Nintendo recently rolled out a bunch of new eShop publishing guidelines for the Switch 2. While these are just applicable in Asia right now, there are some indie devs hoping that the changes will make their way over to other markets as they scramble for ways to make their games stand out from all the eslop that's clogging up the pipes.
The guidelines now restrict how bundles can be sold, how product information can be updated, and using inaccurate product descriptions. All of these methods can be used to spam eShop listings or try to profit off the success of other games, by copying the name or claiming the game is something similar when it's not.
Talking to IGN (via GamesRadar), some developers voiced their frustrations about the Nintendo eShop and how it can't stand up to other platforms like Steam: "Their algorithm will more or less naturally bury AI slop or very low-effort releases. Sure, not every 'good indie' rises as high as they should, but the visibility situation for indies with no marketing budget is significantly better on Steam. It gives you a shot when you release.
"On the Nintendo eShop you just get filed into an endless list of releases never to be seen by anyone. Unless you have a big name outside Nintendo already (like, eg Balatro last year), it's close to impossible to stand out."
Steam has several promotions throughout the year, usually themed sales, when smaller games can get a bit of a spotlight. There were loads of little gems in the last Steam summer sale. I, for one, was very happy to find roguelike platformer Mio: Memories in Orbit and co-op horror Mimesis, a couple of games that I likely wouldn't have played if it weren't for the summer sale event.
But with all of these fantastic indie games comes a mountain of low-effort trash. "The flood of low-effort games in digital marketplaces is definitely a concern to me as an indie developer," another developer says.
There's been a recurring issue of games being ripped off of Steam and uploaded to Nintendo's eShop, further clogging the pipelines. The Backrooms 1998's dev claimed earlier this year that "A big scam company just stole my whole game," as they found an identical copy of their game, which was just slightly darker. Then, a bunch of other players had to do a PSA as a fake version of Repo was making the rounds on the eShop.
One of the developers goes on to say that there's no telling whether the new rules are actually an exercise to "combat slop", but they "are a step in the right direction".
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