Nintendo has too many apps

Nintendo has released a new store app on Android and iOS giving users the ability to purchase hardware, accessories, and games for the Switch and Switch 2. When I open my phone and scroll down to the N’s, I get a complete, neat row dedicated entirely to Nintendo. That’s four apps: the Switch app, the music app, the Nintendo Today news app, and now the store. And it’s really too much.

Nintendo has always been the only company among the big three publishers to do its own thing, and that has worked both for and against it. The company has not followed development trends with the same zeal as Microsoft and Sony. It isolates Nintendo when these trends don’t pan out, like spending exorbitantly on live games that fail. But it also hurts performance and user experience. Native console voice chat, for example, has been a standard on other platforms for a long time, but only came to a Nintendo console with the Switch 2 this year.

With the rollout of these apps, Nintendo is attempting to both innovate and catch up with results that seem confusing and overwhelming. Do we really need four separate apps? This isn’t to say that these apps shouldn’t exist; they serve valuable and necessary purposes. But when I look at all the programs I have to manage in my Nintendo life, I feel like it’s too much.

You need the Switch app for screenshots and social features. You need the store to buy things. While this is not the case need the Nintendo Today app, it has useful features, such as release date reminders, and it has been used to share announcements before they are released on other official channels. The music app isn’t essential either, but Nintendo doesn’t make its music available on streaming services, and finding music on YouTube can be hit or miss.

It’s also strange that apps cannibalize features. I can see my gaming activity in the store and in the console app. The store also has a more comprehensive news page than that offered in Nintendo Today. Couldn’t we just put it all together in one central place? PlayStation and Xbox do this in their apps, and it’s a seamless experience going from my PS5 screenshots to the PS Store.

I agree that the music app should remain separate, as it seems a bit complicated to place a music player on top of what should be a single administrative app. But even that makes it seem like an overly complicated solution to a simple problem. Nintendo is valuable for its IP, sure, but why does that mean that instead of listening to official tracks on Spotify, I have to download an app tailor-made just for a company’s library? Given that using the music app requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, I wonder if compartmentalizing one’s music in this way is a way to improve the appeal of one’s subscription. I also wonder if this has anything to do with a reluctance to pay royalties. In the music app, Nintendo does not credit composers, which it would be required to do if it offered its music to streaming services.

As the gaming industry continues to mature, companies are realizing that they are not only competing with other game creators for people’s time and attention, but also with social media. And while other companies are trying strategies like offering their exclusives on other platforms, Nintendo seems to be moving in a much more ambitious direction.

Earlier this week, in a statement posted on Nintendo’s investor relations website, President Shuntaro Furukawa wrote: “We hope that Nintendo will be a name that people naturally turn to, part of everyday life and for families growing up.” » You can see this strategy in products like Alarmo, the My Mario children’s line, its animation and film projects, its theme parks and Hello, Mario, yet another app designed specifically for children. That’s a lot to do, and it’s clear that some strategies seem to be working. But if Nintendo isn’t more careful about how (and how much) it rolls out these apps, people are going to start freeing up space — if not in their lives, then in their phones.