The popular gadget skin and case manufacturer, DBrand, pulled its long-touted Steam Deck Project Killswitch suite of accessories from sale after reviewers discovered a huge flaw in its design. Project Killswitch is a custom hard case for Valve's portable PC that has a whole lineup of additional attachments that users could choose from, but it seems that the project will need to go back to the drawing board for the time being.
Namely, Dbrand recently made the announcement that its most important Steam Deck accessory, the Killswitch, will no longer be available for sale due to some unforeseen problems. According to the company's official announcement, Verge's editors received a few Killswitch review units, and subsequently warned Dbrand that the case seems to be interfering with the Deck's cooling system.
Specifically, it seems that the Delta variant of the Steam Deck's onboard fan can get substantially slowed down when the device is equipped with Dbrand's Killswitch case and its magnetically attached kick-stand. Dbrand's QA didn't catch the issue because their own Decks use the Huaying fans instead, which are seemingly unaffected by the Killswitch magnets. While Dbrand's announcements are usually highly satirical and jokey, the announcement of Killswitch getting pulled back was extremely straightforward and transparent, reflecting the seriousness of the issue.
Curiously, Dbrand mentioned that it's heard "through the grapevine" that Valve did away with Delta fans at some point after Steam Deck's replacement parts went on sale, likely due to a great number of users reporting them to be excessively loud and high-pitched at high rotation speeds. This means that those who received their Decks more recently aren't likely to be affected by this problem. Still, Dbrand recommended not to use the Killswitch with the magnetic kick-stand attached, promising instead redesigned free replacements for everyone who purchased an early variant of the case.
With Valve speeding through the Steam Deck queue, more and more users are interested in purchasing aftermarket cases, skins, and customization options from third parties such as Dbrand. As popular as the company might be for its products, the circumstances of Project Killswitch's pullback mean that it will need to eat the loss and work to regain the users' trust over a longer period of time. Still, it doesn't seem like there's any permanent damage caused by the design issue, which is a hugely mitigating circumstance.
Though Project Killswitch is off to a rough start, Dbrand is hardly the only skin and case maker for Valve's handheld gaming PC. In fact, this is one of the things that sets Steam Deck apart from competitors such as the potentially more powerful OneXPlayer Mini Pro, which are available in fewer numbers and are often more expensive and hard to get, and therefore remain generally unsupported by third-party suppliers.