Nintendo‘s infamous Joy-Con drift problem has reached a much more consequential and challenging stage for the Japanese company, as consumer protection organizations across Europe have initiated investigations into Nintendo’s handling of the issue. As might be obvious to many Nintendo Switch owners, “Joy-Con drift” constitutes a fundamental defect in Joy-Con controllers, causing them to register movements where none occur. Such a problem is no doubt frustrating for players looking to enjoy one of the many Nintendo Switch games that encourage or require the use of motion controls.
Joy-Con drift has been something of a plague for both Nintendo and consumers since the Nintendo Switch launched back in 2017, sullying an otherwise innovative and enjoyable console. Over the past few years, Switch owners have had to resort to a variety of online guides, homemade fixes, or simply paying Nintendo for repairs. Consumer frustrations culminated in June 2019 with a still ongoing class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, which alleges that the company knowingly failed to disclose the controller defect, while refusing to repair or replace controllers free of charge. Shortly after the lawsuit’s initial filing, Nintendo conceded some ground by quietly offering to repair affected Joy-Cons for free, while retroactively refunding customers who had paid for repairs in the past. Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, even gave something of an apology to consumers earlier this year, stating that Nintendo is consistently seeking to improve its products. He however gave no firm details on those improvements given the active status of the current lawsuit.
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According to an article from Video Games Chronicle, the Dutch Consumer’s Association – in conjunction with the BEUC and consumer protection agencies in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Slovakia, Portugal, and Slovenia – called on Nintendo consumers to file complaints surrounding their Joy-Con controllers. Consumer organizations have reported a considerable number of complaints since they made their calls to consumers this past Monday, with the director of the Dutch Consumer’s Association, Sandra Molenaar, stating, “We are making the call because we are getting signals that the Switch will not last as long as consumers might expect. In addition, options for repairing the console are limited, forcing consumers to make expensive replacements.”
Molenaar hopes that with a solid bloc of consumer protection organizations bundling the complaints of thousands of frustrated customers, Nintendo will buckle to pressure and make transparent and measurable changes to improve their Joy-Cons. A spokesperson for the DCA stated that if Nintendo fails to concretely and meaningfully address the issue, “we will jointly go to court.” Hopefully, this does not lead to yet another Joy-Con lawsuit, if not for consumer’s sakes, then for Nintendo’s.
While it appears as though Nintendo has made steps in the right direction to assuage Switch owners, the Joy-Con drift itself remains fundamentally ingrained in the controllers’ hardware. Despite Nintendo’s wholesome and friendly public image, the company has been notoriously tight-lipped around this issue. One can only hope that, given the releases of next-gen consoles, Nintendo‘s solution is more than sweating this out.
Source: Video Games Chronicle
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