Switch User Reviews Suddenly Disappear From Nintendo's Website

Last week, Nintendo launched a new eShop feature that actually got quite a few Switch players excited: user reviews. Switch owners could head over to the eShop and leave surprisingly thorough reviews about the games they owned, giving potential buyers one more thing to consider as they looked for new games to play. It seemed to be a well-implemented review system, but today, it has suddenly vanished.

Without anything in the way of warning, Nintendo has pulled user reviews from its site. Instead of a big blue button prompting visitors to leave a review, users now see an explanation of why Nintendo pulled the future. Here's what the company said in full:

Customer reviews have been taken offline as we evaluate this feature and its functionality. We currently have no estimated date on when an update will be provided. We appreciate the positive response and thank the reviewers who provided such thoughtful commentary on the games.

In a separate statement to Polygon, Nintendo says mostly the same thing, only this time calling the initial launch of user reviews a "trial." What prompted Nintendo to remove user reviews beyond mere evaluation is anyone's guess, and these statements suggest that it could be a while before we see their return.

Hopefully Nintendo is planning to bring back this feature in the future, because it seemed like a handy tool for Switch owners to have. Since your reviews were tied to your Nintendo account, you could only review games that you actually owned, which helped guard against the brigading we tend to see with user reviews elsewhere. We'll keep an ear to the ground for more, but for now, take a moment of silence for the short-lived Switch reviews feature.