UK Consumer Watchdog Urges Nintendo to Compensate Consumers Experiencing Joy-Con Drift

The UK's consumer watchdog Which? has called on Nintendo to provide a compensation or refund plan for UK consumers who have experienced drift issues with the company's Joy-Con controllers.

Which? has published a study where it tried to find what causes Joy-Con drifts – the issue that the organization drew attention to back in June 2022 noting that two in five UK consumers who own the base Nintendo Switch faced problems with Joy-Con when the on-screen cursor moved despite users doing nothing.

For its research, Which? acquired five pairs of Joy-Cons controllers with reported drift and analyzed them in a laboratory.

According to the organization, the research has shown that there are several manufacturing issues with the controllers –  the lab found dust inside Joy-Cons with drift issues despite dustproofing cowls on the joysticks which made Which? believe that this protection was insufficient. In addition, the controllers had noticeable wear on the joystick slider contact points which was also likely causing the drift issue.

Based on this study, Which? claims that Nintendo "must get a grip on the problem" including committing to a "no-quibble" and free-of-charge repair or replacement of all malfunctioning Joy-Con controllers sold in the UK since the release of the original Nintendo Switch.

Besides, Watch? urges the Switch maker to commission an independent investigation into the causes of Joy-Con drift issues and make the findings available to the public.

Watch? noted that it presented its findings to Nintendo. The company replied that "the percentage of Joy-Con controllers that have been reported as experiencing issues with the analogue stick in the past is small" and that it has 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," Nintendo said."

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