The first months after Nintendo published the Switch in 2017 was described as A “gold rush” for independent game developers. The switch's eshop was not exactly sterile, but early there was a lot of room for the new versions. To put it in perspective, Nintendo announced in 2018 That around 1,000 games were added to the platform during its first year. The number of games published each year simply adds to the number of games available on the eshop; In 2024, Gamediscoverco has reported that 50 games had been added per weekDriving more than 2,300 new games in 2024 by November.
This started as a gold rush for independent developers who spoil slowly, and ultimately the eshop has become soil. This has pushed some developers on the margins, while the degradation of the platform has embittered the experience as a whole.
Leaving the so-called IndiepocalypseThe period after the Golden Age Indie from 2008 to 2015 – Think Fez,, BraveAnd Great meat – The developers were in shock from the massive influx of competition and a drop in discovery. The eshop, for a while, was a stay of this. Nintendo himself seemed ready to support this growth period; Days before the launch date of the switch, the company announced that it had already locked more than 60 “quality independent games” for 2017.
PC player reported In October 2017, “almost all independent outings on Switch” sold better on Switch than on other platforms. Enter the Gungeon sold more than 75,000 copies in just two weeks, Dodge Roll developer games saidWhile Team Meat posted in January 2018 that Great meatThe first day on Switch had “shocking closure” numbers when it started Xbox 360. Steamworld DIG 2One of the titles that Nintendo boasted, sold between five and 10 times more copies on Switch than on Steam, by one PC player report.
Rodrigue Duperron of Spirits The developer Thunder Lotus says that the studio “missed the gold rush” during its publication Noding On the switch in April 2018, but was still “very satisfied” with his performance. (It was published on Wii U in 2016.) “I do not believe that it is a coincidence that the monthly outings at the eshop are still counted in” simple “dozens in early 2018,” he said. Thunder Lotus was expecting his next match, FallingTo sell better, but Duperron said that the team was “slightly disappointed” – and underlined the massive increase in games published monthly. “He did not feel at the time that the titles of Shewware or Bargain basically flooded the platform, but it was more a weak simmer that was going to boil in the coming years,” he said.
2020 Spirits saw increased success outside the “independent boom” for several reasons, one of which was that Nintendo included it in its star section. “More visibility has led more sales, led to being included in the best sellers section,” explains Duperron. Abhi Swaminathan, founder of Venba Visai developer games, echoes this feeling. The game, which was released in 2023, was presented in two independent directors of Nintendo, which it partially attributes to success on the platform. (Sales remain “almost around the neck with the vapor sales,” he says.)
During the eight years that followed the launch of the switch, the platform has become crowded. It started to look a lot like Steam, which is exploded daily with new games. The switch, clearly, is not immune to low effort games that take off the market. In recent years, they have obtained a name: Eshop Sol. As Ign Put it in FebruaryFloor games are distinct from the “banal games” otherwise that have come out every day. They are rarely what they have announced as, are based on popular or trendy concepts and are plagued by technical problems. It is not really that the eshop started to rust, just that he was not “particularly sophisticated from a discovery point of view to start”, ” Gamediscoverco The author and analyst of the industry Simon Carless tells The penis.
“I do not know if a store is free from the possible assault of” salk games “.”
Among us The CEO of studio innersloth, Forest Willard, says The penis The fact that the ESHOP game establishment process is more specific and takes time than with other platforms, such as Steam. “Many games on the eshop are those who have played the system and rationalized their processes to produce content (SLOL), while the developers who go through the care and intention process are not necessarily rewarded by algorithm,” he said.
But this is not an easy solution – nor a unique problem in Nintendo. “I do not know if a store is free from the possible assault of” salk games “unless they are very well organized or Greekeep-y, which would present its own problems,” added the director of communications innersloth, Victoria Tran.
Nintendo has brought adjustments to its system over the years, but its biggest has taken place recently, probably in anticipation of Switch 2. Nintendo has updated how he classifies games In its category of top-professional, modifying the classification of number sales at upper sales. Carless said that it was a three -day revenue for 14 -day downloads, a way to push very small games that are very selling. (Nintendo refused to comment.) James Barnard de Let's build a zoo The developer Springled said that this system “could help reduce certain titles to climb graphics only thanks to important discounts.”
But he warns that this is not a total solution. “The new system is still not perfect, because it seems that graphics promote games with higher prices,” he said. “This means that we would potentially need to sell three times more copies than a AAA game to appear as strongly in the announcements.”
Game developers The penis spoken to agree that there are Improvements that Nintendo can make to help India shine on its new eshop. DUPERRON suggests user reviews, while Barnard and Willard would both like to see better overall performance – loading times, conservation and search functionality can be a problem. “It's good to know exactly what you want to play, but there is no” you might like “that would catch me Hollow knight (easily found on the lists of the best sellers) for Unconstrained Or Iconoclasts (Incredible and similar games, but not the sellers with persistent leaves), ”explains Willard.
Nintendo tries something like that with its “game for you” functionality so that players do not have to “search all the corners and corners” of the eshop, said switch producer Kouichi Kawamoto in a Ask the development of the developer From April. In this interview, Nintendo's main director, Takuhiro Dohta, also addressed the performance of the eshop, declaring that it would take place more easily, even with a huge amount of games. He added that the act of finding a game to play is an important part of the Nintendo Switch 2 experience.
Nintendo clearly thinks of the problems of the past and has implemented some fixes to take charge of the eShop on its new equipment. The key detail, however, will be how he continues to modify the platform – developers and analysts hope that Nintendo will not simply define the store, then forget it.
“Nintendo has made essential modifications to both Switch and Switch 2 eShop before the launch of Switch 2, but we would like to see iterations more often than once by” platform cycle “,” said Carless.
