Which? calls on Nintendo to fix Joy-Con drift

40% of Joy-Cons for Nintendo Switch suffer from Joy-Con drift according to data found by UK consumer advice group Which? during an independent study.

The YouGov study asked 919 adults in the UK if they had encountered the stick-drift issue, and two in every five users had seen their console develop the fault within a year of owning the device. About 50% of Nintendo Switch owners also reported that they had just bought new controllers rather than attempt to get Nintendo to do something about their problem.

Which? believes that this is because the process for getting support from the Japanese gaming giant is somewhat unclear. This is despite the fact that Nintendo offers a two year warranty for the Nintendo Switch, and the fact that repairs can be booked online. 

Which? has asked Nintendo to investigate what causes Joy-Con drift and release their findings to people interested in the hardware. It has also requested an extension on their company repair policy to make it cover any replacing any Nintendo Switch controllers that have developed drift problems since the console’s launch, no questions asked. 

Nintendo responded to Which? with the following statement.

“The percentage of Joy-Con controllers that have been reported as experiencing issues with the analogue stick in the past is small, and we have been making continuous improvements to the Joy-Con analogue stick since its launch in 2017. We expect all our hardware to perform as designed, and, if anything falls short of this goal, we always encourage consumers to contact Nintendo customer support, who will be happy to openly and leniently resolve any consumer issues related to the Joy-Con controllers’ analogue sticks, including in cases where the warranty may no longer apply.”