Summary
Nintendocontinues to put the pieces into place in preparation for the launch of theSwitch 2on June 5. Today, that meant the rollout of a significant update for theNintendo Switch. The eShop is one of many things to have been significantly tweaked on Nintendo’s current system, and while one of the changes improves the usability of the eShop in a big way, it may have done significant damage to it at the same time.
As pointed out by GVG, how Nintendo measures recent success on the Switch eShop has now changed. The games topping the charts were previously there based on how many units they had sold over the past two weeks. That meant the bestsellers, and hence the games many people would see first when browsing the console’s store, would either be heavily discounted or, in a lot of instances, shovelware and copycat games.
Today’s update has changed that as the measure of success is now how much revenue a game has generated, and the timespan used has been decreased to three days. As demonstrated in the video below, the chart now features almost nothing but full price, triple-A titles. Games likeMario Kart 8 DeluxeandAnimal Crossing: New Horizonswhich continue to sell well even though they are rarely, if ever, reduced in price.
Nintendo’s eShop Update Means Less Shovelware To Sift Through
But It Will Also Make Indies Harder To Find
Aside from pointing people to full price games, which you have to assume is the main reason Nintendo would want to make this change, the new eShop rankings mean the shovelware, or “slop” as many people quite rightfully refer to it, has shifted elsewhere. It’s all still there, but you’re now less likely to see it when trying to find something that’s actually worth buying.
There’s a monkey paw-style downside to this change though, and it’s the impact the new rankings have immediately had on the visibility of indie games. As shown in GVG’s video, there is just one independent game in the top 30 on the Switch eShop following the update, and that one game isStardew Valley.
Since indie games are usually a lot cheaper than their triple-A counterparts, and often on sale, a system that ranks games by dollar sales rather than units sold will mean indie games are featured less prominently on the eShop. It’s a shame as changes to the eShop that prevent shovelware from rising to the top needed to be made. Hopefully Nintendo can continue to fiddle with the formula so indie games aren’t punished too.
