Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

From the small amount of research I’ve done it has become apparent there is an inherent design flaw with the Joy-Con and Pro Controller sticks. The drift is caused by white dust - formed by rubbing on the sticks from general use - falling into the controllers and then interfering with their input detection.

I have 3 sets of Joy-Con and a Pro Controller. They are all affected to one degree or another with this ‘drift’ issue. I have taken great care with all of them as I do all my controllers. Doesn’t matter, the issue is unavoidable and there is no permanent fix.

The only long-term solution I’ve seen work is actually replacing the sticks themselves with sticks made from a different material - even metal. Again, there are YouTube videos and articles online about this.

My experience with Nintendo UK about this was a total non-starter, no willingness to come to a solution with me. Henceforth, i’ll never buy another Nintendo controller for the Switch. It would be futile. Even if I go out and buy a brand new Pro Controller at some stage the same issue will occur.

Compressed air and blowing can temporarily alleviate it but from what I can gather, the ‘drift’ is simply a defect that will happen to most people at some point.

Considering the price of these controllers, I think Nintendo should get a lot more negative criticism about this than they have.

Fixing the fault at a hardware level by actively and methodically changing the materials used for the analogue sticks should have been a high priority for Nintendo. Instead, they continue to sell a product that they know full well will suffer from this annoying flaw, over and over again.

I like the joycons a lot. It's very cool being able to hold half of a controller in each hand. But Nintendo needs to alter whatever aspect of the production or design process is leading to half of their Switch controllers malfunctioning and constantly triggering inputs when the darn stick isn't being touched.

I've long criticized a lot of the fake news that people spread online concerning the Switch, but I do think people need to get angrier and more public about the joycon issue so that Nintendo is forced to address it.

@Ralizah I’ve long been a vocal supporter of Nintendo and spread nothing but positivity about the Switch since launch but the design/manufacturing fault which blights the Joy-Con and Pro Controller and how Nintendo have not publicly addressed this issue and made a ‘fix’ revision to the hardware is shoddy in the extreme. It only fuels the perception of Nintendo as quite a greedy company which was very evident in the pricing of the controllers for the Switch from the outset.

They planned for households to buy many sets of controllers for their system. Least they could do is actively respond and resolve the ‘drift’ issue once it became clear it was due to a flaw in their own design, materials used to manufacture the controllers.

If they fixed the Pro Controller and Joy-Con and publicly advertised that fact, I’d go and buy a new Pro Controller and two sets of new Joy-Con straight away.

I like the joy cons for portable play. My first joy con has problems with the left stick moving on its own. My 2nd pair is a mario red joycon and the left joycon also drifts a lot.
My pro controller is working great for now and that’s why I only play docked

If controllers develop drift faults within warranty, is Nintendo refusing to deal with them?

My Switch has only had around 600 hours put on it since launch day. In the summer of 2017 I bought the yellow joy-cons and have used them almost exclusively ever since - so I'd guess my yellows have had at least 500 hours. No problems with them and no problems with my original neons.

But if they do develop problems now then I'll have to accept that they're outside the warranty period. Of course it would be gutting if my yellows were to deteriorate suddenly, but based on my experience so far I'd begrudgingly buy some more immediately because I'm happy with the use I've had from them?

What figure would people say is a reasonable figure to put on life expectancy? You're lucky if you can get 500 hours out of a car without developing faults, and unless you're a whizz with mechanics you'll do well to fix most car faults for less than the price of a set of joy-cons.

Mechanical things suffer wear and tear. If you have a warranty use it, and shout to high heaven if the warranty provider doesn't fulfil its liability, but otherwise you just got to suck it up. If someone sells you something with a 1 year warranty, is it reasonable to expect it to last 3 years? You hope it will.

@gcunit Literally no other controller I've owned has developed issues like this. I've owned my DS4 for 3 years longer than my joycons and it still works like it's new. Something is VERY wrong in the Joycon production process for issues to be cropping up for such a huge number of people. We shouldn't have to "suck it up" when Nintendo is shipping out defective products, or products that are far more prone to developing defects than the competition.

Issues haven't even been limited to the joycons. Remember the issues people were having with the Pro Controllers early on? I'm genuinely baffled that Nintendo suddenly seems to be struggling to manufacture functional controllers.

Switch is an amazing console. The joycons are neat controllers. But this is simply unacceptable. I'm just lucky that the drift hasn't been a major issue for my launch joycons.

@Ralizah I'm no expert on manufacturing and warranties, but I'd have trouble accepting that a product that successfully lives out its warranty was defective.

It's understandable to be disappointed/upset if you don't get the durability you hoped/expected, but if a product lasts for its warranty period, why should a manufacturer do anything unless it sees a negative impact on its reputation that then negatively impacts sales?

And no, I don't recall the Pro Controller issues (I don't have a Pro) - what were they?

@gcunit Issues with the D-Pad, apparently. There were a lot of complaints about the D-Pad on the launch Pro Controllers.

A controller that isn't actively abused should be able to go for more than a year or two without major issues cropping up. I don't see what "outliving its warranty" has to do with anything when literally every other controller seems to have a vastly longer shelf life before it starts having issues. I could mention my 30 year old NES controllers that still work like a charm, but I gave the DS4 example because I'm willing to concede that less complex controllers are probably less likely to develop major issues over time, and it's hard to get simpler than the NES pad.

I’m actually very careful with my controllers. No Nintendo controller I have ever had in my life has failed me until the Switch. Both 2 sets have drifting issues to the point it’s unplayable. I had to stop playing Darksouls because can you imagine exploring Blighttown with you drifting all over the place? I love these controllers but they are cheaply made and they don’t even come close to the quality of Nintendo I am used to; no seal of quality this time baby.

So here I am with all these great games that are coming out soon but I’m not as excited as I could be all because of some faulty hardware. Oh Wii U... you were so strong lol.

My Wii U gamepad developed drift on the L-thumbstick within 12 months (though thankfully it disappeared after it had been back to Nintendo twice and has never returned)

My Switch pro controllers got slight stick drift last year while playing XC2 but they're both the original model which is worse quality than the pro controllers released from XC2 onwards. Missed out on the XC2 one and I don't like the Smash pro controller's design so hopefully something like Link's Awakening gets one.

IGN seemingly leaked THQ’s last announcement, A Destroy All Humans remake. Doesn’t seem to be heading to Switch.

Darksiders, Destroy All Humans, and Spongebob. Honestly not a bad list of surprises. I truly think this E3 is gonna be an exciting one, for me at least. We have a Darksiders game, confirmed information/playable Luigi's Mansion 3, an inevitable Animal Crossing announcement, and Microsoft looks to be showing off at least some exciting things, if not just alot of them(oh and not that anyone here would care, but the Destiny 2 news was pretty hype for me, too, in particular the cross-save). I'm pretty much already satisfied and E3 hasn't even actually started yet

I have had drifting issues with both pairs of Joy-Con I own. The newer pair's left Joy-Con had its first issues after 3 months. My original right Joy-Con had some serious trouble at one point too. I'd be playing Smash and suddenly my character would do down air and that's really fun when you're above a pit with a character that has a move that goes straight down. And to top it off, the position of the right stick would also affect actions done with the left stick. I use tap jump and I had matches where I could jump maybe 40% of the time.

I've since found a temporary solution with compressed air. Seems to make the drifting mostly nonexistent and sometimes gets rid of it completely. Unfortunately it seems that the problem keeps coming back after a while. I really wish they'd make new Joy-Con that don't have the same problem but since they haven't bothered yet, I don't expect it to happen anytime soon.

@Grumblevolcano Those OG Pro controllers should have been recalled. I haven't heard of one that hasn't failed in some way.

@NEStalgia I have an original pro controller and haven't had an issue with it yet(knock on wood). Granted, I don't use it nearly as much as my joy con that's started to crap out. I didn't even realize there's been an issues with the pro controller, but I've heard countless joy con issues. What's wrong with the pros?

@NintendoByNature
I think the main issue of the Pro is the d-pad, it sometimes registers wrong imputs when pressing down on it. Mine had it, but I used a fix that I found online and it's been working without issues since then.

@NintendoByNature Problems with the D-Pad, generally.

No mass manufactured product has a failure rate of 100%. I bought my Xbox 360 in the midst of the red ring epidemic and never had an issue, for example. Other people I knew went through five to ten 360s before they got one that didn't crap out.

@Luna_110 @Ralizah I'll admit the d pad does blow. Only Because of stiffness. I haven't noticed an input issue though. Now I'm interested to find out. I'll take a closer look this weekend

First footage of the Switch version of CTR:NF (note the lack of fur)