Nintendo Comments On How It's Handling Joy-Con Drift

You can return them for free for repair - I have just done this today.
UK link for anyone that needs it:

https://nintendoservicecentre.co.uk/repair/11

Sounds like the usual PR speak non awnser.

@MrJed

But is that for all of Europe or just the UK ?

I'm in America, I've sent in both pairs now free of charge and they've come back working perfectly. It takes about a week. It's annoying, but at least they are handling it for free.

Wow, I'm impressed. Doug is actually just as talented as Reggie was when it comes to marketing speak and giving non-answers. XD

@KitsuneNight Are there free repairs in UK?

I heard that you can Alleviate this problem with rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip. All you have to do is place a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol and rub it underneath the roaming controller stick, let it dry, and re-calibrate. This work for me perfectly.I saw it on YouTube somewhere. Rubbing alcohol is back! LOL. Rubbing alcohol is back. If that doesn’t work blow on your controller.

Fix it Nintendo! stop making me repair them I've already lost two pairs of joy cons to this crud.

This is like how Microsoft got away with the red ring of death with the Xbox 360. Commonly known error (even to someone like me who never owned a 360) but the system still flew off the shelves. Well done Nintendo for creating a product that's so popular that it apparently doesn't matter that it's got a major fundamental design flaw. I'm writing as someone who's had to replace two sets of joy cons so far. And no, I'm not rough on my controllers. My ps3 and Wii U controllers still work fine, no issues with those sticks.

Edit: for the avoidance of doubt, the above only relates to the facts that the 360 and Switch have day-1 design flaws that affected a large number of consoles, adversely affected gameplay, were widely known, and yet did nothing to stop the consoles from selling well. I'm aware that Nintendo and Microsoft have had to deal with a significant number of complaints and repairs, but in spite of all this people kept buying the consoles.

It would be SO REFRESHING to actually get answers to one of these questions. Thank you for the absolute vagueness Doug, you clearly read the manual on being a corporate exec.

@BeefsoundMagnus It's very annoying.

The Switch is the most premium (expensive) console at the moment if you look at total cost of ownership, simply because the 1st party titles are freaking expensive and their prices never go down (compared to all other platforms where new titles start to have deep sales within months). The Joy-Con is also an expensive controller.

And I also agree that Nintendo's first party titles have a unique appeal, and I did buy in to this premium platform. BUT then the customer care should also be up to par. This issue should be handled with very efficient free repairs all over the world, not just America.

@KitsuneNight this gives a parcel for UK free post label, so I'm going to say UK only.

I'm sure there are similar pages in other regions... seems like a good future NL article / guide

Only big companies like this can say so much but at the very same time so very little.

I love Nintendo’s products. I’ve owned every piece of hardware since the gameboy. The only product I can’t deal with is the joy cons. After sending them In for repair the drifting issue still persisted. I’m going to buy the gamecube joy cons by SADES and get some micro usb plugs to cover the charging ports on the side. I was either going to go with the Hori daemon joy cons but I’m a gamecube lover forever.

Here is the link. use at your own risk.
https://youtu.be/GURa16H_QvM

@MrJed You mean yours is still in the warranty period? So far, I think that official free repairs have been confirmed for America only.

@MrJed is that even if you're out of warranty?

You have to pay for shipping in America though.

@MrJed I already repaired mine but they drift again 😥

@JohnnyC yeah its unacceptable but fans will keep buying. Its sad

That's not an answer. What are they doing to fix the problem with newer JoyCon?

@River3636 This is incorrect. I sent mine in for repair without being charged for shipping.

Anyways, this is all well and good until the day Nintendo stops offering repair services for the Switch, something that has already happened to many 3DS models...

I sent both my joy-con for repair, they came back separately and on the right-hand one the SL/SR buttons had stopped working.

Well done Nintendo UK. Fixed one problem and created another.

@gergelyv yeah it's super expensive to be a nintendo fan. Its unacceptable. But with the switch I have been buying mostly indies.

@RadiantDuck @gergelyv Mine is well out of warranty and they repaired it for free (and provided a freepost label to send it to them too)

@AlphaElite Really, My brother payed to get his shipped. My joy con does not roam any more because I used the rubbing alcohol method, but I have only been playing ring fit for the past 10 days.
Edit The keyboard on my iPad Pro is bonkers.

I use my ps4 controller via the 8 bitdo for the Switch, which is just a bizarre thing to even say. Big downside is I can’t play it in handheld mode. So now it’s a Ps-witch. Just a bit ago a good friend of mine bought a Switch and I wasn’t even really excited for him. And I wanted to be; there are some really great games. That should tell you a lot Nintendo...

@gaga64 They do. That is news to me. How long did it take? My bro bought new joycons waiting for his repairs. That is $80.

I only have 1 pair of joy con, and I probably need to get them sent in since i'm getting drift it appears. However with Pokemon coming out next week i'd rather wait until I finish it up before I possibly lose use of my joy con for an unforseeable timeframe. I do have pro controllers, but still rather wait.

Too late for this rubbish statement, I sold all mine for a total of just over £60 (After all fees, postage and my own repair bills) on ebay. I only have 1 first party switch pro controller now. When anyone asks of social media, I always suggest they do the same.

My Smash joy-cons just went (as in, like, barely an hour ago) straight under Nintendo's mantenance; the warranty would have expired by the end of this month. Lucky me, right?

@BeefsoundMagnus (comment 33)
Truer words have never been said. It's basically why I own an Xbox One as a companion piece.

just for your information, NO repair/replacement offered in France

The rate of failure for these things is just not acceptable. They need to address whatever flaw in the composition of these controllers is causing the issue in the first place, and the free repairs offered to Americans needs to extend to anywhere Nintendo officially sells their products.

@RadiantDuck The returns process does not really mention the warranty. It does ask you for a purchase date and proof of purchase.

The ones I sent were a year old, and it was easy for me as I have a spare set = nothing to lose!

"Nintendo responds to the Joy Con drift issues!"
Are you sure?

No acknowledgement of the matter directly. No admission that prior actions were in any way insubstantial. No declaration that they are going to do anything differently going forward. If you can plug their answer verbatim into another situation, they didn't actually say anything. Except maybe "please talk about something else."

@Jayofmaya you should have sent them to be fixed for free!

@River3636 it was about 3-4 weeks. I chased them up and they did say they were busier than usual.

That’s the UK team though, dunno how different it is in the US.

@River3636 Yeah, I filled out this particular form and Nintendo responded by email with a repair number and a shipping label: https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/ask/ht/789

@JohnnyC hard to see how microsoft "got away with it" when they had to replace broken models for free, costing them millions in loss

Also microsoft actually fixed the issue, eventually.. its only 1st gen xbox 360s that have that problem

Where as Nintendo arent doing new revision on joycons and just ignoring the problem instead of fixing it

I can repair joy-con drift in about fifteen minutes, maybe twenty if the metal casing on the analogue stick gives me grief. And if I couldn't do it's I'd probably just spend a tenner and get a replacement analogue stick. This is to say, try fixing it yourself folks! If you've got a natural inclination towards tinkering with things, joy-cons are actually pretty easy to take apart and put back together. Just gotta get the magical triwing screwdriver!

Returned my launch pair a few months ago, and they ended up just sending me back brand new joy-cons at no cost. I had swapped out the sticks earlier in the year. Totally happy with the customer support experience.

I asked an online chat rep for a free repair in UK today, outside of warranty. They said no.
So to anyone saying otherwise in the UK, what did you do to get it?

Faster and easier to repair yourself.

They should be offering advance replacement.

I had two that were drifting. The first was really bad. I sent it in and they sent me a brand new, newest model. The second I sent in they just fixed and returned. It was also ghost pressing the home button. But hey it works now. All free. I’m happy.

Considering the scope vs media puffed up vocal minority sized loudness of the 'issue' yes it's more than enough.

Typical non-answer; addressing the problem whilst not admitting to it.

Very, very disappointed by them in Europe. 4 out of 4 joycons had to be repaired (2 pairs), for something that should have lasted a lifetime really, like every other Nintendo gamepad I owned on the past.

@Doktor-Mandrake Got away with it in the sense that it was a commonly reported problem which had no negative impact on the popularity of the console, as is the case with the joy con issue. I'm sure the joy cons will be fixed in some hardware iteration at some point, but my point remains that this known problem which has a direct impact on the ability to play games has had no apparent impact on how popular the console is.

@FengLong Hopefully that policy bites them in the ass next gen.

It‘s a statement and not an answer.

what a lame excuse, I own many different controllers from logitech to xbox, gamecube, wii, wii u, 3ds bla bla and never had any issue except joycon... I already had to change analog joysticks in 3 pairs

Thanks Doug, a whole paragraph of nothingness...

@jwfurness Same here. Great service for free on my day one purchased joy-cons. Got them repaired last week. I think Nintendo will do you right.

Nintendo has got to go back to the drawing board with their Joysticks.

Not only are they unreliable due to cheap, outdated Chinese parts, but they are also a pain to use for any sort of precision gameplay; the tension is too loose, and the depth too shallow.

And no, "just buy the Pro controller" does not fix the Joycons' issues, especially for families with a tight budget: the target demographic.

Just another generic answer without really answering the question, if you ask me.

What I would like to know is what are they doing to prevent it in the first place? Although important, why are they focused on it after the fact, instead of staving it off in the first place?

I see a lot of noise about this on Nintendo boards but Nintendo clearly think it's not a big enough problem to warrant a redesign.
I'd really like to see the real figures. Are Nintendo genuinely producing crap hardware for the first time ever or is switch just so popular even a tiny failure rate creates tons of noise?

I used the isopropyl alcohol and cotton swab scrub trick and all of my Joy-Con are working as good as day one.

I thought this was all a myth until I experienced this with 2 left joy cons (2nd pair only after 2 weeks).

@MrJed
Only if they are within warranty. Nintendo will only repair free of charge outside warranty in North America. Already spoken to them recently about my faulty joy cons and been told it will cost me!

@VmprHntrD this is the burning question: what is the real failure rate? I’m sure it is the sort of thing Nintendo themselves would be keen on knowing for their own sakes. It’s impossible to gauge on sites like this.

@JohnnyC

Got away with it ?
Years of customer complaints and a repair program, that cost them 2 billion, is getting away with it ?

@Jacob1092

But here is the thing : not everybody is capable doing that
Not everybody is handy or comfortable opening a joycon up.

And further more, why should the consumer have to fix Nintendo's short coming ?

I've made both joy cons repair, for free. Not only for the drifting problem but also because ls and rs did not work as the led lights. Now the lights have broken again... I can see that they are small and full of technology, but they really should work on a permanent fix

@KitsuneNight As previously mentioned, I only meant in as much as they had a well-known problem which directly impacted gameplay, it made no difference to the popularity of the Xbox 360. Ditto with Nintendo and the Switch, apparently.

@JohnnyC

Yeah, but MS addressed the problem head on while, Nintendo sweeps it under the carpet and only begrudgingly is doing something about it now.

@KitsuneNight Agreed, and hopefully Nintendo will do something eventually. However, despite lawsuits and major news stories (as with Microsoft) the public are still happy to buy the Switch in large numbers, knowing there's a fair chance they're getting something that may not work properly within a fairly short period of time. People aren't voting with their wallets, which is the only way anything will change.

No respect for Doug. Sounds like a smug criminal.

I sent in a joy-con for repair two or three months ago. They fixed it free of charge. Yesterday, it started drifting again. Pretty f*ing annoying.

I sent mine in about a month ago and they actually replaced both of them free of charge. Until they actually identify and fix the problem at least they are fixing or even replacing the current joy-cons

I'd react to this statement the same way I'd to someone trying to sell me a jar of duck farts.

@WiltonRoots finally someone rational that gets it. We need real information now click bait fuzzy news and loud trolls who gang up with a mix of real and stuffed stories. Is this 1%, 5%, 10% or more? Is some of this in warranty typical lemons mixed in or a real true 1in4 issue or something truly bad. We should demand video game media accountability to research this and not just more shock and fluff pieces.

@Doktor-Mandrake "Also microsoft actually fixed the issue, eventually.. its only 1st gen xbox 360s that have that problem

Where as Nintendo arent doing new revision on joycons and just ignoring the problem instead of fixing it"

And look how long it took Microsoft to permanently fix the issue. You can't just cobble together a permanent fix for a widespread issue like this from absolutely nothing, in a span of a few months. It requires a lot of R&D to come up with a new design, and that can take a good year at least.

And It's not like Nintendo is ignoring the problem either, the free repairs their doing in America are a sign they know this is an issue. But it's about the only thing they can do at the moment until there's a permanent solution.

@MrJed Sadly, one pair was over 6 months out of warranty, the other just out by a month or so. In Europe the repairs without warranty are still expensive. Some say they had it done for £20, but I repaired both left ones for less than £7.50.

@MrJed thats cool, when I enquired ages ago, they said no. Thanks!

@RadiantDuck I sent mine in for free, out of warranty, in America and got it back fixed (for now)

@judaspete So you’ll take 8 of them then?

Unfortunately I'm in the UK, and I thought the free repairs didn't extend to us

I sent my joycons 9 (or more) months ago and used a PS4 controller that a cousin let me have for a few moths even after having repaired my joycons. 3 months ago I started using the repaired joycons because I had to return the PS4 because my cousin wanted to play his games and guess what. In just three months using the joycons they started to drift again, and I have been careful when using then to prevent the drifting.

So this issue can actually happen even if the person is being careful with their joycons. I recalibrate them the first time it drifted and now that they have started once again to drift, but it didn't work either time.

@wildbob I’ve had lots of issues with Dualshock 4s, personally.

I’ve never had issues with Microsoft controllers though.

My blue joy con says they messed up right there.

The fact that this is still an issue 2 and half years after release is quite mind boggling really. It's not an isolated issue to just a few people, so Nintendo are absolutely in denial if they think it's ok to not do proper redesign on the joycon.

Seems clear that people have had problems. But I still haven't.

On another note, if you don't want to send your joycon in, it's actually really easy to replace the joystick, all you need is a tri-wing screwdriver and a pair of tweezers.

That answer could have been written in the NES days because it's non specific and really says nothing.

Until there was a lawsuit, they weren't fixing them for free so contacting customer support meant paying Nintendo to fix their defective product.

Nothing to see here, folks, just trashy PR talk.

@Antraxx777 Oh yeah, at least that many.

@KitsuneNight I politely reject that notion. Joy-cons are extremely easy to open up if you have the right screwdriver. The analogue sticks are easily removed, most components in a joy-con are held in with little clasps and clamps and so they're easy to take off and refit. I sell vapes for a living and they're a nightmare by comparison. I've done a lot of little solder jobs or part replacement with them and they're much much harder to work with. As for comfortable, no one's comfortable the first time they open something up. That's why I suggest diving straight in, it's an excellent skill to have and you quickly realise it's not as intimidating once you can see how everything fits together. Most of my friends have had the drifting issue, and I fix it for them in exchange for lunch or a coffee now 😄

Don't get me wrong, it's not that Nintendo should be selling faulty stuff or that they shouldn't be obligated to fix it. All I'm saying is if you're in the position where you've got drift, it's far more convenient if you can take the matter into your own hands and fix it that day, rather than ship it off and wait for a week. I certainly agree that Nintendo should be offering to do something about it free of charge though 👍

They addressed the hardware hack so fast by releasing an updated model. It’s crazy that it is taking so long to fix Joycon drift which has been happening ever since shortly after launch!

Well that was nothing. If my Joy-cons quit on me again, I'm just going to have to buy these cheaper replacements https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Controller-Nintendo-Switch-OIVO/dp/B07T2XH6YL?ref=silk_rvp

@VmprHntrD polls on here don’t reflect real life. A poll in here could make it look like 10% of people out of 42 million don’t have drift. There’s bound to be a certain percentage threshold where Nintendo would have to do a product recall - probably somewhere between 1-5%. But I can’t picture there being 4-6 million defective joycons out there.

Their customer support in Europe is disgusting. The call centre staff are rude, and they will not repair the drift free of charge. Worst customer support I have ever dealt with.

@gergelyv @RadiantDuck I've seen nothing official, but the word from Nintendo fans that I've read on here and other forums is that they are indeed repairing them for free in the UK.

Do you guys realise that even till now Nintendo has not yet admitted that the Joy-con drift is a real problem.

They kept saying, if you're not satisfied then contact us. Nothing's wrong with the Joy-con, got any problem contact us. It's like they were being instructed not to say that there is a fault with the Joy-con.

So just contact them and they will answer. What a surprising news piece...

What I want to know is what happens if a drifting problem already fixed happens again with an already out of warranty joy-con.

Classy rubbish corporate answer that doesn’t go anywhere.

I've never had a drifting joy con, I bought hundreds of joy cons, none of the joy cons are drifting out of the 42 I didn't throw away due to drifting

@phanboy
You've bought hundreds of JoyCons? If this is true (and I have my doubts) then it means that each set can only have been lightly used, and since this is an issue that tends to only manifest after dozens or hundreds of hours of use, it's unlikely you would ever see a problem.

I guess the upshot here is that the solution to the JoyCon drift issue is to simply buy hundreds of them.

I just bought a 3rd party controller, which is the equivalent of just giving up. I have always bought the original Nintendo controllers, but until they actually fix this issue I’m out.

@Varazadi That's a lot of money

But that was what my point was trying to get at, microsoft didn't really "get away with it" because it cost them silly money from that ring of death ordeal..

That's why they made sure not to repeat that mistake again.

I never checked but I wonder if Switch comes with any warranty, it's always nice when buying expensive gadgets when they come with 5 year warranty as standard.

Personally don't use my joycons alot, aside from the odd handheld gameplay but mostly using other controllers since owning my switch in March, so far so good anyway lol

@Varazadi I am not a handyman, that is the point. I am a total and complete amateur with tech but following the step by step instructions and it is done in 10 minutes. If you can turn a screwdriver you can do it.

Because of joy con drift I bought a wired $30 PowerA controller for playing on the couch. I'm happy with my purchase. And any time I play handheld mode I have a strong preference for games I can play without joysticks.

Someone needs to tell NintendoUK to start replacing faulty units. Disgraceful service

@MrJed That is nice if you live in the UK or US or Japan.

Tough luck for the rest of us, as there is no free repair policy for the rest.
Nintendo of Europe has always been a complete shambles of a division and should in reality just be called Nintendo UK, as that's what it really is.
In other countries we have to deal with terrible 3rd party distributors who don't give a darn other than making money distributing Nintendo hardware and games to the stores.

@WiltonRoots yeah I know this site as good as it generally is is also a lightning rod for trolls and suckers when it comes to blowing up stuff in certain articles and polls to create huge non issues out of very low percentage issues. Nintendo historically when they’ve really flubbed something hasn’t buried it but dealt. The fact they even say a word at this rate is a kind deflection reminding about warranties and the rest.

I’ve had a drift on one pair for over a year now. It was my launch set I believe. It’s crazy because i haven’t used them much. I don’t use handheld ever, and I use the pro controller.

@VmprHntrD This site thrives on sensationalism. The way they word their headlines and subheads are pretty much designed around reactions for clicks. I'm sure if it was a major issue this subject will come up in their annual investors Q&A and I wouldn't be surprised if they have an actual percentage which bears no relation to this microcosm. There's a bit of a tendency on this site for people to think their opinion reflects the entire planet, like there's a population larger than Canada sitting there suffering with drifting joy cons.

@WiltonRoots No doubt dude, and that's what I hate about this place the most, feeding off idiots through sensationalism. They have so much going here that's positive given their Nintendo only focus when it comes to primary news, reviews, and special stories above much else online today. Yet you get these clickbait dumpster fires to pull in the mouthy suckers and bottom feeders and it's just not necessary. Like you said before, if this was a real issue (over 1-2% of the product) Nintendo would issue a true statement and do an actual recall of the product. They've taken extreme measures in the past in a few cases of truly problematic stuff of theirs or licensed third party stuff with games or otherwise so it wouldn't be anything entirely new.

"and we believe that consumers are finding their way back to great gameplay experiences"

Until the sticks start drifting again!