In the eight years between the original Nintendo Switch launch and in the introduction of the Switch 2, Nintendo has amassed an incredible, arguably sprawling library of games. Perhaps because it’s portable and cheaper than both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, the Switch has also become the de facto best console for indie games alongside its exclusives. Now, in a firmware update paving the way for the launch of the Switch 2 in June, the Switch eShop is changing how it displays games, and it could have major unintended consequences for indies.
One of the big changes in the Nintendo Switch update comes to how the eShop sorts its best-seller charts. Before, the eShop displayed games in order or how many downloads they’d received in the past 14 days. It’s a pretty sensible way to show which games are performing the best on the platform, but it also helped the proliferation of what’s sometimes called “eSlop” — low-effort titles, sometimes just clones of more popular games or games made with generative AI, sold at dirt-cheap prices. Since so many of them were designed to mimic better games and cost very little, they’d rack up downloads, sending them to the top of the charts and tricking even more people into buying them.
