As I am writing this opinion piece, I just passed 400 games in my personal collection. There are currently over 900 available worldwide and a staggering 15 to 20 games are being released every week.
Needless to say, the Nintendo Switch is on fire. But it is also time to make a few remarks.
The eShop needs a clear refresh in how information is being presented so even the smaller indie titles can be discovered. I know, I am opening up an old wound, but with the probable imminent release of the next firmware, I think it is time to make the eShop the center of attention again.
Some of the critique the eShop has gotten worldwide is the lack of visibility for certain games. Right now, we have the menu on the left giving us the recently released games, but with the current amount of games inbound… Most games do not last more than a week maybe two in the list. Not everyone checks the eShop daily like me and I do not even do this coming from my work as a member of GamingBoulevard. I do it because I am building the ultimate Switch guide at pasicci.com. I do it out of passion. I love this console even more than the Wii U, no sarcasm here, the Wii U was amazing and it is a shame so few people actually got to really enjoy it.
But as it stands now, at 900 games worldwide, the eShop has become a pain to navigate. Imagine you are looking for Human Fall Flat, a game I previously reviewed and got released physically by the fine folks over at Super Rare Games. You need to enter the title in the search field because unless there is a sale going on, this fine game is lost in the shuffle of things. If you are not looking for it specifically, chances of accidentally coming cross… slim, very slim. I did the test, I went into a sale, but did not find it, same for the new games, best sellers,… A game is barely able to be found unless we are talking word to mouth advertising.
This is not the only game either, I can name several great titles, Yono, Aqua Kitty DX, Sally’s law, … all were nowhere in sight. So either you read the review somewhere and decide to pick it up or you heard someone on social media say it was great and decide to dig into the title and you end up buying it. I actually have to admit that I have been using social media a lot to get new suggestions. My friends are great and I am very grateful for their input.
But some games still slip through the cracks. Sadly there will always be games that do not get the light of day that they deserve. While Switch is going very strong, I seriously hope Nintendo will do their magic and bring us a better eShop so every game gets its time in the spotlight.
At the same time, not every game belongs on Switch and especially not every game deserves a physical release.
As subjective as the term may be, I think it is now important to figure out what is a decent release and what is considered to be shovelware. Every developer wants their games out on the console that is selling like hot cakes, but sadly this has also lead to some very interesting titles appearing on the system. I will not call them out, this is not my intention for this article. We all know some of the titles, heck, I even gave my first zero in a review to a Switch game.
The sudden stream of companies releasing physical games is both a blessing in disguise as well as a curse. Now, I want to be perfectly clear that this is my personal opinion before you continue reading. I think all games deserve their minute of glory and even a physical release is not out of the question. I actually launched a retweet request on my Twitter to get more than 3000 retweets for Super Rare Games to consider bringing one of the biggest shovelware games to us physical collectors.
The game was a day 1 release and it was the first notorious title on the console. Purely for the sake of preservation, this game deserves a physical copy and I mean it. I am very serious when I say this, Vroom in the Night Sky is part of gaming history as a day 1 release and deserves to be preserved for it.
What is wrong with the entire physical side to collecting right now, the amount of collector’s editions without the feeling of them being collection worthy. I will not go too deep into this, you all know what collector’s editions make you go “oooooooh” and which make you go “meh”. For me, there are more and more of the latter…
I recently predicted the Switch to have 1000 to 1500 physical games in the end, much like the Wii used to have. At the time of writing this article, we are just shy of 200 physical games, with another near 200 announced already. By the time most of these hit the market, we still have not finished the third year in the life of the Switch.
I am both afraid and very eager to see what the future of the Nintendo Switch will bring!
