Nintendo Confirms That There Are Now More Than 1,300 Games Available On Switch

1200 of which are shovelware

@aznable Agreed. The Switch has some amazing games but let's no fool ourselves, the vast majority of that 1,300 figure is made up of shovelware. And a lot of the other good games are old, overpriced ports.

I'd love to see some deeper analysis on this NintendoLife. Not sure whether there's an entirely fair/accurate way to portray "decent titles" versus "shovel ware" but perhaps breaking down the 1300 titles by a few parameters would help: price bracket, genre, developer etc.

On face value at least, 1300 titles in 18 months is impressive...

I have 10 retail games and more than 40 eShop games

@NewAdvent Here come the 'shovelware' defenders!

Way to many are shovelware, its hard to find the good games on the EShop. Would it not be great it the visability of the games was related to their review score?

Gotta catch 'em all!

So far, i have 24 Switch games , All Physical, including LABO Toy Con 01.
I have a few Digital download only Switch games (Flip Wars, Chuka Taisen, Portal Knights), but i rarely play Flip Wars & Chuka Taisen due to my hype on Physical games.

Great news on the surface but they are lumping in the most cheap and simple games with the rest to get to this figure. Switch needs more triple A titles. Quality not quantity please.

@aznable
Btw, what games do you want on Switch ?
What games do you think are shovelwares (maybe some examples) ?

I've got over 50 titles on Switch. So far, only one game I write off as a disappointment. But the loud minority will whine nonstop and call everything that's not on the level of BotW, Odyessy and Skyrim "shovelware"...

Yeah, there certainly is some, but it's not nearly as bad as people make it sound. The real issue is more the poor eshop layout that makes looking through that big library of games very very tedious. Nintendo painfully needs to rework the shop.

I have 18 physical and about 20 Eshop games along with getting Smash and Sega Classics collection by Christmas I will have around 40 titles. @Anti-Matter I have Flip Wars also, its not very good. Debating deleting it...................

Quality over quantity! Something Nintendo are brilliant at with their own games.

24 Physical, 3 digital for me

And converted my Flashback Steel book to a cartridge holder

@Heavyarms55
E-shop Menu needs some :
1. Calm Elevator music
2. Filters to select the games based on Alphabetical, Age rating, Genre, Publisher, Discounted, Price range.

@Heavyarms55 Personally I never use the eshop. I just find the game I want on the Nintendo website, purchase, and it's downloaded and ready to play when I next turn on the Switch. But I agree, the bare-bones eshop just isn't compatible with a catalogue of over 1000 games.

@BANJO
Flip Wars was not so good, but also not so bad.
But the problem is Flip Wars = Claim the Cube from Mario Party mini game.
You have to jump onto panels with your butt to claim the panels. More panels you claimed, you are the winner.
Better played between 5 - 10 minutes or you will start get bored.

Don't understand why people always bring up quality vs. quantity when it comes to the Switch. It clearly has both. Imo, the Switch has a great games lineup, especially considering how it's only ~ 20 months old.

The Nintendo eShop as it currently stands.

A cluttered, unorganised mess where you've to wade through the chaff to find the gems.

wow attach rate must be pretty high. yes out of 1300 u will have a lot of stylist shop simulation game , no doy. but just because its not a a AAA doesnt mean it cant be great fun. my fav game on switch was steamworld heist

Totally sounding like a broken record here but those numbers are flattering the Switch. This year, up until recently it's felt like a barren wasteland. Maybe I'm being harsh but from Mario Aces to Mario Party I didn't buy a single switch game, and those two are hardly steller must have titles!

@aznable not THAT bad, but maybe around 1.000 out of 1.300 games are shovelware.

@Silkyinsect_UK Your issue lies with yourself though, not the Switch. 2017 was a barren wasteland for me, I bought like what, 3 or 4 games? My own fault ofc, coz plenty of quality games came out.

2018? Well I'm gonna hit my 60th Switch game in December. Downright amazing year packed to the brim with quality games.

I have already purchased more games on the Switch than I have for the Wii and WiiU combined.

3 physical/ 166 digital for me. A ridiculous amount of games to have. I have slowed right down in the last few months though. Now I'm actually working my way through the games I've already bought.

I wish Nintendo curated what's allowed on and what's not,like they did for the most part of last year. A few stinkers got through for sure but they were few and far between,the overall quality was fairly high. Since the turn of this year though that's changed a lot. Every single week has several stinkers releasing,making quality games harder to spot. I don't check the Eshop anywhere near as much as I used to. The Coming Soon section has near 50 games at a time, it's a mess.

I actually like the eShop as it is, they improved it quite a bit over time.

You can click on the publisher to show all the games they have published, you have the game of the day and a lot of visibility to other games from the previous month in the Discover section, you have a list of all the games on offer and if you enter any game page you can see clearly how much time the discount will last.

Every day I turn on the Switch I always go first to take a look at the eShop

I would love to see a list of all reviews games by @nintendolife with scores next to it. Maybe update the list/article once a month. There’s probably gems I’ve missed.

Y’all are crazy, I’ve got about 200 games for switch and I only regret getting 2 or 3 of them

@TheWorkingDead
https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/switch/filtered?sort=desc

Still nothing to play, well after about 2058 anyways.

@Blizzia No not really, it's an issue with the system not releasing a healthy stream of diverse quality games for it's system's owners. Mainly because it's still struggling to have a lot of 3rd party support. Not really a problem I have with the Xbox or Ps4.

Something for everyone. Honestly most eshop games don't seem like shovelware, just stuff that doesn't fit my interests. I doubt 90% of games makers are hoping people accidentally give them money for their awful games.
I'm sure there are people that enjoy the card games that I find boring on the eshop.

I don't share the 'shovelware' view - any digital platform has the same issue nowadays.

But what I question is how many of the games available have only ever been published since Switch launched. A disappointing number are ports of older games. Many great games, but most of us have seen them before, a generation or more before in many cases.

@Anti-Matter Yes its best played in short bursts. That and Sine Mora Ex are my only purchase regrets. Sine More Ex was great but just to hard.

To me it's only around 80 or so games for Switch. If they're not on my shelf then I don't count them as games for Switch.

@retro_player_22 hi just saw your comment how to get the bridge. I’ve completed the ghost house , got the little bonus room , but the bridge hasn’t appeared , not sure if I’ve done it correct I’ve completed the ghost room loads of Times and still not bridge to the next level , sorry haven’t played this game in 20 years and it’s like brand new again to me.

@BANJO for some, maybe. I personally ignore review scores by definition, they have zero value to me. Granted, it doesn't help that I'm not too fond of scoring systems in general, but their applicability is even more ephemeral in regards to Fiction.

There are some great games but they can be very hard to find due to the eShop’s poor layout and interface - a fix is desperately needed.

@Pelpel This vid will help you get the picture. Yeah sorry about the tip earlier, the ghost house in the SNES version doesn't have Yoshi Coin in that level, I was telling you through the GBA port.

There is nothing to play on the switch people say....

But, but no games....

The internet told me so!

Seriously though even with me going partially digital I still have more games than I can keep up with. Speaking of which I need to buy some more game holders. As long as the fighters keep coming I'm good. I could go for last gen ports of most of the fighting game fare honestly. (I'm just trying to get VF5FS on switch)

I do hope to see some curation and redesign of the eShop to avoid the deluge covered waters like Steam has become.

Shovelware will exist but a large proportion seem to be fairly decent products, aimed at specific markets and genres.

Sometimes people forget there’s a difference between Shovelware and Games that don’t interest them.

I have well over 60 games on my Switch, from puzzle games to first person shooters, to JRPGs, platformers, and action adventure games. I don't regret a single purchase. If you aren't into indie games, not only do I question why you own a Nintendo console, but I question why you even play games nowadays. AAA games are getting so soulless and money hungry that making 500 MILLION dollars in three days with Call of Duty Black Ops 4 was enough for shareholders to call it a disappointment.

@Anti-Matter That'd be the bare bones minimum that they could add. They need rotating featured games in several categories. They need flash sales(surprise discounts on random games for like, an hour) they need the ability to sort games by both by least and most expensive, and they need some kind of user rating system that requires a person to have bought the game and played at least 1 hour of it, to be able to leave a rating. They also need a way to display more games at once. And frankly, it all needs to move quick. I'd rather have the eshop take longer to load upon opening, and then work really well once you're in than the current way, where you get in really fast, but then each section still has to load.

@Silkyinsect_UK Actually, no. It has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of quality games. As I mentioned to you, I'll be buying my 60th Switch title this December.

The issue is yours alone. You have a shallow taste in games, and as such it's your own fault that you don't feel like you're getting enough content. It has absolutely nothing to do with the console.

And you can't compare it to the Xbox One or the PS4.

The XB1 was released in 2013.
The PS4 was released in 2013.
The NSW was released in 2017.

That's an additional 4 years (well, between 3 and 4) those consoles have had to get content. Which is huge. Yet you're sitting here complaining like a little baby that there's no content. There's plenty. I'll probably hit 100 games in 2019 at the pace this is going, and that's quality titles. Not shovelware.

Broaden your horizon and you just might find something you enjoy.

@SuperCharlie78 11 "Bad" games ain't too shabby, though they only have 400 and a bit titles in the list? Though of course the ratings are subjective to peoples own tastes.

How many are mobile ports?

1300 games ? LOL

1300 games - 800 Shovelwares - 300 ports - 175 inferior multiplats = 25 games left...

@TheWorkingDead Like old games magazines used to do. I agree, that'd be good.

Majority is shovelware and extremely old ports

It's a stark contrast to the Wii U days. Lots of ports but many of them are great games that I had no problem double dipping for to be able to play anywhere I want. Also got some games for the first time like Bayonetta 1 and 2 and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. And these ports have been balanced out by high quality exclusives. In the first year alone we had a new Zelda and 3D Mario, both among the top of their respective franchises, excellent new entries in Splatoon and Xenoblade Chronicles and a cool new IP in ARMS. This year hasn't been as strong as 2017 but Octopath is another great JRPG and Nintendo is closing the year on a high note with Pokemon and Smash.

I bought a PS4 at launch and got an Xbox One just under a year after its launch. Neither console was close to what Switch is when they were at the same point in time.

@Cobalt I know you like your Wii U and it is sort of a mission to downplay the Switch, but... Ports and multiplats don't take away from the total. The only thing that does that = shovelware.

Multiplats are also not "inferior" on the Switch. Some may be, others not.

Look at all those USK ratings ruining the box art
Can't we just have the neater, clearer and less-obtrusive PEGI system and nothing else?

Calling a huge quantity of the games shovelware isn't exactly fair unless you've PLAYED a huge quantity of the games. Everything I've played has been fun, and it's better than the reverse problem we had during the Wii U days...

Too bad there are maybe a dozen games worth buying.

I love the switch, but it needs more AAA and first party games. The indie games are fine, but they have to be priced like it. I am not paying first party prices for 4 hour games and clones of 30 year old titles.

10% great 90% load crap.

Does the switch need more AAA games? Yes.
Does the Switch have no games to play? No it does not. It has plenty.

Look if you can't find stuff to play, its you, not the system. Because with 1300 games, there's something in there you can find to play.

@aznable You obviously need to open a dictionary and find what the true meaning of the word "Shovelware" is. When you read the explanation you will no longer comment that there are 1200 shovelware games on Switch. Unless you were joking (though, I didn't see any smiley on your comment).

Gotta love all the people who insist on commenting that 1300 games doesn't mean anything because they're 90% garbage. You people never learn, do you? 90% of EVERYTHING is garbage. It's Sturgeon's Law. 90% of all science fiction is derivative, exploitative fanservicey drivel. 90% of all films ever made are boring, ineptly made trash not worth watching on Netflix. 90% of the books on Amazon are the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. And 90% of the PS4 and XBOne libraries are also, you guessed it, trash. Get over it already.

Taking away 90% of the Switch library leaves us with around 130 high quality games that would be worthy additions to any gamer's collection, which sounds about right to me and is a great place to be in after 18 months on the market. Personally I've bought 26 physical Switch games and about 20 more eshop games, and I've been disappointed by about 4 of them. The only things keeping me from buying a lot more are money and the fact that I have only so much time in the day for playing games. Without even thinking about it, I could name another dozen games that I'd love to play but know that I just don't have the time for them.

This is typical marketing spin we see all the time from any company out there, that is strictly based on putting out big numbers to somehow "wow" the crowd or change a perception.

Problem is, numbers usually don't mean much without context.

How many of those games are simple ports of mobile ones available for cheaper (or even free)? How many of those games are also ports of small indie games, also available everywhere else, almost always for less? How many of those games are ports of older games, repackaged and resold at a greatly inflated price?

How many of those games are more than a simple, quirky mobile-type experience? Do we really need another "hidden object" game, or match-3 type puzzle, or endless runners?

I agree, some of these indie games (a small %) are truly great. But the problem (another one) is that they're lost among all the crap, without any decent way for you to find them.

So yeah. How many of those 1300 games (that you know about) are games you'd actually want to buy and play? 100, maybe? In my case, it's probably less than that. Especially since I'm counting out all the games on Switch I can get elsewhere for a lot less... that I'm not going to buy on Switch (duh!).

Finally, a dislike option. Hey Nintendo Life, how about having a chat with your buddies at Eurogamer about the system they use where comments with too many downvotes are hidden by default? Ain't nobody got time to read the ramblings of trolls like the ones gathering on every single post here.

@Realnoize I agree with most of what you say, though the "how many of those games are ports of older games, repackaged and resold at a greatly inflated price?" doesn't really work out here.

The Switch has a unique trait that make many of those so-called "old games" available in a totally new and different way: The handheld mode.

I've double-dipped on a lot of titles and enjoyed them tremendously on Switch, simply because they're THAT MUCH BETTER when available on the go. It really adds a lot of value to it, especially for people like me who aren't really able to tether themselves to a big screen 24/7.

As for how many quality games I think the Switch has, I'm probably thinking 200 out of 1300.

How many quality games that I'd consider?

Well, my Switch game list hits 60 with Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

I bought 13 games in 2017.

So far, according to "plan", I'm going to buy 48 games throughout 2018, reaching 61 Switch games.

2019 already has 10 games on the list, and it ain't even 2019 yet.

Personally I'm good with that.

Gee, if only there was some kind of media we could rely on to help us find the quality titles on Switch. Because currently the only way we can sort the wheat from the chaff is to actually play every single title on the Eshop. It's too bad nobody ever invented magazines, websites or forums where people could talk about the hot new games and tell each other which ones were any good.

If I had a few bucks I would totally create something like that. I might call it, I don't know, maybe "Nintendo Life"?

If you like this idea, be sure to tune in next week, when I invent Metacritic and Resetera.

I had never really even considered the idea of using the eShop to actually find games I don't already know about. I use sites like this or Metacritic to find out about games and then go onto the eShop, search for the title and either buy it or add it to the wishlist.

It feels ignorant to boast such numbers when not even 3/4ths of those games are viable. Indie junk.

@gortsi Yeah I've noticed a few people have 5+ dislikes on many of their comments already. They need to do it so heavily thumbed down comments are hidden from view.

Purchased 25 games for my Switch. Diablo 3 will be #26, and if it reviews well, Civilization VI will be #27. Smash is also definitely on the menu before the year is up.

@WiltonRoots that would be awesome, and it's much better than the ignore system where you never see what someone posts (because admittedly sometimes they refrain from trolling)

@Blizzia Wind your neck in, have you any idea how patronising you are!? If there's anyone acting like a baby it's you and your petulant response to my opinion.

Thanks for the life lesson about broadening my horizons, I'd say my taste is already quite broad and to be honest it's probably broader than most folks including yours. I've been playing games since the Mega Drive and I'm happy to play any genre, mainstream, indie or whatever and I've probably put thousands and thousands of pounds into the 20 or so years I've been gaming. I've played a lot and I play a lot.

But please broaden my horizons you're obviously of superior taste... 👌

The switch, regardless of what you think, is still lacking a diverse range of top tier games. Mainly in part due to a lack of true 3rd party support. Nintendo has been plagued by this for years, thankfully that does look to be changing with the success of the Switch.

And yes I can compare the Switch to the Xbox and PS4 and any other gaming device. The switch is not 'new' it's been out a while.

If I want to play an RTS, a fully blown RPG, a top quality shooter, a puzzle game whatever I have a plethora of options on other consoles that simply blow most of what's on the switch out of the sky, games that have come out this year alone, not even considering what has come before. Why? Because they have more support. Though I would say Xbox is struggling worse for quality 1st party games.

The big Nintendo hitters this year that are fresh, new experiences are Mario Aces, Octopath, Mario Party and Xenoblade Torna... what else? Seriously. AAA games here?

Your such a typical character to find hanging around on forums, you're lucky I bothered responding. If you hadn't been so patronising I wouldn't have...

I have only 5 physical switch games at moment (blazeblue cross tag, pokken tournament dx, Mario kart 8 deluxe, arms, and Bomberman) and I have over 50 something eShop games and that doesn't include the free to play games. I find myself struggling on a weekly basis not to buy something that goes on sale. While the eShop does have its fair share of shovelware it also has a large library of critically acclaimed Indies and hidden gems. It's up to you to figure out what type of game you want and to do your own research on them. The eShop has ways to filter your search results and the eShop has a top 30 and a feature page. While the eShop could probably find more ways to be better I think it's overall a great service.

I have 11 physical games and 3 digital. Those numbers would be much higher if I had the finances.

I bought nearly every notable Wii U retail game at one point, and most were awesome, but that slow drip was really tough to take. The Switch experience has been so different, so many games, so many ports (of shmups and fighters!!), so many remasters, and actually less have resonated with me, but the future remains bright . . . starting with GRIP next week for us arcade racing fans!!

@Silkyinsect_UK Patronising? You're making absurd comparisons, claiming the Switch barely has any diverse quality software, and now you're also claiming your taste is broader than mine. Well, I'm looking at 48 switch games for 2018 so far. You're not. Clearly something is missing there.

I never stated my taste was superior. But it is clearly broader than yours since you have trouble finding games to play. You're also claiming absurd things like lack of "true" 3rd party support. WHAT THE HELL IS TRUE THIRD PARTY SUPPORT? Third party support is third party support. AKA anything that's not first party. It's got plenty of that.

No, you cannot compare the Switch to PS4/XB1. It doesn't matter if it has been out for a while. We're talking less than 2 years vs more than double that. How in the world would you call that a fair comparison?

Also, it seems like you need to decide what you're all about. You want me to name AAA titles but you're saying you're happy with anything, indie or otherwise. So why are we measuring AAA titles? What's next, we gotta measure the Switch by AAA 1st party Nintendo titles not belonging to a long-running IP and selling 10m+? Come on now.

Nintendo games aren't all that count for the Switch. And guess what? 2018 was a third party year. A great one, at that.

Call me typical, patronising, whatever you want. When you're talking out of your butt, I'm gonna bite.

Guess I'll chuck my 2018 list in here just for the heck of it:

14 Furi
15 Darkest Dungeon
16 Celeste
17 Bayonetta
18 Bayonetta 2
19 Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs Royal Ed.
20 Hollow Knight
21 Fortnite
22 Crash Bandicoot N'Sane Trilogy
23 Octopath Traveler
24 Code of Princess EX
25 Iconoclasts
26 Dead Cells
27 Okami HD
28 Bad North
29 Blade Strangers
30 Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
31 Hyper Light Drifter
32 SNK Heroines ~Tag Team Frenzy~
33 Undertale
34 Velocity 2X
35 Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
36 Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna
37 Valkyria Chronicles 4
38 Arena of Valor
39 Armello
40 TowerFall
41 Dragon Ball FighterZ
42 Super Mario Party
43 Disgaea 1 Complete
44 Valkyria Chronicles
45 Starlink: Battle for Atlas
46 Dark Souls Remastered
47 7 Billion Humans
48 My Hero: One's Justice
49 Yomawari: Long Night Collection
50 Death Mark
51 The MISSING: J.J. Macfield
52 Transistor
53 Diablo 3: Eternal Collection
54 Gal Metal
55 Pokémon Let's Go: Eevee
56 Warframe
57 Atelier Rorona
58 Atelier Totori
59 Atelier Meruru
60 Super Smash Bros Ultimate

I'm in no way claiming these are all top tier games, these are just the games that piqued my interest in 2018, and which I've purchased or pre-ordered, depending on whether they've released or not.

Quite a few different genres as well.

So you see, when you're saying there's nothing, and I, feeling quite picky myself btw, have 48 purchases for 2018 on the Switch... Yeah. It doesn't really match up, does it now.

@gortsi Hahahahaha as soon as you replied someone disliked your post...the hate is strong.

@Blizzia I guess my definition of true 3rd party support is what we're seeing with Bethesda and Ubi with Skyrim, Doom, Starlink etc... Games that are appearing on other consoles but are on Switch with no real compromise. There hasn't currently been enough of that. Games on the E shop, most can be found on other consoles and cheaper, if the switch is your only console great, but if it's not the e shop isn't really offering much new. Which is fine I guess...

But besides that, it's your opinion dude, glad you can name all those games. I personally don't think this year has been all that good, it's getting better towards Xmas which always happens. Enjoy those games man 👍

@Silkyinsect_UK Thanks, and you enjoy what games you decide to buy towards Christmas too! Didn't mean to be patronising and all, but boy there are many idiots around on this website. (Not that you're one of them, we just have slightly different opinions on what constitutes a great year).

A true 3rd party remains a game not developed or published by Nintendo. That would be the only criteria. Indies count as 3rd parties too.

As far as AAA games go, there's been quite a few, but like you said, if you're not a handheld Switch gamer, there may or may not be equal or better alternatives. Personally, I treat it just like I've always treated my Nintendo hardware (aka handhelds since I've never been fond of their home consoles), like a magic box of handheld goodies.

And sure, some games may look prettier or perform better on other consoles, but if I can't take em river rafting, am I really playing them the ultimate way?! (This is a joke, but I did play my Switch while sailing in a speedboat actually. That was some wild stuff. It was bloody stupid too, but it was in a special transparent water-proof bag system. Friend wanted to go sailing, I wanted to game. We compromised.)

Personally I gave my ps4 to my little brother because the games they (Sony + sony-loyal 3rd parties) tend to release just aren't much else than pretty nowadays. It's the same old gameplay, repeated endlessly, with hyper realistic graphics and... It gets old. To me, at least.

Decided to go Switch + PC, because in general it seems like those two platforms have everything I could ever need.

Either way, enjoy.

Nintendo is relying on their army of indie publishers to create a false impression that they have lots of playable games. It's not like the old days anymore: the games on Switch are mostly ports, there are lots of mobile games and old retro games released for the hundredth time.

I am one of the few who can criticise Switch's for it's shovelware because I have played almost all the games. Yes you hear that right, I downloaded all the roms, going through them everyday for the last 4 months. I think I played more Switch games than any of the reviewers here at NL.

It's really dishonest for them to spam this huge library when it mostly consists of indie games. It has an audience, yes they're games, but when you compare Switch to Playstation, XBox, even Steam, the retail titles are the meat and potatoes on the other platforms, and Nintendo seems content to try to pretend Steam Greenlight and XBox Arcade are equal competition as a platform holder. Indies can be great, but they're a side-dish, not a main course.

That's not to say Switch doesn't have a respectable library already. For all but the 12M of us who owned a WiiU, it's been an amazing year of Nintendo games to most people outside our group, and the third parties may not rival the RDR/SoulCalibur/Fallout/Spider-Man/Forza fest going on on PSXBox, but there's tons of huge retail games available from Ys and Valkyria, to Souls, Starlink, and Civ6. The system isn't lacking in retail titles (for a Nintendo system and all that implies), but don't parade around "thousands of games" when most of that number is from fly-by-night garage developers and mobile publishers, and is mostly content that sells for pennies on Steam, and can run on basic non-dedicated gaming hardware. Just stick to the core presentation and stop trying to pretend to be in a measuring contest you can't measure up to.

@WiltonRoots their tears sustain me, keep em coming

This number is both amazing and daunting for those of us who don't have a Switch just yet. XD

The frequency of titles is a testament to the system's accessibility and popularity IMO.

@Anti-Matter I've listed all of the games I own on my user page here on NL, and have assigned scores to them. My opinions are, I believe, pretty clear. I won't list them here because there are way too many.

@Cosats I don't know how to read

Yep, 1300 titles and counting, and STILL the idiotic whiners keep on playing that "software drought" tune. It's sickening and pathetic. Just because there's not enough titles on there for YOU personally, doesn't mean that there's an ACTUAL drought, much less a surplus of shovelware.

Sure there's a lot of indies, and there's also a healthy dose of Wii U ports, but regardless of any personal opinions, they still count, and the fact that they are what they are, still doesn't keep them from being able to be quality titles in their own right, and the port whining is just salty Wii U owners, who (regardless of undeniable facts) keep misunderstanding and/or refuting the reasons why these games are reappearing on the Switch in the first place.

A lot of people never had a Wii U and as such, never played these games, so to them, they aren't ports/old games at all, but completely new ones, so yes, they very much DO count.

Take off the me, me, me goggles and look at the situation as it really is, and then try again to say that there isn't enough to play on the Switch...

@WiltonRoots @gortsi Yeah, that's also what I already expected.
In principle, it would be good to be able to allow a down-vote system to automatically hide the idiotic trolls here, but on the other hand, this option will sadly also affect the positive people on here, because those other people will simply dislike their comments for no reason whatsoever, or because they don't like the person, or perhaps only if they disagree with them, because it doesn't fit into their shortsighted view of things.

All in all, any negative addition to a site, whether that's an ignore button or a down-vote option, is a sad one, in my opinion. I know it's too Utopian to think that we could completely do without it, but still...

It would be preferable if people would just be able to either act normal, or be civil and respect each other's opinions, but apparently, that is all too much of a chore nowadays, especially online...

@aznable couldn't say it any better, a large percentage of that is just indie crap, no doubt about that, it helps boost their software numbers though.

i wonder what that number would be if nintendo first party titles were just counted which is what matters mostly.

@WiltonRoots stupid crap downvote system, but it won't stop me speaking my mind regardless, it's gonna take much more than that to stop me.

Bye Felicia, nobody cares about your garbage opinion

@NEStalgia
I'm perfectly fine with Nintendo parading around the indie games because the Switch is the perfect platform for them.

I am finding this comment section in particular to be pretty aggressive today...

@3rdParty There's certainly been some good output, but in terms of Nintendo content, Octopath (which is only Nintendo published), Torna (an expansion pack), Mario Tennis, Sushi Striker, Smash, Kirby, and LGPikachu are the only Nintendo games. I love Sushi Striker but that's clearly a "b-side". My point is that for a WiiU owner a clean half or more of Nintendo output this year are games you already played in the last 4 years (or had access to within that time but chose not to buy it.) But the lineup looks great for someone that didn't own a WiiU.

The new content for the year was fine, but light. That's coming from someone that paid full price for Sushi Striker and didn't regret it. That's not really subjective. The "biggest" titles short of Smash and Pikachu were rereleases that aren't interesting to most of the people here because most people here owned a WiiU but are interesting to most of the market.

The "1300 games" number remains kind of misleading, when generally one doesn't buy a console for indie games that are available for a fraction of the price and will run on any budget laptop or tablet or phone. Switch does make some indies more inviting, and it's great to have the option to pay $15 for a 6 year old indie that's been $5 on PC/iOS/Play Store and $8 on PSN/XBL half that time just to get it portable (which I admit to doing) but 8-bit pixel art 1-man-shop games that run on a 586 or Kyocera phone aren't the reason one buys a $300 console in 2018 and aren't the "Library" that makes up Switch.

Which is a different thing than saying Switch doesn't have a worthy library. It's just to say that the thousand mobile ports and generic indie retro games that give them a big number aren't an enticing part of it worth bragging about. This is Nintendo. The Seal of Quality company. The company that once had Miyamoto say "I think 14 or 15 games is a good number for a console." Quantity regardless of quality isn't what Nintendo's reputation is built on. It's fine to offer it, but it shouldn't be highlighted as a status symbol. Focusing on that instead of the solid actual library is I think a failure of their messaging, not a success.

@NEStalgia

Man you're one of my favorite people on N Life, but I can't for the life of me see why you think indie games are automatically inferior to AAA games. I just can't. Having a bigger budget and an established publisher to back you does NOT make a better game. Oftentimes the more money a publisher spends on a game, the more soulless and safe it has to be because they can't risk losing the investment. If the game diverges too much from the usual crap and drones don't go out and buy it to make them half a billion dollars in the first week, it's deemed a failure and I've seen a lot of cool developers get their studios shut down for trying to be too ambitious.

I've spent over 60 hours in Hollow Knight and nearly 100 on Stardew Valley. These are $15 games that a real small team put their love into. Not because they had a rich publisher, not because they had to pump another game out year after year, but because they were passionate and these were the games they wanted to make. They're indie darlings and big successes because you can feel the love while playing them. I rarely ever feel the love while playing a AAA game these days. Kind of hard to when they're slapping you with micro transaction advertisements and have product placements for Doritos everywhere you look.

I've played a lot of games in my 25 years, and have been gaming since I was 5. I've come to a point in my gaming life where indies are actually my favorite games to play, at least the good ones. AAA games are a side dish to me, and I'm very picky on which ones I'll play. Of course there's Nintendo games which haven't YET gotten as bad as Ubisoft or EA, and I'll probably play through Red Dead Redemption 2.

As for the eShop, it's suffering from the same flood of games that Steam and the PSN Store has. Tons of great games getting buried by some not so up to snuff stuff.

@NEStalgia very much agree with a lot of your points. Seems a very divisive topic 🤔

@3rdParty

Let's not forget that Nintendo first party games are the biggest first party games in the industry. Nintendo games are the only games that can stay $60 years after release and still sell well. I agree with all of your points, but let's try not to be so passive aggressive towards NES, he's cool people. 😎

I have 65 Switch games, and I have enjoyed and enjoy them all. I still have like 20 more games on my wishlist that are out right now that I want to get (Shantae, Wonder Boy, Hyper Light Drifter etc.). The Switch has games. If people bought one to play this year's Call of Duty, I don't think they did their research.

I own 48 so far. I do love my Switch. And my PS4 PRO. And my Xbox One X. And my New 3DS. and my VITA. And my PC YEAH... I love games🙂

@3rdParty

Yeah I mean, the only PS4 exclusive games I've really loved were Transistor, Bloodborne, and Persona 5. Transistor is now multi plat though, and I don't ever see myself replaying Persona because of how lengthy it was and all of the dialogue. Bloodborne? Easily one of my top five favorite games ever, and I can see myself coming back to it repeatedly like Link to the Past, Castlevania, and Mario Galaxy 2.

@Frenean It's not just "AAA" games, but "retail" games. The better indies often are retail games, and do have proper publishers backing them. Yooka Laylee, Hat in Time, Shovel Knight, Bloodstained, Steamworld series, etc, etc are proper retail games, eventually with physical retail products, and a real publisher backing the game. Those often get called "indies" but really aren't, they're proper studios making proper games, for A and AA budgets. The way games used to be made before 2002 or so and the EA consolidation into the whole Hollywood "studio system" model. Those are fine. Dust has all the quality of a retail game (but is far too short for it's $20 price tag or age) but isn't retail. Hollow Knight punches well above it's weight with all the quality, scale, size, and scope of a full retail game for $15 or less and no backing publisher I'm aware of. That's the exception not the rule. Dead Cells is said to be an excellent game. I haven't played it and it isn't for me. But that also has a backing publisher and is a proper retail game. Snake Pass is easily an excellent standout. Calling Sumo Digital indie is a big stretch considering this is a large studio that has worked on a number of major AAAs (Forza, Crackdown, Deadspace, LBP, Sonic Racing.) Shin'en is another such proper commercial studio that happens to follow the book publisher model and gets labeled 'indie'. But that's a problem for communication. "Indie" gets thrown around for everything that's not a big studio production, be it a larger proper commercial studio not owned by a publishing agency making an A/AA game and a garage tinkerer throwing out unity projects. That list of 1300 includes much more of the latter than the former. I can easily agree with you with not writing off indies in general, but which indies? There's Hat in Time, there's Hollow Knight, there's Steamworld Dig, and then there's The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition.

But while we can name off the top of our heads a number of exceptions to the rule (which really aren't as they are indeed retail publisher backed games from mostly larger commercial studios), the bulk of those 1300 games are not those exceptions, they're simple hobby project and mobile games. Nintendo dropped the requirements they used to hold for indies specifically to increase the title count, but the result is boasting of meaningless numbers.

@3rdParty I think you're making a different point. Whether those games are good or sold well, isn't what's being debated. The article is about numbers and inflating the library with a large quantity of low quality content rather than focusing on the actual library which includes the games you listed.

As for Nintendo droughts. Switch does not have a drought. Nintendo 1st party games in 2018, it's hard to argue have not had a drought. There have been 3 Nintendo produced (I.E. excluding the Square-Enix produced Octopath) games that are not re-releases up until from January through October: Sushi Striker, Kirby, Mario Tennis. November and December add the two big ones totaling 5 for the year. I'm willing to make that number 4 and 6 if we include Torna, technically an expansion pack but a big enough one it's fair to list it. That's a pretty light year for Nintendo as a content studio.

Of course they published several major rereleases in that time which goes back to my original statement that it was a thin year for the few WiiU owners, and not for the rest of the market. Not everyone with a WiiU may have played those games, but if they had a WiiU they had the option to and if they chose not to when there wasn't much competing 2-3 years ago, there's not too much reason to believe those same people are buying int now (and conversely, some, myself included in a few cases, bought it on both systems to have it handheld.)

But my original point was, generally: Rereleased WiiU games have limited appeal to WiiU owners, but a lot of appeal to non-WiiU owners.

"Indies on Switch" Indies are certainly doing well on Switch, and even fore me I'm a lot more likely to play an indie on Switch than any other console or phone. But if indies were an important selling component of a console's library, Vita would have been an overwhelming success. That's not what people are buying $300 consoles for. People who buy $300 consoles may be also interested in indies, but that's not what motivates most consumers to spend that money on hardware to begin with. "1300 games" still rings hollow. It would be like Apple declaring "We have 3,000,000 games" (And PS4 and X1's indie game list is more or less identical, though larger I imagine, than Switch's. Vita's also lines up in many places. Maybe Sony and Microsoft boast about the indie count, but I haven't seen them do this as Nintendo is doing it.)

I'm not making a pro PS4/Steam/X1/mobile argument, nor a "Switch has no games" argument. I'm just saying the "1300 games" boast where most of that consists of limited appeal minimalist retro type games that generally attract only a certain niche is an odd boast to try to make a "big numbers" argument where one really shouldn't be made. I did also point out that they had a thin release calendar themselves this year, from the perspectives of WiiU owners, but that it looks like a great year from the perspectives of non-WiiU owners.

44 games strong here and looking at a very busy end of 2018 and 2019

@Blizzia

"The Switch has a unique trait that make many of those so-called "old games" available in a totally new and different way: The handheld mode."

Well, that depends on your point of view. I've been able to play Skyrim on a handheld (GPD Win) before it was out on the Switch. I've been able to play the Mass Effect trilogy, Borderlands, Burnout Paradise, and countless of other games, including some that were re-released on the Switch (at an inflated price), that I bought for almost nothing, and yes, all played in handlheld mode. I played the Lego Harry Potter games in handheld mode, bought for about $5 each. And then I see those re-release on Switch for $60. Really???

What you're talking about is only "perceived" value. You don't get both a home-console and a portable version. Your console (that you already bought and paid for) is doing all the job of providing all its games this way. The developpers and publishers aren't the ones providing you with this new way to play. Nintendo is. And you already paid Nintendo for this.

I bought my Switch because it can play games in both docked and handheld modes. This is a hardware feature. Sure, devs need to take some things into consideration, and I don't have a problem with games being priced slightly higher, but not like 2x the price or more. There are games out there I can get right now between $5 - $10 on PC and they are like $60 on Switch....

The eshop is a mess. I forget about games I want to play unless they’re at the forefront of my mind or unless they go on sale and I see them again. There are plenty of great AA or A level games, but I don’t like that many AAA titles on switch are last-gen ports. I hope we get more current gen games like Doom, Wolfenstein 2 and Vampyr

What about a breakdown.
Physical, ports, indi, Nintendo.

That would be the real picture.

@Cobalt,

The Switch is doing very well considering all these ports and shovelware titles.

@johnvboy

You're absolutely right on that, even if the business is going down now... But you know, Justin Bieber is doing very well considering all the crap that he does too...

Let's just think about it !

@Cobalt,

It's only rubbish is you do not like it personally,and it's not only our opinions on here that will make or break the Switch.

You do seem to be upset in some way that the Wii U failed like it did,I too found the console to be an awesome piece of kit,and one of my favorite Nintendo consoles,but the fact is it did fail so Nintendo had to something a little different this time round,like it or not it's working for them.

17 physical and probabaly 25 or so digital. I always have something to play or even find on the eshop. Best console ive ever owned hands down

90 physical 131 digital games and my wishlist is full! 🤣

@Fake-E-Lee you....are..... my hero

@Fake-E-Lee Hahaha ya probably should huh, were in the same boat dude. 31yr old, Family man, salesman etc. I've always been a gamer but never a handheld gamer until the switch. I did have a game boy back when i was a kid, but that was the extent of it. The switch brought me back as a Nintendo gamer though as i wasn't crazy about the Wii. For me my last favorite Nintendo console was the GameCube as i never bought a wiiu..

The AppStore has 811,000 games... If we now just going by mindless numbers 🙄

@Realnoize Perceived value is the only thing that exists. Any price set by whoever sells something is based on perceived value.

You not thinking it is worth it at that price is also perceived value.

You say that it's one console providing both, and that is true. But that also means my statement is true. Yes, you could play some games released ages ago (Skyrim, pfft) on another handheld device. But not like this.

And it also means that this is the only portable platform for most of the usually non-portable games.

@Heavyarms55 @Anti-Matter actually actually all those filters apart from age related are there right now (and have been since day one)

@huyi I don't think having a downvote will affect that many people. The only people who have to worry are people who freak out over nothing, crybabies, obnoxious people and trolls. After all these are only games at the end of the day. Everyone else who posts with a level of decorum have nothing to worry about.

There's no games!
Well, actually I bought 60+... And I regret about 5/6 of them.

@aznable Actually no, there are surprisingly many good games among the 1300.

Well my copy of diablo 3 has just arrived so you can add that one. Happy lunch gamming to all of you out there that use your switch as intended

@johnvboy

Like I said, I confirm that it works better for nintendo but what's the price ?

They just fade into the mass videogaming industry now, before they stood out... Good business or bad, they stood out by creating and bringing great exclusives.

Look, even if we take the Wii U which was a "bad business" for them...
Who can complains about the quality of :

MarioKart 8
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
Zelda Breath Of the Wild
Bayonetta 2
SuperSmash 4
Captain Toad
Super Mario 3D World
Pikmin 3
Lego City undercover
Yoshi's Wooly World
Hyrule Warriors
Super Mario Maker
New super Mario Bros U
Splatoon
Toky Mirage Sessions
The Wonderful 101
Project Zero V
etc... etc...

Now the Switch is a mishmash of IOs/Android/PS360/WiiU/PS2/DS/blablabla ports machine... Nintendo is clearly loosing is soul...
I think that they're gonna pay for that in the future and trust me, i don't want Nintendo to become a 3rd party developer like Sega is today... :/

@Cobalt Yeah, so far we don't have that many titles that really "define the system", and I think it's hard to imagine the Switch will have as many fantastic exclusives as the Wii U had. But I think the system instead will define itself, so to speak, by being a hybrid. What made the Wii U special was the amount of great exclusives, not the dual screen setup. The Switch will probably be special first and foremost by being a handheld with great games.

@Strumpan well that does it, my mind is changed

@Blizzia

I agree that "perceived value" is, in a sense, all there is to it, but it is this way simply because people are accepting this.

I see this the same way as a store who would sell the same item in a "for men" and a "for women" package, despite being the same thing, for 5$ each. And then, at some point, selling again the exact same thing, just in a new package, labelled "NEW MODEL for both men & women" and then ask 10$ for it.

The sole reason business strategies like these are working, is that people are buying that $10 version.

And my personnal problem, is that all I see is still the same $5 item, now sold for $10 with a new label slapped on it. "Perceived value" for me, is exactly what makes me NOT BUY many games on the Switch, because I always get the impression that doing so ends up being the worst deal out there. I'd like to play Doom on my Switch. But it is still $80. I can get it for less than $15 on Steam and still play it on a portable. The Harry Potter Lego collection on Switch should be no more than $30. Not $60. I paid both games $5 each on Steam.

I will agree that the Switch is much better hardware (build-quality wise) than the GPD Win, and that's the reason why I have a Switch. But it is false to say the Switch is the only console providing this type of experience. It is not. It is, however, the only one made by a well-known and reputable brand name and electronics/videogames manufacturer. And the only one that has some sort of "mainstream" traction.

The "Nintendo tax" that so many people mention, is exactly that. The fact that, under the guise of "perceived value" companies selling games on the Switch can charge a lot more, for what is, in essence, the exact same product, more or less, that is being sold elsewhere.

It's the same thing as that "new model now for both men and women" sold for $10 while the same model was previously sold for $5.

But people buy it, so that's why you see companies doing it.

@aznable happy to hear that!

@3rdParty I imagine you're skimming rather than reading my responses (it's a text wall, I get it ) but you're arguing against points I didn't make and making statements unrelated to anything I said, so I don't think we're really having the same conversation here

I'll indulge though, and ask which indies you're speaking so highly of? I'm going to guess it's not one of the dozens upon dozens of dodgy 8-bit 'inspired" platformers, the dozens upon dozens of arcade shmup clones that pale next to the ACA originals, or the Pirates game that is trying desperately to appear to be Sid Maier's Pirates! to the point of probably being infringing 2k properties. I'm going to guess most of them are the ones I already mentioned that are actual published games, most of them retail, and not the horde of a thousand garage projects Nintendo is listing here.

Playing the "we have thousands of games" card with this kind of stuff is just silly. The entire point of Nintendo's entry into gaming was explicitly because they did not have "thousands of games" like Atari did, the bulk of which were of dubious quality. Curation is what put Nintendo on the map to begin with.

@Fake-E-Lee couldn't agree more. Game on!

@Fake-E-Lee you're one sick cookie 😅. Trust me there's alot of games I want but i just can't fork over cash for all of them. Plus i have an ocd thing where I try not to buy a game until i finish my current one. That didn't work out too well as I'm working through (or dying through) dark souls and I had to pre purchase save Me mr Tako. I just couldn't resist how awesome the game looked

@Fake-E-Lee Great avatar. Do you like Baileys?

Opinions Everywhere........ NO FACTS!

@Frendo Don't get mad over that clown. It's not worth it. But yeah this site lets trolls hang around for ages, I've seen people go for the trolls and end up getting banned themselves.

@Fake-E-Lee I have the first two series and the live show on DVD...the third series I felt they were trying just a little bit too hard...but unique classic comedy all the same.

I think that it's awesome that the developers are working effortly to bring great games for the Nintendo Switch. I have bought physical and digital games and they're all great. I sense that that Nintendo isn't done and that there will be plenty of new games coming out with big surprises.