Dbrand will send replacement Killswitch Joy-Con Grips for the Switch 2 to buyers after admitting it had a “spectacularly terrible response” to complaints that the controllers could detach from the console if held a certain way while the grips were on. The company is currently working on tweaks to the grips as well.
A few days ago, some owners of the case noticed that the Switch 2 Joy-Con controllers could pop off if you had the case and grips on and held the console primarily by a Joy-Con. This short video helps illustrate the issue.
On Sunday, Dbrand posted a more than 4,000-word response on Reddit titled “Killswitch Joy-Con Detachment Update” where it said that “nobody routinely holds their Switch 2 like this.” Dbrand argued that the detachment only happened when all three of the following conditions were met:
You are specifically holding onto the console from only the Joy-Cons, in such a way that your fingers are making no supportive contact with the main console, and
you are holding the Switch 2 with only one hand, and
your Switch 2 is held more parallel to the ground than not.
Part of the issue is that the Killswitch case’s Joy-Con grips wrap around the inner part of the Joy-Con, creating a small lip. “By adding those lips, particularly the ones on the interior face of the Joy-Cons, we filled the ‘air gap’ between the Joy-Cons and the Main Case,” Dbrand said. This means that it’s easier for the Joy-Con to create leverage against the main tablet part of the console so that detachment can occur “when held under a very specific set of conditions.”
In some “particularly severe instances of detachment” highlighted on Reddit by Dbrand, the company also believed the Joy-Con grips had “an inner attachment lip that’s a hair thicker than desired.” Dbrand said that it had adjusted its tolerance guidelines for mass production to “filter out any Joy-Cons that cross that ‘lip is 0.12mm too thick’ threshold.”
For users who were worried that they were having issues, Dbrand asked them to reach out to support and “describe the regular use scenario that is resulting in detachment” and the company would get them replacement grips in July.
More than one commenter pointed out that Dbrand’s post echoed Steve Jobs and Apple’s famous response to iPhone 4 antenna issues caused by a way people could hold their phones. And yesterday, Dbrand published a new post where it said it would “try out a new communication strategy where we both say fewer words and devote less of them to blaming you” and offered to send everyone, “whether or not you’re experiencing this issue,” a replacement set of Joy-Con Grips.
“As easy as it is to boil our original post down to ‘you’re holding it wrong,’ what we’re sober to now is the point that you should be allowed to hold it however the fuck you want, without detachment occurring,” Dbrand said. “We get it. Please continue dunking on us for the next six to eight months for reincarnating Steve Jobs.”
Dbrand is working on two new versions of the grips: one with “an even thinner retaining lip compared to the ‘good’ stock we’ve already shipped” and one with a new retaining lip design that the company says “fully resolves the detachment issue.” However, that second option won’t be ready for a “mass production trial” until July 10th, and “at that point,” Dbrand will be able to tell if it will be using the first or second options for replacements.
Dbrand says to expect its next update on July 10th.
