The Switch 2 has a built-in limiter for its HD Rumble. Players have reported instances where the Joy-Cons will stop vibrating temporarily following extended use, and it’s unclear yet exactly why this happens.

Prolonged phases of vibration-heavy gameplay cause the Joy-Cons to stop rumbling for a period of time. When a threshold of use is hit, the Switch 2 presents a pop-up screen to the player that states, “Rumble has been turned off due to prolonged use.”

We have run into the HD Rumble shutoff ourselves in Cyberpunk 2077 while using the mini-gun. Other players have also noted that the high-frequency and consistent vibrations caused by the mini-gun seem to be a reliable trigger for the shutoff, though in our experience, we were also holding down the trigger for quite a while.

Nintendo has yet to clarify why the Switch 2 shuts off HD Rumble, but some players speculate that it has to do with preserving the batteries in the Joy-Cons. For most players–including us–the shutoff seems to be temporary, and HD Rumble comes back quickly. More concerningly, as reported by IGN, a few players are sharing that the shutoff is becoming more frequent and longer in duration. While there is only anecdotal evidence of this so far, we will continue monitoring this situation in case this is an early sign of a more fundamental problem with Switch 2 Joy-Cons.

Despite this strange occurrence, people seem to be generally quite happy with the Switch 2. It has become Nintendo’s fastest-selling console ever, even while its stock has remained very limited. The hype and supply constraints recently inspired a million-dollar heist of Switch 2 consoles in Colorado.