It is no secret that the Nintendo Switch eshop interface is far from user-friendly. While Nintendo has performed a series of minor upgrades, the shop is by and large still broken. As a result, indie developers have continued to exploit a weakness in the “Best-Seller” tab by deeply discounting their games as a means of gaining notoriety.

A Broken Interface

When compared to Sony and Microsoft, the Nintendo Switch eshop is hilariously bad. Not only is the interface simple and vague, but it is also difficult for users to discover games. This has led many indie developers to deeply discount their games as a means of rising to the top of Nintendo’s “best-seller” list. On Sunday, we discovered that this tactic also invaded Nintendo of America’s official website.

When performing a simple search for the best-selling games on Nintendo’s website, we stumbled across many of the typical games. Animal Crossing. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Breath of the Wild. Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Etc… But littered amongst Nintendo’s first party giants were a series of deeply discounted indie games that we never knew existed. In fact, two of the games were selling for less than $0.10.

• Drawful 2 – originally $9.99, selling for $0.09
• Conduct TOGETHER! – originally $19.99, selling for $0.01

Upon learning that both games were originally designed for mobile devices, it hit us: the developers discounted the games in an effort to be featured on Nintendo’s own website. While we were aware that companies were using this tactic on the eShop, we were not aware that this same strategy was also impacting the company’s own website.

It will be interesting to watch as the strategy of deeply discounting games continues to evolve. Will Nintendo continue to allow this practice to impact its own website? Only time will tell.

Conclusion

While Nintendo continues to promote the indie community, smaller studios are still gaming the Switch eShop by deeply discounting their titles. Unless Nintendo changes its Switch eshop interface, developers will continue to exploit the “best seller” weakness. But we want to know what you think. Have you purchased a discounted indie game? If so, what did you think? Let us know in the comments below or the social media links on the right. Also, be sure to check out our other news items on Pokemon, Modern Warfare, Capcom, Blizzard and more.

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