
Nintendo Hits Milestone as Download Sales Exceed Packaged Goods, eShop Improvements Incoming
Packaged games aren't necessarily Nintendo's bread and butter anymore.
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.

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]
Related articles
PlayStation 5 Update Lets You Know If You're About to Play the PS4 Version of Game
Check yourself before you last-gen yourself.
2
Stardew Valley Just Got Beaches, Fish Tanks, Swimming Ducks, and a Whole Lot More
Nearly five years on, Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone just pushed what he says is Stardew's "biggest update yet."
3
Alien: Isolation Is Free on Epic and Just As Good as It Was in 2014
Get the motion tracker and don't go in the vents.
Shigeru Miyamoto Expresses Confidence in the Younger Generation of Nintendo
The legendary creator says the spirit will stay alive.
6
You may also like
USgamer Staff Past and Present Say Goodbye
End of an era.
26
Press Start to Continue
A look back on what we tried to accomplish at USgamer, and the work still to be done.
67
Mat's Farewell | The Truth Has Not Vanished Into Darkness
This isn't the real ending, is it? Can't be.
9
Eric's Farewell | Off to Find a New Challenger
It's time for us to move on, but we'll carry USG with us wherever we go.
9
Newsletter
Subscribe to our weekly newsletters
Get the best of USG in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters.