The Nintendo Switch is not only an incredibly successful machine, but a bastion for indie developers. Many find success in the eShop, running up incredible sales totals and taking control of the narrative for days -- if not weeks -- at a time. However, while these games have largely become the lifeblood of the system, Nintendo doesn't offer them much in the way of substantial support.
Aside from marketing pushes at its Indie World Showcase, Nintendo lacks the infrastructure to properly support indie titles. The system needs a major overhaul.
The eShop Issue
The crux of the issue is the Nintendo eShop. In some ways, this storefront uniquely allows for indie titles to thrive, which is largely a function of the Switch’s deeply underpowered hardware. Most AAA development is inherently incompatible with the hybrid system, so indies don’t have nearly as much competition. It’s an advantage that isn’t afforded to developers on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Store, or Steam.
Unfortunately, the Nintendo eShop remains deeply flawed. The platform lacks curation tools as simple as user reviews or genre tags, let alone top-down curation tools such as a dedicated, robust front page. These tools are indisputably essential to actually prop up the indie scene.
Simply showcasing indie titles in video presentations is only the most cursory means of supporting indie partners. Take, for instance, the most recent Indie World event. After rattling off more than a dozen upcoming titles, the show ended and six games were immediately pushed live on the eShop. That is completely unsustainable.
All of these titles flooding to market simultaneously, as per Nintendo’s scheduling, will result in these games immediately cannibalizing each other. Nintendo’s shadow-drop strategy works with one, possibly two games at a time. That allows developers to capitalize on the immediate hype without stretching people’s wallets. Releasing more than that is a recipe for each game to bite into the sales of the one next to it. These launches should have been staggered -- and that’s only the release day issue.
Thinking Big Picture
When this crop is inevitably buried by next week’s list of games in the Recent Releases tab on the eShop, how will people find them? These six are the lucky ones that are afforded a leg up by merit of Nintendo’s showcase. Games that don't get this treatment are more likely to struggle, because the system has little to no quality control and a lack of meaningful curation.
This is an essential problem that Nintendo must solve. The Indie World Showcases are valuable presentations, but they’re a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Nintendo owes a debt to these teams. As first-party software finds itself in a lull with no confirmed releases until Pikmin 3 Deluxe and third-party software drying up, indie teams keep players engaged. They do Nintendo’s heavy-lifting when the other fronts are quiet and they deserve more in return.