Nintendo facing class action suit over drifting Switch controllers

Persistent issues with the Nintendo Switch’s detachable Joy-Con controllers have led a US-based legal firm to file a class action lawsuit against Nintendo, alleging that it is peddling defective controllers.

The lawsuit, spotted by Eurogamer, spawned from the experiences of a California Switch owner that says he’s faced the drifting issue three times: once eleven months after his initial Switch purchase, again just three months after sending the controllers to Nintendo for repair, and a third time in an extra set he picked up.

The seemingly widespread drifting problem is that joysticks on the console’s detachable controllers will start to detect input when left untouched, and online testimonies seem to indicate that the issue isn’t a rare one.

There’s been an extra buzz about the issue online recently, with Reddit posts and articles circulating about how widespread the drifting problem has become two and a half years after the Switch first launched. Many of those examples, Eurogamer points out, are collected throughout the lawsuit.

Nintendo itself does offer repairs for affected Joy-Con that set Switch owners back a few bucks for shipping but, as was the case with the individual that kicked off the lawsuit, neither repairs nor picking up another set for around $80 MSRP seem to guarantee the issue won’t reemerge.