If you didn’t know, there’s a game on Switch sold only in Europe and Japan called *Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for Nintendo Switch* or *脳を鍛える大人のNintendo Switchトレーニング*. But it was not released in North America.
The Brain Age games on DS were deeply beloved in America, so why did they not release this game that surely would sell well?
The reason is **it would be illegal to sell it**.
There was an online brain training game in the 2000s called [Lumosity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumosity). This game made lots of brain training claims and even said it could prevent memory loss and Alzheimer’s Disease. In 2016, the [FTC sued Lumosity](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2016/01/lumosity-pay-2-million-settle-ftc-deceptive-advertising-charges-its-brain-training-program) and they settled out of court.
Since this, game developers have decided it’s best to not try to make any sort of medical claims whatsoever about brain training in the USA.
by razorbeamz
4 Comments
Very sad it wasn’t released here in North America. But, I’m glad the Switch is Region unlocked. I still play it as often as I can, I try to do a daily morning routine with it and Big Brain.
Wouldnt it only be illegal if they made medical claims then?
If they don’t say it cures Alzheimers then it’s not illegal?
That doesn’t make it illegal to sell. Products make claims all the time. All they would have needed to do was change the wording around a tiny bit. That’s not enough to prevent them from releasing it. Nevermind the fact that both the UK, Europe, and Australia have much more stringent laws about making claims about products.
They probably didn’t release it because the 3DS game failed *hard* across the board, and so did this game. As far as I can tell, Nintendo never gave an official reason not to release it here, but your claim that it was because “it’s illegal” doesn’t hold any water, nevermind the fact that all of the Brain Age games except the first one were released after the Luminosity was released, and the FTC never cared to noticed them at the time. In fact, this probably violates your own rule 2
It’s because the claims are provably false. Playing the Brain Age minigames every day doesn’t train your memory or help you prevent any kind of illnesses. Playing Brain Age minigames each day makes you good at the Brain Age minigames.