- Accessory maker Dbrand has once again responded to the controversy surrounding its Nintendo Switch 2 Killswitch Joy-Con controllers
- The company intially suggested that players were holding the console wrong, making the Joy-Con controllers easily detach
- It has now apologized for its “spectacularly terrible response” and is “100% committed to is getting everyone replacement Joy-Cons ASAP”
Nintendo Switch 2 accessory company Dbrand has issued an apology amid its botched Killswitch Joy-Con 2 grip controversy, promising replacements.
Last week, Dbrand released a lengthy Reddit post, responding to Switch 2 fans who have been experiencing disconnection issues with the company’s Killswitch Joy-Con 2 grips.
Initially, it claimed that users were simply holding the Switch 2 wrong if gripping it by the Joy-Con itself. Dbrand also said that the Killswitch had been tested by its own development team, “hundreds of content creators (both paid and unpaid), and dozens of journalists.
“Not one of them, ourselves included, precariously held the entire console by only one Joy-Con, horizontally, with zero instinctive finger support on the back, loading 87% of the console weight directly onto the Joy-Con hinge,” Dbrand said.
It also listed some reasons why the controllers were detaching so easily for users among a series of demonstration clips:
- You’re holding the NS2 by only one Joy-Con, stressing 87% of the weight on the hinge.
- You’re touching only the Joy-Con itself, without naturally supporting any part of the main console.
- Your console has lowered to an angle that’s more parallel to the ground than it is not.
However, Dbrand did acknowledge the viral videos of the Killswitch disconnecting too, saying that it believes “it’s due to these Joy-Con Grips featuring an inner attachment lip that’s a hair thicker than desired”, and that it had “adjusted our tolerance guidelines for mass production to filter out any Joy-Cons that cross that ‘lip is 0.12mm too thick’ threshold.”
Fans weren’t too happy with Dbrand’s initial response, with one user saying: “As an engineer, what I have to say is this: the design is imperfect and needs improvement.”
“They went radio silence only to come back and exhaustively blame the customer again,” another said.
Now, in a follow-up post, Dbrand has apologized for its original response, saying it’s going to “try out a new communication strategy where we both say fewer words and devote less of them to blaming you.”
“After reading through your feedback, it’s quite clear that our post was a spectacularly terrible response to the issue at hand,” the company said. “Some of you have expressed that opinion in a perfectly reasonable way. Others have expressed it with literal death threats.
“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 f**k you want, without detachment occurring. We get it. Please continue dunking on us for the next six to eight months for reincarnating Steve Jobs.”
Dbrand explained that it is now working on developing a new version of the Killswitch, and that it is “100% committed to is getting everyone replacement Joy-Cons ASAP regardless of whether they’re severely affected, haven’t experienced the issue, have emailed us a dozen times, or have no clue about any of this.”
