Nintendo to fix drift issue on Switch Joy-Con joysticks for free
Nintendo has instructed its customer service team to no longer charge if Nintendo Switch owners knock on the door due to problems with the joysticks on the Joy-Cons. At least, that’s what Vice Games says based on internal Nintendo documents.
Vice Games reports that Nintendo will also compensate customers who have previously paid to have their Joy-Con repaired. The documents would state that customers no longer have to provide proof that they have actually purchased the Switch before having them repaired. In addition, Nintendo would not check the status of the warranty. Vice is relying on a memo provided by a source familiar with Nintendo’s updated support documentation.
The website has asked Nintendo for a response based on the internal documentation, but the Japanese company only provided a response that it had previously published. In it, Nintendo says it is aware of “recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding properly,” but does not yet speak of a generous policy on the issues.
According to Vice, Nintendo doesn’t say anywhere in the documentation that the Joy-Cons are flawed; the company would only state that it wants to deal with the matter quickly, pointing specifically to “recent posts and the great attention the topic has received.” If free repairs are actually Nintendo’s new policy, it remains to be seen whether this will also be applied worldwide.
Vice took the plunge and asked an employee who was experiencing the drift problem with his own Switch to contact Nintendo’s customer service. He was asked to install new firmware and go through a calibration process. The problems were not resolved and he called back, after which the customer service representative offered no resistance and indicated that Nintendo would pay for the shipping and repair costs.
It recently emerged that Nintendo is being sued by an American law firm. This concerns a collective case for which every American Switch owner can sign up. The problem concerns the operation of the joysticks on the Joy-Cons. According to many complaints on the internet and the law firm, there may be ‘drifting’. The user does not touch the joystick, but the Switch still thinks that is the case, with the result that in a game, for example, the camera perspective changes or a character starts moving.