When Nintendo releases a game lately, it sometimes launches a unique Switch model to accompany it. It makes sense because many people are buying the game and the console at the same time anyway. Everyone raced to the stores to pick up Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its custom Switch model during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example.
However, the Nintendo Switch has been out for six years now. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launched this month, and with it came a unique, branded model of the OLED Switch. Granted, the OLED model has only been around for two years, so it may attract people who want to buy the new game and upgrade at the same time. Still, do you want to replace your perfectly usable Switch, and pay hundreds of dollars to do so, just for a slight aesthetic variation?
That is the question that the Toronto-based company dbrand wants you to consider. It has launched an alternative to buying the Tears of the Kingdom limited edition OLED Switch: buy their (almost) identical skin instead.
“Contrary to popular belief,” dbrand’s website reads, “you need to spend money to save money. Specifically, by giving it to us. You see, when one of the world’s most litigious companies announces a $359.99 price tag to replace your Switch with a limited edition variant, only dbrand is up to the challenge of charging you slightly less for a “creative reinterpretation” of their overpriced novelty console.”
The dbrand skin is an impressive recreation of Nintendo’s official console with a few key differences. The most obvious one is the Eye of Providence (a symbol commonly associated with the Illuminati, among other conspiracy theories) in place of the Triforce.
I can hardly blame them; that was just too easy. Besides, the Sheikah are the people who were chosen to protect the reincarnations of the goddess Hylia. Hylia is the one who was given the Triforce by the other god, and the Sheikah crest is a big eye with three triangles. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, it was right there all along.
You’ll also be pleased to know that the runes along the front have a translation, but we won’t spoil that for you here.
If you’re interested in getting one, skins are available for Nintendo Switch, Switch OLED, and, “for some reason,” the Steam Deck, but not the Switch Lite.
In response to The Verge asking if dbrand has a plan for if Nintendo sues (because it has happened to the skin maker before), the company’s CEO, Adam Ijaz, simply answered: “Nice try, Nintendo.”
Image credit: dbrand
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
