Update (Sun 17th May, 2020 13:10 BST): Team Reptile has now seemingly worked out why the game was pulled from the Switch eShop in select regions. Below is the full statement we received via email, along with the latest tweet:
It appears the reason why the game was suddenly made unavailable has become clear.
May 14th the IARC rating of the game was updated with a different age rating for RAR (Russia) and USK (Germany).
"We have reviewed the product and determined that the game contains violence that wasn't disclosed. Your ratings have been updated accordingly." IARC. The game was originally rated with the IARC system on October 8th 2019 with a positive rating for all ages.
We respect Nintendo's policy, but the fact that we, as a self publishing developer, have zero possibility to appeal the decision of a third party to change the rating with these immediate and crucial effects is very worrying. We certainly do not agree with the decision that Megabyte Punch is a violent game that needs a rating of 12+. On top of that we question the decision to pull off the game from all stores within Europe and Australia and not only the countries affected by this updated rating.
We do have to rectify that upon further investigation we found that Nintendo in fact sent a message regarding the removal of the game from the eShop. Due to some very unfortunate timing the message crossed exactly with a different message about the upcoming patch.
We have submitted a patch that should solve the issue and we do our best to get this through the system as soon as possible so the game will be available to everybody again.
Original story (Sun 17th May, 2020 04:30 BST): We've heard about games being mysteriously yanked from the Switch eShop in the past, and the latest one that appears to have gone missing in certain regions is Team Reptile's Megabyte Punch.
In an email, the small studio from the Netherlands (and previously responsible for Lethal League Blaze) explained how it released its "electro beat 'm-up game" on the Nintendo Switch last Friday, on 8th May. The game was already "breaking even" for the developer until the community noticed users in Europe and Australia were unable to purchase the title from the eShop.
We have no idea why this happened nor were we notified by Nintendo about this. We have reached out but have yet to receive a response. At the time of writing, the game has been unavailable for purchase for at least 12 hours in Europe and Australia.
One theory is it could be a technical problem with the eShop, and another is it was taken down because of a bug. The developer goes on to admit there were bugs in the title but says it's no different from any other new release. A patch is already being processed as well:
Nintendo themselves have tested the game to make sure it fits their quality standards. On top of that, a patch is already being processed that solved several bugs found in the game. But it would not explain the game being unavailable only in certain regions.
Team Reptile says it has been "completely left in the dark" and wants to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
Given the fact it's the weekend right now, we can't see this issue being addressed any time soon, but if there are any updates, we'll be sure to let you know. It's also worth pointing out the game is still available in North America.
Did you notice Megabyte Punch had gone missing in select regions? Any idea why? Share your thoughts below.
Comments 14
I am glad I live in North America because this game actually looks kinda fun
Oh dear, not good if even the devs don’t know why it’s been taken down. I’m sure they’ll let them know at some point but it’s their IP, surely they should be the first to know.
It's worth noting this isn't an obscure developer either. This is the team behind Lethal League. Hope everything will get sorted out.
Sounds like some kind of bad shenanigans is going on over at Nintendo... i hope they will soon let us know what the meaning of this is because it is kind of irritating to those who are being left out whenever a game gets pulled out only on their part of the world
Of all countries it had to be mine. 😑
At least you can buy stuff from other regions, no? "Luckily" the asset flip games are still to be found...
@TheAwesomeBowser And a load of others lol
The eShop has got to a stage now where the game descriptions are badly localised. Spelling, grammar etc. Over the last year I've reigned in my spending. Reason is I can no longer justify the price and space on cheap games that offer no long term replay value.
I’m amazed that notifying the publisher isn’t the first thing they do when they pull a title from the eShop. I wonder if that email got lost somehow, or if Nintendo was planning on putting it back up quickly enough for it not to matter.
Skyrim is still on the eShop, so a game full of bugs is clearly not a problem for Nintendo
So because the e-mail Nintendo sent about removal was sent at the same time they also e-mailed them about a patch, Team Reptile only bothered to open one of the two e-mails?
I would think if you're doing business here, every e-mail from Nintendo is worth opening and reading. So if that's any clue as to their attention of detail, I'm not shocked to learn that undisclosed violence wasn't revealed to ratings boards.
Ah just like I thought, the email did get lost. This is the first time I've ever heard of a company disagreeing with an official age rating... I wonder why that doesn't happen more often.
@Atariboy A lot of email programs will bug out when two emails from the same address are received at the same time, making one of the two difficult to access or even see
I saw this on the eShop and thought it looked kind of neat. Gave me Custom Robo-meets-Smash vibes. Hope it all gets sorted out, I think I'd like to give this a try.
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