platform caved in to the horror game “Horses” and removed numerous sex games from the platform last year under pressure from activists.

The stores of Playstation and Xbox are generally curated and filtered a bit more strictly. For example, the tactical shooter “Ready or Not” was slightly adapted for its console release: on Xbox and Playstation, unlike the PC version, it is not possible to dismember people after their death. The nudity of some characters, as well as the depiction of violence against children, has also been somewhat toned down.

The developers of “Dispatch” hope that Nintendo users will give the Switch 2 version a chance despite the restrictions: “The central plot and the gameplay experience remain identical to the original release,” they write to Eurogamer.