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The Nintendo Switch eShop has long since been a controversial topic for fans and users. Whether it is the lack of a unique eShop music theme, the overwhelming number of shovelware and AI-generated titles available on a daily basis, or the difficulty indie games have in being discovered in large part due to the aforementioned slurry of AI games, there is more than enough for people to complain about. Strangely, across the console’s eight-year existence, Nintendo has done very little to address a lot of these concerns.
However, that is seemingly changing, just at the latest stage possible. During what has been a disastrous Switch 2 pre-order period, Nintendo has finally updated the Nintendo eShop and fixed a number of key issues, one of which has been a consistent problem for several years. Unfortunately, while it is a great fix and one that will hopefully benefit the Nintendo Switch 2 as well, it has created a brand-new problem, one that could greatly affect indie games and the livelihoods of their developers.
The Nintendo eShop Has Been Fixed
Bad Games Are Harder To Find Now
A recent Nintendo Switch update has fixed the eShop’s biggest issue with AI-generated games and shovelware. These low-effort scam games that exist purely to confuse users looking for other games, often using imagery associated with currently popular titles or even using similar naming conventions, have been a stain on the eShop for a long time, largely due to Nintendo’s relatively relaxed policy on allowing practically anything onto the Switch’s digital storefront, even if it is a blatant asset flip or features inaccurate screenshots.
The new update has altered how the eShop’s Chart page works, which previously showcased the games with the most downloads in the last 30 days. Developers of these AI and shovelware Switch games would put their titles on extreme discounts, thus encouraging prospective purchasers to buy their games and putting them high in the charts. This gave them the spotlight, and, as a result, more sales, pushing genuinely good games out of the charts altogether. It is a shame it happened, but these changes put a stop to that.
As AI games and shovelware only succeeded due to their ridiculously low prices, they’ll no longer make enough money to hit the Charts tab, even if they do have more downloads.
Now, rather than showing the games with the most downloads, the Charts tab shows the games that have made the most money in the last three days. As AI games and shovelware only succeeded due to their ridiculously low prices, they’ll no longer make enough money to hit the Charts tab, even if they do have more downloads. This change has also affected the Discounts tab, which shows less shovelware earlier on, reserving the worst for far lower down. It is a solution to the Switch’s biggest problem, but one that, unfortunately, creates a whole new issue.
Indies Are Now Struggling Even More On Switch
They’re Buried Even Deeper
As genuine indie games made with passion are also typically priced far lower than AAA titles, they too are now excluded from the Charts page, even if they are selling well. Now, the Charts page spotlights games that don’t really need the attention, like The Witcher 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Minecraft, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and EA Sports FC, rather than those that could meaningfully benefit from the promotion. Indie games have already struggled significantly on the Nintendo Switch due to how many games are on the platform, but this makes it so much worse.
This more specifically applies to the All Games section of the Charts tab, which includes games that are available both for digital download and as a physical boxed product, rather than the Download Exclusives section, which focuses entirely on games that are only available via the eShop, which are usually indie titles or AA games. However, even the Download Exclusives section suffers, albeit to a lesser extent, due to bigger budget games now forgoing physical copies.
It is yet another bizarre move from Nintendo, a company that is slowly losing touch with its fans. From increasing the prices of its games exponentially without giving much indication that they’re worth the extra cost, charging full price for half-baked remasters of Switch games and cutting out content from those versions, and the debacle with the Switch 2’s pre-orders, it’s hard to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt at the moment. There’s even that $10 tie-in Switch 2 game that should have been free, like the infinitely more content-rich Astro Bot’s Playroom on the PS5.
However, making the lives of indie developers harder, especially those who don’t have huge marketing budgets or those who rely on deep discounts to get their game any form of attention, doesn’t seem like a realistic or positive fix for a wider Switch problem that isn’t their fault. Simply put, indie developers shouldn’t be punished for the mistakes that Nintendo is making, and has been making for quite some time. Rather, Nintendo needs to dramatically improve its quality control, especially before the Switch 2 launches.
Nintendo Needs Better Quality Control
It Shouldn’t Be Allowing Obviously Bad Games In The First Place
The problem isn’t so much that the Charts page was being exploited by AI games and shovelware as much as it is that Nintendo let these games onto the eShop in the first place. Nintendo was once infamous for its strict policies regarding which games could launch for its systems, which resulted in a lot of more mature titles being absent from earlier Nintendo consoles. That has changed significantly over the years, and for the better, but it has gone way too far in the other direction.
Nintendo will let practically anything through, as evidenced by the continued release of the aforementioned slop that continues to suffocate the eShop and bury good games. The obvious solution, one that would also remove the need for the current detrimental Charts fix, is to put harsher measures in place to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, this would require extensive manual checks on every game, as well as Nintendo to decide that games created with AI shouldn’t be allowed on its platforms, something that the major publishers seem to be in favor of, rather than against.
Related
The Switch 2 eShop Won’t Have Any Background Music, And Here’s Why
Nintendo has confirmed that the Switch 2’s eShop won’t have a theme song, like the Switch before it – but there may be a good reason for that.
Considering how many games launch on the Switch daily, manually checking each one is nearly impossible, or, at the very least, very expensive for Nintendo to do. This is likely why Nintendo has done nothing about it, despite fans having been complaining about it since the start. It is also likely why the Switch 2 won’t fix it, even if it could prove to be a serious problem for the platform. I hope that Nintendo finds a solution for this on the Nintendo Switch soon, especially if the current solution only serves to hurt great indie games.
- Brand
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Nintendo
- Original Release Date
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March 3, 2017
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$299.99
- Weight
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.71 lbs
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