Here's A Possible Reason Behind PS5 DualSense Controller's Drift Issues

Despite the phenomenal success of Sony's PlayStation 5, the DualSense controller of the popular next-generation gaming console appears to be plagued with drifting issues.

Now, an online repair community has shared their findings as to what might be the reason behind this problem. Gizmodo reports that a teardown of the PS5 gamepad has provided technicians from iFixit with some interesting clues. Given that companies normally source components from various manufacturers, quality control might become a challenge.

Meanwhile, Sony’s reluctance to properly address the DualSense issues has prompted a law firm to file a class-action lawsuit against it. The suit was filed by law firm Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith LLP (CSK&D), which had been investigating the alleged malfunctioning.

“Even for in-warranty repairs for Drift, customers have to pay for shipping the controller to a Sony repair center—a cost that varies based on a number of factors, including location and the total weight of the package—and Sony does not reimburse customers for these shipping costs,” the court documents said.

As ghost movements usually stem from defective analog sticks, the team from iFixit immediately narrowed it down to the modules. They verified that the parts were supplied by Alps Alpine – an electronics and components company based in Japan. Furthermore, the model was identified as part of the former’s R KJVX series.

After obtaining the specifications sheet for the analog sticks in question, an operating life of 2,000,000 cycles was listed. Similar to the silicone rubber conductive buttons on gamepads, the potentiometers housed inside the joystick assembly will eventually wear out.

However, the experts at iFixit noted that based on the parameters indicated by the manufacturer, its service life might not be as robust as other models. It was estimated that the analog sticks of the DualSense are likely to fail in just four to seven months if a user plays for just about two hours a day.

Furthermore, the folks from iFixit wanted to highlight that aside from faulty components, there are other contributing factors to the DualSense drift. Among these include material stretching, spring fatigue, sensor wear and ingress of contaminants within the housing. With more than 4.5 million PS5s already in the hands of consumers to date, Sony could be potentially facing a challenging situation in 2021.