Near-Identical Fake Switch Pro Controllers Are Now On The Market

BE CAREFUL, they can have a good D-Pad.

My Switch is a treasured item. Only officially licensed products may grace it

Lemme guess...
Counterfeit Made in China, again...

@Anti-Matter Well everything is made in China...

@mist Same here. MadCatz, go away! You had your chance.

@meppi64 ....But that’s not how I learned babies are made

sigh I'll just never understand this "switch pro controller has a bad d-pad" mentality. It's one of my favorites and I have never had a problem with it. Ah well, everyone has their own opinion. I guess it'd be nice if they did some program where people could send in their controllers and have the d-pad fixed for free or something.

Also on-topic, I really dislike cheap knock-off products like this that just try to trick people into buying their products by making them look as close to the original as possible 🙄

Make sure to check THX2ALLGAMEFANS see right analog stick. If it's GENUINE. There is SWITCH LOGO ok then.

What if this pad is actually good? Maybe you should try it, Nintendo Life.

Sad, but knowing your products before you buy is every consumer's right and responsibility

but does it have a better d pad?

@SuperKMx The pro controller is only $5 more than a PS4 remote, has better gyro, NFC and HD Rumble support. I own both a PS4 Pro and a Switch and it's right on par if not better than the competitions remote. No other 3rd party wireless remote comes close to the quality of the pro controller and is always missing NFC and most importantly HD Rumble.

So it's like those fake Wii Classic Controllers. I've seen tons of those.

it's the same thing of the official? with motion, hd rumble and nfc?

@Anti-Matter because the real ones are made in Valhalla...

Buy Pokken controller for good d-pad !!!

@mist exactly the same for me.

Surely the lack of official Switch Insignia would alert most people?

Yes, stay well clear.
I recently picked up a wired pad for the switch from a company called Orb. For its pirce the build quality was reasonable. But my Switch just won't detect it at all. So completley useless to me. I do however recommend any of the Hori wired controllers though. Good budget controllers for when your friends pop round

@MeloMan

@Steel76 my nephew got one last month and they actually work well. Considering the price he’s well happy

@premko1 Better to buy the 8BitDo SN30/SF30 Pro controller. Great dpad and feels very similar to a SNES pad, wireless, works on a load of devices and has all features of official pro controller apart from HD rumble (has standard rumble) and the NFC reader.

Honestly it's pretty lazy of you to "warn" everybody about this. Have you actually tried it? What if it's fine?

Yes because my friend requires a $70. controller when he comes over and plays Switch with me once a month! Lol. 3rd party products are a good thing. Stop acting like an iSheep.

I don’t think I’ll ever buy another Pro Controller unless Nintendo makes a really tempting design.

Where's the product review!
Does it have all the features of the pro?

These controllers were used to rig the election.

Sites like Wish and AliExpress are full of these. At least they don't put the Switch logo on them.

I had the control stick on one of my official pro controllers go bad on me. It thinks it’s being tilted slightly downward even in a neutral position and there doesn’t seem to be a way to fix it. I couldn’t return it so I just had to drop another $70. Let’s hope it was a fluke.

@Findonovan95 Switch Pro Controller has an Awesome D-Pad! I love it!

@Anti-Matter I mean the originals are made in China too..

The fake "Xbox 360 for PC" controllers work identical to the official ones.
I wonder if the same is true here.

@Steel76 surely if it sucks you take it back and get your money back? We have customer protection laws for these things, well in the EU we do anyway. I’m gonna miss the EU

But how well do they work? If they work well I may be tempted...

EDIT: even the listing on ebay is quite transparent about the product, never states its official and is marketed as unbranded. Perhaps the message here is for folk to double check exactly what theyre buying (kinda a given on ebay), but in reality this listing isnt quite as insidious as the tone the article imparts.

@Findonovan95 @cfgk24 I think it was fixed in later manufacturing, but the d-pad on my Pro Controller was awful with false positives all the time. I did spend a few hours and modify it, but it took some tweaking to get it just right and it's not quite perfect. For the price, and from the inventor/perfecter of the d-pad it was disappointing to say the least.

It's hard not to be skeptical, too, because I read people saying the improved versions still had problems and if one isn't using the d-pad for something that needs precision, one's opinion isn't very useful — we first noticed it was impossible to use in Puyo Puyo Tetris, though it was driving me a bit crazy in BotW first, but I HAD to modify it for Celeste.

Anyway, it was a real, and awful embarrassing problem that might have been a small number of units, but when you are the one affected and there is no policy in place to fix/replace it, it doesn't matter much to you how many other people find it "just fine".

@thesilverbrick Yeah, my left analog went bad. It wouldn't center and would drift downward even when held upward. I can't fault Nintendo specifically though, all 3 companies are using the same or similar pots in the analog modules, and they're cheaper from the parts supplier than ever. X1 controllers infamously fail (lost an Elite...bye bye $150!), I haven't had the sticks on a PS4 controller fail (PS4 controllers have terrible sticks that hide the problem by setting obscene deadzones from the start), but I've heard of a lot of failures with them this time around too.

@NEStalgia I don’t know whether to be reassured by the fact that I’m not alone or be paranoid now that more of my controllers will go bad, haha.

@meppi64 false! I seen stuffs made in Turkey, USA, Indonesia, Japan, Romania and so on

I got tricked into buying two fake Wii-U Pro Controllers when my funds were limited. They seemed fine at first but then the Analog stick on one started feeling imprecise and both of them started dying extremely quickly. Naturally I paid full price for the Switch Pro Controllers and I love them.

I buy my controllers at local stores. Why pay extra for shipping if you can avoid it, amirite?

@NintyNate I bet those labels that said it was made in those countries were made in China!

@GauBan I agree with that. I have been using the 8bitdo controller over a pro controller for my switch and it works perfectly. The price is also way better considering you can use it on computers, tablets and phones. It's perfect when I want to play some King of Fighters on my phone!

Has anyone tried this controller?
Does it play well?

I knowingly and deliberately bought unofficial look-alike Wii U Pro controllers at one point, and they were of equal quality to the official product with the exception of the battery life, at a fraction of the price. I recommended the seller to others, who were also happy with what they received.

I'd be interested to know if these unofficial Switch ones have all the features, such as gyroscopes. If they do everything they should, perform well, and are the right price, I'd be interested.

@thesilverbrick Haha, I'd go for paranoia. It's a plague in 8th gen (ok, XBox had the plague in 7th gen too....but now they all share it )

Sony cheats though. It's less likely to happen to them because most of the calibration loss in the analog modules is a drift in the offset near the 0 position. Sony sets really wide deadzones so that most people probably have drift, but will never know it because the controller simply doesn't read the responses in that zone at all. The perk is you much less often get drift, the down side is the sticks have huge deadzones and thus horrible sensitivity. Nintendo and Microsoft use normal deadzones allowing near full range detection. Unfortunately the generic potentiometers they use are cheap and now use plastic struts versus metal in the last gen. These things aren't exactly using Bosch and Honeywell.

If it's better than the real one, had a good d-pad and dual sticks, good rumble and motion control, and is cheaper then I'll buy one. I don't care about the NFC stuff. Recently got an 8Bitdo SNES30 Pro and love it so much. I welcome more third party knockoff controllers as long as they are not Tomee quality.

@Findonovan95 The problem people have with the D-pad is that sometimes you can enter a wrong input accidentally. Try moving from left to right when you test the controller in the settings and sometimes an up or down input could appear there, even if you didn't directly pressed that direction. I haven't had much trouble with it, but I would be lying if I say I haven't noticed some of those inputs.

@Anti-Matter 😂😂😂 Dude even the authentic ones are made in China. You are probably too young to know back in the 60's Japan was notorious for being the world factory and making bootlegs, and us Americans (although we do not want to admit) used to copy stuff from Europe a long LONG time ago. My point is, do not let one side of the story/news/media bias you haha. Everything changes, so you gotta be hopeful and optimistic!

I mean that box is so obviously photoshopped... but still, 8 avaliable 92 sold plus 117 buyers are watching this item?!?! HOW?!

@AxeltheBuizel I always have 2 in my bag. SF30 Pro & Sn30 Pro. I'm also awaiting on my delivery of the just released GameBoy version.

@looking on amazon found a maegoo controller for £16, assuming its the same one (reviews well on there). Wondering if you find the analogue sticks offer more precision than regular joycons... i find games like fortnite a bit tough to aim accurately using joycons so keen to find something a bit more precise.

Either Gonna get this or use my dualshock with an 8bit do bluetooth reviever

@Findonovan95 Hi Findonovan, I'm Playing Crash Bandicoot at the moment and I must say, it's giving me a hard time now and then. It's not really annoying but could be better. They should revise it.

Edit: I'm talking about the Pro Controllers D-Pad. Crash is giving me a hard time anyhow 😅

I know it has no official logo, but other than that, I don't know what makes it different.

@Anti-Matter please name one single controller brand that is not made in China...

Well the official pro Controller is itself a fake one, i.e a bad controller.

Why knock on the controller if it'll work almost just as well as the pro controller? Just make sure you buy from a good site and not ebay lol. I bought 3 from here so my friends can use and they can't even tell a difference. Rather buy these than 3 real controllers for friends who come only once a week.
https://www.discount-gaming.com/collections/nintendo-switch-deals/products/nintendo-switch-pro-controller-deal

@CheerfulNinja I usually only buy third party if I already have one. You can look on here, it has good reviews and the customer service is really quick. https://www.discount-gaming.com/collections/nintendo-switch-deals/products/nintendo-switch-pro-controller-deal

While we're on the subject of controllers, has anyone had any issues with the control sticks on the Joy-Con? Mine keep drifting on me, essentially making games like Breath of the Wild and Skyrim impossible to play, especially since I mainly play as an archer in the latter.

I've tried de-syncing them and cleaning them with a toothbrush, but the problem persists. No doubt I am going to have to bite the bullet and send them into Nintendo to get them repaired, or buy new ones altogether, whichever is cheaper.

Wiiu pro controllers have had near identical clones for ages also.
I'll stick to official, the 80 hour battery life is awesome, and they're compatible with 8bitdo retro receivers.

It's dangerous to go alone!

now let it be compitable with windows 10 and it's a sale

@Daftbomb @SuperKMx You can find identical controllers to the Maegoo one on AliExpress for under £15. Granted, they take much longer to arrive (2-4 weeks) but I ordered one anyway for £11.50(!). Here's hoping it works! And if not, it's not a huge sum anyway.

I love Chinese knockoffs so thank you Nintendo Life for sharing the eBay link! People complaining about off brand and knock off controllers are annoying. As a customer it's your job to research what you buy before you buy it. Additionally if someone decided to buy one of these knockoffs whilst fully knowing what they are getting into then what harm is it doing to anyone else?

@GauBan yes, but pokken joypad is way cheaper and imho is better, and feels really good in your hands.

Wonder, how long the analogs will last (my wii claßic pro controller from china is unplayable after 2 months)

@premko1 I find Hori controllers all use a dpad that feels off, not as bad as PowerA ones but still off.

The Pokken pad is cheaper because it has no analogue sticks and is wired. Which is OK for a dedicated "game specific" controller. But I prefer a general use one that os great for every instance

Cheap knockoffs have killed the PS3 controller market. It irks me to no end especially since none of the big companies has called these criminals out. I say criminals because their controllers for other systems carry the console maker's branding. Makes my blood boil.

@GauBan U can use it with every game (that dont need analog)!!!

@KayFiOS expect most people offer free shipping, including me when I sell on eBay, and even Walmart and amazon have free shipping.

My OFFICIAL pro controller has given me so many heartaches.
This looks way better.

I mean, if it's cheaper and has a good dpad, I'm game

Can you guys review this thing? - Would be a great option for some folks if it actually works.

...And if this thing can work, it might be a way to make custom painted controllers and not potentially trash an expensive licensed controller. That’s cool.

@astrofan1993 YES it’s been a problem on Both analog sticks of both my joy con sets. I’ve sent all 4 individual joy cons to be fixed by now and one is already starting to fail again. Sometimes recalibration helps but it’s not fixed it completely; mostly impacts Fortnite, BOTW, Skyrim

@premko1 another reason why I prefer the 8BitDo one a great alrounder meaning I can play any game with it.

But I do have all 3 variants of the Hori Pokken controller.

@Anti-Matter the official one is made in China as well.

Most counterfeits are stolen from the same factory they are made in.

I saw this on Reddit last week. Couldn't believe it. I don't know why this surprised me though. Happens to every other controller.

Before the Switch, all my Nintendo consoles and accessories were made in Japan. When did they switch to China? Wii?

You guys may want to try 1 out, they're not meant to be that bad.

Yes there is a lack on NFC and lack of a Nintendo logo, but the everything else is meant to be nearly the same as the pro controller... even battery life.

Have I ordered 1 out of curiosity? hell yeah, £18 is a bargain even if its as an extra controller for couch multiplayer.

@Eagle1 I've tried recalibrating too, but I see no difference. The problem persists. So it's clearly a hardware issue.

Methinks Nintendo should rethink the design of their control sticks and how they are made so we don't keep getting this problem.

I even have a highly similar problem on my New 3DS, with the circle pad. No drifting, but it takes a while to move back to the neutral position, and sometimes, the input doesn't register or is severely delayed.