Switch "Joy-Con Drift" Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed After Five Years

So no more free repairs then. That’s nice.

They clearly don't have to worry about hardware durability anymore, huh? I miss Yamauchi's durability requirements.

magnets, how do they work?

I only experienced drift in one pair of Joy-Con. I sent it in to get it fixed and never had problems again. Maybe I've just been incredibly lucky. I've actually had a far worse track record with my PS5 DualSense controllers. I got a second one when I first got my PS5 for multiplayer games, and both started drifting within like a year. I just recently purchased a third. To my knowledge, Sony doesn't offer free repairs, do they? If so, does it have to be within a warranty period? I'm pretty sure you could bring in your Joy-Con at any time and get a free repair--of course, that was only after these lawsuits started. Which is actually why I thought Nintendo lost the suit, so I'm surprised it was still going for this long.

I've also been having analog issues with my PowerA and Hori Switch controllers. Ironically, my Joy-Con have been my most reliable controllers this hardware gen, lol.

It feels like Nintendo fixed the issue. Anecdotally speaking of course but I haven’t had drift since the second year of owning my launch switch. I don’t own those original joycon anymore but bought several pairs since (usually limited editions) and all (aside from one early pair that I imported) have worked fine on all 3 of my switch systems. Been using the same procon for 5 years… no issues.

If they fix the problem then no point in the lawsuit.

Getting the drift on one of my pro controllers hurt a little. But as a result I bought a pretty cool Zelda themed pro controller...Never really used joy-cons, so at least I skipped that debacle.

I do play way more on PS5 and I must say this is the first generation where I had to buy 3 more DualSenses because of stick drift. Funny how the price goes up and the quality down. But it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

@QuiB This speaks to a great deal of products that we buy, even outside of video games. Companies cheap out on parts and labor, but then turn around and raise prices on us, the consumer. We the people are paying premium prices for mediocre goods and services. That's why these companies are making so much in profits lately.

I had mine repaired, and they still drift. I need to dose them with contact cleaner every few months. My wife has a later model, and she doesn't use hers nearly as much as I do mine, and they still drift sometimes. If the Switch weren't at the end of its life cycle, and I wasn't mostly using my Deck anyway, I'd have switched to 3rd-party controllers ages ago.

Drift is annoying, but that's crazy that there was a whole lawsuit about it

As it turns out, when a Nintendo offers to repair all Joy-cons free-of-charge, there is no damage that can possibly be argued.

It happened to me with two controllers, and... both of 'em came from the Joy-Cons I got at launch, heh. Annoying, but I got them replaced the same official, mail-in way as expected.

@nukatha Yep!

Rather annoying that nothing seemed to come out of it. Drifting happened with my Joy-Cons a few times. Just because it hasn't happened to some people doesn't mean the problem didn't exist for others.

And then when the company gives out statements saying things like "we aim to improve" in response to the controversy, it makes it more frustrating. Why not actually improve instead of "aiming" to?

I had three pairs with drift. All of them started drifting after 10-11 months. But the two pairs I had since then and my pro controller thankfully didn't have any drift at all. So roughly since late 2020 I didn't have to deal with that issue anymore.

....sighs
Rick Sanchez should've won.

I intend to buy at least one more pair of Joy-Con by the end of the generation; the bulky substitute attachable controllers I've been using for handheld mode ironically makes it less portability friendly.

I hope that this faulty analog stick crap stops with the next Nintendo system going forward...

Sad to see issue has drifted
Sorry, dad joke

@SuperBro64

I love when people claim "what are people complaining about, mine work absolutely fine" then just right off anyone who has legimate issue.
Those are the die hard zealot fans that would defend any trash their beloved company dishes out

I went through three pairs of joycons, had one set fixed while under warranty, and instead of fixing them they just sent back a different pair along with the broken ones. The other two I had to pay out of pocket and they went back to drifting months later. It wasn't until my Zelda set that it finally stopped, which was after the lawsuits happened funny enough. My splatoon 3 set are also fine after more than a year.

That being said, I treat my devices very well. I never had this issue until this console. I still use my original controllers from my NES all the way up to my GameCube.

I wish Nintendo repaired Pro Controllers for free, I’ve had more problems with them over the years (but I also use them much more than I use Joy-Cons).

Had drift on a pair of OG joycons, had it repaired very quickly for free. I know of a few people who have drift issues but never contacted Nintendo for repair but just complain instead and bought new controllers, I mean... If you don't reach out to the free option to fix the issue then they can't really help you.

@Serpenterror Good lord.

One, not being able to use the thumbsticks without correction or compensation on any game that requires the use of thumbsticks is not minor. Two, it affects every game that requires directional input. Three, when you buy a piece of electronic equipment, you shouldn't be expected to correct a manufacturing defect by spending more money on another company's solution. Four, what the H is this? Every person who has joycon drift has careless kids that break them, or are themselves irresponsible? Preposterous, arrogant statement all around.

Geez, it's like reading PureXbox comments during the ABK buyout drama.

Almost all of my Switch controllers, Pro controllers included, have some form of drift, and it's incredibly annoying. I really hope this is no longer the case with the next system.

I no longer have my launch Switch. And have bought multiple JoyCon.

But I never had JoyCon that drifted. And with the Switch 2 coming around the corner.. I don't think they ever will.

Switch 2 will use Hall Effect sticks like Legion Go PC Handheld i think.
Nintendo skipped Hall Effect sticks on Switch because of greed, and it backfired hard for Nintendo.

I bet they regret not doing it right the first time.

Joycon is easily the worst controller they've ever put out and it's all because of its terrible lifespan. The Pro controller also has its fair share of problems. Meanwhile the competition has stopped doing crazy nonsense with their controllers.

No lawsuit is going to change these facts. Nintendo knows it, we know it. Let's see next gen if they care.

“So-called Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift” what a load of corpo friendly BS that is trying to phrase it like this isn’t a proven issue.

I had the drift on the right side of the Joy Con. I sent it in for a repair which I believe was around 2019. Everything thing was fine but now the drift came back on the left Joy Con early this year. Gonna see if I can this fixed, but it’s annoying.

@Yosher I think the drift with pro controllers is software based and can be fixed by going into settings and recalibrating them. Give it a try, I had the same issue.

lucky for me I never had a drift issue in the 8 joycons i bought over the years (yes, my kids like to mistreat them).
dismissing cases doesn't mean that free repairs will stop: recently nintendo spoke about ignoring the expiration of the 24 months seller's guarantee which in the consumer market is somewhat unusual. so big up for stepping up and doing its best in solving a problem.

The thing is, you can't really sue someone for something breaking a couple years after purchase, which is probably the most common Timeline. You should be able to, but planned obsolescence basically rules the marketplace, we are just used to better quality from Nintendo

@Poodlestargenerica Thanks for the tip but I've already tried that, didn't work for me unfortunately.

Joycon drift is obviously either a bug reclassified as a money making feature, or was baked into it from the start. Nintendo IPs, ESPECIALLY BotW, seem to be the worst drifting games; some indie games won't even present the issue on a badly drifting con. In fact 3 out of 4 cons to go drift on me started drifting on BotW. Joycons are a ***** scam.

It's like someone left the zoo gates open whenever this issue comes up.

I fixed my 4 JoyCons, 2 pro controllers and my two PS5 controllers.

Now I don't have to worry about stick drift anymore. This repair "offer" is a scam. They swap broken by design sticks by inserting new broken by design sticks and the pro controller AFAIK is not even included in that so called "repair" program.

Don't want to go back to non hall effect sensors.

@Yosher I'll be honest I haven't tested smash since doing it. And that's where it's really noticeable because you can't run away from the direction it's drifting.

I ended up getting drift myself when I got my hands on BotW complete edition.

Ended up using the 1millimeter business card method to pressure the axis plate back in place and never had an issue ever again. Was really easy too, assuming you got tweezers and the right screwdriver.

Here's the fix for everybody else
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vid8lIXmZwE

Only fanboys will defend this, the dismissal of this lawsuit is a loss for the consumer letting Nintendo know that they don't have to strive for quality hardware and can get away with it.
People seem to forget that we only got free joycon repairs (At least in the US) because of the lawsuit.

I won't be surprised if this issue is also present in the 'Switch 2'.

I read Totilo as Tostitos every time

Predictable, proving that Nintendo intentionally sold defective controllers was always going to be near impossible.

Since I replaced the sticks with GulKit non-drift sticks I never ever had any issues anymore

I sent mine in to Nintendo to get fixed for free…they work fine now….i think they are still doing it..

Interesting that it says both sides filed for it to be dismissed, that usually indicates some sort of out of court agreement has been reached. Maybe Nintendo offered them a crate of joy-cons so that they would just go away?

Good time for a reminder that it's not illegal to sell a low-quality product. There's no law that says how long a controller should last.

@FantasiaWHT In the US at least, there are "lemon laws" for vehicles... not sure about other products. But in general, there is some level of consumer protection for certain things... the tricky part is deciding where the line is drawn.

@Serpenterror
Ridiculous Statement!

Mine drifted on Day 1!
I talked about it here.
But back then, it was unheard of and it didn't have the name "drift"

Whelp, Nintendo money is long money, so there's that. I also wouldn't be surprised if behind the scenes knowledge of the successor Switch not using the same stick tech made it's way to the parties. Who knows? Doesn't change the fact that it was a real issue and Nintendo "could" have owned it at the least, but I'll give them credit for the "effort" to mitigate the issue with free repairs and apologizing, and that too probably helped their case.

More like, Joy-Con GRIFT, right? Ah? Ah?

@HolyGeez03 Lemon laws protect against defects that exist at the time of sale and let you return the car and get your money back. They don't cover parts of the car wearing down over time. That's what warranties are for, but the scope of a warranty is defined by the purchase contract. To go back to the car metaphor, different manufacturers offer you different lengths of miles/years on different parts of the car. After your warranty expires, you don't get to sue when things wear out.

Well, that settles it then. Cancel the hall effect sticks in the Switch successor shipments, the joycons are just fine!

@FantasiaWHT
For the US that might be true. In Australia consumer protection laws exist. If a product breaks down sooner than it would reasonably be expected (regardless of manufacturer warranty) then the company is obligated to either, repair it, replace it or refund it. We recalled 20 year old air bags because there was a manufacturers defect.

Good lesson of why trying to take Nintendo to court is a fruitless endeavor. They'll drag it out and work around until it's either dismissed or so diminished it may as well be dismissed.
Anyway, my first joy cons drifted badly (menus auto scrolling in FFVII), Nintendo repaired them for free. Second pair started drifting but I that's definitely because my kids played too hard on them and they've become the dedicated beater cons. Sucks that this happens but at least one repair was free. The N64 and GameCube sticks I wore through had no such service.

@AstroTheGamosian I’m not really sure about that. Quality has gone down indeed, but prices have held fairly low, and haven’t risen on par with inflation. We should realistically have $100 base price for games and controllers if things stayed even with inflation. But those are $50-$70 base prices now. (I know a set of joycons is $80, but that is a weird situation because you get 2 logic boards, 2 lithium batteries, and two Bluetooth chips. Basically the most expensive components in controllers, so $10 over a pro controller or PS5 controller is actually fair) They cheaped out which sucks, but at least they didn’t cheap out and keep prices in line with inflation. I would prefer to just pay more and get a better product though.

Good. Honestly, this sounds like one of these lawsuits where a lot of people just tried to make money off. I understand if car companies get sued for cheating on emission numbers because that actually threatens your health in a way - a thing that game controllers do not. And whilst it is incredibly annoying to the customer at least Nintendo offered free repairs for the joy cons so it‘s not like they simply said it wasn‘t their problem.

@DestructoDisk What I mean is in general, not just specific to the video game industry or Nintendo. Heck, I used to work for a company that charged premium prices for mediocre goods, and the company underpaid us. Myself, I made no more than $200 a week, putting me in the two-thirds of the company's workforce that made poverty wages while the executives and shareholders raked in the dough.

That's the case with many businesses: premium prices for mediocre goods + underpaying your workers = profit for the executives and shareholders. This can happen in any industry, even the video game industry. Heck, just look at all those EA Sports games.

I'll say this every time this issue come up only because nobody mentions it, but if you want to avoid stick drift then avoid pressing R3/L3. It depends on the games you are playing of course, but if I could do it and not have drift in either my Oled and Lite since 2019 so can many of you.

Drift was never the main issue for me: constant connection issues with the left joy-con not being recognised in handheld mode. Tried 3 different brand new sets of joy cons but it was obviously the rail connection at the side of my OLED. Changed to the Nitro Deck a few months ago, and voila! No further controller issues, no loosey-goosey control for extended handheld sessions and the perfect handheld experience to boot. Will never go back to joy-cons.

It's such a persistent malfunction on such a highly priced and popular piece of consumer electronics.
I'm rather dismayed they keep getting away with it.

@Ryu_Niiyama Depends what the resolution for the plaintiffs are. If they were not reimbursed for the faulty joycon by means of free repairs (article says select locations) via replacements of joycon with improved hardware or straight up cash, then the lawsuit for them specifically should still stand. IMO as someone who isn't a lawyer.

I've noticed a slight drift on my splatoon OLED left they keep walking left. But calibrations shows nothing wrong? This is on My Time at Sandrock only? I also did chime sometime back it would get far and here we find it dismissed. Go figure....

@Kilroy I am not a lawyer but according to this article both parties agreed to the dismissal so my assumption based on that is that both parties felt that the issue that started the lawsuit had been resolved.

Drift has been an expensive annoyance for my family. The free repairs were nice. I wonder if they’re over and done and now Big N can just continue gaslighting everyone that it never happened.

The joy-cons are rubbish. Like some people have said to me in the past, even 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 just suddenly stop functioning properly at any moment. Also, just because some people have not experienced it for themselves does not mean that it is not an issue or that the people who have drifting joy-cons must have been careless or rough with theirs. I do not get or understand this whole “never experienced it so it is clearly not an issue” attitude from people.

At the end of the day, there's no getting away from the facts.

Everything breaks eventually.
Nothing lasts forever.
Joy cons that get used alot, break faster.
You can't compare Joy Cons to older Nintendo controllers. It's like comparing a bicycle to a car. There's far more things that can go wrong with a Joy Con than a SNES controller. It also explains the price hikes. Consumers/Developers want more functionality from their controllers. That comes at a price.

I hate to sound like I'm making excuses and I hope Nintendo go even further to test their hardware durability for Switch 2. But trying to sue Nintendo because "stuff breaks" was never going to work.

@Inc But trying to sue Nintendo because "stuff breaks" was never going to work.

That's what it sounds like. If they don't document it over time then Nintendo can push back.