Joy-Con: 2 lawsuits over Nintendo Switch controller ‘drift’ have been dismissed

Two major lawsuits related to the ‘drift’ of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons were dismissed by US courts. According to Game File, Diaz vs. Nintendo and Carbajal vs. Nintendo, sue in 2019 and 2020, have both been archived. The lawsuits alleged that Nintendo knowingly sold defective controllers. Both Nintendo and the parents who filed the lawsuits on behalf of their children have asked archiving of cases.

‘drift’ is a phenomenon linked to controller analogs. In short, the controller senses input from the player, even though the player isn’t touching the thumbsticks. The result is visible in a game in which the player controls the movement of the character or the cameras: they move on their own or do not respond correctly to the direction decided by the player.

The ‘drift’ can be caused by defects in the controller, but is often linked to wear and the presence of dust or particulates of various kinds, perhaps the internal plastic of the analog itself which has partially broken with continuous movement. In the case of the Joy-Con the problem was widespread and therefore caused a stir, but it is something that potentially happens with all controllers.

Nintendo’s reaction to the Joy-Con drift

In 2022, a former supervisor of a Joy-Con repair center for Nintendo Switch in the United States had claimed that the company was inundated with faulty controllers. A former employee told Kotaku that at one point “thousands of Joy-Cons were easily arriving per week.” He added, “We ended up having to set up a whole new workspace just to fix the Joy-Cons.”

Customers who sent defective Joy-Cons in 2017-2018 received new replacement parts, but after the first year the repair center had to repair every set of controllers instead of sending new ones.

In response to the lawsuit and player disappointment, Nintendo apologized for the issue in 2020, but argued that players who purchased the items were bound by the Nintendo Switch user agreement and therefore could not participate in a class action lawsuit against the company.