The Switch has had an incredible first year in terms of software, but with this flood of games comes the problem of discoverability. The design of the eShop on Switch is workmanlike at best, and many games are getting lost in the crush, robbed of their chance to shine.
Speaking to Glixel, Nintendo of America's Damon Baker acknowledged this issue, and said that the company is aware it needs to get better at highlighting content and improving overall discoverability:
In July of last year we knew of about 150 titles from third-party coming out. By the end of 2017, 320-some-odd games had come out on the Switch. It was a significant jump in terms of expectations. There is an even higher number (we know of ) for this year and we expect that to be surpassed as well. While we’re really fortunate with the reception, we know it’s our responsibility to recognize that there is a lot of content coming and that we need to find ways to improve discoverability.
How Nintendo intends to do this remains to be seen; let us know what improvements you'd like to see on the eShop by posting suggestions below.
[source rollingstone.com]
Comments 65
Want your game to get discovered?? Put it on sale. Ok I know that's not the answer but it sure can help. Just look at Oxenfree, people weren't willing to spend $20 yet $5 was a steal.
More stabil... Err discoverability
I had a problem with it at first, but now I'm in love with the the simplicity of it. I just check the eShop every week or two and add any good looking games to my wishlist so they're easy to find later. Easy. The only improvement I can think of would be maybe to expand the best sellers list from 15 to 30 or 50 so that more good games can be seen there.
Also better sales will do wonders for discoverability.
Yeah, it is really bad at this point. How they have it was fine in the beginning, but now you can scroll for a long time before you get back to March 3rd 2017. They can keep the main one as it is, but there needs to be more tabs on the side to break things down more. Even if it was broken down to things like "adventure games," "horror games," "classic games," etc.
GameCube virtual console? Like, please?
Otherwise, I look forward to playing Super Metroid again.
If I’m looking for a game more than two weeks old I often have to type it into a search, which is so counter-intuitive. I should be able to stumble upon it naturally.
I think it is fine in its current state, maybe have a few more search filters but beyond that it is good and leagues better than the mess that is the PS4 store.
As Spoony_Tech says if devs want their games visible stick a discount on it, even if it is only 5 or 10%, the games get visibilty and we save a bit of money. Win win.
I hate shopping. When I go to the e-shop, I already know what I'm buying. The coming soon section is great. The only problem I see is companies wanting to ghost drop games on to the shop. But isn't that exactly like just plonking something on to a shelf of a shop? And it's not exactly the case that you need to make shelves more discoverable. To me, this sounds like greedy execs trying to put their game in to your hands in the hope you buy it.
Did they really need the number of games to jump from 150 to 320 for them to realize the eShop looks like it was built by someone using MS Access in 1997?
Sure it's functional enough, and at launch that has to be the primary goal, functionality, (unlike resetting Zelda hours played to zero) but they should have known it was a rushed out the door stopgap measure that needed improving regardless of the number of games scheduled for release.
@-DG
"I just check the eShop every week or two and add any good looking games to my wishlist so they're easy to find later. Easy."
That works for someone who has had their Switch for a little while and has seen everything on there at least once; you need to think more in line with people who may have just gotten the system. I think they should keep their first tab the way it is, but there needs to be more accessibility so new users don't have to just keep scrolling through one long list the first time they open the eshop.
E-Shop Menu needs these :
1. MUSIC !
2. Alphabetical order sorting.
3. Themes to buy like 3DS.
@-DG did you know you can see all the games in bestseller order? 1- New releases, 2- see all, 3- organize by bestseller. I'm like addicted to that list haha
Music.
I always look back at the Wii U’s eshop and compare.. it was a bit messy, but the visuals and the different colorful photos to distinguish various categories was very tasteful I think. I wish they’d do that again. The music was good too.
@Anti-Matter Sorry to burst your bubble, but those seem like the least useful things to implement.
What it needs is a big "Featured" part of the screen, "Top Rated" or "Top Downloads" being prominently displayed, as well as an algorithm personalizing the storefront to the user, based on previous purchases; so it will read that I got Tiny Metal and Mercenaries Saga: Chronicles and accordingly will put WarGroove front and center when it releases while hiding FPS and horror games as I have little interest in those in general and on this platform in particular (though I guess a big title like Wolfenstein would probably be displayed regardless).
Sorting by price would also be welcome, as well as by metascore/user reviews.
Music in shop is an annoyance (same as main menu; I found it distracting on PS4), themes are fluff and alphabetical order sorting isn't actually that useful when shopping if there's a search option anyway.
Can they do the switch dashboard too? Would love it to behave just like the 3ds, instead of having to click on a button all the way to the left before I can see all of my games.
@Fake-E-Lee It's a bit of a hassle having to do that with the eShop when I have no problems using Steam storefront alone, with an email notification system when something from my wishlist is on sale. It took Valve a while to get that thing working and it's still not ideal, but it's a good template.
@SmaggTheSmug
For me as a Very Cautious buyer, "Top Rated, Top Download & Featured " are features that completely i DON'T Want.
I Don't want any picture of rated 18+ games appear on my E-Shop pages, even just only the names (I Banned their existences).
Young kids can see that and that will be Very Dangerous.
I want a Mighty Button that can DISABLE All rated 18+ games to be Unseen, just Only certain Age Ratings that i want to see and check.
Just like on playasia.com, i can Strictly filter specific games that i want to see / know (If i choose Only rated Everyone & Everyone 10+, Only games with those ratings will be appear.)
For the Music for E-Shop menu, i prefer the Wii U Lounge Music theme. Elevator music with Mild sensation is very fit for Switch.
When I first got my Switch i thought the eShop had a terrible UI but the more I grow accustomed to it, the more I like it. It's simple and easy to navigate. In fact the entire Switch UI is basic and pretty nice, the only thing I would want is a folder system to clean it up even more.
I check the eShop almost daily and I find that I still miss something or even forget some games have came out on Switch. It's painful to scroll all the way through the list of games to see if something jumps out at you.
Still miles better than Wii Shop, where your game is only advertised for week + your game is a permanent flop if you didn't make the sales then.
How about some quirky mini-games that analyze your playstyle and suggest games you might like?
Back when they launched the rainbow colored see-thru N64s, they had an online test that would suggest you a system color and a handful of games to go along with it. It stayed in my memory because the suggestions hit my field of interest really well. (Ogre Battle, Harvest Moon, and a few others.)
Really, I just hope they make discoverability additions that maintain the sales momentum for third parties and avoid player community infighting.
@-DG I have sneaking suspicion that a longer best seller list would harm all the games not on the list as much as help those that would be more visible, which would end in a cumulative net negative for discoverability, which is of course a term that means something slightly different to a player and a creator.
A dev/publisher wants more people to "discover" their game. Players want to "discover" the best games on the service.
I think that there is a difference between giving the customers a clean storefront and giving the game publishers a marketers heaven.
1 something akin to WiiU/3DS eShop
2 filter for Genre/score/age rating
3 music i guess
@Anti-Matter Exactly, a "Recommended For You" list based on previous purchases would be invaluable to someone like you. Also note that kids cannot see 18+ games if the Parental Controls are on. A filter by age rating is not a bad idea at all.
You also reminded me of another thing Steam has: tags. Now Valve being Valve delegated creation and curation of tags to their users, so you often see "Psychological Horror" attached to cutesy games as a joke for a few days. But Nintendo would probably want more direct control over it and give an option to filter out everything tagged "Horror".
Oh, and in Top Downloads on the Switch eShop so far Stardew Valley and the likes seem to always dominate
@Crono1973 The two need not be mutually exclusive. In the end both sides want to win something: a customer wants a game to purchase and play and the publisher wants their game purchased and played. A customer wants to find a game and the publisher wants their games found.
A clear storefront benefits both sides
I just want virtual console and I want it now!
yeah a "flood" of 2D retro nonsense that all look the same. Nobody has a problem finding the 1 new game every 3 months.
Just put less garbage in the eShop and more big new games.
@SmaggTheSmug Then I hope they keep it clean.
@SmaggTheSmug
"note that kids cannot see 18+ games if the Parental Controls are on. "
Really ?
My Switch has Parental Control Turn On, but i still found rated 18+ games images icon on e-shop.
Why is there any rated 18+ games on e-shop with Parental Control being ON, Set on level until ESRB Teen ??
Again I had no issue with the layout of the Wii U eshop- copying that layout alone would be a huge improvement!
Give me themes for the switch, and more searchability for the e-shop those are the big things I want to see. It really shouldn't take this long to get these features on the system.
@-DG I do the exact same thing, constantly keeping my eye on the Coming Soon section. I would love more options for the best sellers list in general. The ability to change the timeframe and the ability to filter by genre would be awesome.
@Spoony_Tech I can back this up, I picked up Oxenfree on the sale, still haven't played it, but at that price, I couldn't say no! I'd have never touched it otherwise (and who knows, I may never get around to launching the game on my Switch, but the sale for some money out of me haha)
@Timbojay I didnt launch it right away either and the only reason I did was because my brother and I were talking about it. I just wanted to load it up just to check it out and got sucked in. Ended up playing it 2 nights in a row and enjoying it very much. Perhaps the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game too.
Keep putting games on sale and I'll keep finding them. Just picked up Lego Worlds yesterday. And so far I like it more than I thought I would based on reviews.
A simple. "Featured" section would help a lot.
He did a Something Funny Gamescast on Sunday and said a couple other things (paraphrasing), "don't want to wait every 6 months for the showcases," "need to be better about following up about games already released or games who have been delayed, "even when some companies are technically indies, they won't group them with other smaller publishers as such, since some companies are really big like Psyonix, and it's not what a company that size would wants to be seen as." However Psyonix was a little butt hurt over not making that Nindie best selling list I guess (Rocket League), lol.
@Spoony_Tech I think we're going to see a lot of [what would normally be] 10 or 15 dollar games released at 15 and 20 bucks respectively, and then have those same games almost immediatly go on sale for 5 bucks off (but also have a pre-order discount), just so they can get that prime "on sale" constant visibility. At least I'd do that. Inflate my price a little just so I could always have it on sale.
@Aerona I think it had some quality of life issues at launch THEN got a bad update that caused some performance issues...was interested though. Is there any unique appeal here that sets it apart from Minecraft?
@Dang69 I haven't had much play time, but so far I really like the ease and freedom it gives you to edit the environment.
And on a personal level this is the Lego game I've been waiting for. I've never seen the appeal of the other games. From what I played of Lego Batman the environments seem to be pretty typical with just the occasional nod to legos. But everything is made with legos in this one and it's so cool.
@K1LLERBEAN I actually just figured that out shortly after my original post. You can even filter games by genre which is something a lot of people here are recommending too.
@Agramonte I completely agree!
Yeah like, sometimes I know for a fact that a title was released but it's not listed in the eshop.
E.g. after the Octo Expansion for Splatoon 2 was revealed, it didn't show up in upcoming releases or the Search. You could only find the Set with the full game (which I already have) for 80€
But the Expansion wasn't listed as a standalone purchase.
So I had to close the eshop, go to the news, find the news entry and open the eshop link to the standalonr Expansion from there.
There were other similar cases where something did exist in the eshop but wasn't listed.
The Wii U eshop was way better in evety aspect, apart from the lack of Paypal.
@shani this was me with EarthLock. I saw the NL review, but for whatever reason was not on the new release on the eshop. Tons of other random stuff. I had to search again and type in "earth" after google it and make sure it was out.
Yep, it was tons better. Even the 3DS is better. Yeah - paypal is good to have.
@shani Yeah, DLC searching on Switch is a mess. The easiest way appears to be to search for the game the DLC is on and then scroll down on that game's page. For example for the Octo Expansion:
Search Splatoon 2 -> Select Splatoon 2 (the game by itself) -> Scroll down the Splatoon 2 page -> Select Octo Expansion
Bigger discounts and when it sez it's released on say April 3rd, soon as the clock ticks over at 12.01am you can download it not wait the entire day to get it lol
The Switch is in desperate need for a complete overhaul of it's UI. The present eshop was fine for a launch console, but now that the library has grown it is far too lacking in options and organization.
The main menu for the Switch was fine when the console launched, but now that people can have a ton of games on their Switch, we desperately need some folders to organize our libraries.
Nintendo just really needs to get on it. The console is past it's launch era and now it needs some real UI improvements to reflect the library it has.
@Grumblevolcano Hm are you sure they didn't add that later on?
I distinctly remember that my first thought actually was to look at the main game's eshop page, just because I'm used to that from Steam but also because it's the most logical thing to have the DLC on the main game's page.
But IIRC the DLC was nowhere to be found on that page. Of course now it does show up there, but unless I'm completely mistaken, back then it only showed the bundle on Splatoon2's eshop page.
I miss the Wii U Xmas music....
Put the Wii Shop music in... the perfect Nintendo shopping music.
@Spoony_Tech Exactly. This is the best way to get advertisement for your game at the moment on the Switch eShop. Everyone always wants to see the latest deals, and I know a lot of games have had their best success in sales through putting it up for sale. Honestly, it's probably why we've seen a lot of returning sales to some of the same games over the past couple of months.
@Grumblevolcano To check for game specific DLC (this is the fastest way):
1: Select your game icon on the home screen then click "+". 2: The + drops down a short list for the game "check for update", Collect Reward Points, etc. 3: One option (believe it's the second) is something like "About Software". Click on it and it takes you to the game's eshop page. Literally takes 2 seconds to check for DLC for your game.
Most DLC supported games have a DLC link in their menu too.
@SmaggTheSmug You can already sort by price, and they have genres to choose from as well. I don't see Horror on there, but they have First-Person Shooter, RPG, Board Game, Racing, Strategy, Party, Adventure, Arcade, Fighting, Music, etc, and practically anything else you could imagine.
For anyone wondering, because I see this all the time, it's the first option on the eShop, the magnifying glass, and then you hit Other Search Filters. There's lots of ways of sorting the data. You can sort by release date, or best sellers, or by price (low to high or the other way around). Or you can show just games that are within a certain price range, or only see games with demos.
@MoonKnight7 recent releases, scroll to bottom and hit see more and voila filter categories appear on left including genre. The eShop is not ideal granted, but it’s not that hard to search for different types of games. I like sorting by best sellers and perusing the whole list.
I don't understand the difficulties people are having. I've got 37 digital games on the Switch. Of those only 2 have been a big disappointment. When I go onto the Eshop (or Steam, or PS Store, or Xbox Marketplace) I know what I'm looking for and I know what region has got the best price. I search for what I want and buy it. I don't need hand holding, bombarding with advertising or cheesy music.
If publishers are asking for different ways to sort the shop give it to them but it won't make any odds to me.
The Switch eshop was fine at launch. Especially with the idea of "full online services" coming in a few months. Fast forward to today with those services still not out, and the eshop jam packed with titles in format designed for a 10th of their current number... Nintendo really needs to do some re-working.
Make a mobile app for the shop, I use the PlayStation app way more than the system store
I know Nintendo has a website store but it’s not that great on mobile
The rating system like on the WiiU eShop might be helpful.
IMO, The Wii U eShop is way better.
@beazlen1
Huh, interesting. Has that been there the entire time? If it has, wow, on my part, haha. I've never noticed that feature though I haven't been on the eshop in a long time. Thanks for the heads up.
@MoonKnight7 don’t know if it’s been there the whole time but they need to put the search function upfront and centre. It’s lacking some imaginative design at the moment. I personally don’t think it’s too bad though, cos it’s clean and fast but the eShop could be a lot better.
@beazlen1
Yeah I like the clean look too, but yeah agreed, that function could be more easily discovered. Music would probably help too, even if there was a little checkbox to toggle it on and off, and would remember whatever you check for the next time you open the eshop. They don't need to get too carried away but it needs some more bells and whistles for sure.
@JayJ
leave it to Nintendo to get very little right when it comes to this stuff. they made a decent 3ds successor and have just sat on all of it for no reason other than incompetence.
i'd like to see N completely overhaul their management structure/employees. NO ONE in that upper level 'gets it' and haven't for years. maybe a new board too.
@sword_9mm I mean they are doing a lot of great things lately, but the UI hasn't been one of them. They really need to put a fire under their UI team and get them to update the store and the console.
@JayJ
i dunno. better than they were during the last decades since the idiocy with the n64 - wiiU but there's still a LONG way to go.
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