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Nintendo Switch owners might want to refrain from decorating their new consoles with stickers and skins. Manufacturer dbrand, which makes skins for a variety of consumer electronics like phones, laptops and video game consoles, says applying those skins to the Switch and its Joy-Con controllers can damage the surface of those devices.
On Twitter, dbrand explained the situation in a series of tweets, calling its findings “bad news.”
@dbrand So, we received the Nintendo Switch a few days ago and as always, got straight to prototyping... (2/6) pic.twitter.com/wumjbyFIHS
— dbrand (@dbrand) March 3, 2017
@dbrand Having completed the JoyCon skins, everything looked phenomenal. Then, an issue arose... (3/6) pic.twitter.com/MtHyKBnBEr
— dbrand (@dbrand) March 3, 2017
@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
The company says the same holds true of the Switch itself and posted a picture of the system with a marred Nintendo Switch logo. dbrand says it’s cancelling pre-orders and refunding customers who ordered its stickers. It advised its more than 800,000 Twitter followers against putting stickers on the Switch.
One of dbrand’s competitors, skin manufacturer SlickWraps, says it’s conducting its own tests “with over 80 different materials” on the Switch.
On Reddit, dbrand expanded further on its public service announcement, saying it experimented with a prelaunch unit and 10 retail units. The company stressed that “the JoyCons and the Console are not compatible with vinyl wraps or any adhesive-backed skin of any kind.”
In the meantime, it’s probably wise to heed dbrand’s advice. The company makes skins for dozens of devices, including the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and their respective controllers.
