‘Nobody holds their Switch 2 like this’: Dbrand responds to claims its Killswitch detaches Joy-Cons

Outspoken peripheral company Dbrand has responded to claims that its Switch 2 case makes the Joy-Cons detach from the console if held a certain way.

For the past week or so, some players who have been receiving the Killswitch case for the Switch 2 have been reporting that if the console is held by the Joy-Con, it can detach a lot easier than on the standard Switch 2 without a case.

Last week Dbrand responded to a user on Reddit, explaining what was causing the issue.

As explained in Nintendo‘s Welcome Tour software, the Switch 2 has a deliberate small gap of around half a millimetre between the Joy-Con and the console, engineered to make it harder for the player to bend the Joy-Con back and detach it from the console without pressing the release button.

According to Dbrand’s comment last week, with the Killswitch “that air gap gets filled, forming a continuous structure between the Joy-Cons and the main center console. This changes the fulcrum point and gives you mechanical leverage when ‘folding’ the Joy-Cons off”.

It further explained that with the Killswitch attached, “you’re not ‘weakening’ the connection – you’re just engaging it sooner, because the lip eliminates the buffer that would normally absorb the first few millimeters of movement.

“This same motion can be performed on a stock NS2, but it typically takes more effort for exactly that reason. The stock NS2 has a small dead zone where the air gap compresses before resistance kicks in. With the Grip installed, the lip fills that space, so the torque transfers immediately.”

Since this explanation, the issue has become a talking point on the Dbrand Reddit page, with numerous users claiming the console detaches too easily now, and posting videos showing examples of how it can happen.

Following these numerous claims, Dbrand has now posted a lengthy announcement on its Reddit page, suggesting that it “just isn’t a situation that someone’s going to put themselves in without actively trying to”.

According to the company, the situation only occurs if players hold the Switch 2 by the Joy-Cons without supporting the main console from behind with their fingers, if they hold it by a single Joy-Con, and if they hold it parallel to the ground (i.e. flat down).

“On these points, we need to be a bit firm: nobody routinely holds their Switch 2 like this,” the company has claimed.

Comparing the backlash to the viral meme of people putting Mentos in Diet Coke to make it explode, Dbrand alleged that some users are deliberately trying to make the issue occur when it wouldn’t happen with normal use.

“If someone is simply seeking to validate the thesis that detachment can occur when a Killswitch is being stressed in an unnatural way, it’s not that hard to do – just hold your Switch 2 with one hand, take care to only hold the Joy-Con (no cheating and using your natural instinct to support the main body – all 87% of the weight must be stressed on the hinge), then hold it parallel to the ground,” it says. “It very well may detach.

“Our point is this – no matter how easy it looks to perform in a video, it just isn’t a situation that someone’s going to put themselves in without actively trying to – in much the same way that nobody was putting Mentos in their Diet Coke until they saw a clip of someone doing exactly that online.”

The company has acknowledged that its tolerance guidelines for the manufacturing of the Killswitch may be resulting in some of the cases coming looser easier then expected, claiming that the users reporting the detachment issues have done so because the lip on their Killswitch is about 0.12mm “thicker than desired”.

It added: “We have adjusted our tolerance guidelines for mass production to filter out any Joy-Cons that cross that ‘lip is 0.12mm too thick’ threshold. The first stock made under these new guidelines will start to come off the lines in mid-July.

“To be clear: this does not mean ‘we are making better stock in July’. We’re making the exact same case, the exact same way – we’ll just be adjusting our tolerance and inspection guidelines to filter out a small fraction of the stock before it makes it to customers.

“We also need to be realistic about how the case is going to function, even after this tolerance adjustment: you very well may be able to still cause detachment by performing unnatural hand movements, while holding only one Joy-Con, while ignoring the natural inclination to support to the body of the console, while it’s more parallel to the ground than not.

“That’s an unavoidable reality of making a Joy-Con Grip with a non-adhesive attachment mechanism, and we cannot state this enough: not, in any way, reflective of how people actually hold their Switch 2.”

The company concluded that it was “fucking sorry, honestly” if anyone is “having issues that they believe fall within ‘regular use’,” and has asked them to get in touch with their support team describing “the regular use scenario that is resulting in detachment”.

“For those that have received their order and aren’t having any issues (or haven’t even noticed this, because they aren’t interested in mixing Diet Coke and Mentos): enjoy and sorry for the shit-show,” it concluded.

Response to Dbrand’s announcement has been mixed. While some users have been satisfied with the explanation, others have argued that the company’s response is reminiscent of the iPhone 4 situation, when users complained that antenna reception dropped drastically when held a certain way, and Steve Jobs’ response to a customer was reportedly “just avoid holding it that way”.

Some have pointed out that users with smaller hands (particularly children) do indeed hold the console by the Joy-Cons because their fingers aren’t long enough to support the back of the console.

“It’s shocking to me the amount of people just eating up this response,” user ovo_zorro wrote. “Like, come on y’all. Sometimes I hold my Switch with one hand because I need to use my other hand to do something. Like maybe checking my phone, or drinking something, or maybe literally to scratch my face. I understand they’re claiming it’s only a small percentage of units with tolerance issues, but to also say it’s part user error is absurd.”

Dbrand has a history of courting controversy by framing itself as a rebellious company standing up against the manufacturers of the hardware it makes products for.

Further reading

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‘Go f*** yourself lawyers’: Dbrand sells ‘plagiarised’ Zelda Switch decals with hidden message

The outspoken firm says they're addressing "one of the world's most litigious companies"

In 2023 it released a set of unofficial Switch decals which bore a strong resemblance to the Switch Joy-Cons included with the limited edition The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED. The decals and dock have a Hylian-like language on them, which is actually a secret code spelling out “go fuck yourself lawyers” and “this funds our legal defense”.

The website for the decals included a section titled “The Power of Plagiarism,” in which it criticised Nintendo’s decision to release a Zelda-themed console and said it had a cheaper alternative.

In February 2021, the company started selling custom PS5 faceplates, which it called ‘Darkplates’. Asked by a Reddit user if it feared legal action, it replied: “We encourage them to try”. A caption on its Reddit post added: “Sue us, Sony.”

Sony did indeed respond, and in a statement in October 2021 Dbrand stated that the Darkplates were “dead”, following a letter it received from Sony Interactive Entertainment‘s lawyers threatening to sue.

“We’ve elected to submit to the terrorists’ demands… for now,” it stated at the time, concluding: “In closing, fuck you and especially fuck Sony.”