Commentary: Nintendo’s secret for the Switch 2? Ignore the extremely online
The internet gives consumers a voice they once didn’t have. But separating signal from noise is a challenge, says Gearoid Reidy for Bloomberg Opinion.
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TOKYO: Online, gamers declared the Switch 2 “anti-consumer”. In reality, no one cared.
With Nintendo charging US$450 for its new device – and up to US$80 for some games – influencers and TikTokers took to their accounts to warn it was too expensive.
Across social media, others decried how new terms of service gave the Japanese firm the ability to remotely disable the latest machine if they detected unauthorised activity. Many games sold in physical packages were, they complained, glorified download codes.
Anyone expecting the backlash to dent sales was disappointed. The Switch 2 is not only Nintendo’s best-selling device ever, it has become the fastest-selling games console of all time with 3.5 million units snapped up in the first four days alone. Shares have hit record highs.
For executives, it’s the latest example of an increasingly pertinent lesson: While the internet has given consumers a voice, you must not confuse it for reality.
THE NOISE OF THE TERMINALLY ONLINE
Separating the signal of genuine consumer sentiment from the noise of the most terminally online is a challenge. Early feedback can often be useful: Sony changed the design of the original “boomerang” PlayStation 3 controller after online mockery; Nintendo itself should have responded quicker to complaints about broken original Switch controllers.
But frequently, digital conversation is divorced from actual consumer behaviour. Consider how, as smartphones grew larger during the 2010s, online users demanded smaller devices that could be easily used with one hand – something Steve Jobs had championed before his death. But when Apple finally responded with the iPhone Mini in 2020, those users simply didn’t show up in large numbers, and it was discontinued in 2023.
Having coined the slogan “think different”, Apple is used to facing down fuss, from its removal of MacBook disk drives to abandoning the headphone jack. Nonetheless, in the noise there is sometimes signal – the firm ignored the iPhone 4 “Antennagate” issue for much too long and was forced into an embarrassing climbdown.
Online communities are frequently too far in the weeds to represent the average consumer. On social media, advocates for preserving physical games are upset with the Switch 2’s Game Key cards, which are essentially just a code to download the game from the internet. The move is good for software makers, who pay less for the memory cartridge, but in future years means Nintendo will have to keep those downloads available.
Still, it’s a niche issue: The average Switch 2 buyer, raised on Netflix and Spotify, likely couldn’t care less about physical ownership of most games.
KNOWING WHO TO IGNORE
It’s also increasingly hard to isolate genuine fan engagement from click-chasing rage-bait. Online revenue-sharing creates incentive for insincere actors to generate controversy that often matters little to the wider public.
There was much ink spilled and calls for boycotts ahead of the launch of Warner Bros’ Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy, owing to author JK Rowling’s views on gender and trans issues. None of that stopped it becoming one of the best-selling of all time.
Meanwhile, right-leaning activists have led backlashes over Sony’s The Last of Us Part II (decried for inclusive changes from the first game, including a lesbian protagonist and transgender character) and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows (due to its choice of a Black samurai hero) that have had little sales impact.
Knowing who to ignore isn’t just a tech issue. A growing theory among those on the political left posits that the movement’s failure to stop the election of US President Donald Trump could be due to ideological capture by overly active online voices on the fringes – leading politicians to focus on niche concerns of little interest to the majority of voters.
Of course, online issues can end up being important. The backlash to faded social network Tumblr’s decision to eliminate adult content preceded a decline in popularity that saw it sold for a fraction of the US$1.1 billion it cost in 2013.
The #MeToo movement emerged from testimonies shared over social media to become a worldwide phenomenon. And indeed, much of the success of the Switch itself comes from Nintendo’s responding to gamers’ complaints about its predecessor, the Wii U.
But consumers often simply don’t know what they want. Henry Ford may not have actually said that if he’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. But it’s nonetheless true that users will say one thing when their revealed preferences show otherwise.
Social media is acclaimed as the “global town square” where grand ideas are debated and exchanged. But in reality, it’s often more like a crowded bar – where the loudest voice usually isn’t the one you should pay attention to.
