Nintendo Needs to Start Curating the eShop

Nintendo was infamously strict when it came to what developers were allowed to put on the Wii Shop Channel. The good news for shovelware developers, Nintendo is now infamously hands-off with what they allow on the Switch eShop.

I generally prefer a more open platform when it comes to digital distribution platforms. I think developers should be able to put their games on the system as long as they're decently high quality, don't have misleading screenshots, and don't have a misleading description. Having an easy to read description would also be nice. Thankfully for developers, Nintendo doesn't seem to care very much.

One look at the Switch eShop will show how many unpolished games there are, and how many non-games there are as well.

I don't have a problem with good apps like YouTube and Hulu. I do have a problem with garbage like Santa Tracker. If something isn't even a game, it should immediately be questioned by Nintendo if it should be allowed. And yet it's currently available to buy (with money). Thankfully the developers seem to be very generous, because the "game" goes on sale frequently.

The "X" is blue and "R2" is used instead of "ZR"

At the very least Santa Tracker isn't misleading its customers. Bloodstained initially had a screenshot of the PlayStation 4 version, which is visually much higher quality than the Switch version. The same is currently true of Monster Dynamite as well.

The controller issue isn't that bad by itself, but if the actual contents of the game are misleading as a result then it can be a serious problem. And this issue is far bigger than just the two games I mentioned here.

I've also seen plenty of cases where a game's description is not written by someone who understands english. I don't have a problem with foreign games, but I feel like Nintendo should want a level of quality when it comes to what's written about the games on their platform.

In general I don't hate the eShop, I just really really want to have some assurance that I won't be blasted by terrible games (and non-games) every time I go on it to look at some games.