Rumour: Nintendo Might Be Renaming The eShop

I think it needs more games from older consoles.

If this is true then that probably means they're shutting down the Wii U and 3DS eshops earlier than we may have thought.

Could be a misstatement, I doubt Nintendo would want to push themselves away from the successful branding of the 3DS.

'eShop' is such a great name though. It's quick and easy to say and it's obvious what you're talking about when you say it.

I mean if it's a complete overhaul (maybe in a few months) and they rename/relaunch it I wouldn't have a problem, the current eShop can have a change really.

But if it's just a name change as this entails then this is a horrible decision. eShop is a perfect name we're used to saying for a long time, suddenly shifting to "Nintendo Switch Online Shop" would cause more trouble and confusion, along with not make it memorable.

Oh yeah, I can't wait to talk about buying a game on the Nintendo Switch Online shop. Really rolls off the tongue.

If they rename it, they need an actual name. Sony has PlayStation Network and Microsoft has Xbox Live. The Nintendo Switch Online service and the Eshop need a good consistent brand.

maybe put that awesome wii shop music in the dang store? lol

Even if they change it I’ll still call it the eShop for at least a month

@Grumblevolcano I would say distance them rather than shutting down. The Wii shop channel was shut down recently after all these years, the eShop on the 3DS and WiiU are still relevant sources of income.

I will always call it the eshop just like I will never call Rally's anything different.

I'm cool with this, as long as the 3DS and Wii U shops remain open.

To be replaced with:
"Give us money for even less consistent online play and tawdry NES games and shut up."

I for one welcome our new entertainment company overlords.

If this entails an overhaul of the eShop then I'm down for that. Its current design is a bit of a mess for trying to find anything that isn't trending, featured, or on sale.

However, eShop is a great, distinctive name. It has personality. It's individual. It's memorable. "Nintendo Switch Online Shop" is a boring, forgettable name. It sounds so generic and impersonal. How is the average consumer going to remember such a soulless name for an online storefront when other consoles have exciting names like Xbox Live and Playstation Network? Also this name implies a deeper connection with the Nintendo Switch Online service, which isn't really a good thing.

I guess I'm just worried that Nintendo is going to pull a very Nintendo move here, and history has shown us that that's not always a good thing.

Interesting this comes out at the same time as 2 days worth of online maintenance. Are we getting a revamped shop this week?

Worst. Name. Ever.

The “Nintendo Switch Home Console Entertainment System” has the “Nintendo Switch Online Shop” where you can purchase “Nintendo Switch video games”

Good grief. The Switch has an eShop. Leave it at that.

@Grumblevolcano NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I suppose you just abbreviate it, NSOS...the Nintendo SOS... hmmmm....

@Grumblevolcano Not necessarily. Nintendo could be trying to distance themselves from that era.

A name change on the eShop without a complete overhaul is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig. It needs a better search, by far, and AI-driven tools to suggest games based on purchase history. If all they do is slap a new coat of paint on it, who cares?

If the rebranding came with a major overhaul and upgrade, I'd be open to that. Otherwise it seems pointless.

@AirElephant just what we need, a system that recommends games you have no interest in.

As long as the next Switch model is called "Switch U", I am fine with it.

@Grumblevolcano "they're shutting down the Wii U and 3DS eshops"

But then what would we spend all of our Gold and Plat coins on in MyNintnedo?

@Grumblevolcano Oh dear God I haven't thought about that D:

@Grumblevolcano - I came here expecting this comment somewhere here. Cause it's likely going to be true.

Closures imminent of online functions for a system with half of it's good library already ported. Give me a Mario 3D World and port over Wonder 101 and I can phone in on the system.

Could it be a simple translation issue?

I just wanted music. I didn't want them to change the name.

@ImagineerNik You're right, and usually when these sorts of name changes occur there are legal issues surrounding them. It's possible that they accidentally used the word eShop without researching some small company that already uses the word, for example. Who knows?

@DarkLloyd

https://youtu.be/3ruNfajgUr0

@ritouf What about retail titles?

Guess it's the Nintendo Switch Shop Channel

@ilikeike it's like xbox live is the kid in the centre of the dance floor busting out the fortnite moves with his mates around him, Sony is the more discreet guy in the cool leather jacket catching the eyes off all the girls and Nintendo is the old guy with his trousers pulled up to his ankles, white socks and sandals, Dad dancing in the middle of the room just trying to be like the other 2. Did I mention that Nintendo guy plays alot of NES games in his spare time 😂

@BensonUii I'm totally at the opposite side.

Eshop is short, easy to understand, easy to use and everyone knows what it is... it's like XBOX LIVE or PSN.
Eshop became widely accepted as "THE" Nintendo online store...

I'm sure most people will still say eShop. I will....that name is long and clumsy sounding.

I think it's just for the legal document, and doesn't actually mean that the store is changing name.

The name can be whatever as long as it comes with a revamp or everything. Haha

@BensonUii

"NSO Shop" cough* sounds cough* ... great... compare to Eshop... cough*...

Its because Nintendo want to legally make clear that the e-store on the Switch is a separate entity from the Wii U and 3DS stores.

Yes, it a strange move from Nintendo, but the brand of the digital stores is not that important.
But preventing legal action because the current branding signals a kind of unity accorse the concoels is.

If the new name comes with Nintendo at least pretending they value their digital consumers, I'm in. Run on over to the PS Store this month, God of War 3 is 2.99. C'mon, Nintendo. Sales. Meaningful FLASH sales

I'm not bothered about what they call it lol. It is good they refresh themselves every so often.

@sleepinglion Wow, has God of War sales hit a brick wall or something?

Didnt Read the article but i have one, the shovelware shop

@sleepinglion totally agreed. I pick up masterpieces that give me gameplay for a month for about 10 bucks in sony's ps4 store. I'm enjoying them a lot too. Nintendo is my number one gaming home, no question, but some excessive flash sales will make me purchase, try and play more for sure.

I don't care what they call it, just put on some GBA games and I'll be very happy.

@GrailUK @Grumblevolcano To be clear, God of War 3 is not the newest one, it's a remaster that has even been 'free' on PS Plus before, so not too much of a surprise to see it that cheap. But the point stands, Nintendo are pretty crap when it comes to sales.

Rename it to Virtual Console.

Nintendo life don't need to resort to resetera to find these rumors. There are a lot of better communities.

Resetera is a hate group full of SJWs. They aren't normal people. They aren't the public of this site.

Another creative name there. To be replaced in 4 years by the Super Nintendo Switch Online Shop

@Grumblevolcano No chance of that happening anytime soon. Why would they close the 3DS eShop when they’re still planning on releasing more games for the system? And since all the 2DS bundles they sell now include digital software, they need to keep the eShop up and running so those can be redeemed. This is just a possible rebranding to separate the Switch from previous consoles.

Why keep changing stuff that is well established and known already?It's just dumb business practice in my opinion. Look how suggessful Sony has been by just calling the PlayStation the PlayStation for like 30 years now. Pick a good name for a system and service and then stick with it I say. In fact, I genuinely think Nintendo's next console should simply be called the Nintendo Entertainment System again, with maybe a number after it to show it's the next system, and go with that going forward.

Meh. I perfer the name Eshop

The sad end of an era.
Remember when Nintendo discontinued Club Nintendo even though it was going all fine and well?
Why discontinue something that is already iconic?

Makes sense. The lowercaseUppercase style is really played out.

All I keep thinking is what about the 3ds “eshop”? Is this the snow of 3DS?! Nooooo!!! I like eshop better. It rolls right off the tongue and sounds Nintendo-y to me!

@Medic_alert I'm suggesting if a title exists on both platforms, they have similar pricing and sales. That's all

@GrailUK Their Holiday Sale is pretty stellar

This would be stupid beyond imagining. Not everything needs to be branded "Nintendo Switch Online". Not only that but that makes everything single generational rather than enduring brands. "Nintendo eShop" flows off the tongue, is memorable, recognizable, and whether you're using 3DS, Switch or the 10 consoles after, has brand consistency. Having an online service and store named after a specific console implies short term existence of all of it. That everything Switch is temporary and is erased back to 0 when they move on to new hardware. Bad message to send while XBox is deep into backward compatibility and we can presume Sony is as well next gen.

I have to admit, they're making buying the FF franchise, and most multi-plats, for XBox instead of Switch sound ever more appealing.....

There's also the problem that outside official Nintendo communication, nobody is going to say "Nintendo Switch Online Shop", it will be shortened to Switch Shop. And said at speed, that unfortunately sounds a lot like "Sweatshop."

@JaxonH Please visit the NSHCES NSOS for your NSO savings. Any more letters and it becomes a federal agency.

Nintendo Switch Online Shop vs. Nintendo eShop. Um if they're changing it, nobody will use that new name. It doesn't roll off the tongue as quickly or succinctly as eShop. It's like if Apple renamed the App Store to the iPhone and iPad App Store, or had the iPhone App Store and iPad App Store...instead of just saying The App Store. Come on Nintendo, don't over-complicate things. Just leave it as the eShop. Everyone will continue calling it that after any name-change anyway.

@KingdomHeartsFan I agree, despite the show of reverence for him I get this feeling Nintendo is actively replacing everything even remotely connected to Iwata.

Which is ironic considering Iwata co-created Smash and is solely responsible for it being a Nintendo character crossover at all.............. Miyamoto, Sakurai, and Ishihara seem like the only people in top positions that still treat him and his processes with reverence.

@MH4 Same. It's like when Microsoft renamed the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store to the Microsoft Store. I still call it the Windows Store now and then.

@nintendork64 It's funny, in their case they were renaming it to consolidate all stores under one brand (they were merging the Windows, Windows Phone and XBox Store, as well as their physical retail stores all into Microsoft Store.)

Nintendo's going the opposite way

I love my Switch but the OS and the shop feel years out of date. The only other exception would be Xbox, that store is a mess.
I still dont understand how people say the PSN store is bad compared to Xbox. But the Eshop just constantly shows terrible phone ported games for 3 times the price. All the good stuff is buried under mounds of terrible games and its near impossible to find what you want.

What will happen to the 3ds and Wii U Eshop?

Jimmy cracked corn and I don't care.
I'll keep buying the games whatever it's called.

@earthinheritor I agree bout it being hard to find things you're looking for on the Nintendo Company Limited Switch Home Console Entertainment System's Nintendo Company Limited Switch Online Shop, burried under tons of cheap indies and such.

PSN vs. MS Store though, I've never had a problem with either of them really. The PS4 UI is hot garbage, but the store works just fine on both PS4 and X1 for me, I've never had trouble finding games on either console's store app. The MS Store has a great website for shopping though, while the PS website is a really awful, broken mess that returns "unable to display this page" until you refresh more times than it doesn't, and it took them almost a year to finally fix (for now) their inability to actually charge my Paypal. In contrast though the PS store Android app seems a lot more complete than the XBox store Android app, though each annoy me: XBox store app I can't buy any 360 BC games, I have to do that in the browser or on the console. While PS app won't let me pay through PayPal for anything at all in the app and tells me I have to finish checkout in the browser or console. Though I'm happy that I can even do that now, because for a year, I couldn't.

I think my biggest issue with Xbox UI and the store is the in your face advertising. On PS4 and even Switch all i see are my games and my content. On Xbox its just adds for junk everywhere and pushed content. That drivers me insane that its so cluttered. The PS4 i have folders for games and thats it. The store is its own thing and it works. I still dont understand why the xbox doesnt have an add to cart feature, thats the early days of the internet tech and it still doesnt have it.

I will agree on the page cannot be displayed issue on the web browser but i haven't had it for a while now. Everyone has their own tastes of course an thats fine. I just dont understand anyone that says the PS4 UI is garbage and hard to use when saying that the xbox one is easy and nice to use. The Xbox One is a lesson in how not to design a UI for anyone, opinions aside its terribly designed to any standard. I will say that as much was i want more from the Switch the system itself is clean and quick. It shows my games, no advertising, no garbage, is just works.

I cannot believe an entire article and loads of typing have been dedicated to complaining about changing a very dated naming scheme, from the days where "EVERYTHING" was an e-Something or i-Something...even Apple has stopped naming new things i-Things

We had the "e-i phase", the "vowel drop phase" (things with names like 'Blinkr', etc look KINDA DATED now, eh?).

They are changing the name. So what. It isn't an existential crisis

@earthinheritor Both PS4 and X1 have the advertising. It's annoying on both. And my PS4 keeps bumping an ad tile right between my first three folders on the home screen. At least the home screen with ads on X1 isn't the main interface, the guide menu is. The stores, on the "front" page of them, and then the category pages for both have ads. PS puts them on the big square tiles before the little tiles. X1 puts them on the rectangles on the scroll panels. I still blame XBox for introducing ads at all on 360 though......

Rumors say the cart is coming to xbox soon....just rumors but still, it could happen. They added folders after 5 years! But at least the final product is the best console folders short of WiiU. Switch doesn't have a cart, either

I just got the "page can not be displayed" about 5 times this morning! It's not a huge problem but it reminds me how rickety that website is every time it happens. Though I'm mostly salty from not being able to pay for anything for a year...I had to buy PSN gift cards on Amazon and plug in the codes to buy anything.

As for the UI, I'll say the XBox 360 UI got worse and worse and worse with every update. It was horrible. I never liked the PS3 XMB very much, but as a day 1 PS4 buyer I learned to like the XMB a lot more when I saw the PS4 UI It's loud and splashy with garbage everywhere. I didn't like it in 2013, and I still don't like it today. It's "serviceable" but awful. I like the music and sounds though Vita still has one of the best UIs of modern consoles, IMO.

I heard the horror stories of the X1 UI, and I missed the early days of the horrors. When I finally got it they'd really refined it a lot, and further refined it in the past 4 months. After I learned you aren't supposed to use the home screen, basically at all, and that everything is on the Guide menu, I learned to really love that interface. It's basically a Windows Start Menu.....the home screen is just wallpaper you never use. Their folder system is cool because the small thumbnails and categories are right on the guide menu so you can scroll down your whole foldered library in the small menu, while in a game. It took 5 years(!) but at least the result is great.

Switch....all I want is folders! I love the UI. It's the best of the 3! But I need folders soooo bad.... Now Mega Man X1 and X2 are 20 games separated because I bought them together but haven't played 2 yet. Doom now sits on the front page, and XC2 and Torna are in backward order and not on the home row together. I just want folders!

And I don't want a "Nintendo Company Limited Switch Home console System Nintendo Switch Online Shop" button on that menu.

@MrKai I don't think it's important that the name remains eShop. I think what's important is that the name isn't changed to Nintendo Switch Online Shop.

@ritouf I mainly went physical too since I love the little game cards. But, I find digital more convenient for the Switch, so I might get a big micro-sd card and use the eShop.

@NEStalgia True

That would be a very unfortunate decision, which by the way reminds me of...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ

I guess this could be the rebranding used when they finally start offering discounts with their paid online service.

The second Nintendo shuts down another platform’s digital games store, I’ll never buy any downloadable games on Nintendo platforms ever again. It’s frustratingly consumer hostile to shut off access to games whose licenses I own. Fortunately, I owned only one game on WiiWare, and none on DSiWare, but if Nintendo shut down 3DS eShop and the means for me to retrieve games I have the right to play, I’m saying bye-bye Nintendo.

What the heck was wrong with 'Nintendo eShop'? NeS was perfect.

Per Reggie : "The way that consumers will be able to continue participating with our classic content is going to be through Nintendo Switch Online, and we just released three new games (Ninja Gaiden, Wario's Woods and Adventures of Lolo) from the NES generation onto that platform. "
(Rumor no more)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/nintendo-president-smash-bros-classic-console-future-switch-1167948

It will now be known as the Nintendo App Store.