Nintendo have released a statement about the Joy-Con drift issues that many Switch users are experiencing.
Joy-Con drift has been a growing issue for some Nintendo Switch users, but until now Nintendo has been pretty silent on the problem. A recent report in Kotaku started an industry-wide conversation about it, but it was The Verge who managed to get a response from Nintendo about the issue.
Joy-Con drift is an issue where a fault with the controller causes random inputs, even when the thumb-stick is not being pressed. This is a major concern when you are trying to play games, and replacement Joy-Cons are not exactly cheap. While Nintendo does offer a warranty period of 90 days for accessories, and 12 months for consoles, some consumers who have experienced the issues outside of the warranty period have reported a $40 charge for repairs. This comes in slightly under the $50 cost to replace a single Joy-Con, and to make matters worse; some people are reporting issues with their repaired Joy-Cons as well.
Nintendo released the below statement to The Verge:
At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we are continuously making improvements to them. We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly. We want our consumers to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we always encourage them to visit http://support.nintendo.com so we can help.
According to Kotaku, Nintendo has also updated its support website with a prominent link to a page that lets you start a ticket to get your Joy-Con repaired. These recent moves may have been spurred on by two things. Last week, the law firm of Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith filed a class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, alleging that Nintendo is selling a defective product.
The other factor might be the looming release of the Switch Lite. While a defective Joy-Con is certainly no fun, having to send your entire Switch Lite off for repair in the event of an issue is a whole other level of annoyance. At this point, it is impossible to know what causes the problem of Joy-Con drift, but it is a growing issue for many people. Hopefully, Nintendo comes up with a more streamlined solution, or an eventual redesign, that solves the problem.
