Faced with what most expected would be a near mass recall of the new Index (aka Knuckles) VR controllers, now a full week later, Valve's response can no longer reasonably be blamed on misunderstandings or ill informed CSR's. Launched last Friday, June 28th, VR circles were immediately taken over by complaints about the Index controller's thumbsticks. A defect pattern quickly emerged where the left stick will not click ("L3") when tilted up or down while the right stick will not click ("R3") when tilted left or right. Obviously Forward + Click is used as the Sprint/Run input in a vast majority of first and third person schemes, and this is standard in free locomotion VR as well. Many titles are significantly hampered if not rendered effectively unplayable. While anecdotally the defect rate seems substantial, there are many reports of units that function normally as well as a wide range of variability and partial functionality. Some units seemingly won't register tilted click inputs at all while others require extreme pressure to do so. DIY and Teardown tinkerers have taken to Youtube with the how's, why's, and potential fixes while other "solutions" are leading desperate players to cause even more damage. It should be noted that many developers with pre-release hardware saw fit to map Sprint to L3 in their new Index/Knuckles exclusive control schemes further supporting that this is limited to manufacturing defects and not by design. Valve's current company line as of this writing is that it's by design. They supposedly expect the sticks not to click, but still register the input. However it will require significantly more click pressure to actuate it at the extremities. They have emphasized any replacements sent will have the same defects.
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