A big win for Nintendo! It’s official…the Switch 2 is the fastest selling game console of all time. Theverge.com reports that Nintendo says it sold more than 3.5 million Switch 2’s in just the first 4 days, passing up records it had set previously with systems, but also others. Niko Partners notes that it took Sony 16 days to sell 2.1 million PS4 consoles, and six weeks to reach 4.2 million units. The Switch 2 has also easily passed up the PS5 launch sales. It took 7 weeks…admittedly during the pandemic…to move 4.4 million units. Will Nintendo be able to continue this torrid pace? No one knows, but they are off to a hell of a start!

It is apparently lawsuit day for this report! According to a story picked up by mashable.com, Elon Musk, his stand-in CEO Linda Yaccarino, and X threatened  several major advertisers with inclusion in their suit against the World Federation of Advertisers where X has accused the group of orchestrating an industry-wide boycott of the social media platform. This all dates back to 2022 when Musk took over Twitter and almost half the major advertisers headed for the exits. Some brands returned, but others didn’t. Now, the alleged message from X’s leadership is explicit: advertise with us, or risk becoming a defendant. Having come from the world of radio, I have to shake my head…I can’t remember anyone in the business threatening to sue an advertiser to get their business. Stay tuned, as they say!

Disney and Universal have sued Midjourney, claiming AI-related copyright infringement. Techcrunch.com says the platform has allegedly trained its art-generating and editing models on their content without permission. In the suit, the plaintiffs have included numerous examples of the studios’ copyrighted characters…like Homer Simpson and Darth Vader. Tech companies including OpenAI have pushed for legal cover to train on publicly available works, including copyrighted works, without having to ask creators for authorization or compensate them. In other words, they want to build their businesses on theft of other folks’ intellectual property. I think Midjourney will lose this…and it should be a warning to others like OpenAI. Disney…never mind Universal…has probably the toughest intellectual property legal department on earth!

A suit filed this week claims Costco misleads online shoppers…by implying free shipping, while the big-box retailer quietly inflates product prices to cover delivery costs. Geekwire.com notes that the suit says Costco displays “$0.00” for shipping during online checkout, leading customers to believe delivery is free when the cost is actually embedded in the product price. Costco acknowledges on its support pages that online prices may include shipping and handling, sometimes leading to higher prices online than in the company’s warehouse stores. However, the lawsuit argues those disclosures are buried in FAQ sections, not presented during checkout or on product pages. I would look for a vigorous defense…Costco can argue that customers know this. People know that ‘free shipping’ on Amazon with Prime isn’t free…nor covered by the membership…the shipping is simply built into the price! The same goes for Costco’s website.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.