Nintendo Switch 2 users have reported having the vibration effect of their controllers turned off, should the console detect you making “prolonged use” of their rumble feature.
Reports of warnings for excessive rumble use have filtered in since the Switch 2’s launch earlier this month, as users see a message from Nintendo pop up on screen — “Rumble has been turned off due to prolonged use” — before the ability to make the Joy-Con vibrate further is temporarily disabled.
“I was getting this message originally after about an hour and a half of handheld playtime,” one user wrote on reddit. “Now it shows within the first 20 min. Anyone else having this issue?”
Switch 2 owners say they’ve experienced issues with Joy-Con rumble while enjoying a number of games, including vibration-heavy moments in Cyberpunk 2077 (firing the minigun is reported to be particularly energetic), and during cutscenes within The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on Nintendo GameCube.
But a reddit thread of users tracking the issue lists other titles, too. “Got it during the final boss of Sonic Generations,” wrote one disappointed fan. “Been getting it a few times playing Fast Fusion,” noted another.
Nintendo is yet to address the warning, though fans believe it is a feature designed primarily to limit the Joy-Con’s battery consumption. After all, vibration requires extra power, and while disabling the feature entirely is somewhat heavy-handed, the move will ensure your Joy-Con don’t too quickly run out of juice.
“This keeps popping up for me, too, even when I’ve only played for a few minutes,” wrote one concerned fan in another reddit thread on the issue. “Worried I have a defective Joy-Con.”
For now, fans impacted by repeated warnings say that fully disabling controller rumble in the Switch’s settings menu is their only option to avoid the pop-up continually recurring. Others say that the warning was, for them, only temporary — with the ability to recover their buzz in a matter of minutes.
IGN has contacted Nintendo for more.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
