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By Dustin Bailey published 12 July 22

The ESRB rating doesn't reveal much unexpected, but it does add fuel for the rumor mill

The official eShop page for Bayonetta 3 has been updated with a new ESRB rating, which is adding fuel to the fire of rumors about an impending release date reveal.

You can see the rating for yourself over on the eShop (opens in new tab) , but descriptors include violence, blood and gore, partial nudity, and strong language - pretty much all the hits you'd expect from a new Bayonetta game. There's also an 'in-game purchases' tag, though the ESRB's application of that descriptor tends to be pretty broad, often including games that simply offer the option of major DLC expansions.

As noted by users on Reddit (opens in new tab) , a July 6 version of the store page archived on the Wayback Machine (opens in new tab) does not include the ESRB rating, hinting that this rating was recently delivered. There's also no entry for Bayonetta 3 on the official ESRB site just yet.

The ESRB rating comes as the Bayonetta 3 rumor mill has begun grinding harder than ever. Twitter user Syluxhunter, who seemingly confirmed some of the content of last month's Nintendo Direct Mini before it was broadcast (opens in new tab) , has now claimed that Bayonetta 3 news is set to drop "tomorrow," (opens in new tab) July 13. This is the same leaker who previously suggested that Bayonetta 3 is scheduled to launch on October 28, 2022 (opens in new tab) .

You should certainly take all those rumors with a grain of salt, but despite the lack of news around Bayonetta 3 since a bit of gameplay footage was revealed last September, Nintendo has recently insisted that the game's still on track to launch sometime in 2022.

Fans have been afraid of a Bayonetta 3 delay given its absence from recent Nintendo broadcasts.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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