Here's How A Nindie Developer Thinks The Switch eShop Could Be Improved

Some of the stuff for sure

I agree with the list. Especially the visibility of old games is really bad, which pushes many developers to keep their games on discount. I hope they improve the eShop but maintain the fast and fluid feeling of it.

The Wii U eShop overall interface was great.

I like the idea of featured titles at the very top - these will likely be the first party physical games more often then not.

Then below, it's best of the eShop exclusives. A list of the top-selling here, then a square titled "What do you mean, you've never played..." with a game highlighted every week.

Then, a link to all eShop exclusive games.

Next, the Virtual Console section, if that ever games, with sections separated by console.

Then, a Publishers' section - the publishers listed with an image of one of their games to draw you in, and then a list of all the games they've produced when clicking on it.

Also, when you make a purchase, there should be a "you bought this? We think you'll love this", highlighting a lesser-known indie game. That way we're constantly keeping the indie games at the forefront.

I love the "Follow Developer/Publisher" idea, it's the one I'd personally find most helpful.

Mostly good ideas. It needs some of this stuff, at least.

I would also add: Notification when something on your watch list is on sale. I don't think it has anything like that now.

I like how clean it currently is, but Nintendo does know it needs some work and has said so.

A lot of this could be done through the News app. I never just browse the eshop, I would only go there to buy something specific, and for that it works really well.

Some great ideas there. I particularly like point seven, regarding charts, with 7a being particularly poignant. Hope Nintendo get to see this!

Editorial and curation is badly needed in my view. Visibility of older games that aren’t in the top 15 is next to zero.

This is a great idea. I think the eShop is fine as is for daily users but if you are only checking every few months then you are going to miss a lot of games you may potentially like. This would definitely lessen the amount of missed games.

Well of these things would require eshop curation and that's exactly what Nintendo dropped. The Wii U eshop is curated.

Those are some pretty good suggestions! I'd really appreciate a way to follow developers and see similar series/games. I like the Switch eShop but lots of games just vanish after a few weeks, if I didn't add them to my watch list I probably wouldn't see them again.

I actually like the main page of the Wii U eShop so I wouldn't mind if they bring that back. Sure it was a long list but it wouldn't be so bad if they didn't include VC or 3DS games. At least different Nindies got good visibility months after release!

Lot of these suggestions sound good. Some could prove compilcated to implement but many not so much.

All I want Nintendo to never forget is to keep the speed of the Switch eShop. This was the bane of all prior Nintendo online stores and blocked a few purchases by me as I got fed up. The ease of the current one makes for a fair few impulse purchases.

One thing though, if they allow “if you like this you may like” then get someone with actual knowledge and not some suit. The number of times I was recommended FIFA or CoD on the PS3 PSN store when viewing PS1 Classics or JRPGs!!

I think they should change the top 15 to a top 25 list at least. 100 would make the top games not special feeling enough haha

I'd like to get an option to hide games that have icons on the system already, whether download or retail. I don't want to be scrolling through titles I already own while browsing.

100% the categories between AAA and indie and the Classics, charts, some way to discover new titles not just by browsing newly released. The e-shop is just about the most miserable experience on the switch. I do get that it's still a new concept however the Switch has been out for a year and E-shop looks the same. then again we could just put it on the shelf with Netflix and Youtube...

Quite a few good ideas. My favorite being following a developer/publisher and also seeing their recommendations. I'm on there every day and pay attention to the release schedule. I happen t to find more games on sale to try than anywhere. It doesn't hurt that they are discounted.

The "follow developer/publisher" idea is great!
There are already some curation in the News feed but I wouldn't mind some curation in the Eshop as well as long as it doesn't slow down browsning.
And recommendentations based on your previous purchases are good.

However, I have a problem with 4a. If developers can recommend other games I could see a pair of developers exploiting the system by only recommending each other's games. Or one developer could release several games under several studio names so they can push their own games. It's a bad idea.

Ah.... !
Search by Age Rating.
Hopefully it added with specific Age Rating based on each region (ESRB / CERO / PEGI / etc) & numbers of Age rating.

TBH, the on-console implementations of all the online stores is kind of lacking. For me the nod has to go to Sony for that. Their on-console store seems kind of coherent. eShop is second, it's tight...maybe a bit too tight, but tight. MS leaves the stinker on that one.....I can't tell what's what or where to go to find "all" the deals/sales even. You have to notice the tile pertaining to the specific promo going on if it's, say, a publisher promo. Boo.

For website store, I give the nod to Microsoft though. Very clean, concise, a few weird pieces of it, but it lays out information generally very cleanly. Nintendo's is boring but functional. And Sony's is a complete mess that feels like it came from 2002.

Some good suggestions here. The golden standard for me would be Steam, which despite being drowned in games daily still manages to get good suggestions thrown at me... When I look at it instead of playing on Switch or tabletop games

Recommended games based on previous purchases would be top priority. Editorials is also a nice idea. And of course some review system, even if it opens doors to review bombing.

Nindie developer = cringeworthy.

Anyway, as more time goes by the more I like the cleanliness of the shop and I have no trouble finding anything. Cluttering it up for the purpose of promotion isn't something that helps the consumer.

It's pretty amazing (yet not too surprising) that Nintendo is on their 3rd iteration of a digital store front and still are having these basic, core issues.

I really don't understand what is taking so long for them to fix up their eshop. Like all of these features listed above are great and would be a welcome addition to the eshop

Actually you can turn the top 15 into a top 700 with the searching tool since you can see all the games on the eshop and rank them by popularity.

Basically all exactly what needs to be done.

How about making the text search option actually functional?!?! Auto predict worked alright for chatting in Miiverse but it sucks for the eShop. Auto predict should NOT predict random dictionary words but available game titles. Like in the Playstation Store and on Steam. It should also be tolerant of spelling errors so that it helps you to find games of which you're not sure about the title.

I don’t even go to the eshop since they made it possible to buy all games from the phone whether it be 3ds Wii u or switch. It’s just way faster and readily installed when you want to play

@Crono1973 Why cower in fear from Nindie developers, im confused?

Oh man the top 100 for charts is a great idea, that would help visibility immensely

@Candido0411

N management's heads are stuck in the sand on a lot of this stuff. "lalalalalala can't hear you" type things.

i almost wonder if they even care. has to be the most insulated and slow to react company on the planet.

i'd wager any large car manufacturer could pivot to 100% electric vehicles before N could figure out a good web based UI.

i mean just copy one if you have to. though i'd say steam may be the best (not saying much). i never liked sony's or ms' either and don't even get me started on the dreck that is the ios/android stores. woof!

"made great efforts"
"is not doubt quite a bit friendly than"
"the original Wii Shop would they."
"Still visibility of games"
Please improve the quality of your language in your articles.

As for the content, some of these ideas might not work as well with the eShop only getting 5-15 new games a week, compared to a typical app store on your phone. I think the "recent releases" section is enough to keep me updated on what's new.

All of the other new features would be very welcome, like extra searching options and following developers <3, and customizable game pages. The eShop isn't broken, its just very rudimentary.

I agreed with #6 Follow Developer/Publisher ( for News page on the Switch )
As of now, my News are mostly coming from JP (Cluster. I can unfollow ( which I did many already) still over flow with stuff I am not interested in).
I would like that there is a search by Dev and Pub name, so I can follow them and keep up with them on their upcoming games and what not. Some I already follow them on Twitter and FB, don't want to use another device (discord) other than Switch itself to follow.

4. Devs more control over their game pages <<< I like this suggestion too.

edit to add:-
@hiptanaka said I would also add: Notification when something on your watch list is on sale. I don't think it has anything like that now.

Oh yeah, I like this idea too for eshop.

Found nothing in here that I disagree with. Nintendo needs to implement each and every feature in this to make it a super-competitive store

It could really use a "featured" section. A lot of older releases get lost under the new ones. That's the main problem to me. Also making the top sellers a longer list than 15.

The crazy part is that the 3DS eshop had some of this, but Nintendo decided to make the Switch one bare.

I love the simplicity of the store, so I'm not really keen on much of this.

The one thing I really want is a cart so I can pile in a whole lot of stuff and then discard til I'm happy with the price. I actually feel like Nintendo has missed a lot of sales form me becasue of this.

@Nicolai I've been noticing more typos like this lately... Not sure what's going on, but it's been weird and it gets really distracting sometimes.

Love all the ideas. Nintendo, make it happen 😬👍🏼

Seems good, but I'd definitely place user reviews as a priority, even with external. If there are no user reviews they risk having a handful of critics slow down a game that might perform really well with users. Something like metacritic's two tier review system would make sense, but if not that at least a steam-esque positivity rating.

Whatever what Nintendo would do for the eshop, I think the best inspiration they could have is the Wii U eshop. It was very great and clear.

All of this and no mention of MUSIC?!

I can't believe I'm saying this but I feel like the Wii U eshop of all things is better than the Switch eshop. The eshop is far too cluttered with not enough ways to filter out the crap. I wish there was a category specifically for indies, neo geo games, similar to the wii u and 3ds eshops. Also as stated having and under $10 or $5 section without having to go to the search bar would be appreciated. Definitely agree about the recommending more titles from the same developer feature. Also the best sellers chart needs to be expanded because it definitely is a rich get richer type of situation. Ive had my switch since about march this year and 8-9 of the best selling games have remained unchanged.

Lol "I know this is done thought the news, but I ignore the news "

Stopped reading there lol

Very smart. I hope Nintendo takes some of these suggestions into action.

The shop desperately needs a Featured section and linking to “Other games like this” from the game’s page.
One thing that the store doesn’t need is ratings, specially user ratings, since those are almost always biased and not representative of the game’s quality at all.

@bitleman yea I was gonna say this, if people would just go into the search function and play around they'd find out there's a lot more options for different genres prices ect. I still think Nintendo needs to do an overhaul. Most of the suggestions above would be great even if they only did three of four of the best ones and made a new splash page for when you open the eShop with those one it and a simple click to get back to the old interface they have the best of both worlds. Curation and ease of use.

I understand these desires.

Mine would be that they removed the top 15 altogether. Not expand it to a top 100.

A more interesting discovery system could take its place.
Some of what this guy suggests might be cool, like weekly updated categories, and a highlights-of-the-day feature.

Guest curation might be a thing as well. Sort of like the "meet-the-nindies" segments, where there also get to highlight a couple games they didn't make themselves.

How about look at the Wii U eShop.... Then, Copy - Paste.

I think they have pretty good ideas and the eshop needs to be reinvented one way or the other.

I just want a Delete or Junk tab so I can remove the games I have zero interest in