Nintendo Acknowledges Joy-Con Drift Problem, Issues Formal Apology

For the longest time, Nintendo Switch players have been complaining about the joy-con issue of the Switch. It appeared Nintendo wasn’t paying attention to this issue until today, when they sent a formal apology to those affected by the problem.

IGN reported that the apology was issued during Nintendo’s latest Financial Q&A. Shuntaro Furukawa, the company’s president, said “regarding the Joy-Con, we apologize for any trouble caused to our customers.” Further details about more specific actions were unable to be provided, as the joy-con issue has become the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States.

The problem has hounded players for three years until today. Since the Switch’s introduction to the market, many players have noticed the issue. Movement is still noticeable on the screen even with no action being done to the sticks at all. To somehow appease customers, Nintendo offered joy-con repairs for free starting last year, and refunded those who have paid for such repairs in the previous years.

That did nothing to dampen the popularity of Nintendo’s latest handheld. According to Gamespot, consoles have been in short supply the past few months. Most of it was because of the supply lines being affected by the ongoing pandemic, and the demand being peculiarly high because of people looking for something to do while under lockdown.

GameStop supplies and stocks at other stores are quickly selling out even before they could be restocked. Buyers have to compete with those who are trying to make a profit during the shortage by buying off stocks as soon as they come one, and selling them overpriced. There have been reports of an auto-purchasing bot being used to watch out for fresh Switch stocks that resellers are using to quickly grab new units and flip them for hefty prices.

It’s this craze for the Switch that might’ve led Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith to issue a class action lawsuit against Nintendo’s seeming disregard of the joy-con issue. According to the lawsuit, Nintendo is violation “various consumer protection statutes as well as various warranty and common law claims” by not doing any action to correct the joy-con issue.