The 'internet' hated Switch 2 — consumers bought it anyway
Online, gamers declared the Switch 2 "anti-consumer.' In reality, no one cared.
With Nintendo charging $450 for its new device — and up to $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 unauthorized 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.
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 Group Corp. 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 behavior. 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 Technology SA, likely couldn't care less about physical ownership of most games.
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. Discovery's "Harry Potter" game Hogwarts Legacy, owing to author J.K. 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 Entertainment'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 U.S. 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 $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.
Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the Koreas.
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An advertising agency director, Uemura had no professional background in music when they met, but he knew many people in the world of entertainment and he had ideas on how Seiren could boost her budding career and stand out in the industry. He became her mentor, friend and, ultimately, her adoptive father. 'Back then, I was getting a lot of offers from TV to play the onee talent role, the comedic queer character. Those roles made me uncomfortable, so I turned the offers down,' Seiren says. '(Uemura) saw he needed to protect me from people who would want to exploit my talent and queerness. So he decided to legally adopt me.' While Seiren never attended music school, she began intensely training her operatic vocals under the guidance of Takehiro Shida , as well as her Italian pronunciation and mouth shape under vocal coach Francesca Miscio. When asked which of her two voices feels more authentically her own, Seiren says, 'They both feel true to me.' She differentiates the energy that she puts into vocal techniques. 'For soprano, I focus on the contraction in the upper area of my head and think of echo, vibration and softness,' she explains. 'When it comes to the tenor, I think of power, strength, intense energy and vibrations that reach the ground. Both ranges exist very naturally to me; switching comes naturally. Sometimes I don't even notice I've shifted from one to the other.' While Seiren's aim has always been limitless creativity, fusing opera and noh theater in particular was Uemura's idea, as part of his master plan to enhance Seiren's uniqueness in the highly competitive music industry. Initially, Seiren was unimpressed by the notoriously slow and rigid noh theater. 'It was actually emotionally painful when I first had to sit through it,' she confides, recalling her first exposure to noh in 2013. 'At the same time, I remember going to see another play called 'Toru'. After the play ended, I heard many people saying, 'Wow, the moon was so beautiful!' and I was like, 'What moon? There was no moon!'' Noh is a practice in minimalism: minimal movement, expression and set design. The true art of an experienced noh performer is igniting the audience's imagination with just a few gestures and pantomimes, such as gazing at an imaginary moon reflected in an imaginary bucket of water. Seiren knew the magic of noh had finally captured her after seeing a play called 'Kanawa.' During one scene when a namanari (half-demon) woman suddenly droops her head and curses, Seiren thought she saw a huge storm whirling behind her. 'I could see the storm that no one else could see!,' she says. Soon after, Seiren began training in noh dancing and acting with actor and teacher Akio Awaya and eventually entered the Kita-ryu School , one of the five branches of noh, which specializes in dynamic movement. Noh, she found, was more about silence and standing still than moving and singing. Profound sadness could be shown by wiping a single tear; there is a depth of art and emotion Seiren says she now always strives to bring out in her opera and noh collaborations. At the same time, she says the vocal techniques of opera and noh are not dissimilar. MondoParallelo's latest show, 'Keisei Aoshigure Torimono Emaki' (The Mystery of the Summer Rain Courtesan), combined classical opera, rock, disco, old-timey kayōkyoku pop ballads and enka folk songs. | Tetsuo Isowaki © 2025 Mondo Parallelo Inc. 'The biggest difference with singing is in opera you lift your face to project your voice and resonate with the stone ceiling. In noh, you lower your face to resonate your voice with the wooden floor of the stage,' she says. Seiren's goal in learning the history and traditional practices of noh is to more effectively mix the art form with other types of performance and to create something new instead of simply showcasing two things together on the same stage. 'In my show, the singing aspect is mostly opera and the movement and expression of my body is noh,' Seiren says. 'It's like taking two eggs, cracking them and mixing them together!' MondoParallelo's latest show, 'Keisei Aoshigure Torimono Emaki' (The Mystery of the Summer Rain Courtesan), was a particularly wild omelet, whipping together classical opera, rock, disco, old-timey kayōkyoku pop ballads and enka folk songs. A particularly illustrative scene: The cast of courtesans, in elaborate noh kimono and front-facing obi knots signifying their occupation, assume position in slow noh-step, then break out into disco hit 'She Works Hard for the Money' by Donna Summer. The show was the eighth production of noh and opera by MondoParallelo, the first being 'Otohana no Inori' (Prayer of the Song Flower) in 2020. The next opera-noh play, 'Yumekikyo' (The Bellflower of Dreams), where Seiren plays the historical figure Gracia Hosogawa, daughter of samurai general Mitsuhide Akechi, will premier in October at the Umewaka Noh Theater Hall . Seiren says the production will lean more heavily toward noh and there will be more professional noh actors joining the cast. 'Japan is usually not enthusiastic about art like opera and noh because they're considered boring. I was glad my voice could reach so many people,' says Seiren. Seiren has released four albums, including the diva's long-awaited 10th anniversary collection 'One More Time' on June 18. Though her career has spanned over a decade, the past two years have been the start of an exciting era for the opera diva: Seiren's participation in Japan's first ever 'Japan's Got Talent' in 2023, her victory and, a year later, her preliminary performance on 'America's Got Talent: Fantasy League' brought her fame not only throughout Japan, but worldwide. Moving forward, she hopes to continue to grow with her company. Most of all, however, Seiren intends to keep living and performing true to who she is. 'Especially for transgender kids,' she says. 'I want to encourage them to pursue their own dreams. I want them to see that anything is possible.' For more information, visit
