Despite great sales success and legendary games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its catalog, nintendoswitch always had a large achilles tendon in the fragility of the Joy-Con. Because of this, the company has announced unlimited fixes for the issues drifting present in these controllers at least for the European Union.

A decision to offer unlimited remedies in the European Union for problems drifting present in the Joy-Con comes from political pressures. A few hours before the announcement, The European Commission announced that it had contacted the Japanese video game giant “to resolve the recurring issue of faulty Switch controllers” and agreed to “offer all consumers the right to a free repair, even beyond the statutory warranty!.

The origins of the European Commission’s announcement come in response to years of complaints and pressure campaigns by the European Consumer Organization (BEUC). 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 suffers. The same BEUC mentioned in a formal complaint things like “premature obsolescence” and that “it’s time for companies to stop releasing products that fail too soon.”

Problems from drifting of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con ended up causing a lot of headaches for the company, which faced harsh negative press, lawsuits, and even government pressure. The seriousness of the situation forced her to back down to avoid not only compensation, but also possible penalties against it, which would be a severe blow to her image.

Gone are the days when Nintendo built products to last, starting with the Game Cube controller, for which it’s not hard to find units that still work like clockwork two decades later. On the other hand, there’s the Switch Pro Controller, which doesn’t seem to have such a significant problem driftingAlthough in extreme cases, you can always try Gulikit KingKong Pro 2 or 8BitDo Ultimatewhich use analog stick technology probably without drifting from Gulikit.

Another aspect to consider is the European Union’s policy in these matters, which tends to be very favorable to consumers. In addition to the demonstrations, this was also reflected in valid legislation in the community space.