Death Squared Developer Shares Ways Nintendo Could Improve Switch eShop

Death Squared developer SMG Studios has recently suggested ways that Nintendo could improve the Nintendo Switch eShop. We know that visibility is something that Nintendo is working on for indie developers and consumers, but it’s not quite there yet. Here’s what they had to say on Reddit:

1. Editorial Focus

• a. The store could use an editorial focus/section to allow visibility across a variety of hidden gems or just give seasonal focus

• b. Eg: Our fave kids, family, Puzzlers, Fighting, RPG where someone from the Nintendo team picks their faves for that week

• c. Guest Editors: There’s some great talent in Ninetendo and other studios and maybe we have a “my top 5” from them to again focus on games maybe missed but also mix up the games

• d. I know this is done through the news but that’s one step away and I ignore the news mostly.

2. Best of Month / Week / Day

• a. Apple updated the store to have a daily “news” type feel. What this does well is creates a routine for players to check in daily for what’s new

3. Discover Weekly (recommendation engine)

• a. Based off sales of titles (ie customers who bought X also bought) and based off your own purchases, recommend to players games they may not know about.

• b. Spotify’s Discover Weekly = awesome for me as I get 30 new tunes a week. About 25% I really like

4. Devs more control over their game pages

• a. In the spirit of Nindies I would like to recommend other games on the store we like and people should check out

• b. Other games by Dev. There’s no visibility of other games by same dev on the game page

• c. Link through to news articles from store page

5. Allow external official sanctioned ratings?

• a. Nintendolife rating (opt in for devs to show) or other sites that give people ability to click through to read review. It’ll help separate out bad games form good games without the need for the user review system that was trailed

6. Follow Developer/Publisher

• a. Right now you can follow news on a game but it would be good to follow the dev/publisher so if they release other games it helps

7. Charts

• a. Show the top 100? 15 is so limited and ends up being a self-fulfilling list as the games in the top get more visibility

• b. Ability to show top games by price. Ie top 100 < $10 to help people find good games on their budget

8. Search

• a. Search by age rating: Just show me all G rated games

• b. Add < $10 and <$5 search filters

• c. Add “family” friendly

• d. Add # of players: ie 1 only, co-op, online multiplayer etc

• e. File size ie < 500mb etc as people worry about size a lot of reddit

• f. Digital Only toggle (games that are only available as digital)

Source