It was pretty obvious that Hotline Miami was going to have trouble releasing in Australia on the Nintendo Switch, but Devolver Digital tried it anyway… and well, the results are just as you would expect.

According to Vooks, Hotline Miami Collection had a surprise release on the Nintendo Switch eShop in Australia as part of the indie showcase of GamesCom. However, the release didn’t last long.

As noted by the site, the game was removed from the eShop just a day later. If you attempt to visit the Australian eShop page for Hotline Miami Collection, you’ll note that there’s now just an error on the page, informing you that the content is no longer available.

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So how did the game get released and then get instantly removed? Well, as explained by Vooks, it was never supposed to be released in the first place.

You see, neither the Australian Classification Board nor the IARC gave Hotline Miami 2 a proper rating, and therefore, since it was refused classification it wasn’t never supposed to be released.

They point to the Australian Classification site, which has a recent listing for Hotline Miami, which was rated by the IARC back on June 13th, 2019 but was promptly refused classification.

Now keep in mind that this is just for the Australian version of the game available on the eShop. The North American and Asian versions are still available, and you can still visit the Nintendo game page for Hotline Miami Collection, which features both the original Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number.

The collection is available right now for $24.99. Vooks also noted that they reached out to Devolver Digital to find out if the game collection would at some point be released on the Australian eShop, but hadn’t received a reply at the time of publication.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Devolver found themselves in hot water with the Australian Classification Board. They also had trouble getting Katana Zero released in the region back in the spring, but it eventually managed to secure a rating and release in Australia.

(Thanks for the news tip Ebicentre)