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A class-action lawsuit has been filed against NOA! Do your Joy-Cons drift?
News reported by 
(Editor)
July 20, 2019, 07:23
 
I'm normally down to defend my boys at Nintendo, but this Joy-Con thing has been a real thorn in my side lately (thank goodness for the Pro Controller). IMO, the Joy-Cons haven't displayed an acceptable level of reliability for a game controller, much less one that costs 60 (to 80) dollars. Apparently some others agree, as a lawsuit has been filed against the Big N.

Here's the link if you've had issues and want to join in on the fun!

CSK&D has filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo of America, Inc. (“Nintendo”) for claims relating to alleged defects in the Joy-Con controllers that are part of Nintendo Switch gaming consoles. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleges that the joysticks on Joy-Con controllers are defective, leading users to experience drift issues. Specifically, the complaint alleges that the joystick on the Joy-Con controllers will automatically register movement when the joystick is not being controlled by the user and interfere with gameplay. The complaint, filed on behalf of purchasers of Switches and Joy-Con controllers, brings claims under various consumer protection statutes as well as various warranty and common law claims.

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Posted: 07/20/19, 07:23  - Edit:  07/20/19, 07:23
 
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Mine did on the left analog for my launch joy-cons, but I replaced the analog and it has been ok ever since.

I think. I don't use that one regularly anymore.

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 07:44
My near launch pair are still fine, but that's probably because I don't use them very often. I do believe there must be an inherent flaw with the design that causes the analog sticks to eventually go bad, so I support this lawsuit.

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 15:32
@Zero

Where'd you buy the joystick and find the instructions? My left blue is shit now too.

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 16:49
I would support this move, in principle, but there really isn't any principle in a class action lawsuit. It does act as a deterrent, but the lawyers get half of the money (millions) and each claimant splits the rest of the pot (like, $3 each). I hope that Nintendo makes good before it gets off of the ground.

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 19:28  - Edit:  07/21/19, 09:57
I haven’t experienced ‘The Drift’ myself *knocks on wood* but I’ve heard/read of the issue from enough people that I believe this is a real problem.

Thankfully, problems can be solved, so hopefully Nintendo makes good on this.

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 19:58
@Anand

Well that's lame. I'd love for Nintendo to simply fix the issue with new Joy-Cons, and allow those with a drifting pair to exchange them for a new set.

A much cheaper solution for them would be to allocate 6000 Coins (or whatever) to each user to download a game of their choice.

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 20:30  - Edit:  07/20/19, 20:31
@DrFinkelstein I got this one. I'm pretty happy with it, the only (small) issue is that there were actually 3 types of small screws and it only came with screwdrivers for 2 of them, luckily I had a small screwdriver that fit the 3rd.

I used this video, which was more or less fine, except it doesn't show you how to put it back together again slowwwwwwly step by step, so I started panicking and I kind of went through the video backwards to get it back together again.


It's not the easiest thing to take apart and put back together, lots of small pieces and you need to disconnect and reconnect some buttons and tiny little cables and such (having tweezers helps), but I managed it and I don't do a lot with hardware. Actually though my first attempt left the buttons messed up and I had to open it up and figure out what was wrong (something had shifted) and realign some stuff and close it again. So it was quite the effort.

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 20:31  - Edit:  07/20/19, 20:36
I haven't had any issues with my Joy-Cons, but the d-pad on the Pro Controller is disappointing! It's not a huge issue with anything other than Tetris 99, but I REMEMBER WHEN THE SEAL USED TO MEAN SOMETHING

Posted by 
 on: 07/20/19, 23:48
@Secret_Tunnel

How odd. I've had numerous problems with numerous Joy-Cons (from drift to really weak Bluetooth), but I absolutely love the Pro Controller. Might be my favorite controller to play games with, in fact!

Posted by 
 on: 07/21/19, 03:18
@TriforceBun

I agree! But there's a (universal?) issue where, very rarely, when you press left, it will register as an up press. Not a huge deal most of the time, but for something like Tetris 99 where pressing up drops your piece down, it's a total dealbreaker.

Posted by 
 on: 07/21/19, 03:58
Pro dpad was hot garbage for Shantae and some others. I forget if it registered down instead of right or vice versa but it really messed me up. I actually used analog for Celeste.

Posted by 
 on: 07/21/19, 07:08  - Edit:  07/22/19, 04:33
Good. Nintendo's silence on this pisses me off. They really dropped the ball on hardware quality this generation all around. I don't like it.

Posted by 
 on: 07/21/19, 10:14
@Secret_Tunnel
@Zero

See, I've heard of this problem before and even took it into the system's button-registration thing to test it, but I haven't noticed it on my own Pro Controller. Not sure if I'm just lucky or not observant enough, but I've played through really challenging 2D games like Cuphead and Hollow Knight without any control issues as far as I could tell. And I did take the Gold once on Tetris 99 with it!

Posted by 
 on: 07/21/19, 17:44
I don't think these things usually work out, and this will probably be dismissed as "normal wear and tear." I think the issue with the Joy-Cons is that they tried to cram so much stuff into a small space, so I'm not sure how they could fix this issue unless they could somehow make room for larger sticks. I hope something comes of this eventually though.

Myself, I haven't experienced this problem, but I also haven't used my Joys that much since I have a Pro. My Joys are mainly for player 2. However, I have noticed that the range of motion on the Joy joysticks seems shorter than on the Pro, which is likely due to their small size.

It's unfortunate to see Nintendo releasing a subpar product, but to be fair I feel like products in general have steadily decreased in quality over the past decade or longer. We live in an age of cheap Chinese- and Hong Kong-produced crap where every company is getting supplies from the same few sources.

As for the Pro D-pad, that issue doesn't seem to be as widespread, but there have been numerous reports of it. For me, I did notice that sometimes when I had first gotten mine, but lately, it hasn't been doing it. Maybe I just got used to the way it works, or maybe it happens less once the controller is used enough and "broken in"?

Posted by 
 on: 07/21/19, 18:15
I feel like Nintendo should replace joy-cons that have drift (for free) but not sure if they need to forced to do that? It reminds me of the red-ring of death for the Xbox 360, it took a while but eventually Microsoft implemented a program that allowed you to get them replaced free of charge.

Posted by 
 on: 07/22/19, 00:08
@deathly_hallows

Yup. The parts are cheap and it takes under ten minutes of work for somebody in their repair center. It should absolutely be a free repair and they should re-engineer the things for future Joycons sold. That's not much to ask.

Posted by 
 on: 07/22/19, 10:29
Nintendo made a statement:

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.

Pretty tentative, but better than nothing, I guess. The issue is that (as far as I know), Joy-Cons outside of the 90 day (or 1 year for Joy-Cons that come with the Switch) warranty window still require the $40 repair fee.

Posted by 
 on: 07/23/19, 02:45  - Edit:  07/23/19, 02:46
Do your Joy-Cons drift?
Do their problems make you miffed?
Can Nintendo fix them swift?
Can Nintendo fix this rift?
Can Nintendo decrescendo without any innuendo?
Do your Joy-Cons drift?

Posted by 
 on: 07/23/19, 02:59
The DPads on these controllers are super sensitive. I'm reading it's likely because the actuator under the pad is made of 3 points of contact, not two.

Also major drift issues here.

Posted by 
 on: 07/23/19, 05:30
Apparently Nintendo will offer repairs to affected Joy-Cons for free, and offer refunds for customers who paid in the past for this specific repair.

SOURCE

Posted by 
 on: 07/24/19, 09:53
 
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