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Nintendo Switch is about to surpass 3DS in number of available games in NA

Atheerios

Atheerios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,095
I found this very interesting. Even though Switch has been out for a little more than a year and 3DS more than 7 years, the newest Nintendo system is about to surpass the number of licensed games for the NA region.

According to Nintendo.com:

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Switch is less than 200 titles away from surpassing 3DS. It already surpassed Wii U and will probably surpass Wii and DS next year.
 
Gamer @ Heart

Gamer @ Heart

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,528
If your like me and check the eShop every week, you won't be surprised. The amount of releases every week is insane.

Pretty much since the beginning of the year, it's been like a dozen a week.
 

Deleted member 3017

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Oct 25, 2017
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The digital market on 3DS was always relatively weak compared to other ecosystems, but what's really surprising is how weak its retail software presence has been after its first two years or so. Switch will handily crush it in both areas.
 
Kuro

Kuro

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Oct 25, 2017
20,538
That really doesn't seem right... how much stuff is on the eshop now?
 
Zebei

Zebei

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Oct 25, 2017
766
But Switch has no games. That's why when they do release a game (which is never) they sell well.
 
Nav

Nav

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Oct 27, 2017
1,904
When you consider the Switch is region-free, the library of games availble to Switch owners now is already greater than the library available to 3DS owners.

That said, backwards compatablity with DS is choice.
 
Bowl0l

Bowl0l

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Oct 27, 2017
4,608
Is it good or bad news?
3DS shovelwares seem out of control. Beating that quantity is good?
 
I Wanna Be The Guy

I Wanna Be The Guy

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Oct 28, 2017
16,773
Not surprising. Switch reminds me so much of Steam in the amount of games it has coming out every week. And I mean that in a good and a bad way. There's a LOT of trash flooding the eshop. Good games too, but lots of nothing games flooding the store just like Steam.
 
PurgeVIII

PurgeVIII

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How much of that is shovel ware? I remember nintendo saying they wanted something like 50+ new games per day or per week? That amount of new games so quickly guarantees that a good percentage of them are shovel ware.
 

Deleted member 3017

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Oct 25, 2017
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PurgeJuls said:
How much of that is shovel ware? I remember nintendo saying they wanted something like 50+ new games per day or per week? That amount of new games so quickly guarantees that a good percentage of them are shovel ware.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There's lots of mediocre software on Switch, but not a lot of shoveleare...yet. That will change.

3DS has tons of trash you've likely never heard of. Far worse than Switch at this point. I'd argue Switch has seen more quality eShop software in 17 months than 3DS has seen in 7.5 years.
 
MysticGon

MysticGon

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Oct 31, 2017
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Counts download games too right? If that's the case I'm not at all surprised.
 
Gamer @ Heart

Gamer @ Heart

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Oct 26, 2017
9,528
PurgeJuls said:
How much of that is shovel ware? I remember nintendo saying they wanted something like 50+ new games per day or per week? That amount of new games so quickly guarantees that a good percentage of them are shovel ware.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

With the bar for publishing so low now, what is the metric for shovelware? There are hundreds of Indies you've never heard of on the system. Do those count?

Shovelware use to mean the budget games they hoped parents would be tricked into buying because it was cheap and you could get 2 or 3 for the price of a full game back in the ps2 days. Do we catergorize all those sub 10 dollar games with zero marketing the same way? It doesn't feel right.
 
funky

funky

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,527
So... does that mean Nintendo has shipped dev kids to all the people releasing that garbage that has flooded the eshop?

Because thats a lot of dev kids.


Does nintendo let people turn retail units into dev units ala Xbox? Or can you somehow make a switch game on PC only using the SDK and never actually play it on a Swtich pre release?


Curious because Nintendo is normally super locked down about its dev hardware.
 
Philly Cheesesteak

Philly Cheesesteak

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Oct 27, 2017
3,297
Zebei said:
But Switch has no games. That's why when they do release a game (which is never) they sell well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Snark aside, a majority of the library is all indie titles and not all of them do well. We're about to hit the same point on Switch where so many indie titles are being released that stuff is going to start getting buried.
 
Aaronrules380

Aaronrules380

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Oct 25, 2017
22,423
I mean, the amount of shovelware is honestly not relevant so long as discovering good stuff isn't hard. Nobody would ever have time to play all the good indie games on the switch anyways, so the bad games aren't a huge issue imo
 
Becks'

Becks'

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Dec 7, 2017
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Nintendo needs to implement rating system based on MC/OC or Steam or they can filter out good games if they don't want good stuff to be buried.
 

Deleted member 5535

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I wonder how the number is for retail games of both consoles.

And Switch have much more weekly releases than the 3DS did so it doesn't surprise me that the Switch is already about to surpass it.
 
TheSentry42

TheSentry42

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Nov 2, 2017
1,249
That's insane!

On the one hand, the Switch is HOT!

On the other, this isn't necessarily good because a lot of those games ain't worth nobodies time. A bloated eShop isnt a good thing.
 
Mariolee

Mariolee

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Oct 25, 2017
10,303
I'm surprised Wii U had that many games, though I'm sure it's because there was next to no moderation as to what was on their eShop at the time.
 
RM8

RM8

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Oct 28, 2017
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I mean, 3DS didn't get nearly as many indies due to hardware limitations. I'm not downplaying Switch at all, I'm just not surprised.
 
JigglesBunny

JigglesBunny

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Oct 27, 2017
31,044
Chicago
That's insanely impressive, especially considering the quality of the releases with remarkably solid third party support.
 
Niceguydan8

Niceguydan8

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Nov 1, 2017
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Becks' said:
Nintendo needs to implement rating system based on MC/OC or Steam or they can filter out good games if they don't want good stuff to be buried.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I would really dislike if they did anything wrt OC/MC. Do what Steam does, but I don't want an aggregate site dictating what is and isn't a "good" game. I want filters based on genres that I deem important to me.
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
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Oct 27, 2017
10,196
That's very unexpected, though I remember that first year of walking into stores and seeing the 3DS's abysmal library so I guess it isn't too surprising

Nintendo really needs to fix up the Switch eShop's algorithms and sorting soon, though. Even something like the 3DS's would go a long way to make it less of a hassle to discover games.
 
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