Doug Bowser Comments On The Battle Against Joy-Con Drift, Says Nintendo Are Making "Continuous Improvements"

Empty PR statement is empty.

You could have fooled me. Several of my Joy-Con have issues whether that entails the infamous drifting issue, unresponsive input when used in tabletop/docked mode, or refusing to turn on entirely. They have been a frequent source of frustration and may very well be Nintendo's worst quality controllers to date.

"What can I say about a problem we know exists without putting legal liability on the company that employs me?"

"Wear is unavoidable" and yet my WaveBird controller from 2004 has zero drift, whereas my launch joycons began drifting after 2 years. 🤷‍♂️

The problem isn't really wear, it's poor design.

How come none of my past Nintendo console's controllers drift?

People say that the newer ones take longer to start to drift?

My v1 still drift, I'm gonna send them to Nintendo for the second time. They're not getting one cent out of me, I'm never paying for Joy-Cons again.

@NoTinderLife

And how come there are 3rd party joy cons that don't drift?

Nintendo don't give a *****.

The joy cons are with certainty, the worst controllers made by any of the big 4 platform holders (counting sega) in the last 20-25 years. The low quality is just ridiculous, how could Nintendo ship that design? This really does hurt my trust in the company.

At least they're still giving free replacements...right?

I keep hearing about how some people either have to pay for shipping (you guys should really get your money back. Nintendo said that they were covering for that too) or their region doesn't offer free replacements.

@NoTinderLife
It's because the internal design of the control sticks are all standardized across the industry, whereas Joy Cons are unique and almost proprietary to an extent, which means improvements come a lot slower because Nintendo's the only one mass-producing them.

They FINALLY admitted to this being an issue!!! Wow!!

Doug Bowser is really good at copy/paste PR statements. What a good company man.

The joy-cons are utterly useless rubbish! So sick and tired of the drift. Like many people are saying, if you ARE able to fix them, it may only be temporary. The joy-cons cost about $120 Australian, which is too much to pay for something that may suddenly just stop functioning properly at any moment.

Some of my games have been almost unplayable because of the drift. For example, Animal Crossing. One of my villagers wanted to move out and I did not want them to. I intended to select "no, don't go" but my joy-con had another idea.. just as I pushed the correct option, it changed (or rather the joy-con drifted) to the "yes, leave town" option..

My little sister (she is in her mid 30s) has even decided not to purchase a Switch. She was intending to but after all of the trouble I have had with mine, decided against it. Which is a shame because if it was not for the drift, this could have possibly been one of Nintendo's greatest consoles yet..

My Joy Cons sometimes making Super Eurobeat song "Deja Vu". 🤭
But don't worry, there are some video games repairman in my hometown can fix the Kansei Dorifuto of Joy Cons. 😁

Yep this is PR statement alright. Joy Cons is one of worst controller from Nintendo imo.

My nes, snes, Gamecube controllers still work the same as i bought it back in the days. My WiiU pro controller still works the same as the day i bought it. My older PC controllers same, my older xbox and PlayStation controller work the same as the day i bought them.
But the joy con!? The first week i had problems, woth the newer (updated) it was after two months lol.

So basically…. Deal with it 😂😂

@Franklin if you don't mind me asking, can you name me some of those joycons? Seems like a good option if my joycons finally drift. Thanks in advance!

I didn't even read the quote but I already know Dougie just let PR nonsense spill out of his mouth again.

The Switch is in it’s 5th year on the market and we’ve yet to see any major revision to the Joy-Cons that addresses the drift issue.

Honestly just sad.

I think my OG joy-cons drifted only once but that's 3 years after launch. Never experienced it again though my Lite drifted I think around 5-6 times already after subsequent cleaning.

Hopefully those "improvements" did make it to the new shipments. Thankfully right now my OLED white joy-cons have no signs whatsoever.

Doug. Fitting name for someone who is good at digging himself in to holes.

At least they seem to have fixed drift in the pro controllers. My newest set has worked perfectly for a year and a half.

I m still waiting for someone to sue them.

@HenHiro I don't agree with that statement. In my experience, the xbox 360 wireless controllers were by far the worst controllers I've ever had the misfortune of buying. Drifting, having to tape the back on them to prevent disconnecting every time it rumbled, and issues with some of the triggers really put me off buying another xbox. I think in the end I went through 6 or 7 controllers before switching to some cheaper wired afterglow ones (which annoyingly worked perfectly).

I’ve still never had an issue with a joycon how rough are people with these little things?

Might as well just have said "drift is unfortunate! Might as well buy some new ones, eh fellas?

@Ocaz Maybe it's not about how rough people are, more so how much they game that causes quicker wear. Which is still unacceptable.

@Ocaz my original ones only just started to drift and I've owned the switch since it came out, I've also thrown it once in my sleep - think it's just luck of the draw really

Here’s an idea! Use the same materials the you’ve used for every other console you’ve made that doesn’t have the drift issues. It’s so disingenuous to pretend this is a standard problem with all hardware.

@V_Va I agree cuz I’ve never heard of the whole joystick wear over time like car tires thing. I have an n64 controller and GameCube controller that still are fine. Maybe they shouldn’t build joysticks where they grind themselves down for analog input. I do believe how rough people are with them accelerates this issue though.

Didn't drift fix with extra padding on the joy-con stick with the Zelda Joy-Cons.

"Continuous improvements."

"Please understand."

:/

When I first got my switch in 2017. I did not cover it up and I set it by the TV , the joy Cons got drift from collecting dust. We replaced them in 2019 we got new ones and I keep them in a case after playing my switch, I have ZERO JOY CON drift. And the number one cause of joy con drift is dust. I keep my switch in a case when not in use, and I have not had one problem with drift. Maybe fans should take better care of their controllers instead of leaving them near the TV in the dock all day. COLLECTING DUST. as far as the ones that wear down, yes all the console makers should do a better job. The ps5 controllers have drift problems and trigger buttons breaking, and they are being sued as well, so it is just not Nintendo.
But when it comes to drifting because of dust. THAT IS THE GAMER'S FAULT NOT NINTENDO. People need to take responsibility and take better care of their stuff, I have never had to replace my new joy Cons, no drifting for me, and now I have had my switch lite for over a year now and still no drifting, are magical fairies protecting me? No, I take care of my systems now.
Oj player essence has never replaced his joy Cons he has had his switch. Since 2017. Why hasn't he experienced joy con drift? It is not all 90 million switch owners. Maybe the ones that are not experiencing it are the ones who take care of their systems and controllers. Please can anyone tell me why my replaced joy Cons have never drifted? For those who do and they are wore down , then yes the whole industry needs to do a better job. But at least Nintendo is repairing them for free, something Sony is not doing. So Sony once again doing one worse than Nintendo.

@mariopartyfan68 cool thing they invented with earth was called "luck" and it affects everyone in different ways, including joy-con lifespan. some believe they are magical fairies protecting them.

@mariopartyfan68 I was just about to write a sarcastic “I’ve had my day one switch and never had joy con drift so therefore those who have experienced drift are neglectful with their toys” comment but then you beat me to it with what appears as a serious comment. Lol. Have a nice day defending Nintendo, while mocking those who have had issues.

@somebread That does not explain why a lot of people's Joy Cons did not break.

@NoTinderLife This. I’ve still got GameCube pads and other Ninty controllers that have 0 drift after all these years. It’s clear there is a defect with the Joy-Con internal design. I’ve bought three of them and they all eventually started drifting.

@mariopartyfan68 These are the comments which downvotes were good for. I guess it would be mean to hurt this persons feelings despite them blaming others for their systems malfunctioning. Sure we could still downvote them and perhaps after a while the comment gets removed. But part of me thinks if you’re going to say something so stupid and antagonistic then the public should be able to at least shame you for your takes.

The drift is so bad that my Switch is now just permanently hooked up to the TV. Handheld mode is impossible, and I refuse to buy new ones that will wear just as easily.

@Octane that’s basically my situation and on the tv k use my pro controller. This is why I think they could be successful just selling a small Apple TV like switch box.

Over 250.000.000 identical thumbsticks ordered from the same factory and running doesn't seems like continuous improvements to me.

Then riddle me this Nintendo: Out of all my consoles that have well worn analog sticks including my PS1, Dreamcast, GameCube, PSP, Wii, 3DS, Xbox 360 and Switch only the latter has ever suffered stick drift?

Nintendo hasn’t been the same since Iwata passed away

I don't know how they've done it but even their Pro Controllers are prone to drifting after time.

Boo. I'll buy something else instead.

My last two sets of the new style joy-con have had ‘sticky buttons’ where pressing the button either results in a delayed press or continued press after releasing. This happened on an old set of the ‘new style’ plus two brand new version I tried recently. Ended up going for the Pro Controller which so much better

@Moon people have reported the pro drifts. But everything drifts. It’s just a matter of when. I have four switch’s with five sets of joy cons. Three sets drift. I have four pro controllers. None drift. Personally I play predominantly with the pro controllers.

@sixrings My Gamecube, Dreamcast and PS2's sticks still work and I got a lot more use out of them than my Pro Controller.

I know everything is prone to breakage eventually, but Nintendo are really taking the cake here.

@Silly_G indeed. I have all my original consoles since NES still intact, i play less than ever and yet the joy cons are the only controllers that have broken in my use

@Moon maybe I don’t game as much a so used to which is why they haven’t drift. But my og switch case shell cracked in the first year without ever being dropped. Quality control ha last definitely gone down hill.

@sixrings "But part of me thinks if you’re going to say something so stupid and antagonistic then the public should be able to at least shame you for your takes"

Indeed, and that's how it usually goes. Of course, when humans do this to fans, the latter call it "blind corporation defense", but fans have a slangism for everything.

So continue to ignore the problem until the switches console cycle ends... Gotcha😒

This guy is PR robot Reggie is dearly missed.

No controller's "joy stick" in the past has "worn out" so quickly in the past as much as the Switch's for me. After extensive use as well. Need a re-design for Switch Adance in 2023

People selectively listen only to what they want to hear. Twice now they've come out and said, "ya, we made changes, and not only that, we improved the reliability test also, and btw, we still cover the expense of repair if needed" and ppl's takeaway is, "that's PR speak, they've done nothing".

I'm not saying the problem has been fully eliminated so much as the Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) extended, but it still strikes me how ppl hear what they want.

I still haven't had a single issue of drift to date. And probably won't ever since I now have the newer joycon with changes and passing a more thorough durability test.

Yet my brother's launch Switch joycon both drifted, and he plays the system less than me. Has to be how rough he is with them. He's one of those intense gamers that jams the sticks hard when playing. I'm more deliberate and delicate.

@Ocaz Must be all Super Smash Bro players that have these issues.

We don't play Super Smash Bros in my house. We have two OG Switch from Launch, with 4 sets of Joy-Con's, three Pro controllers and now one Switch OLED.

Not one of them have ever drifted.

My main gripe is actually the slide lock system into the Switch, where the lock just wears out quickly, so after a while Joy-Con's no longer secure properly.
My son switches Joy-Cons all the time between the Switch and the JoyCon grip and that is why these locks were out real quick. Its actually a design flaw that the JoyCons slide in from the top and not from the bottom, so the console can not suddenly drop out and fall when these lock clips are worn out.

@Jeronan the rail I also have issues but only with some joy on but all of them has a little give. The ones my console came with are still the worst.

I'm in the UK and sent my out of warranty drifty one in via UPS and had it back within a few days. I didn't have to pay a penny even for UPS collection and return to me. I recommend you all do it - it was a very easy process from start to finish.

Since I did the “piece of paper” fix I haven’t had a single issue

@RareGames mine never drifted, the connection was a problem yes, but the 360 controller was a fantastic controller when it comes to you know, the controlling.

Joy-Cons absolutely suck in every aspect. Everything a controller should do, the joy cons do wrong.

Nintendo fanboys also like to defend the Pro controller, it's better than the joy cons yeah, but it's still hugely inferior to Dualshock 3, 4 and all Xbox controllers excluding the first one. I mean, the thing doesn't even have triggers in 2017 that's ridiculous.

Every controller that I have, whether they are Nintendo (GameCube, Wii, Wii U, Switch Pro Controller) , Xbox (360 and One), or DualShock (PS2, PS3, PS4) all have analogue control sticks. None of them have drift.

But the Joy-Cons are the only controller where drift has been a consistent issue for me. Try playing Skyrim as a stealth archer and constantly missing your targets because of drift. It's for that reason why I bought the Pro Controller, and now use that as my primary method of playing, even though I replaced the control sticks in my original Joy-Cons, and bought two new pairs of the Skyward Sword variety.

The only other controller where I had a similar issue was the New 3DS, but that was more of an issue where the joystick took time to go back to it's neutral position, and even then, I only ever noticed it happening in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Recalibrating the control stick seemed to resolve the issue most of the time, however.

What BS. They went cheap and gouge us on planned obsolescence. I'm on my 4th set of joy cons. But then I am the most unlucky of Nintendo fans....I had 2 faulty Wii U's, 2 faulty Wii's 2 Ds's with dead Pixels, and an unbelievable 5 Game cubes that broke down in under a year. I do sometimes wonder why I continue to hand money over to them.

My launch joycons started drifting after 4 years, if I was using them a lot I wouldn't mind too much, but I barely used them since I was playing with the pro controller 99% of the time. I have bought almost every console and never had any problem with controllers (or the consoles), even my heavily abused N64 controllers from Mario Party are still perfectly functional.

Joycons are definitely the flimsiest product Nintendo has ever produced. I understand that it is the cheapest option for them to pick a random off the shelve stick that is already mass produced in China and call it a day, but they should have done some quality checks first. Fact they barely acknowledge it as an issue is not helping either.

@mariopartyfan68 What rubbish.

Sorry Nintendo, until you sort this out properly I will not buy a Switch!

Replacements doesnt cut it out if you have to pay the shipping and you are from a distant country ....

For some reason my comment was removed because I didn't have anything useful to say, Even tho I was speaking the truth.

So let me re-phrase it for the Nintendo fanboys out there.

This is nothing but an empty Statement, There are no actions behind there words, and till I see it, A copy and paste is all i'm ever going to see it as.

Hell my Joy-cons are so messed up, that some times they wont even Register and input made, Like come on.

Drift applies to all controllers over time. Not just Nintendo Joy cons.

@Aneira The issue, is that half the time, the thing doesn't start drifting a month in, a controller can have a least a year life span, before it starts mega drifting, Because controllers always have drift, At least nintendo could do is add a dead zone adjuster for games on the switch, to help combat the drift, But nope, Not even that.

Price them like a consumable item and people wouldn’t care so much.

@Zag_Man joy-cons are easy to fix.
replacement sticks can be obtained for $5-$10.
many replacement sticks come with a tri-wing screwdriver(which while not universally standard, is the standard for nearly all nintendo products and is a cheap one time purchase)
beyond that it's just carefully removing screws, unplugging the joystick module, plugging a new one, and screwing everything back together.

and in many cases actually replacing the stick isn't even necessary, just sticking some tape or a piece of paper under the joystick module is enough to fix the issue.

Oh it's this article again....seriously getting deja vu.

Anyway. 4 years in now, and I still haven't experienced any real drift. Thought I might have had a very slight vertical drift but it went after a tiny sprinkle of contact cleaner. Mind you the way I play games I barely touch the sticks, I've always been very subtle on analogue sticks going back to the Dreamcast days.

@SalvorHardin Reggie was the same robot with no say at Nintendo. He just had a personality which convinced people he had more influence than he actually had. NOA has never had a say.

I just returned my five year old joycons. The left one was drifting, the right one was working fine but I thought I’d sent it anyway. Collected on Monday, received a new pair on Thursday, no charge.

@Ocaz I'm no rougher with my Switch than I am my other pads. And I use my Switch Pro pad much more and with much more intense games, and yet, it's my joycon that has the stick drift.

The things are just poor quality.

Those defective piece of trash controllers have proven to be quite a money maker, I bet. A true master stroke of capitalism, take advantage of your company’s goodwill and rabid fanbase to keep selling the same broken product to people over and over and over again. When I see people being like “I’m on my fourth pair!”, almost with a sense of pride, I can’t help but shake my head.

Honestly the whole thing is a wash of misunderstandings and disinterest by now. Joy Con drift has nothing to do with wear and tear. In fact I don't think it has anything to do with the analog stick at all. I've bought factory new Joy Cons and they have drifted like crazy straight out of the box. It really seems like a problem with the wireless connection.
Playing handheld with the Joy Cons physically connected seems to work fine. My Switch Pro controller, which has seen 10x as much use as the various Joy Cons I've gone through over the years, has never had a single problem.
My suspicion is that the Joy Cons are just too small to fit quality wireless tech inside of them. Something goes wrong with the signal and all of a sudden it thinks you're holding hard right and Link starts throwing himself off a cliff.

Dad; You May not steal.
Son; Dad, I Will try doing better
.
Continue endless

What an idiot, he just admitted the problem is real.

I have a switch lite and drift is a real concern, but I haven’t heard many stories of it on the lite. Hopefully that means it’s less likely?

"The first five and a half years of the Nintendo Switch..."

The console was released 4½ years ago.

@WiltonRoots,

Don't say that on here, you will be labelled a joycon drift skeptic, but same here no issues at all.

@WiltonRoots Contact cleaner has worked great for me. Last time I also followed up the cleaning with a spritz of potentiometer lubricant. Haven't had a drifting issue since (that was over two years ago). About a year ago I bought a second set and preemptively gave them a spray of lube. Never had an issue with that set.

The sentence "in the first 5 and a half years" kind of worries me. If this console does indeed have support for the next 5 years, technology-wise they will be more than a little behind Microsoft and Sony, which isn't a big deal necessarily. I just don't want Nintendo to get too far behind the other companies even though the graphics are far from the most important aspect of a video game. I still appreciate a video game that looks as good as it plays.

As for joy con drift, I don't even use mine anymore. I strictly use Pro controller, and the only time I used them was when I was playing Super Mario Party since they were required. I did enjoy the HD rumble and motion controlled mini games though. That is probably the only thing I miss when I play Mario Party Superstars. I never had any joy con drift while playing those games though. Originally when I first bought them I had all kinds of issues with drift, and then it just suddenly stopped after I sprayed a bunch of electrical contact cleaner on the inside skirt of them multiple times. Since then, I haven't had any problems with them when I use them for the limited amount of games I play that requires their use.

@johnvboy much like you got labelled with mental illness because you didn’t join in on a crying sesh with some neckbeard on here.😂

@Gorfvic20 yep it’s the same fluid I bought for my mixer years back to keep the crossfader nice and slick. Basic housekeeping.

I don't know where all these people are coming from who've never had problems with any controller besides the joycon lmao. I've never had any of my controllers drift be it, DS4, 360 pad or Joy Cons. However I've had plenty of other issues, 360 pad not wanting to turn on/connect and Sticks wearing out and getting sticky, having the entire stick assembly of the DS3 getting stuck, let's not even talk about the DS lite which I'm sure if something equivalent released today would have people outraged and lastly I did have connection issues with my Joy Con when the Switch was behind the TV in the living room and I sat too far away. But never any drift, so I must be lucky I guess

@WiltonRoots,

I remember that very level headed debate.

so just corporate talk

luckyly my Joy-Con and my counsin Joy-Con still have not sufered the dreadful Joy-Con Drift, i have my Switch since dezembre 8th 2019 and my counsin have it Switch since dezembre of 2017, i and my counsin must be lucky, since our Joy-Cons have not sufered the dreadful Joy-Con Drift.

@AlphaElite
""Wear is unavoidable" and yet my WaveBird controller from 2004 has zero drift, whereas my launch joycons began drifting after 2 years. 🤷‍♂️

The problem isn't really wear, it's poor design."

Well, there always is a luck factor as well, so that argument doesn't really work like that.
I bought my Switch on day one and never had any drift issues on any contoller.
If I bought that WaveBird controller and had issues with it, I could bring the same argument as you but in reverse.

Not saying the joy con drift issue is overblown, there are clearly way too many people who have that issue.

@steely_pete
I am wondering about that too. I mean, Joy Con drift is clearly a big issue, judging by how many people have it.
But more surprising is what you said, how many people say they didn't have any controller issues before.

I am generally more on the lucky side when it comes to controllers I think. Never had Joy Con drift.
What did break on me was the 3DS slide pad and 2 (!) Xbox 360 cotrollers. The 360 Controllers were not even used that much until they broke entirely...

Wear is not the issue. I bought new joy-con that drifted from Day 1.

My original Joy Cons got the drift. Even the one I have repaired. Pro Controller all the way.

We have a source history of game controllers dating all the way back to the 70s that they could take ideas from, and Nintendo still can't figure out what materials to use? The fact that Nintendo hasn't even acknowledged the joy-con problem until recently, I wish they would just get off their high horse and admit they don't want to spend more on controller build quality instead of making it sound like we're being unreasonable. No, they can't just blame it on intensive play sessions and push it under the rug, I mean who plays Animal Crossing so aggressively that their joy-cons stop functioning in a week? Makes no sense. I live with two other people. All three of us have joy-con drift, and we also have xbox controllers from mid 2010s that still function. Two of us only play Pokemon and Animal Crossing on the switch. We're all adults and take all care of our consoles because we know how fragile they are. Nintendo is snorting cocaine and smoking meth I swear.

My word, these guys sure do a lot of observing and listening. I wonder what they do with all that information they've gathered through the years.

@Richnj that’s a shame. I remember when Nintendo used to be cool. Now they’re just riding a reputation.

Making Continuous Improvements huh? well.... where are they?

My joycons are so bad now, it rendered Metroid near unplayable as she’d start running in opposite directions for no reason in the middle of battle.

@J-Fox I was searching the comments to see if anyone had caught this. Yikes Doug. This is your flagship product and you don’t know how long it’s been for sale?

All joy-con drift eventually. All of them. While NoA at least repairs or replaces them for no charge, this won’t help collectors trying to play the console in say, 15 years from now.

Hopefully those cheap joystick modules are readily available decades from now.

@mereel I did the same thing before writing my comment. I was very surprised to see no one had mentioned it before.

I have experienced drift, and Nintendo has also fixed several for me at no charge. Over 1000s of hours of gaming on the 3 switches in our house, I have worn it a few pro controllers as well as joy cons. It’s part of gaming. I replaced plenty of ps controllers to.

@Donutman Maybe that's been your experience, but it's certainly not typical. In my case, I have one pro controller I use about 75% of the time, and three sets of JoyCons I use the other 25%. So pretty light use for my JoyCons. The pro controller is fine yet all three sets of JoyCons have drift. The only other system I've ever had this issue was the game pad for my Wii U. But that didn't develop drift until more than four years of heavy use, using the game pad almost exclusively as my controller.

I've being using the Zelda ones for a while now, no drift yet. They seem to have fixed it in later models if you ask me. They should still be repairing or upgrading the old ones for people free of charge though

At least 700 hours on my Lite and havent had problems although I started using my third party controller lately as it's much more comfortable.

He says they are making improvements for... five and a half years but they still deliver the same joy-cons with same problem. Just PR BS

@Jeronan I play Smash. I rarely use the right stick when playing. I’ve been that way since Melee and the GameCube’s C-Stick.
Yet my right Joy-Con stick still drifts.

@johnvboy Honestly, saying you had no issues is fine. Saying you had no issues and then placing blame with assumptions on others usage based on nothing but your own experience is disrespectful and annoying.

My joy-con drifted, fortunately here in NA you can get them swapped for free. Now I use the Pro Controller.

I've had three Switches (original, lite and OLED) and multiple additional joycons. Never had a drift issue or any other kind. What is it? Does the character or cursor move on it's own?

He certainly can't admit it was a design flaw, else it would make them liable in the lawsuits.

I have experienced joy con drift, as have most people who bought a switch in the 1st couple of years after release, and many of us got screwed because we sold the half of the joy cons that still worked, & either smashed or disassembled the other trying to fix it, before Nintendo finally started offering free repairs. However, i was scared to buy 1st party joy cons after that, so I can't say if they're any better recently.

I hear even ps5 controllers have this drift because it's the hardware manufacturer that causes this issue. I don't understand how I've never had this issue on a single other system i have owned, if that's the case, though. I have owned all of the big 3 consoles every generation since they all 3 existed simultaneously except the Wii U. My Dreamcast, N64 & PS1 before the big 3 had analog sticks, & maybe more that I can't remember. I keep my electronics in pristine condition, & none of those ever had drift (except the controllers that were mistreated by friends after i gave them away, maybe). All of my controllers were bought new, so the people who try to justify this drift citing the way people treat their controllers doesn't apply in my case.

I have moved to 3rd party joycons, sadly, the 1st console generation i have ever used 3rd party controllers. I used to dread playing in handheld mode because of this, but i have found the kinoca c25 joycons, blue & red are pretty decent. I also have the hori split pad pro, but like the c25 better, because they are fully featured. I would actually like to get the zelda special edition joycons, but i just don't trust i will spend $80+ & not get screwed. I love my pro controller & thankfully i haven't had that issue there, because i heard many have. Mine was bought on the week breath of the wild released, i think that was launch week, but can't recall exactly without looking it up. I have always only had to use the controllers that came with every console i have owned. When a special edition controller came out many years later, sometimes i would trade the original controller towards that, like the halo reach controller with my 360, but all of those controllers were immaculate & i was pleased. I guess those days are gone permanently. 😥

I was devastated to have Drift in the left joycon after finishing Hollow Knight on handheld mode. My confidence in the switch was shattered and I have bought 3 different Hori D-Pad joycon ever since, with 2 still in their packages unopened, just because I don’t trust the switch left joycon anymore.

People who (HAVE NEVER) experienced it, are definitely not playing handheld enough. It is a clear problem and design flaw from Nintendo.

@Vacant3 exactly, i don't understand why they can't offer Nintendo 1st party aftermarket joycons with actual quality parts & charge extra for them. MANY of us would be all over that. Instead, we only have a single option, that will 100% eventually drift, the only unknown is how long it will take for each individual joycon. I wish we could at least get info on which ones took longest to drift, like with the original Xbox DVD drives (i think i remember a Samsung drive being the ones that u didn't have to worry about, but most other disc drives were faulty on original Xbox), or the Jasper version of xbox 360. That qay, we could at least hedge our bets & find the most reliable (if there is such a thing), since they're not willing to go the premium route, where they could pass the extra cost on to customers (if that's even truly the issue, like some say).

This is such utter BS! All my controllers with analog sticks from the past work fine except for the switch sticks! Heck go back to an older design if necessary Nintendo, but stop selling the garbage analog sticks!

@twztid13 same here! I literally have wobbly in 64 analog sticks, that never drift or malfunctioned they're dead zone is a little bit wobbly, but they function better than a drifting switch stick! And they are 20 years old!

@N64-ROX it's the sticks. I have cleaned dozens with contact cleaner and replaced 4 or five sticks.... It's a bad design...

I have been really disappointed in the general build quality of the Switch and the Joycons. I have had to repair my joycon twice and replace the fan in my Switch.

Honestly the updated joycons work much better, my new pair has never drifted whereas my old pairs did.

I fixed joy con drift ... by trading them in....yep

Another baseless PR statement.
They don't plan the fix the joycons anytime soon if at all
Probably cause of all the money they get from people buying new joycons or repairs.
And you still have people defend this...

@Dnj4

https://www.game.co.uk/en/hori-split-pad-pro-for-nintendo-switch-black-2830079?msclkid=bb5e4111a43c137831d52080f71bda58&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping%7C%7C%20Switch%20Accessories%7C%7C%20Higher%20Margin&utm_term=4580428012556677&utm_content=Switch%20Accessories

https://www.amazon.com/GEEMEE-Controller-Compatible-Replacement-Controller-Red/dp/B0888MG49T

I also just heard on a podcast that BinBok are good.

@J-Fox I literally was scrolling to type this exact thing. Like, we're not even to its 5th year yet, does he have a time travel machine?

Right... good to know.......

@WhiteUmbrella Good way to not disprove what I said.

@sixrings Then why don't all Joy Cons drift? I am all ears.

@sixrings Too bad. It is the truth. Take care of your stuff, and it will be OK.

@mariopartyfan68 Why would I need to "disprove" what you said? It's not possible to prove a negative. Change your account name as much as you want, everyone knows you're the "dust guy". Aside from dust as the cause of Joycon drift being a ludicrous suggestion, if there were any truth to it and you could prove it, Nintendo would lose all the cases against them if you were their defence in court.
Further, as I have already stated to you previously, something not happening to you is not proof that it never happens to anyone. This kind of thinking is clearly fallacious. Following your sense of "logic" (and I use this term very loosely) we can assume that since you typed your reply to me, you haven't ever been murdered, or suffered a fatal accident. In your opinion then, surely these things don't happen, since they haven't happened to you, and if they do happen, it must be a result of the "carelessness" of the victims.
As I stated before, you're spouting rubbish.

@Paddle1,

Jumping the gun there, I never stated people do not have issues, or they are wrong to complain about them, but you have to realize it's not everybody.

And the way people with issues, seem to attack people on here for merely suggesting they personally have no problems, is also not right, and we also have no idea of just how many people this is affecting in the first place, as I am pretty sure I will not be the only one with no issues, yet lots of pairs of the joycon controllers.

And I never responded to any comment that stated they had experienced issues, I replied to a friend who suggested these articles were giving him deja vu.

@johnvboy I wasn't specifically talking about your comment since you didn't actually do what I was describing. It was more just trying to give perspective on why people sometimes get frustrated. Sorry for confusion.

@Paddle1,

Thanks for that and sorry for suggesting you were, hope you get your issues sorted, and honestly surprised I have had no issues, with my two pairs of launch joycon controllers.

@johnvboy it’s one thing for someone to share their experience that they have had no issues. It’s another for that person to conclude that since they have had no issues therefore everyone else who has experienced drift must have been neglectful gamers who treated their stuff wrong.

@mariopartyfan68 I guess Nate the hate, rgt85, arlo, Scott the woz, John aka spawn, miss click, MVG, are all neglectful people who mistreat their stuff while OJ player essence and yourself are the select few that treat their items with respect.

@sixrings,

You are correct those are two totally different things, but I never suggested nobody is having issues, I only stated I personally had not experienced drift and can't be the only one.

I also have not indicated that people with drift issues are wrong, or not looking after their equipment.

@johnvboy and yes you did not. Another poster did. Sorry if you thought I was directly talking about you.

@sixrings,

No problem, and I totally get it, people should not be suggesting the problems are not there, just because they are not experiencing them personally.

@johnvboy I don't get the whole "if you don't have drift then you're part of the problem" argument. It's that whole black or white crap that gamers especially love to spew. Sad. So because we don't have a problem we're not allowed to say anything?

"Have you experienced any Joy-Con 'drift' issues in recent times? Do you think Joy-Con reliability has improved over time? Leave a comment down below."

(remembers never having had such "issues" with any "Joy-Con" of mine after having had used them often since the day* I had received them (with a Nintendo Switch system of mine))

(*the Tuesday of the eleventh day of May of the calendar year 2021))

Content of article does not support the headline. All they're saying is, "Stuff wears out, and we're constantly looking for ways to improve it." Nobody from Nintendo has ever directly addressed joystick drift.

For the record, all four of my Joy Cons have been sent back to Nintendo at least two times each for various repairs, including joystick drift, and one of my left Joy Cons has started acting up again, so I'll probably be sending it out for repairs. Thankfully, Nintendo still has a free Joy Con repair program in the US.

@WiltonRoots,

True, but have you ever noticed how it never works the other way round.

Normally people on these comment sections equate " I have had no issues " to mean there are no issues and everyone is lying, which is simply not the case.

@sixrings "I guess Nate the hate, rgt85, arlo, Scott the woz, John aka spawn, miss click, MVG, are all neglectful people who mistreat their stuff"

Who are these people? What difference does it make to my life?

I simply just bought Hori split pad, it may not have the same functions (it doesn't have any wireless functions) but they have no drift at all, they're much more comfortable to hold in portable mode and a lot cheaper, here in Mexico a pair of joycons is around $75dls, the Hori ones are $35.

I really recommend them to everyone having issues with joycons and don't mind losing the wireless functions (I really don't, I only play on handheld mode or use a SN30+ Pro when docked).

I still have PS2 controllers that work just as well as they always did. I've gone through two pairs of Joy-cons that went full Initial D.

I just got drift again for my third or fourth time on my launch Switch. I rotate the joycons and have replaced a pair but I always get drift. They should just make them to be modular & pack in an extra analogue stic oR Something. I've been charged twice for this shoddy crap joycon. Have sent in joycons over 6 times

@sixrings No, some can be defective. Ivam saying that I've seen people on videos and in person leave their Joy-Cons out and dust can easily get into them. I am not saying that some haven't been naturally defective.

@WhiteUmbrella You made the claim, now disprove what I have said. So, you can't do it huh?