Nintendo Switch Class Action Lawsuit for "Joy-Con Drift" is Dismissed After 5 Years [Correction: 2 lawsuits]

-Peabody- · May 13, 2024

Not to dismiss this because joy-cons are pretty bad, but seems more like an issue with console manufacturers using similar sticks this gen in general. Anecdotal but I've had way worse experience with Xbox controllers and my pro controllers than my joy-cons, and I own basically every set they ever made.

I went through about 11 sets of the gears of war 5 Xbox one controller at launch trying to find one that actually had zero drift out of the box.

I will say I wish more console makers had a system-wide stick calibration, checking for drift on Xbox or PlayStation requires downloading a game that lets use you change the starting sensitivity, only reason I still have Apex downloaded on those consoles.

Kaeden · May 13, 2024

Hexadron said:
I mean I sent mine in to Nintendo for a free replacement and it was super painless. Wasn't't that offered across NA? Not sure about EU. Although it sucked at the time, they seemed to handle it fine from my experience. Why the lawsuit?

What were you using while they were gone? Kinda sucks you basically have to go without playing the Switch while they're being repaired. How long did it take to get them back?

Zero-ELEC · May 14, 2024

terrible

test_account · May 14, 2024

krae_man said:
Haven't they provided free out of warranty repairs?

Yeah, as someone has already mentioned, at least in certain countries. From what i know, the EU Commision (or what it is called) contacted Nintendo about the Joycon drift issues, and after that, Nintendo will offer free repair on Joycons forever, at least in Europe. But i think that Nintendo also offers out of warranty repairs for the Joy Cons in the US and in Latin America as well at least, and also in Canada as you mentioned :)

krae_man said:
Unlike PlayStation who makes you pay for shipping even if the repairs are within the warranty period. Go after them for sure. But what course of action does anyone have if Nintendo is providing free out of warranty repairs? I got my Joycons fixed out of warranty for free.

Just out of curiousity, do you know why people arent taking the warranty case through where they purchased the product instead of taking it directly with Sony (unless that they bought the product directly from Sony of course :))? Couldnt that save any potential shipping costs? Or do people in some countries have to take a warranty case directly up with the manufacturer rather than taking it up at the store where they bought the product? When i had drifting issue with my PS5 controller (which happened after 1-1.5 years or so after i bought it), i went to the retailer where i bought it, and i got a new PS5 controller there and then. I live in Europe.

If the product is bought through a business that only has online stores (as in no physical location that the consumers can return the faulty product to), and that the product is under warranty, i fully agree that the consumer shouldnt have to pay for shipping, indeed, just to have mentioned my opinion on that :)

AgeEighty · May 14, 2024

To this day I've only ever experienced drift on one controller I've owned: a DualShock 4.

Firefly · May 14, 2024

nihilence said:
No motivation to fix the problem

well, law suits won't hurt them. Declining sales would. And we all know that ain't happening.

Renna Hazel · May 14, 2024

I have two brand new pro controllers that drift right out of the box. This is BS and Nintendo should have lost this lawsuit.

krae_man · May 14, 2024

test_account said:
Yeah, as someone has already mentioned, at least in certain countries. From what i know, the EU Commision (or what it is called) contacted Nintendo about the Joycon drift issues, and after that, Nintendo will offer free repair on Joycons forever, at least in Europe. But i think that Nintendo also offers out of warranty repairs for the Joy Cons in the US and in Latin America as well at least, and also in Canada as you mentioned :)

Just out of curiousity, do you know why people arent taking the warranty case through where they purchased the product instead of taking it directly with Sony (unless that they bought the product directly from Sony of course :))? Couldnt that save any potential shipping costs? Or do people in some countries have to take a warranty case directly up with the manufacturer rather than taking it up at the store where they bought the product? When i had drifting issue with my PS5 controller (which happened after 1-1.5 years or so after i bought it), i went to the retailer where i bought it, and i got a new PS5 controller there and then. I live in Europe.

If the product is bought through a business that only has online stores (as in no physical location that the consumers can return the faulty product to), and that the product is under warranty, i fully agree that the consumer shouldnt have to pay for shipping, indeed, just to have mentioned my opinion on that :)

Retailers here wipe their hands of warranty issues if the purchase is outside of their return policy(usually 30 days). I believe Europe has legislation that makes the point of purchase liable to handle that.

Vexii · May 14, 2024

Vylder said:
it's not like it's a major hardware issue

The primary interface by which you control the hardware becomes usable and is notably incredibly likely to fail, but this is not a major hardware issue.

Right.

Vampirolol · May 14, 2024

WD40 is now an obligatory add-on for Nintendo users. Will buy a new can with Switch 2.

Darkreaver · May 14, 2024

I read that those analog sticks are coming from 1 and the same factory for all consoles. Which means that the issue is related for every brand.

Is that true? (Please don't guess, only respond if you actually know the answer)!

Tired Repairman · May 14, 2024

Dunfish said:
Disappointing but unsurprising as Nintendo has always been very anti-consumer and would have fought this tooth and nail rather than actually trying to make good on their errors.

Funnily enough, both the Joycon and the pro controller are incredibly pro-consumer from a reparability standpoint. The joycon are fully modular and you can replace every component with a third party equivalent with ease, and the pro controller is, at the very least, easy to tear down and access the main board - sticks are soldered, though.

Also, Nintendo doesnt use any tricks to try and reduce the warranty, and you have to scrap the bottom of the barrel to find stories of their repair service actually fucking up people.

You all need to understand what "anti-consumer" actually means.

krae_man said:
Retailers here wipe their hands of warranty issues if the purchase is outside of their return policy(usually 30 days). I believe Europe has legislation that makes the point of purchase liable to handle that.

Yeah, but some of them will still try to weasel from that. I remember Game becoming notorious here in the 3DS era for offering an in house repair service and trying to sell it to you instead of honor their part in the warranty chain.

Hell, just a couple of months ago i had to personally send back a client's scanner to Epson because the store refused to take care of it themselves.

Renna Hazel said:
I have two brand new pro controllers that drift right out of the box. This is BS and Nintendo should have lost this lawsuit.

If they were brand new you could have just returned them...

This is a RROD vs YLOD kind of thing. All three companies have been using the same ALPS joystick modules for at least two generations straight, but somehow the Switch pro controller have gotten mixed into the whole joycon debacle, despite not being part of it.

Vampirolol said:
WD40 is now an obligatory add-on for Nintendo users. Will buy a new can with Switch 2.

You're better opening the joycon and fully replacing the joystick modules. Seriously.

On a last note, i don't get what the outrage is about, since Nintendo has actually taken steps to mitigate the issue as much as possible:

From the start, the sticks have been easily replaceable.
Free out of warranty repair, first on the US and then on Europe. No idea about the rest of the world.
New joycon batches are way less prone to drifting, so some improvements have been made, apparently - i've been gotten less joycon repairs for a while already.

Darkreaver said:
I read that those analog sticks are coming from 1 and the same factory for all consoles. Which means that the issue is related for every brand.

Is that true? (Please don't guess, only respond if you actually now the answer)!

It is, but we're talking about the Joycon sticks here. Wich is what the class action lawsuit is about.

This one

This sticks are used not only by Nintendo, but by every emulation handheld in existence as well as smartphone controllers like the Razer Kishi V2. I have a second hand Anbernic R351p and it drifts like crazy.

diablogg · May 14, 2024

Nintendo is shit. Really all the modern day consoles that use the bad sticks that can develop drift. Sony is especially crap since they even stop people from using their PS4 controllers on PS5 games because fuck you.

Unrelated to Joycon drift but I'm miffed that I can't play high level Tetris with the Switch Pro Controller, despite feeling great to hold in my hands the d-pad is such trash it registers phantom down inputs depending on where you pressure the d-pad.

Polk · May 14, 2024

Vylder said:
There are dozen of YouTube tutorials to fix this easily though...it's not like it's a major hardware issue

Darkreaver · May 14, 2024

Tired Repairman said:
Funnily enough, both the Joycon and the pro controller are incredibly pro-consumer from a reparability standpoint. The joycon are fully modular and you can replace every component with a third party equivalent with ease, and the pro controller is, at the very least, easy to tear down and access the main board - sticks are soldered, though.

Also, Nintendo doesnt use any tricks to try and reduce the warranty, and you have to scrap the bottom of the barrel to find stories of their repair service actually fucking up people.

You all need to understand what "anti-consumer" actually means.

Yeah, but some of them will still try to weasel from that. I remember Game becoming notorious here in the 3DS era for offering an in house repair service and trying to sell it to you instead of honor their part in the warranty chain.

Hell, just a couple of months ago i had to personally send back a client's scanner to Epson because the store refused to take care of it themselves.

If they were brand new you could have just returned them...

This is a RROD vs YLOD kind of thing. All three companies have been using the same ALPS joystick modules for at least two generations straight, but somehow the Switch pro controller have gotten mixed into the whole joycon debacle, despite not being part of it.

You're better opening the joycon and fully replacing the joystick modules. Seriously.

On a last note, i don't get what the outrage is about, since Nintendo has actually taken steps to mitigate the issue as much as possible:

From the start, the sticks have been easily replaceable.

Free out of warranty repair, first on the US and then on Europe. No idea about the rest of the world.

New joycon batches are way less prone to drifting, so some improvements have been made, apparently - i've been gotten less joycon repairs for a while already.

It is, but we're talking about the Joycon sticks here. Wich is what the class action lawsuit is about.

This one

This sticks are used not only by Nintendo, but by every emulation handheld in existence as well as smartphone controllers like the Razer Kishi V2. I have a second hand Anbernic R351p and it drifts like crazy.

Thanks, Yep as i own multiple ones (emulation handhelds), i notice that it's exactly the same. Could it be that nintendo has a contract with them that they don't may choose another supplier? Or maybe there is no other to choose from? Just wondering...

404LinkNotFound · May 14, 2024

Has Nintendo ever lost a lawsuit? I feel i awlays hear them winning or dismissing one

Tea-Stance · May 14, 2024

Tired Repairman said:
Funnily enough, both the Joycon and the pro controller are incredibly pro-consumer from a reparability standpoint. The joycon are fully modular and you can replace every component with a third party equivalent with ease, and the pro controller is, at the very least, easy to tear down and access the main board - sticks are soldered, though.

Also, Nintendo doesnt use any tricks to try and reduce the warranty, and you have to scrap the bottom of the barrel to find stories of their repair service actually fucking up people.

You all need to understand what "anti-consumer" actually means.

Don't bother with that user. They have such a hatred for Nintendo that everything they do is wrong and their success is a fluke.

bes.gen · May 14, 2024

-Peabody- said:
Not to dismiss this because joy-cons are pretty bad, but seems more like an issue with console manufacturers using similar sticks this gen in general. Anecdotal but I've had way worse experience with Xbox controllers and my pro controllers than my joy-cons, and I own basically every set they ever made.

I went through about 11 sets of the gears of war 5 Xbox one controller at launch trying to find one that actually had zero drift out of the box.

not exactly sure, but i think something about the size of the joycon sticks make them much more fragile to stuff getting in and resulting in drift.

the ratio i saw the issue on switch was unbelievably lopsided. also anecdotal

Koukalaka · May 14, 2024

Dolce said:
afaik only in the US, but I'm not positive.

I got mine fixed a while back (UK) though they started drifting again after a few years.

Fixing the issue on Switch 2 along with full BC would make it a near day 1 (or more realistically 2 years down the line when you can after get one) purchase.

Solobbos · May 14, 2024

Dolce said:
afaik only in the US, but I'm not positive.

Nope, I got my launch day JoyCon fixed last year free of charge in the EU.

cowbanana · May 14, 2024

Terrible. Nintendo should bleed millions for this travesty. The joy-cons were such a disaster.

Dunfish · May 14, 2024

Tired Repairman said:
Funnily enough, both the Joycon and the pro controller are incredibly pro-consumer from a reparability standpoint. The joycon are fully modular and you can replace every component with a third party equivalent with ease, and the pro controller is, at the very least, easy to tear down and access the main board - sticks are soldered, though.

Also, Nintendo doesnt use any tricks to try and reduce the warranty, and you have to scrap the bottom of the barrel to find stories of their repair service actually fucking up people.

You all need to understand what "anti-consumer" actually means.

To understand, your point is that a company is not anti-consumer if they released a flawed product, charge a massive premium for it, charge repair fees for a fault that is from their own making provided it is easy to repair. Incredible stuff.

I think you need to brush up on the definition.

Dyle · May 14, 2024

Of course, they repair it for free. How could you have a case there?

The Adder · May 14, 2024

404LinkNotFound said:
Has Nintendo ever lost a lawsuit? I feel i awlays hear them winning or dismissing one

Yes on the offensive. But I can only think of on the defensive and that's half remembered

Tired Repairman · May 14, 2024

bes.gen said:
not exactly sure, but i think something about the size of the joycon sticks make them much more fragile to stuff getting in and resulting in drift.

the ratio i saw the issue on switch was unbelievably lopsided. also anecdotal

It's the inner mechanism. It's the same as a normal sized ALP stick, but a lot flatter and more prone to wear and tear under normal use. The joystick is actually well protected from outside grime, but its internal design is flawed.

Dunfish said:
To understand, your point is that a company is not anti-consumer if they released a flawed product, charge a massive premium for it, charge repair fees for a fault that is from their own making provided it is easy to repair. Incredible stuff.

I think you need to brush up on the definition.

Ok look, i've literally paid full bills opening those little fuckers, i have no horse in this race, but i'll humor you just for the sake of it.

Is it anti-consumer to release a flawed product and charge a massive premium for it?
- I thought we were talking about Nintendo, not Asus
  - But okay, that looked like i was avoiding your question. No, in short, it isn't, you'll rarely find any electronics without fundamental flaws, moreso in gaming stuff, what actually IS anti-consumer is the handling of said flaws
Charge repair fees for a fault that it's their own making
- Before the class action lawsuit, Nintendo honored the warranty and only charged repairs if it had expired. I can count with one single hand the number of stories i've read of people being screwed by Nintendo on warranty, and even when it happened, it was fixed with further escalation.
- After the lawsuit, Nintendo implemented the oow free repair first on the US and then in other territories. I don't know where you live, but in my country, Nintendo honors this flawlessly.
They charge for it, provided it is easy to repair
- Ever opened a Joycon? Ever owned one, even? For their size, they're incredibly easy to open and repair. Everything's modular, nothing is soldered, no trap ribbon cables... They're a dream to deal with.
Incredible stuff
- I know, right?
The definition of anti-consumer
- Merely from the repairability standpoint, i'll tell you what's anti-consumer: Tabs. Those fickle little shits that will break if not opened correctly and will void your warranty if they break.
- It's also anti-consumer to use a loophole in the warranty laws (or whatever they are) to reduce effective warranty up to one year by offering your product as a different thing that it actually is
- Another anti-consumer practice is being well aware of your product's weak point and, instead of directly fixing, releasing a 230 € variant of said product with exclusive SOFTWARE features and the ability to replace said weak point (wich, by the way, ISN'T FIXED) by making it modular and charging 30 € a quid for new modules... Wich by the way, are STILL using the same tech
- Another one is not not allowing alternatives to your flawed product, AT ALL, at the same price than it or less. The joycon ARE shitty, but i can get on Aliexpress or Amazon and buy perfectly functional alternatives wich wont drift in a year or less, i can't do that with the company i'm trying to not name
  - I'm too lazy to continue, but i think you get my point, don't you.

You're arguing with someone who deals with this shit for a living, you should stop now, i know more about this than you'll ever will.

Darkreaver said:
Thanks, Yep as i own multiple ones (emulation handhelds), i notice that it's exactly the same. Could it be that nintendo has a contract with them that they don't may choose another supplier? Or maybe there is no other to choose from? Just wondering...

That's my theory. I think they made a contract either for X years or for X millions or units, maybe they thought the joycons would make more of an impact, of maybe they were the only ones available that made sticks of that size for that price.

diablogg said:
Nintendo is shit. Really all the modern day consoles that use the bad sticks that can develop drift. Sony is especially crap since they even stop people from using their PS4 controllers on PS5 games because fuck you.

Unrelated to Joycon drift but I'm miffed that I can't play high level Tetris with the Switch Pro Controller, despite feeling great to hold in my hands the d-pad is such trash it registers phantom down inputs depending on where you pressure the d-pad.

You see? now the procon D-Pad is something i actually don't understand. They had it mastered! How could they fuck it up so badly?

Also, i already wrote about this, but i'll join you on your criticisms to Sony. For Nintendo and, on a lower scale, Xbox, you can get a good third party controller and it's whatever, but there are no PS5 alternatives at a competitive price. I'm royally pissed at them for that one.

The Adder · May 14, 2024

Dunfish said:
they released a flawed product

Dunfish said:
for a fault that is from their own making

Industry standard product. AFAIK the sticks are generic handheld/phone sticks. Not a custom job. Likewise, the drift issue is across the board for those sticks, but Nintendo's the only one using them on a scale to get a significant number of folks riled up.

Dunfish said:
charge a massive premium for it

The price for a pair of Joycons are about $10 more than the industry standard and that's due to various extra bits of tech in them.

And while I would love for them to go back to using custom optical disk stick for their controllers, you think those things run you a pretty penny now?

Oliver James · May 14, 2024

Worst controllers I've ever owned. Didn't even bother buying new ones.

Horp · May 14, 2024

Every day we drift further from the light

Zaro · May 14, 2024

Those stick quality suck but at least i've got them repair for free and since we have no drift.
I hope next time the controller will be better.

JuicyPlayer · May 14, 2024

Most of my drift problems come from Dual Sense controllers. I have a launch Switch Pro Controller and it still works great. My joycons seem fine but I never use them because I hate holding it on handheld mode.

Reflecting Sky · May 14, 2024

Had a drifting stick on a Switch Pro Controller, thinking it would be a less prevalent issue on such. Was the first time I experienced the issue in decades of gaming.

This is very bad news for the consumer. We can't assume the build quality has improved next time, as Nintendo always cuts corners to keep prices low.

delete12345 · May 14, 2024

Zaro said:
I hope next time the controller will be better.

No guarantees on this one, because I'm sure it will be the same manufacturer that mass-produce the drifting potentiometers for the last decade or so, because it's a de facto industrial material.

Cocobani · May 14, 2024

Ingueferroque said:
That's awful. I have two Pro controllers, hardly ever used. They drift like nothing else.. absolute garbage that they just kept producing the same faulty hardware for years and selling it at exorbitant prices.

I have a launch edition Pro Controller and have had 0 issues. Original Joycons on the other hand had to be replaced once.

Mutedpenguin · May 14, 2024

Had both joy-con & dual sense drift this gen...managed to change the Switch joy-con stick myself (fiddly, but a least no solder required) while I still had a month left on my PS5's warranty, so got a free replacement controller. Never had a controller go wrong in any previous gen.

KezayJS1 · May 14, 2024

Not to discount in any way the number of people who have experienced drift, clearly it's a wider spread thing that my anecdotal experience, but I've yet to have joycon drift. *knocks on wood*

delete12345 · May 14, 2024

Oh wait, it's actually 2 lawsuits, not one.

Two Joy-Con drift lawsuits have been dismissed after five years | VGC

Two significant lawsuits over Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift have been dismissed in U.S. court.

www.videogameschronicle.com

Zyrokai · May 14, 2024

Ingueferroque said:
That's awful. I have two Pro controllers, hardly ever used. They drift like nothing else.. absolute garbage that they just kept producing the same faulty hardware for years and selling it at exorbitant prices.

I didn't even know this was an issue with the pro controllers! I have my launch pro and it has been through the WRINGER and it's never drifted. Guess I've been lucky. I have 4 total. So far no drift. Just two pairs of Joy-Con

Renna Hazel · May 14, 2024

Tired Repairman said:
If they were brand new you could have just returned them...

This is a RROD vs YLOD kind of thing. All three companies have been using the same ALPS joystick modules for at least two generations straight, but somehow the Switch pro controller have gotten mixed into the whole joycon debacle, despite not being part of it.

I did return them, and I think it's ridiculous that I have to return 2 controllers due to the analog stick drifting. I also don't particularly care what Sony and MS are doing when my Nintendo controllers aren't working. The drift was so minimal that it only impacted one game, Super Smash Brothers, but that's the reason I got the controller in the first place. I want my brand new controllers to work, simple as that.

Tired Repairman · May 14, 2024

Renna Hazel said:
I did return them, and I think it's ridiculous that I have to return 2 controllers due to the analog stick drifting. (...) I want my brand new controllers to work, simple as that.

Wich is completely understable, but this kind of shit happens both in the low and high end. You just had bad luck.

EDIT: For the record, i'm not dismissing your experience, it's just that it's... normal, probably part of a bad batch or whatever. I've had it happen to myself with more expensive and high end elecs with - supposedly - better QC. Sometimes you just win the shitlicon lottery. Twice.

Melhadf · May 14, 2024

Vylder said:
There are dozen of YouTube tutorials to fix this easily though...it's not like it's a major hardware issue

So easy that Nintendo have done it? Not everyone is comfortable opening up a £40 controller to fix something that shouldn't be an issue.

PepsimanVsJoe · May 14, 2024

Sucks.
The drift on my joycons is so awful that the Switch is basically unplayable in handheld mode. Strangely, the $15 hori pad I got years ago still works fine.
Also got drift in less than 3 months of using a Series X controller.

Hall Effects sticks really should be the default for the next generation of controllers. It's absurd just how bad the issue has become (but apparently not bad enough for the courts SMH).

slothrop · May 14, 2024

Ingueferroque said:
That's awful. I have two Pro controllers, hardly ever used. They drift like nothing else.. absolute garbage that they just kept producing the same faulty hardware for years and selling it at exorbitant prices.

I've honestly never even heard of Pro Controller drift issues, and none of the lawsuits were related to the Pro Controller. So I don't think you would have seen any remedy regardless of the outcome here.

Iucidium · May 14, 2024

Vampirolol said:
WD40 is now an obligatory add-on for Nintendo users. Will buy a new can with Switch 2.

Pray for hall effect

entremet · May 14, 2024

Nintendo has some amazing lawyers.

thepenguin55 · May 14, 2024

-Peabody- said:
Not to dismiss this because joy-cons are pretty bad, but seems more like an issue with console manufacturers using similar sticks this gen in general. Anecdotal but I've had way worse experience with Xbox controllers and my pro controllers than my joy-cons, and I own basically every set they ever made.

I went through about 11 sets of the gears of war 5 Xbox one controller at launch trying to find one that actually had zero drift out of the box.

I will say I wish more console makers had a system-wide stick calibration, checking for drift on Xbox or PlayStation requires downloading a game that lets use you change the starting sensitivity, only reason I still have Apex downloaded on those consoles.

While I personally haven't had this issue, I would recommend the 8bitdo Ultimate controller which has Hall Effect sticks. Up to now, that controller had only been available in PC & Nintendo configurations with the only Xbox version being a wired version that doesn't have Hall Effect sticks. Now they're making official wireless Xbox versions with hall effect sticks:
8Bitdo Ultimate Controller for Xbox with charging dock

They're putting out an updated wired version with hall effect sticks as well:
8Bitdo Ultimate Wired Controller for Xbox

As someone who has been using the previous PC/Switch version for a while I think it's easily the best controller on the market. I say this as someone who hasn't loved all of 8Bitdos products.

delete12345 · May 14, 2024

entremet said:
Nintendo has some amazing lawyers.

Exactly, they can never be beaten.

Dyle · May 14, 2024

entremet said:
Nintendo has some amazing lawyers.

Nintendo solved the problem by offering free repairs, therefore there are no grounds for a class action. Their lawyers didn't do anything here.

delete12345 · May 14, 2024

Dyle said:
Their lawyers didn't do anything here.

Technically, they still have to represent Nintendo in the courts up until the cases have been dismissed. In those moments, there were discussions and debates, so they do have their role and say in the dismissals.

That Demon Life · May 14, 2024

Ingueferroque said:
That's awful. I have two Pro controllers, hardly ever used. They drift like nothing else.. absolute garbage that they just kept producing the same faulty hardware for years and selling it at exorbitant prices.

Had my pro controller for four years and it never drifted. Had 4 separate Xbox one controllers drift though.

Joycons did a couple times, but they fixed them for free.

Scarecrow · May 14, 2024

My first controllers for the switch got the drift, and I went to a shop to get it fixed. Before and since, I haven't had any drift issues on my PS or Xbox controllers.

Not quite related, but how are everyone's Deck sticks holding up?

Nintendo Switch Class Action Lawsuit for "Joy-Con Drift" is Dismissed After 5 Years [Correction: 2 lawsuits]

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