The Switch has been hugely successful for third parties, especially independent game developers, so far- but it has an issue. You see, the Switch eShop is extremely simplistic. It has minimal organization features, and is terrible for discoverability. This was more or less okay when the volume of releases on Switch wasn’t that high- but given the tidal wave of new releases the platform gets every month, this is becoming more and more of an issue.
If games are hard to discover, then they might not sell- and if they don’t sell, then third parties will stop bothering putting them on the Switch, leading to a loss of support. Which is naturally a situation the company wants to avoid. That is why, speaking at a GDC panel today, Nintendo confirmed that it will be looking to improve the eShop on the Switch, with the aim of increasing the discoverability of games.
“We have heard the feedback from yourselves, and from fans, loud and clear, about the limitations of the Nintendo eShop”, Nintendo’s Damon Barker said at the panel. “I can assure you that steps are being taken over the course of the coming year to improve the functionality in terms of discoverability and visibility, to highlight all of that great content.” He also added that Nintendo would be increasing its highlighting of third party games on its website and social media channels.
So that’s good- because right now, every few weeks or so, I have to scroll through the list of the most recent releases on the eShop to see if there’s something that catches my eye, and frankly, that is asinine. Hopefully the new eShop layout will address this issue.
