UK consumer group Which? has said that Nintendo should launch an “urgent independent investigation” into Joy-Con drift, an issue that reportedly affects 40 per cent of Nintendo Switch Classic owners.
According to a study carried out by Which?, 40 per cent of Nintendo Switch Classic owners reported suffering from Joy-Con drift – an issue which causes the joysticks to “drift” without user input, causing characters in games to move in the wrong direction and other nuisances. Of those who reported drift, 57 per cent said that the issue occurred within their first year of owning the console.
A quarter of these owners contacted Nintendo for a replacement, however in 19 per cent of cases they did not provide a free repair or replacement, despite that being company policy following a lawsuit.
Which? director of policy and advocacy, Rocio Concha, shared that “our research shows that drift problems continue to plague Nintendo Switch owners yet too often they can be left footing the bill themselves to replace faulty controllers or face a lottery when they contact Nintendo for support.”
Concha added that the company “needs to commission an urgent independent investigation into why this problem occurs and make the findings public,” and shared that not only must Nintendo enforce its free repairs or replacements, it must also promote the initiative “so that consumers know that support is available.”
Nintendo has responded to the report by stating that “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.”
Continuing, Nintendo added: “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.”
In other gaming news, Microsoft has announced a “ground-breaking” commitment to remaining neutral to unionisation within Activision Blizzard.
