Opinion: How to fix the eShop on Nintendo Switch for everyone

Nintendo has made great strides with its digital storefronts this generation. While functional, the Wii and DSi Shopping channels were bogged down in red tape and restrictions that made them and the content available on them suffer.

Last year, we saw the service leap forward once again with the introduction of My Nintendo. While purchases are still tied to hardware, they are now at least tracked with your account – even if that My Nintendo account just sits ‘over’ the Nintendo Network ID. Hopefully whatever is next will once and for all solve these account issues, as at the moment the eShop lacks unity and harmony. The eShop is an enigma to anyone outside Nintendo fandom. We, as fans, understand its quirks but it’s still closed off and restrictive while no other digital storefront in 2017 is.

Then there’s Virtual Console, Nintendo’s offering of older titles available through the eShop. Virtual Console has its own set of problems in and of itself. However, the problems eShop has also affect it.

Hopefully Nintendo’s got at least some of these things sorted for the Switch.

Trickle of Releases

When the Virtual Console was first released on the Wii it launched with about a dozen games, then as the weeks went on we got 2 or 3 more each week.

Then Nintendo did the exact same thing 7 years later and we’re still not at the same level of content we had on the Wii. Instead of dumping a ton of Virtual Console games on the Wii U they decided to roll it out again, one by one. The games that didn’t make the cut are still available to you if you transferred your Wii content over or have the original console.

Nintendo even charge people to bring their games ‘to the Wii U’ despite the game already sitting on the console. The fee isn’t crazy and they’ll probably do it again with the Switch but, jeez, don’t make the emulation worse. For crying out loud, American Wii U owners only just got Pokemon Snap and now they just get F-Zero X. What, do we have to wait four more years for it on the Switch?

Nintendo can’t afford to pull this stunt again with the Switch. It needs the entire library day one and it needs to allow you to play what you already own. Anything else is just not on.

Virtual Console Experience

Which brings me to my next point, every single Virtual Console platform is plagued with some sort of issue that makes it a sub-par experience. We still have some NES and SNES games which are 50hz, and every single Virtual Console title on the Wii U has this terrible filter over it. It’s all done in software and it’s not like Nintendo is struggling to get these games emulated – you can see the bright and clear non-filtered versions of the game when you go to the suspend menu.

The glorious colour and standard brightness is hidden under a veil of ‘authenticity’. What’s even worse is that the new Mini NES that’s coming out has all of these games in 60hz, non-filtered and in pixel perfect HD. You can apply a filter to make it look like a CRT or pushed into 4:3 if you really want – because why not give us the choice?

It’s unlikely that Nintendo will ever fix the Wii U Virtual Console now. In fact, the Wii Virtual Console which is hidden away in your Wii U still provides a better and more authentic experience.

An Accessible Store

Up until recently, the only way you could buy games on either of the eShop storefronts was on the consoles themselves. Not too long ago. Nintendo opened up a web store front to allow you to buy games from the website, use your credit on your system and then have your system download that game or even preload games that you preorder.

If you are lucky to live in a country that supports that.

You see, in Japan you can buy download cards for games in stores, you can redeem it and download the game from your phone or computer. You don’t even have to go to store you can just go to the Nintendo website and buy it and it’ll download on your system waiting at home.

In Europe you can go to Nintendo’s website and do much the same. In America as well. So what if you’re an indie developer and you have this great new game coming to the eShop that you want to tell everyone about? You can release in all regions now (except Japan has complications) because of the classification scheme IARC – you hop on Twitter and tell everyone to download your game.

But you can’t.

Each Nintendo region has a different web store-front, a different URL. So do you link to the American Nintendo site, or the European one? Our Australian eShop is the same as Europe’s but we can’t buy from it. So no matter what link you post, it’s harder get people to buy your game. Wouldn’t it be great if there was one link, you share it and people see it and go ‘I’d really like to buy that’ and within seconds they’re able to login, buy the game and have it download for them at home or in their bag?

An example – say I want to buy Ninja Pizza Girl from Disparity Games, in America here’s the link, in Europe here’s the link and in Japan… well, they don’t have it yet. But here’s a link to VVVVVV which they just got and, you guessed it – it’s a different link to the other regions.  If you search for Ninja Pizza Girl on the Australian site (the country where it was developed too) you get nothing.

Cross-buy and Pricing

The way cross-buy works on Nintendo systems, and the way Nintendo themselves completely ignores it is something the company needs to work on.

The oft-requested feature was added to both Nintendo eShops a couple of years ago but its implementation needs work.  The current solution is a mess – when you purchase a cross-buy compatible game the other console doesn’t know anything about it. A code is added onto your digital receipt and that can be entered in on the other console. There’s no flag on the system to say you now own it (though there is on My Nintendo) or no way for it to automatically download or receive alerts about it.

The real problem with cross-buy, though, is the fact that Nintendo don’t use it themselves for Virtual Console titles.

When Nintendo sell you Super Mario Bros for $6.50 you get it for that console, and that console only.  I love Super Mario Bros, it’s still a great game but it’s 30 years old and Nintendo has to get over the fact that it’s not worth that any more. Some games are worth what they’re asking on Virtual Console, especially considering the rarity of some games on the second hand market. The time for selling NES games for this price is at an end – SNES games and N64 games could do with a price reduction as well or, if not, make the games available for cross-buy. There’s no reason why I should have to pay $13.00 to have ancient NES games on both my Nintendo systems.  It’s possible to play a range of NES games, within minutes through the web or emulated on phones. People pay for these games because instead of a touch screen and a keyboard we can play these games on a proper controller, on our TV and support Nintendo at the same time – but they’re pushing it now.

Do you agree, what are some of the things you’d like fixed on the Nintendo eShop on the Switch?