
It's pretty safe to say that the Switch has a lot of games. Just last month, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé revealed that the console library already had a staggering 700 games available (in just 16 months of the system being on sale) and it seems that Nintendo has absolutely no intention of slowing down.
Information from Nintendo's recent 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders has revealed the company's goal to release "around 20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week". Nintendo's Tatsumi Kimishima, Shinya Takahashi, and Susumu Tanaka were on hand to answer questions about Nintendo's plans for indie games going forward, with a particular focus on how it will integrate these kinds of games into its future business strategy. Here's what they had to say:
Kimishima: "Offering enjoyable first-party games throughout the world will continue to be one of our
strengths, but increasing the number of people who make games to be played on Nintendo
platforms is also very important for growing our business. That is why we are working to create an
environment that makes development easier, and simplifying the process of publishing games on
Nintendo Switch."Tanaka: "Some of the indie games already released have gone on to become million sellers worldwide. In the future, we are looking to release around 20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week, and we definitely expect to see some great games among them."
Kimishima: "We are currently working towards reaching 1,500 software titles developed for Nintendo platforms using Unity. I think that will give you an idea of how much it has grown."
Having 20 to 30 games to choose from each week (that's around 100 a month, by the way) might sound incredible at first, but this could present an avalanche of problems. With more and more indie titles flooding Nintendo's digital stores, and with the eShop's infamous lack of search options, countless games will no doubt be dead and buried before they get a chance to shine.
It's also a little concerning that the focus here seems to be on quantity rather than quality. Having lots of games is fantastic, of course, but we'd rather have five gems to choose from per week than 30 mediocre games that fill a quota.
Would you like to see that number of Switch games appear? Do you share similar concerns to us? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments 118
Bad idea. We really don’t want the eshop going the same way as steam. Filling the shop with so many games that the majority are fairly poor and therefore the quality titles get lost in the shuffle. Sometimes less is more.
...and how does you average human being can afford/spend the time properly enjoying, say.... 10 of those games per week which might considered essential purchases? Don't get me wrong, things have been incredible week after week, but my backlog of "games to finish" is huge as it is and I only have so much vacation time per year. now then, lets look up microSD card prices... again...
I hope the mean "per month". O.o
Otherwise it will be hard to keep up, even for us hardcore-fans that check the e-shop regularly for new arrivals.
I just hope Nintendo does follow the Wii example rubbish games on a system that needed quality games.
I feel like I'm being buried by a backlog of games I can't afford. It's depressing.
Don’t like this. There are definitely some great indie games on the Switch, but I’d rather see 2-3 quality releases a month as oppose to a parade of garbage.
The eshop layout is still pretty bad so all this will do is bury lots of good indie games.
This could turn out to be the downfall of the Switch if they rush these games.
It's becoming harder and harder to sift through all the mediocre games and keep track of the ones worth purchasing. I'm usually pretty good at it but I already have a ridiculously large backlog so I've been getting a little lazier with researching the games in the coming soon section.
How is anyone going to keep up?
yeah lets get more shovelware out there. Next we will be getting ports of the asset flips from steam. That is just fffffffffffff crazy amount games. or could be a cunning plan to release more content lacking games like mario tennis that look totaly awsome compared to all the shovelware. this is just digital suicide for the e shop. thats already a pain to go through
Yeah cuz that's been working out great for steam. But seriously even on the low end that's over 1000 in a year. Discoverability is already an issue on the eshop and they want this. Seems like a terrible line of thinking all around
And only one out of that twenty are good.
There is already a lot of crap on there which have been released.
This is why I find the Watch List feature useful, so I can keep track of any potential purchases within the mass of titles coming out frequently.
@MegaTen remember the days when you could get a nintendo console and it didnt crack or warp when you had the cheek to play the bloody thing.
Okay, Nintendo.
I'm waiting for :
1. Re:Legend (published by 505 Games)
2. My Time at Portia (published by Team17)
3. Catastronaut (published by Inertia Game Studios)
And hopefully their games released in Physical retail as i knew their publisher are able to release the games in Physical retail.
Incoming shovelware!
This is the worst thing they could do.
We need quality over quantity.
They should focus on bringing a sufficient amount of quality games rather than a tidal wave of bad games with a few good games lost among it.
Also most mobile games should stay on mobile devices.
@Rhaoulos
Maybe shovelware for certain peoples, but hidden gems for other peoples.
@Anti-Matter
Don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic indie games and some that are ok. But you know most of them will be bad, or "meh" at best.
@Rhaoulos
Yeah, i know.
All filler; occasionally a killer. Slightly disappointing motto, but there are still plenty of excellent games out there.
I hope this doesn't mean the imminent arrival of RCMADIAX. That joker could pump out 10 games per week I'm sure.
I checked the coming soon section one day last week and there was 58 titles on there. The most I'd ever seen before that was around 25. That's far too much! The sale section is becoming far too much of a chore to go through as well. There's too much for 1 page so you have to go to 'more' and go through them all again but this time in a different order.I've gave up even bothering to look now.
There is no doubt i like some indie games, OVERCOOKED, and some I want to buy, SAUSAGE SPORTS CLUB, but the Switch is becoming a first party machine and a Indie machine since many developers don't want to or can't scale down their games to the system.
Maybe I am not a "real" gamer (because I want my games in 1080p), but at least a Wii had things like COD and most of the EA sports line up. That's called variety.
To be brutally honest, although I have quite a few eShop indies now, I am lead deeply by what Nintendolife, Gamexplain, IGN's NVC, and Jim Sterling recommend (if it looks like the sort of game I would like). I'm very unlikely to give up a tenner on a game I've never heard before, so the reality is that having all these indies on the platform will just drown out each other beyond the big popular titles like Steamworld, Stardew, Shovel Knight and Snake Pass.
I wonder if making an indie game starting with an 'S' makes it more desirable?
Nintendo Steam.
Could they focus ON REAL NON-INDIE GAMES ?
Nintendo is incredible in how to destroy the momentum they had back in 2017...
Can't wait to see what might be the next stuff... ow maybe the announcement of the port METROID FEDERETION FORCES on the Switch... LOL
@MrGawain
"I wonder if making an indie game starting with an 'S' makes it more desirable?"
Not really.
I'm interested with these upcoming Indie games on Switch :
1. Re:Legend (letter R)
2. My Time at Portia (letter M)
3. Catastronaut (letter C)
“Too much of a bad thing”
I love indie games but at that level it would be pure nonsense with no depth and clone after clone of the same game.
Think IOS games. 5 different games rebranded
No thanks
@OorWullie
Prepare for Invasion UIG Games on Switch.
@Anti-Matter but you will end up like steam where people will just give up on e shop. they will either get fed up looking or get stung with shovelware and say stuff that for a game of soldiers
@Anguspuss
I have very Strict rules for indie games also.
1. No 8-Bit style Too Much. 16-Bit style are preferable but Only a few of them.
2. No Cheap looking games.
3. Must be at least Decent 3D rendering. Preferable Cartoonish style.
4. The games are at least deeply robust from other game ideas.
5. The last but not the least, SHOULD be has a Physical release.
@MrGawain NVC has really taken a hit lately. Maybe they had less to talk about in the wii u days so they had to make stuff up but the episodes felt longer with jose. Now it feels all rushed with 2 mins on this topic 2 mins on that topic. It isn't so much the host it is that they are probably confining an hour and a half show into an hour. Being live does nothing for me and were lucky if they spend 2 mins on one question block question a week. Might as well get rid of that. I much prefer unlocked and gamescoop these days.
They can do that if they want but most of us can't and/or won't buy that many games, and that sort of quantity will bring more low quality games.
If you look at the eShop charts there's always Stardew Valley, Golf Story, Hollow Knight and games like that, because people want high quality games. I'd rather not see them buried under pages of boring unpolished games.
So instead of good 3rd party support (capcom, konami, ea, bamco etc) they focus on shovelware Indy titles? Yes there are some good indies but the vast majority are overpriced shovelware!
I think it's too many. 2-3 a week would be better
Indie titles seem to be a big part of their strategy but Nintendo needs to still improve its marketing and distribution of indie titles. The eshop is poorly designed right now. It’s gonna need to be much better
Indie titles can be great, Hollow Knight!! but it sounds like it may be time to bring back the seal of quality. I very much doubt there are more than one or two quality drops a week.
Groovy
This reminds me of Vita that became an indie platform but with good games overall. I was surprised to see Wolfenstein II port low on the charts but the Crash port has been a success so I don't know if we can expect many more current-gen ports on Switch or not.
There is one new thing in 2018 though and one already mentioned in here, now with mobile platforms there are thousands of mediocre games that would be so easy to port. Do they mean those?
No thanks, hank.
I would like NL to stop supporting so many indi games and encourage 3rd parties to release more 'new' games at the same time the PS/xbox get their release.
Indi games will be the Switches downfall.
I check the Eshop constantly. So Im not worried about missing anything unless something releases out of the blue. But even then, I'd know about it anyway. That said, while we do get a lot of literal trash on the eshop, there have been some gems. And that's what I think people need to focus on. Heck, not every title will appeal to you. But the more, the merrier. Their chances of appealing to someone somewhere with a weekly offering is a solid idea to me.
@zool
I feel like it won't be if they're good games. Going forward, if digital releases arrive at the same time on Switch as other systems, and they make sure to mostly go for last decade's top-shelf AA titles from smaller publishers, it's all a very good supplement to Nintendo's own flavor.
My worry was that they would start letting inexperienced devs flood the eShop with unfinished and unpolished experiments, like we saw on Wii U, but they've mostly been warding off a similar situation.
20-30 every week still sounds like A LOT, though. Makes me less surprised that so many eShop titles are announced without a release date. The Lot-Check queue is likely longer than anything Nintendo has experienced before.
That’s one way to get everything buried.
@Anguspuss I know a lot of people have reported those issues, but I seriously wonder how much you have to abuse it to even get those. I've got two Switches that I've had since launch day, one with the left joycon issue and one without.
Outside that issue there has been NO issues with my Switches. They're both used daily, for several hours, and I've often accidentally left them turned on in their cases or had a game running all day with the dock in a closed space with poor air flow.
Zero issues. No warping, no bending, no cracking, nothing. I just cannot fathom how these issues can even occur xD It's insane.
My personal take on this is that somehow they're mistreating their devices so incredibly much that they simply break. It might be right or wrong, but eh, I haven't treated mine the best possible way all the time, and yet there are no issues with mine.
@bratzdoll
Unless they really start to do something about discoverability on the eShop.
And I'm not talking sales rankings, user reviews, or user curation here.
Oh boy, here we go. How about also concentrating on one good big game a month like last year. How about organizing a month like PS4 is having in September. There needs to be a mix - Indies, are just that - Indies.
@Pahvi Oh no, I don't feel obliged to play them all, I really just pick the onle I like. the problem is I really like a lot of varied stuff and I am gald the the Switch eShop is slowly but surely expanding all the right ninche genres.
Is it Trolling Tuesday here on the site? Seems like everything you've posted on here today is designed to rattle people. Thanks, I'm enjoying the fallout.
Nintendo, if you fix up your eWindow in your eShop, then sure. But I check the shop once a month, so with 100+ new games, I’ll not be bothered window shopping
Doesn’t really bother me. Review and news sites and the like always have pointed me to the ones I may be interested in more so than in system recommendations, and that’ll continue to be how I get updates on what’s worth playing.
Oh boohoo, too many games on Switch!
It's not like we're choosing between quantity and quality. Among those 30 new games will obviously be the 5 gems that were going to come to the system anyway, plus we may get some weird ones that (gasp!) some may love and some may hate. I'm not a fan of shovel ware, but take it up with the developers, not Nintendo.
As far as I'm concerned, the more the better. 30 games each week means a much higher likelihood of some random cool port that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten or a hidden gem with no advertising budget or professional networks. Yes, the e-shop needs to be improved. It really needs is a user rating system and maybe an increase in the amount of metadata you can search through as well. But as for the number of games, I can't complain. Well, actually, I can complain, because even with all of these games, we still aren't getting a standard set of emulation releases.
Good. The more the merrier. I never worry out too many games coming out on PlayStation or Xbox so why worry about it on a Nintendo platform. Variety and choice sells.
@WiltonRoots Since Thomas Whitehead left I haven't noticed any non-trolling day on NL to be honest.
@Fake-E-Lee You are right but you have the power. I don't pay much attention to the internet overall.
If the store had better search functions I wouldn’t care how much was on the store but the search is pretty terrible. Games will appears in 3 or four genres that they aren’t even part of, you’ll have JRPGs come up under action adventure. If they could get detailed enough tags that games only appear in one that’d be great.
Shovelware ahoy!
Do the Atari!
With the eshop's current lack of curating, an expansive tag system and limited search and sorting options, that'll be hell. I mean, how difficult is it to make price sorting sort by current price, not the base price? If I want to sort the list of sales by price, I'd obviously want that to be the current price.
Cya
Raziel-chan
@Shiryu I think the point is less "buy them all!" than "have a selection to choose from and still be assured to find something that will interest you".
It IS still a risky proposition nonetheless to aim for so big a goal. Makes me wonder if there was a mistranslation somewhere in that interview though it might still indeed be exactly their stated goal.
@Razzy The featured section IS kind of a curated category though?
Considering it's basically "Here is a selection of past, recent and upcoming games we think might interest our players" as a category.
@Razzy The featured section IS kind of a curated category though?
Considering it's basically "Here is a selection of past, recent and upcoming games we think might interest our players" as a category.
I would much rather have 5 - 10 good quality titles per week.
The number of poor games being allowed onto the Eshop only devalues it. We already waste too much time sifting through the rubbish to find the good stuff.
When are they planning on starting this?
Im still waiting on unexplored, moonlighter, and bad north
Right now there’s about 15-20 indie games released per week so not too far off that 20-30 indie games will become the norm by the time the holiday season approaches.
As long as Nintendo keeps up some semblance of quality control (not allowing games like Life of Black Tiger on the store) it should be OK, but again I don’t really trust Nintendo’s quality control after the Binding of Isacc situation.
I'm sure somebody already said something to the same effect on here but this just makes me think there's gonna be a lot of RCMADIAX's...and that is very very bad.
That's probably a bit too much to handle every week. Even now I feel like there's just too much to sort through and a lot of hidden gems get overlooked. If they ever start letting TreeFall Studios and RCMADIAX back in the eshop, then there is no hope of quality control at all.
@Pod At least the indi games should seperate from other games with their own eshop section and chart.
you'll be all exhausted lmao
I feel like they’ve already been doing this. Switches Eshop seems to consist of %97 indie/mobile games. 1% first party exclusives. 2% third party AAA titles.
Most indie games are worse than those crappy free Newgrounds Flash games from years ago.
I also like how 'Deluxe' or 'Definitive Edition' in the title these days just means 'free to play mobile port with all levels and physical controls'.
They should focus on more important things instead, like trying to pump out great games for the Switch at a moderate pace. Most of the indie games on eShop lately have been average or worse. What's so important about releasing a buttload of games with the Unity engine anyway?
@Cobalt Just yesterday there was news that one analyst is predicting the Switch will be the best selling console of 2018. While I am skeptical, it does suggest that the Switch isn't losing quite as much momentum as your narrative requires.
Also, Nintendo promoting indie games doesn't prohibit them from working with AAA publishers, nor those publishers from publishing.
@NewAdvent you could be right about keeping the Switch alive with Indi games, and Ports. But the Switch is Nintendo's only home console and it needs more big AAA games for Big screen better graphics gaming. Most of these Indi games can be played quite happily on the Switch handheld. If Nintendo continue like this, and there is talk of selling the Switch without docking equipment in Japan, the Switch will be known as a handheld console that can play 720 games on a TV screen.
Like the Wii's big success, the balance board and controller; they turned out to be in part, its downfall. As did the WII U's seperate screen. The Indi games could be the Switches nemesis.
I'm getting to the point I care more about EA games than indie games. They're flooded, over-saturated, and largely irrelevant as currently handled. Indies mattered to me when Switch launched and they had a curated policy of only vetted games, each presented as though they were AAA releases. Moving Switch to become Steam Greenlight....120 indie games a month? Most of them guaranteed to be trash? Why would I waste any time at all even looking at them? I'll wait until the internet tells me one out of the 1000 is something special. I'd include Yooka and Steamworld and such in there, but they're really not indies but proper companies at this point. The more "open" and "indies" means floods of random garage projects, the more it becomes the video game version of public access cable, and the less relevant indies become while AAA with a fixed quantity of at least somewhat polished products looks better. Maybe that's the goal?
Wow, 20 - 30, Maybe it was a joke........., As it is I cant even keep up
@PanurgeJr
Like I already said, to sell like cupcakes doesn't mean to make quality.
Sure, all the PokéJunkies are gonna buy those two fake pokémon games, sure Smash is gonna sell well, sure Nintendo is gonna sell Switch on Christmas period (as usual with Nintendo products)
BUT
I was talking about the other part of players, those who kind of spat on Nintendo's systems since decades but were actually interested by a Switch(because of that momentum).
These dudes when they see what is happening since now 7 months + that ATROCIOUS E3 + what are the games to come until the end of year, trust me those guys forgot already that the Switch is interesting....(I had several talks and I hear the same thing again and again : Nintendo has shown its real face, better to wait for SONY's/MSoft's next systems...)
So, we'll see who's right but I can tell you already if Nintendo doesn't change radically its way of treating gamers, they're gonna pay that heavily and not only throught the spectrum of the stock market...
I'm tentatively okay with this as long as the overall quality doesn't take a huge hit. We don't need another Steam.
For backlog control, I commonly use site reviews and feedback like on here to weed out the poorer games and find the better ones. I hate being so picky sometimes, but my time and money are limited; I want to spend that money and time on games that, to me, are worth it.
I think if Nintendo is going to go this route, they have to allow ratings and reviews for games on their store site.
@Cobalt Investors. The problem is what gamers want and what investors want are two different things. The investors are very interested in the big wide market money that is mobile and the "Wii" market. Lets face it, that wide mobile market is overall worth more than the entirety of PS+XBox+Steam combined. IF you're in it for the bullion, you're going to focus on that market. Iwata was a gamer and kept Nintendo centered. Kimishima is a banker. And Furukawa....seems to be a "go along to get along money guy." The pull to the wide market with Switch, the talks of outselling Wii, etc....I think overall, unlike Wii, they will still give enough to keep gamers engaged, but nobody should be under the illusion they're not chasing that 'blue ocean" in favor of going head-on against Sony/MS for what's essentially a smaller market they're already outsiders in. For gamers it I expect the proposition is a lot more favorable than Wii, but it'll be no "for the fans" WiiU either.
Personally I think it will still end up my favorite system of all time. The form factor and the big games it does get (unlike disappointing Wii) will more than make it worthwhile. But I do also think my PS/MS backlog will be considerably larger.
Keeping in mind the big Japanese 3rd parties just got into gear a year ago and it's 2-4 years turnaround on games. There will be a glut of real third parties at some point (if you like Japanese games...and if not...why buy a Nintendo at all? )
@Fake-E-Lee Too many video games to pick from isn't really going to cause problems (well, ok, bad indies might ), I'd rather have more than I can play but want to than nothing that interests me. But on the broader topic, the rush to cram everything in, not just entertainment but the expectation to keep up with everyone else with unreasonable expectations where life isn't life but a data-metric based time scheduled checklist, the fact that anyone who doesn't keep up with the pace of unreasonable expectations is considered diseased and needs to be "cured" by being drugged into superhuman ability to keep up with said pace and expectations (not keeping up isn't just a personality trait, it's a disorder to cure! Faster, faster, faster, everything must go faster! Can't be stressed by it, must be happy! Be energized! Move the needle! Motivate for success! The drugs will keep you focused, energetic, happy and performant, you'll thank us later! You'll be so happy (unless you ever try to stop the drugs....) ) It's a wonderful world for those who thrive in that environment, and a dystopian nightmare for those that don't. But every few years populations double. More people, more competition, they're all your enemy! And we need synthetic foods through the mircacle of science because there's not enough food for the ever growing, ever faster moving population!
An ever growing population competing over ever thinning resources, with ever more disparate groups feeling slighted by other groups, with a rise of automation making the competition ever more life and death as most humans are rendered devoid of all value beyond being kept as, essentially, pets.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how it all ends. It's not a matter of if or even when but what incident(s) will set off the reaction. Which I suspect everybody knows and pretends they don't, which is why the obsession with apocalyptic wastelands in entertainment, both film and games. It's in the minds of the masses most of the time anyway. We all know it's coming. The fantasy stories of it give everyone chances to not have to pretend they don't see it.
But hey, at least there won't be a glut of indies when we're all eating each other!
@NEStalgia
You said : "Personally I think it will still end up my favorite system of all time"
I think the same as you................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................But in reverse !
@Pod Did you play The Letter on Wii U? Quite the unfinished experiment that was lol
Undertail for switch!(wait no ) fortnite for switch (waiiiit god no)ummmm emoji movie the game for switch!
They gonna give us some FOLDERS to put all this crap in or what?!
@SuperWeird On Friday Microsoft finally added folders to the X1 after 5.5 years. Nintendo has until 2022 to keep up.
@Cobalt LOL, well....it's a Nintendo system that I expected from the start to take after the 3DS (which is a good thing), so I got what I was expecting, something that does the same things I liked about 3DS but does so much more, so much better, and also pulls double duty as a better WiiU. It simplified my "home/travel" library quite a bit! But you can't buy a Nintendo expecting a Playstation. That's what Playstation is for, you have to know what each does well, and really my library wouldn't be complete without either. I like having both PS and XB but I could live with just one.....most of the games on the X are also on the PS after all, they just play worse. But neither of those substitute for a Switch. And a Switch can't sub for either of those. If I had to pick one and only one, despite there being more total games on the twins I might want to play, the Switch gives me more chances to play more of them. OTOH the people that don't want portable at all, yeah, Switch is a worse choice overall unless Nintendo games are your main interest. But the hardware is the hardware...it's a modest home console, a crazy powerful handheld, all in one box for the price of one. Between PS and XB I have 140 games in my backlog. By Christmas I'll have like 15 for Switch. Guess which one will actually have more hours clocked on it? Yep, the Switch. All the God of Wars, Forzas, Crackdowns, and Ghost of Tsusima's in the world don't buy me what I need most: Time to play them...which Switch does. So yeah, it's my favorite But only so long as there's enough content I want to keep me attached. So far there is (heck I'm just slugging thorough XC2!)....if they don't do like Wii and abandon core games, it'll be fine.
I'm not too bothered by this. It doesn't detract from games Nintendo or third parties (unless they want to use this as an excuse) are making and there are a number of good indie games, and I'd rather have them on my system of choice rather than another system I don't play as much. More games for everyone. Buy what you like, leave what you don't.
I Donr agree the more games the merrier! We will as always vote with our wallets!!
As long as most of the games are of high quality then I'm all for it.
Please no. Quality over quantity is a much better solution. I'd rather not look through pages of trash games in order to find the hidden gems
DISCLAIMER: Copy/pasted from my post on the same topic at IGN
Having a ton of support from "Nindies" is fine, I guess, but there are two things I wish to point out:
1) Already the organization of the eShop is a mess, with games (some of which were never even shown in the "Coming Soon" section) popping up overnight...and then dropping down "below the fold" as more titles come in behind them. The window for reasonable visibility for most of these games is slim at best before they're forever out of sight and mind for potential buyers. The eShop is in dire need of better organization.
2) Having tons of titles frankly doesn't mean much if most of them aren't of sufficient quality to attract consumers. Out of all the "Nindies" on the eShop to date I could personally count all the ones I've purchased on one hand with room to spare. You can't trumpet software support for a platform or digital games service if most of it is junk, period, let alone mask the absence of major first party releases or "AAA" third party games for weeks or months on end. If you try to do that the Switch will quickly go from being a sensation in 2017 to being compared to the Wii U in a hurry.
@NEStalgia
I totally respect that...
I think that my all time favorite will stay the PC Engine DUO-R and my all time favorite Nintendo system will stay the SNES.
PS : you're a cool dude !
@Syrek24
https://www.giantbomb.com/profile/marino/blog/data-dump-who-won-e3-2018/117566/
And it's like that everywhere, it's even worst here in France (land of Nintendo)
We are millions who think that the Nintendo Direct of E3 2018 was horrible !
They definitely need to have a quality floor, sounds like we may be receiving a bunch of shovelware but I am happy if they are great game and good games.
@NewAdvent your first comment when you say "Like it or not, it's not a home console, it's a dockable portable which offers console-like experiences...." is wrong.
All Nintendo games and others, for example Skyrim have been advertised being played on a TV screen, then the player takes the console from the dock and the commercial says that the game can be played on the go. There is also an ad showing a player returning home and docking the console. Nintendo recently said that play it is now about 50/50, and my guess is that eventually more play will be on the handheld rather than the big screen. If this happens Nintendo has lost the home console wars, but will remain the main handheld games company for indi and other handheld games.
The Wii was bought my millions as an exercise machine, with the balance board and a controller that granny could use. That worked and sales were very high, but it was a novelty, a phase that eventually ended. The Wii u gimmick, the extra screen never caught on and only loyal Nintendo gamers bought it.
Releasing 30 to 40 indi games a week and a some ports from the Wii u while at the same time not addressing the shortage of AAA games, will be a short term gain for Nintendo while many will turn to the xbox/PS for their big screen games.
Do it!
From a developer point of view I think per month would be great or per week if they truly can. From a consumer my head is starting to spin and I am losing focus.
@Fake-E-Lee OK. I think that it is better focusing on one or few games at a time. I enjoy that more than trying to play everything. And yeah, simple things are nice.
That would be a bad idea, there are already too many forgettable indie releases. Pushing this even harder would bring only lead to the Switch reaching the Steam dilemma (no visibility) more quickly.
I really dont like this at all. The release rate of games on the Switch is already around 11-16 per week as it is. Doubling that amount means that the Switch eshop gets filled with more crap than what's already on the service. For comparison it took the 3ds more than 7 years to get to more than 1100 titles on the eshop yet the switch is rapidly closing in on that number in just under 2 years. That is far too much far too quickly.
This flood of games more or less guarantees than any new release is almost instantly pushed off the new release section which is exactly what the new switch eshop update was designed to address somewhat. Very stupid decision by Nintendo. I dont want steam or app store 2.0
Ok so how about 5-10 indie games per week and make sure they are quality ones. Or else just make it so the eshop has a category named ”very cheap crappy games you’ll play for give minutes”.
Yeah it’s kind of a merit to say you have hundreds of games in your eshop. But I’d rather be proud of ten good ones than a hunderd of mediocore or hundreds of bad ones.
@Ryu_Niiyama
“I'm not too bothered by this. It doesn't detract from games Nintendo or third parties (unless they want to use this as an excuse) are making and there are a number of good indie games, and I'd rather have them on my system of choice rather than another system I don't play as much. More games for everyone. Buy what you like, leave what you don't.”
The most sensible post on the whole thread.
@electrolite77 lol, why thank you. I suspect I'ma get chewed out for it though. But I'm fairly consistent with my view points so hopefully anybody that wants to rage has tossed me on their ignore list.
I will say that I do hope this leads to a easier to navigate eshop and folders. That's the only things on my wish list right now.
Hm. People want Nintendo to curate the high quality to keep shovelware down. Yet, if they open the floodgates, it becomes the consumers burden to separate wheat from chaff. There's no perfect solution other than for developers to make the better game, or best trending game. That's why I pop into the eShop every week to glance, buy, and backlog. Hey, we wanted more games than the Wii U got, so... start diggin'.
There's like 1,000+ Wii U indie games, what else is new?
The Switch really does need to have a better eshop for this. As it is, it is really too simple. 20-30 games a week is going to bury titles really fast.
Depends, in general I favor quality over quantity, though some of this can be fixed by making an intuitive and easily navigate-able storefront
The good thing about competition and more titles means more people will put up sales to compete, which is always good for consumers
That said, I like Steam prices but it is a mess trying to find 'good' and quality games I enjoy on that platform. So hopefully Nintendo finds a good way to filter or help consumers filter to get to the quality/relevant stuff based on player preferences. The other part is up to consumers to be informed and to be able to pick out good games for themselves/children
I would rather see 20-30 old skool classics instead, Indie games are nice but I would much prefer classic titles by the dozen.
@NewAdvent your patronising explication of how the Switch works, does not lessen the fact that it was designed, made and sold as Nintendo's new home console.
If you are branding it as a handheld device then by that logic Nintendo’s either dropping out of the home console market or is planning a big announcement soon.
It is being said according to sales figures that it is the biggest selling home console this year. 😀
@troj27 👍it's similar to Amazon's Kindle ereader. The market place is flooded with self published books.
Eh, just means I'll keep checking the eShop more frequently. I don't up and buy everything that looks remotely interesting anymore. I just buy games that I know I'll like. I have been keeping up with the eShop and my wish list. As long as I get the Indie games I want, I'm happy enough. This does mean that Indie developers need to start marketing a little more because its a bit hard to find the good games out there. A little more help from Nintendo also helps too (more eShop layout improvement please). I like choices and people don't all like the same things. One man's garbage is another man's treasure.
Also helps that I am saving money too. I am not spending too much of my money again as I did when I had $20+ before Octo Expansion, but decided to get an Indie game on sale as I thought it wouldn't come out so soon.
Perhaps I'm a bit weird, but exploring Steam and even Amazon's Kindle shop is quite fun sometimes.
@zool
Then I suppose you will be the one to judge what is "indie" and what isn't?
@Hikingguy
However, among your personal 25 better-of-never-playing titles, there might be a game that is someone else's absolute favorite.
Had Stephen's Sausage Roll been on eShop, I'm sure many people would disregard it completely at first sight for a number of reasons.
Some months, the two games you really dig might be in the bottom 25 for others. More games means more games for every taste.
@Pod Either Nintendo vet these games or they don't. Not just content but quality.
2,000 indi games a year seems like overkill when AAA games are few and far between.
@zool
20 - 30 a week makes for an annual total of 1000-1500, not exactly 2000, but yes, that's a lot.
Keep in mind though that this is Kimishima and Tanaka saying "indie games". To them, most likely anything that isn't Nintendo or one of their big business buddies is "indie". I would assume every single game from WayForward is indie to them. Games like the Steamworld series. Everything Shin'en makes. A giant and beautiful game like The Witness probably constitues an indie game to them.
Basically everything without a physical release and a certain degree of marketing muscle-power.
Is your definition quite as broad?
Grim Fandango Remastered was recently announced for Switch. Assuming Double Fine self-publishes that with no physical release, I'm certain it will tally in the indie-bracket described by these two guys. That doesn't make it an indie game in the sense we'd usually employ the term, however.
To be a little cheeky, I'd also like to dig in to your perception of what AAA means. Is something Like Just Dance 2019 a AAA title as you see it?
As long as they are good its fine by me.
please dont end up like Playstore.
@Hikingguy
I completely agree with you though. Luckily, the latest on RCMADIAX is that he still has not been granted a Switch dev kit.
Personally, I feel I've yet to see any truly rough examples of the Switch eShop being crowded with sub-par offerings. AppStore has 100 new games every day. It could be a lot worse.
And I hope you appreciate the differences between having a large library of digital game titles availables, and having to stock ingredients for a large menu at every McDonald's, while also needing to teach all the staff to prepare the dishes.
There's a vast difference in how the associated expenses and complications scale up. I doubt Mickey Dees reduced their menu for the primary reason that customers had a hard time deciding what to eat.
@Hikingguy
Sounds like McDonald's real issue here was that customers didn't understand their options, or how they were supposed to get a good deal. The products were largely the same, it seems.
As far as I know, this was a trend in marketing, and one that is luckily coming to an end. The idea that you deliberate create the illusion of more choice than is actually available, but obscure the pricing models, so that you satisfy a customer's need for having their individualism and convenience catered to, while maximizing profits ever so slightly. Everyone wins! Sounds good on paper, but I'm not surprised to hear that it requires an INSANE amount of management and brand control to pull this off in fast food retail, and I can fully imagine that the concept goes above the needs of the audience. It's still working to a certain extend for game publishers that sell seven different editions of their game and the extras, but none of them contain ALL of the items. Or does it work? Probably not for long.
And man, I know how you feel about the rebuying of games. Which is actually why I'm happy the Switch doesn't have a traditional Virtual Console for now. And in a grander sense, I understand how seeing a five year old game like Path of Exile arriving on Switch isn't very exciting, even if hasn't previously been on a Nintendo system. You get a new console to look ahead.
In case of the Switch for me personally, I'm a bit excited for some of the games that are coming out of the woodworks. I'm not a big Steam user, and frankly I almost haven't played any PC games the past ten years.
You have to separate the releases to two major times per week or something like that if this were to happen. This brings worry to the games quality and visibility at large if mishandled.
I.E. Steamstore page
I rather have proper third-party support. You know: Great, Retail, multi-platform games. And a few exclusives.
Always gotta love how everyone knows how to run Nintendo better than Nintendo. Maybe everyone should relax and remember "we are just playing games here".
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