Despite its great success in terms of sales and having legendary games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its catalogue, the nintendoswitch has always had a large Achilles tendon in the fragility of the Joy-Con. Because of that, the company has announced unlimited repairs for the problems of drifting present in those controllers at least for the European Union.
The decision to offer unlimited remedies in the European Union for problems of drifting present in the Joy-Con derives from political pressures. A few hours before the announcement, The European Commission announced that it has contacted the Japanese video game giant “to address the recurring problem with faulty Switch controllers” and has agreed to “offer all consumers the right to repair free of charge, even beyond the legal warranty! ”.
The origin of the announcement of the European Commission derives as a response to years of complaints and a pressure campaign by the European Organization of Consumers (BEUC in its acronym in English). In a report published in 2021, the organization recorded nearly 25,000 complaints from Nintendo Switch owners in the European Union about frequent problems with drifting that the Joy-Con suffer from. The same BEUC has mentioned in a formal complaint things like “premature obsolescence” and that “it is time that companies stop releasing products that fail too soon”.
Let’s-a-go!
Go repair your Switch controllers, free of charge.
We contacted Nintendo to address the recurring technical problem with irresponsive Switch controllers and they agreed to offer all consumers the right to repair, free of charge, even beyond the legal guarantee!
—European Commission (@EU_Commission) April 4, 2023
The problems of drifting of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con have ended up giving a lot of headaches to the company, which has faced harsh negative reports, lawsuits, and even government pressure. The seriousness of the situation has forced her to have to give in to avoid not only compensation, but also possible sentences against that would have been a hard blow to her image.
Gone are the days when Nintendo made products to last, starting with a Game Cube controller for which it is not difficult to find units that, two decades later, continue to work like clockwork. On the other hand, there is the Switch Pro Controller, which seems not to have such a marked problem with the driftingalthough in extreme cases you can always give Gulikit KingKong Pro 2 or 8BitDo Ultimate a trywhich employ analog stick technology presumably without drifting from Gulikit.
Another aspect to take into account is the policy of the European Union in these matters, which has tended to be very favorable to consumers. Apart from demonstrations, this has also been reflected in the legislation in force within the community space.
