Update: Nintendo has responded to our appeal for a statement on this matter:

After checking in with the European team we can confirm that we haven’t received a notable number of consumer inquiries on this topic, but as with all our products, we encourage users who experience any issues to visit http://support.nintendo-europe.com for assistance from our Customer Service team.

Original story: The Switch has been with us for over a year now, and during that time it has been lavished with praise for its versatility, portability and superb software - and rightly so.

However, no piece of gaming hardware is totally perfect and Switch has also endured its fair share of less positive press; one early issue was that some Switch units suffered from scratched screens due the console's dock, while other users reported warped consoles due the high levels of heat generated by the system. Fast forward to the present, and we've got another potential hardware headache on our hands.

Upon booting up one of our launch day Switch consoles at Nintendo Life Towers recently, we discovered several cracks along the top edge of the device - mainly located around the vent and the area around the headphone socket.

We take pride in the fact that we look after our consoles here at Nintendo Life and had taken special care with this particular unit from day one, so we decided to ask on Twitter if anyone else had experienced the same problem, just to make sure we weren't at fault ourselves - after all, portable consoles are at risk from bumps and knocks, right? Perhaps we'd just knocked the machine one day and hadn't noticed?

Just noticed my Switch has multiple cracks along the top edge of the console; I don't treat it harshly so I'm not sure where these have come from. Is this a weak point of the design? pic.twitter.com/4E4fdoXwZx July 5, 2018

The reaction was surprising; within minutes we had several replies confirming that other users had cracks on their consoles in roughly the same location. Here are just a few of the replies we received:

I noticed cracks in the same exact spots on mine just a few weeks ago but assumed it was from rough play with my kids. Weird. — Philip Summers (@heyphilsummers) July 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/ChadMiddleton88/status/1014931267769389056

Yep mine cracked in exactly the same place and GAME replaced it under warranty. Heat or expansion issues with battery. — CptNintNdo (@CptNintNdo) July 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/DeanMarrYT/status/1014939601469870080

I have them too. All over. — retroware (@retrowaretv) July 5, 2018

Mine did that a few months back. — Samus2008 (@Samus2008) July 5, 2018

I've had one on the top for a while. I never dropped it or anything. — AnyDay Reviews | Starting YouTube again! (@AnyDayReviews) July 5, 2018

Interestingly, we had a lot of people reporting issues on the left-hand side of the unit, next to the power button and the left-hand Joy-Con rail. Even worse, some had found that entire sections of the casing had actually snapped off:

Does seem to crack consistently in that spot. I pretty much exclusively play it a) handheld and b) in the house. Rarely take it out and when I do it’s in a padded case. — Matt Hill (@gethill) July 5, 2018

The back top right hand corner of my switch took an L for no reason. 😭 pic.twitter.com/tvzXlNEoYJ July 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/0CarlosMeier0/status/1014942525570809857

https://twitter.com/CordeliaFukr69/status/1014936439136641024

Aside from the 1st few days of owning it (launch) mine was exclusively used docked. Went away in April this year, so took it out to pack for travel and was greeted with this. I can only presume it was from heat(?) Obviously the warranty had expired a month prior..... pic.twitter.com/6kzSYPzGpf July 5, 2018

Mine. Noticed it a few months getting it. I have a launch console. pic.twitter.com/JwyfFXkbDn July 5, 2018

So what could be causing this problem? We don't know for sure, but - as several of our Twitter responders have also stated - this could well be a heat-related issue.

When docked the Switch becomes incredibly hot. As we all know, heat causes things to expand, and different materials are impacted by heat in different ways. Could parts of the Switch be expanding quicker than others, and therefore warping the machine and causing small cracks to appear in the outer plastic?

Perhaps, as some have said, the problem could be when the Switch cools down from being really hot and the plastic casing contacts; this rapid expansion and sudden contraction could cause this damage. We're no experts in this field and we're sure there are much smarter people out there who can explain this, but it seems like the most logical theory at this point in time.

The heat stress on the plastic is the cause of it. Constantly expanding & contraction plastic will get you the micro cracks... It's some everyone has noticed hopefully the next revision will be better — Game Continuum (@gamecontinuum) July 5, 2018

Naturally, this is a topic we'll keep our eyes on and we'll try to approach Nintendo for some kind of statement on the matter; we've been told by some Switch owners that they've actually had their machines repaired following these issues, while others have been told that the cracks are due to accidental damage and are not covered under the warranty.

Given the reaction we've had on social media, it would seem that this is quite a widespread problem, even when people have been particularly careful with their systems. Leave us a comment to let us know your thoughts and don't forget to vote in the poll below so we get an even better idea of just how many people this issue has affected.