Nintendo Hits Milestone as Download Sales Exceed Packaged Goods, eShop Improvements Incoming

Packaged games aren't necessarily Nintendo's bread and butter anymore.

News by Nadia Oxford, Staff Writer

Updated on 20 March 2018

Nintendo is gradually getting the hang of the digital marketplace. In a Nindies panel at GDC 2018, the company talked about how its digital sales of its third-party games for the Switch and the Nintendo 3DS are exceeding sales of its traditional "boxed" games in the US. It also went over its plans to (finally) improve navigation of the eShop.

Nintendo outlined the Switch's success with downloadable third-party games before talking about how it plans to improve and upgrade the eShop's UI for "better discoverability" in the face of over-crowding. Currently, navigating the Switch's eShop is tedious, and discovering cool, quirky games you might want to take a chance on can be difficult. It's good to see Nintendo finally wants to take the eShop and digital distribution more seriously, especially in light of the Switch's determination to be a showcase for independent game publishers.

Let's have a hand for Nintendo's big digital winners.

The Nindies panel also offered a shout-out to some of the most successful independent titles on the Switch, including the hugely popular Stardew Valley, Celeste, Golf Story, and Steamworld Dig 2.

[With reporting from Kat Bailey]

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Nadia Oxford

Staff Writer

Nadia has been writing about games for so long, only the wind and the rain (or the digital facsimiles thereof) remember her true name. She's written for Nerve, About.com, Gamepro, IGN, 1UP, PlayStation Official Magazine, and other sites and magazines that sling words about video games. She co-hosts the Axe of the Blood God podcast, where she mostly screams about Dragon Quest.