“Oh, you don’t like hentai on your Switch?”: Dev says Switch 2 needs to fix Nintendo’s “pathetic” eShop, and he’s not the only one who thinks so
When we spoke to dozens of game developers about what they want from Nintendo Switch 2, a common request was a dramatically improved storefront. Alx Preston, director at Hyper Light Breaker and Possessor(s) developer Heart Machine, had especially strong thoughts on the state of the current Switch eShop.
In a group interview at GDC 2025, producer Myriame Pachapelle said, “I want the Nintendo eShop to be better.”
Preston quickly cut in: “Oh, you don’t like hentai on your Switch? With bad UI that takes 20 minutes to load one PNG?”
“It’s pathetic,” Preston added. “A pathetic store. Probably the most painful part of that system. Also, the controller pairing, good god.”
Heart Machine narrative director Tyler Hutchinson, meanwhile, asked that Nintendo “please write the Nintendo eShop in compiled language and not a web app,” referring back to its notoriously slow loading.
I checked the eShop on my Switch just minutes ago to see how it long it would take to spot a game with “hentai” in the title, and lo and behold, Hentai Girls: Postal Passion, a $3 rudimentary puzzle game with M-rated artwork presumably featuring postal workers, appeared after a few (incredibly slow) rows of scrolling, as if summoned by fate.
Preston had perhaps the most severe opinion on the eShop, but many developers were similarly down on the storefront throughout my interviews at GDC.
Her Story’s Sam Barlow also hopes to see “a robust eShop and an ecosystem that supports indie developers with discoverability and a sensible approach to pricing.” TinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik wants “more social features on the store.”
Multiple indie devs, from Iconoclast creator Joakim Sandberg to Sable dev Gregorios Kythreotis, hope to see improvements to the presentation and feel of the eShop on Switch 2.
Sandberg argues that “the current store has a sensation of just being a slow list that’s added to, which makes it awful to look through and find new things.” Kythreotis wants “a bit of a reset” that “can help surface indies in a more curated way and find a way to filter some of the noise.”
Noah Allen of TetherGeist zeroes in on ways to help “the good stuff rise to the top,” quietly echoing calls for console stores to learn from Steam’s multifaceted and tailored visibility tools which have proven effective enough to give rise to the concept of “Real Steam.”
New Blood boss Dave Oshry agreed that “the eShop needs to be better. MUCH better.”
Ahead of promised improvements emulating the Wii Shop, Nintendo recently changed how some games are displayed in the eShop, with a focus on recent sales. This has the positive effect of pushing down the store’s notorious feed of so-called ‘slop’ games, but there have been concerns that some indie games could get caught in the crossfire. How the Switch 2’s store builds on these changes – hopefully in many ways – remains to be seen.
Even John Romero is worried about Joy-Con drift on Nintendo Switch 2, so here’s hoping those “not Hall effect sticks” hold up better than the originals.
