Culture

Nintendo wants you to know it's sorry about Joy-Con drift

Contrition and commitment to do better. Nintendo seems to be trying.

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Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa knows that the public has been kind of furious about the Switch's issues with Joy-Con drift. In a recent financial back-and-forth with Furukawa, translated by Kotaku, the head of the company said:

Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologize for any trouble caused to our customers. We are continuing to aim to improve our products, but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would it like to refrain from responding about any specific actions.

What happened? — Going back to 2017, some players reported that their controllers would exhibit movement without them ever touching any buttons. These complaints have lingered across boards and forums over the following three years. For a while, Nintendo even gave people free repairs for their faulty Joy-Con sticks.

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In 2020, Nintendo has apparently decided to acknowledge the problem and apologize, though some might find Furukawa's apology to be too little and too late. With this class action lawsuit filed against Nintendo by an American law firm "on behalf of purchasers of Switches and Joy-Con controllers," Furukawa obviously could not delve into the deeper details.

What's going on in court now? — Arbitration, to put it in simple terms. Nintendo is awaiting for an impartial review of the case which would settle the issue beyond the court, according to TechRadar. In the meantime, it might want to amplify efforts to provide free fixes to those affected or expect more public rancor.