Hey all,
I wanted to raise awareness to a major disappointment that Nintendo’s Tear of the Kingdom launch has provided: reports on the web suggest that some new Tears of the Kingdom Switch Pro controllers are suffering from a defect like the joy-con drift problem was.
In June 2020, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa publicly apologized for the mass defect problem that riddled joy-cons on the Nintendo Switch: https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/30/21308085/joy-con-drift-apology-nintendo-president and mentioned that Nintendo is aiming to continuously improve their products.
A later study in December 2022 would state towards the cause of the joy-con drift:
“`
the implemented dust-proofing cowls offered “insufficient” protection against
“dust and other contaminants,” and the “plastic circuit boards exhibited
noticeable wear.”
“`
i.e. that dust would be allowed to enter in as the joy-cons aged. https://gamerant.com/nintendo-switch-joy-con-drift-design-flaw-study/
In November 2021 Nintendo of America’s Doug Bowser promised that Nintendo was making “continuous improvements” to their joy-cons: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/11/doug-bowser-comments-on-the-battle-against-joy-con-drift-says-nintendo-are-making-continuous-improvements
A number of lawsuits were raised over the issue. The most recent class lawsuit Nintendo won earlier in 2023 because their EULA states that as a customer, you are not allowed to sue them if you agreed to use their products. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/02/nintendo-wins-switch-joy-con-drift-class-action-lawsuit
Fortunately US customers had been offered a free repair service for joy-cons already in 2019, and now finally also customers in Europe have been made whole a month ago in 2023 when European Union forced Nintendo to provide a free joy-con repair program: https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-offers-unlimited-free-repairs-for-joy-con-drift-issue-in-europe-062645235.html
This would be the end of the story and all would be good: hardware design defects happen, Nintendo offered to repair all the defective products, and new products would be sold fixed from the defect?
Well, unfortunately not quite. It has now been widely documented that not only joy-cons suffered from drift, but also the newly released Tear of the Kingdom themed Switch Pro controllers can have a defect that causes a similar drift of the thumbsticks. Unlike “wear from aging”, this defect however is present on brand new devices out of the box, so is not attributable to same explanation that was used for joy-cons.
A subreddit thread at https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/comments/13h1kf4/totk_anyone_who_has_the_totk_pro_controller_had/ contains dozens of reports, and several similar notes can be found in many other reddit comments as well.
With joy-cons it is reported that the drift problem will exacerbate itself as time progresses. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/189706-nintendo-switch/answers/584412-does-joy-con-drift-get-worse-over-time
It is unclear at this point if this same kind of worsening behavior affects the Switch Pro controller – after all the claimed root causes seem to be different (wear of age vs brand new controller)
There have been a surge of downplaying articles, like this one https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/05/psa-zelda-totk-pro-controller-drifting-after-a-few-hours-it-might-just-need-recalibrating that suggests that “you just need to calibrate it”. From first hand experience, I can tell that the above article is not correct. Calibration will not help all users, and in fact, the calibration process that Nintendo offers is currently riddled with critical software bugs to even make it possible to try for some users: https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/comments/13h1kf4/comment/jlxk3bw/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
If the issue is similar as with joy-cons that the Switch Pro controllers will get worse over time, then it is not likely that calibration will provide a 100% remedy for any user.
Reading the wording of the EU repair program decision, it is unclear if Nintendo is liable for a free lifetime repair of Switch Pro controllers as well, or if the current repair liability is limited to joy-cons only: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2106
Dear Nintendo’s Shuntaro Furukawa and Doug Bowser: it is hard to place faith in your apology, and your promise to continually improve your products does not seem to hold true. Instead you seem to be well aware that the controllers you are still manufacturing and selling today are defective. Under European and US law, when you sell an item that you know to be defective, leading the buyer to believe that the item is sound, you may be committing fraud.
We get it, your legal team is stronger than Ganondorf, but your sales behavior comes off equally as unethical on this account. This is not ok. Hopefully you will agree, and clarify the free joy-con repair program will also cover Switch Pro controllers.
When will you announce you have made stick drift testing be part of your quality control, and start selling controllers that are free from stick drift in the first place?
by clbrri
27 Comments
But yes, I can confirm that my ToTK pro cobtroller drifts, really quite badly. In fact, I think it’s the worst lf any controller I own for the switch, and I have a launch model.
Just the latest reminder that video game companies are not your friends.
So a multi billion dollar corporation that does not care about its customers and takes shortcuts wherever possible. I’m shocked I tell you, shocked.
Isn’t this problem plagues every joystick ever made that isn’t using hall’s sensors?
I have drift on my animal crossing edition joy cons, but no on the purple and orange ones.
> The most recent class lawsuit Nintendo won earlier in 2023 because their EULA states that as a customer, you are not allowed to sue them if you agreed to use their products
So looking at it the one lawsuit mentioned is due to the fact that it was minors who were suing on some technical level which ruined the case, as well as the fact that the EULA says that you go to arbitration first. ‘not able to sue’ is straight up not enforceable because that opens all kinds of loopholes that would let people get away with basically murder. The case was ruined not because of the arguments made but because of the people specifically and the jumping a few legal rungs.
But yeah, Nintendo is fucking horrible with the joycon, the only saving grace is that the shipping/replacement that they’ll do for free, and iirc for life since they fucked up so badly that it’s a design defect.
[removed]
The Pro controller and joycon issues are likely unrelated. The Joycon is the controller physically wearing down over time, while the Pro Controller issues right now are quality control problems.
This happens with my Xbox Controller as well. Sometimes when I buy a new color or limited edition controllers, I’ll have issues out of the box such as D-Pad getting stuck, missing inputs from face buttons, or drifting. Once exchanged, everything is fine and I’ve had no issues years later.
Quality control issues will always be a thing, and you will hear about the people having problems online while the millions who don’t won’t complain about it. Again, the joycon issue is an actual problem with durability while the pro controller is likely a bad batch.
And this surprises anyone… why? Y’all this is Nintendo they make great games but they’re about as cutthroat a company as it gets. They get a pass cause they’re family friendly but make no mistake they pull no punches
Nintendo engineers also admitted they have been adressing the design with each new iteration, implying the Joycons in the OLED uses a slitgly different design and materials.
[https://www.nintendo.com/en-ca/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-2-nintendo-switch-oled-model-part-4/](https://www.nintendo.com/en-ca/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-2-nintendo-switch-oled-model-part-4/)
>**Yamashita:** Joy-Con controllers have lots of different features, so we’ve been continuing to make improvements that may not always be visible. Among others, the analog-stick parts have continuously been improved since launch, and we are still working on improvements.
>
>The analog stick at first release cleared the Nintendo reliability test using the method of rotating the stick while continually applying a load to it, with the same criteria as the Wii U GamePad’s analog stick.
>
>As we have always been trying to improve it as well, we have investigated the Joy-Con controllers used by the customers and repeatedly improved the wear resistance and durability.
>
>The parts of the Joy-Con analog sticks are not something that can be bought off the shelf but are specially designed, so we have undergone a lot of considerations to improve them. In addition, we improved the reliability test itself, and we have continued to make changes to improve durability and clear this new test.
>
>When the effects of our improvements were confirmed, we promptly incorporated them into the Joy-Con controllers that are included with the console, Nintendo Switch Lite, and the ones sold individually, that were manufactured at that time. This involves the internal components of the Joy-Con, so you can’t tell the improvements from the outside, but we use the new versions of the parts when we repair them. Also, similar continual improvements have been made for the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller as well.
​
You said it yourself, they won he lawsuits… i think it’s means the opposite of what you think it meant.
Capitalist company only cares about money
Consumers: Shocked Pikachu
Switch was the only console in my life that forced me to buy 3rd party controllers. And they weirdly function way better than the 1st party ones.
4 joycons, all 4 are completely useless with drift. No way I was giving Nintendo more money for more useless conteollers.
I’m in my mid-40s.
Allow me offer some advice:
If someone doesn’t explicitly say they will fix a specific problem, they won’t. And if they do happen to explicitly say it, there’s a chance they still won’t.
In the case for joycons, let me be clear:
Nintendo will never fix joycon drift for the Switch joycons and the Switch Lite.
They will swap out sticks and related hardware for the life of the product and then end the repair program someday.
It is probably much cheaper to do the “repair” vs redesigning the joycons, retooling their manufacturing for them, and retailing a new hardware SKU.
They provide “free” joy con repair, but the consumer still has to pay for shipping in my country (EU). Pretty shitty if the consumer still has to pay for the company’s mistakes (and greed)
I know it’s tangential, but this world is a worse place without Satoru Iwata.
I guess I’m lucky. I haven’t had any drift and I’ve had my switch for 3 years. Meanwhile my Xbox controllers drift after about 2 years each.
The pro controller dpad is hot garbage too!
I don’t know if it’s just me but I bought my Pro Controller in 2018 and it still works fine today.
I cannot believe a giant corporation would do something like this
At this point I’ve basically accepted that all companies are going to do whatever they want and any customer complaints go in a complaint box that’s just a fancily-named trash can or paper shredder at this point. I suppose we should just be grateful that part of what Nintendo wants is to make games that are actually good as opposed to live service money vacuums like everyone else.
I don’t like the joycon drift either, but the only real permanent solution I’ve found to it is to buy third party controllers or adaptors to use other controllers on the Switch. For handheld mode, I have a third-party controller that’s essentially a large slab that I slot the Switch into like a dock and I haven’t had any joystick drifting in the 2 years I’ve had it.
Joystick drift just wasn’t a thing growing up, I don’t recall ever experiencing this with ps2 controllers, or GameCube controller or Xbox etc. Seems to be an issue across all platforms this generation, albeit quite a bit worse with the joycons.
I find it quite telling that the dual sense edge controller is built with easily replaceable joysticks for when they inevitably drift. Crappy controllers will be the standard going forward.
It never ceases to amaze me how people claim that the joycon and pro controller are the only controllers in the market that can have drift, I got a switch (and a pro controller) and a Xbox Series X like two years ago, the switch and pro controller are working great with no drift whatsoever…. but I have had to fix my Xbox Series X controller 3 times for drift in these two years.
​
FYI drift is not a Nintendo specific problem, drift is a problem of all current controllers and all without exception have the possibility of drift in the future, this problem is because the tecnology companies are currently using and the problem does not belong to an specific manufacturer, in order for them to make a driftless controller they need to completely change the tecnology used on the sticks, hope all the consoles change that technology in the next generation.
What I really can’t stand is when they have gameplay mechanics that require me to vigorously jiggle the thumbsticks (like dislodging things with Ultrahand). I try to be gentle with my joycons because they clearly aren’t built for that sort of action.
Fuck Nintendo
okay but what about sony and their ps5 controller firmware update drift they still refuse to fix.
I’ve owned a Switch for one week and the analog stick on the joycon is already making a loud clicking noise.
Surprising coming from Nintendo, I own several past consoles and they all still work flawlessly.
> The most recent class lawsuit Nintendo won earlier in 2023 because their EULA states that as a customer, you are not allowed to sue them if you agreed to use their products.
I don’t understand how that’s even an acceptable clause in the eyes of the laws of any country. How tf are you supposed to find something “sue-able” if you don’t use the product?
Doesn’t that just mean you’d basically can’t sue them for anything, ever, if you use their products?
Why doesn’t every company do this and then there’d be no more lawsuits?! /s