Changing System – Feature – No Robots Boss on how to push eShop publishers into the game

Since the switch was relaunched in March 2017, we have talked with developers many times about Ishop, its detectable issues, and strategies used to locate and sell games on Nintendo’s digital storefront. When launched, the Easy Console conforms to the No Nonsense Home menu – simple, functional and decisive.

However, over time Thousands Games have dropped on the switch, and Eshop works just like it did on launch day, which became a big issue for publishers when it came to being spotted on the Nintendo store.

“The problem with Eshop‌ is that it was never built for discovery, which is a bad thing for devs and consumers,” said Mike Rose, publisher of No More Robots. Rose posted Twitter thread In the last week of September, we caught up with him via email to find out some more about his experience publishing on Switch Ishop‌ and more.

In Long Thread (above), Rose talks about the comparative sales performance of four No More Robots switch releases this year: Not tonight, Yes, your kindness, Somewhere prophet And Hypnospace Oatley. His findings lead to fascinating reading, especially since SMG CEO Ashley Ringross said in our interview earlier this year that Eshop discounts are having an impact on indie game sales. We will touch on the main points here, but we recommend taking a few minutes and reading the entire twitter thread.

Rose has spoken openly in the past about his frustration Other online store fronts, Not only the “heartbreaking” switch Ishop, but also the possibility of experimenting on the switch this year, he made some interesting – and some discouraging – conclusions.

For example, he believes that metacritic scores on the switch are more important than other digital game store fronts. We have definitely noticed that games are prominently displaying their metascore in their flagship switch ishop images. “As far as I can tell, it’s partly about how people find discounts and deals for switch games,” Rose said when asked to explain. It seems Huge discount + good ‘green’ metacritic score = insta-by For most switch gamers browsing eShop. “I know a lot of switch users use sites like Deku Deals and the like, and those sites prominently display metacritic scores and even allow you to filter through MC scores. So this is a very big part.”

After pleading with the Indie Devs earlier not to “devalue” [their] Work! No deep reduction! ”, Rose writes about reaching the end of his tether and making a tough choice. Since Nintendo’s charts are based on the number of units sold rather than revenue from sales, No More Robots decided to put Not Tonight on sale for 90% off.

“Yes it was not a fun decision,” he reiterated. “As I mentioned in my twitter thread, I’m going to opt out of such a discount, but then I’m going to see the same games and the same publisher repeatedly on the top sellers charts, and they are clearly manipulating the store to make a ton of money. I mean, how many times do we have to watch? Thief simulator Before we get sick? How often 90% off the top of the eShop is given is clearly not enough! “

Eventually I grabbed my teeth and tried the ‘can’t beat them, join them’ approach … If everyone else is breaking the store, what else can you do?

“So in the end I had to hold my teeth and try the ‘I can not beat them, I can not join them’ I mean, I still want to do this with our other games, and I’ll keep it as a constant experiment with Not Tonight. But in the end, if everyone else breaks the store, What else can you do? “

The benefits of a deep reduction are reflected very quickly in sales. In a Twitter thread, Rose wrote: “In 24 hours, we’ve entered the top 30 charts, in one week, we’re at the top of the charts. We sat there for another 2 weeks before the end of the sale. In those 4 weeks the game sold almost as many units as it did on Steam in its lifetime. It generated 6 numbers of revenue. “

In a way, learning to sell in Ishop seems to have become its own mini-meta-game; Rose finally figured out how to play Eshop. “To be honest I’m looking at all the marketing and publications, and it’s a lot of fun. The success of 90% off sale is definitely as eye-opening as you’d expect, and it led us to explore plans for the future with Not Tonight. ‘Yug’ With that, I realize that ‘joining them’ means selling my soul a little. “

No More Robots experimented with Yes, Your Grace with a small discount, which, although not touching the charts tonight, worked well in terms of revenue. Yes, Your Grace is also a game featured in the store, but the status featured on the storefront did not translate into sales as the publisher had hoped. Rose was concerned that a deeper reduction in eshop‌ would reduce steam sales, but they were not fully impacted – in fact, they enjoyed very little Increase.

When it comes to some of Nintendo’s competitors, Rose has nothing Convenient things to say about Microsoft’s Game Pass. There are no robots to compare sales on multiple platforms – a comparison that small developers and publishers cannot make. We asked him if it would be better for the Devs, who could not get started on all consoles, to first ‘gaming’ Eshop with discounts or to keep their game in the game pass and then switch.

I strongly suggest that deep cuts should not be the go-to strategy of any developer … we certainly do not make deep cuts on any other platform

“It’s tricky, because it really all depends on the game, style, price point, etc. Xbox Game Pass is a blessing in disguise because the revenue that comes with it makes our console ports profitable right away – but it’s not that it can work for every game and developer.”

Despite his success with strategy, he is careful in his approach. “I strongly suggest that deep cuts should not be any developer’s going strategy. Maybe when your game is over for a while and sales dry up, this may be a way to explore specifically on the switch. We definitely make deep cuts on any other platform forever – we usually do 15-40 on things like Steam, Xbox etc. We make reductions between% and they work great for us. “

We are thinking about how to adjust the ishop if Rose is responsible for the redesign. Can Nintendo follow the policies from other store fronts to improve the eShop situation?

“The Devs are struggling to use the eVoShop to sell their games, and consumers are literally struggling to find anything there other than the games they are looking for. Customers like to know what other stores like Steam have achieved in their games, and then provide them with similar titles, or in the same category, price band, etc. Recommend. Clearly Eshop is not doing anything like that right now – Discover Tab means Nintendo decided to push it last week. “

“So I think the two main things I’m going to do are create a few more Discovery Outlets in Eshop‌, while at the same time ranking revenue above all units, to stop all deep cuts from being easily raised.”

Nintendo’s approach to switching is far removed from the platform holder’s previous consoles, and idly scrolling through a long list of discount games has become a weekly event for many of us. We asked if Rose himself would use it through Eshop for a bargain.

I’m a strong believer in supporting small dev teams, so sometimes I just want to pick a few games and see what chat is.

“I use it very often through eShop, I choose how to buy a game that takes a lot of time, but lately it has become harder and harder to do. You usually have to scroll through your front pages and deals pages. Find one or two interesting titles, because you already have Looked a few times for 90% off. I’s still trying – I’m a strong believer in supporting small dev teams, so sometimes I like to pick up a few games and see what’s chat. “

No More Robots has a fifth game to hit Eishop this November: Downhill Biker Descendants Will land at Switch on November 6th. We asked if he was in good condition with the upcoming switch launch; Does he expect it to follow the trend of previous titles or throw another curve ball?

“Heirs are a bit of an odd game, it doesn’t follow the rules of how sales figures should be. Because most people know the game now, and since it’s done well on other platforms, I know it’s going to do well on the switch at this point. We saw it with the PS4 launch last month – big on launch week Without pushing the platform altogether, the game still sells like crazy and continues to do so, just behind its previous success. Having more than 3 million players for your game before you even start the switch will always leak into new platforms. So we see the same success on the switch. “

Given the volatile nature of things in Eshop‌ for very small companies, ‘very confident’ certainly seems to have succeeded the growing publisher and Rose knew he was in his lucky position. “As you can imagine, this is a very good situation, and it takes a little bit of pressure from us. It’s a lot of fun, because 2020 is a long, tiring year. Ha ha. “

Our thanks to Mike for his time. Descendants are finally launching on Switch on November 6th and all the other games mentioned above can now be seen on Ishop if you look enough.