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Report: Adhesive Skins Damage Switch Consoles
Dbrand manufactures cases for phones, computers, headsets, and game consoles. They're one of the most popular in the world, and chances are you've probably bought a case from them. Today, however, Dbrand is advising you not to buy any kind of adhesive skin for your new Nintendo Switch.
Posting on both Reddit and Twitter, the company issued a warning to all prospective Switch skin buyers, urging them to avoid buying adhesive skins for the console. "Simply put, the coating which exists on the JoyCons [sic] . . . is either cured or designed in a way which doesn’t play well with adhesive," a company spokesperson posted on Reddit.
The company received their first consoles short before launch. While experimenting with the ways to skin the console, it found that adhesive marks would etch onto the consoles and the Joy-Cons, leaving them scratched and worn (image below). Told the unit they'd received was not final, Dbrand waited until they got their hands on retail software to make their final decision. After seeing the problem persisted, they decided to discontinue their prototype, will not be making any skins for the console, and will be refunding all skin orders over the next couple of days. "If you pre-ordered a Switch skin alongside other item(s), you’ll receive a refund for only the Switch portion and the remaining pieces will ship normally," said the representative.
@dbrand After removing the skin, it was obvious that the coating on the JoyCons do not play well with any kind of adhesive... (4/6) pic.twitter.com/m8kDluuTOX
— dbrand (@dbrand) March 3, 2017
@dbrand Unfortunately, the same holds true for the Console... (5/6) pic.twitter.com/fAIEDLmqfx
— dbrand (@dbrand) March 3, 2017
[Source: Dbrand on Reddit, Twitter]
Our Take
This is a bit unprecedented. The Switch actually feels really nice without a skin, but you have to wonder how much a company like Nintendo thinks about how its users interact with their consoles (like with skins). It's good to see Dbrand get out there before products were out in the wild instead of sitting on it, but that would have been a PR nightmare for them, so there's a bit of self-interest there, of course. Good looking out either way.
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