Back in March we reported that
Hori was working on a new Joy-Con controller for the Nintendo Switch. This new controller came with a D-Pad, fixing the issue that some users have with the official Joy-Con coming with directional, individual buttons.
The Hori Joy-Con was doing away with some of the features the official controller comes with but it was a fair price to pay for some players who still wanted to experience platformers and fighting games on the Nintendo Switch. This controller by Hori was scheduled to release in July but it was only coming out in Japan as no news about bringing it to the West were announced.
Now that the Hori Joy-Con is officially out, players have been experiencing some issues regarding the Nintendo Switch battery, which has been reported to drain at alarming rates. This is particularly interesting because this new controller doesn't come with HD Rumble, Sync button(meaning the controller has to be attached to the console for it to work), SL and SR buttons, Accelerometer, or Gyro Sensors—making it odd for it to be draining the console's battery.
It's been reported that the Hori Joy-Con is also draining the battery of the Switch when the console is on sleep mode, which has made the manufacturer to release a statement asking people to remove the Joy-Con from the console when not in use, especially when putting the system to sleep—and obviously when it's not already being charged on the Switch's dock. The Japanese company has also stated that they are currently working on a solution to the problem, and that they will be sharing more information at a later time.
Adding a D-Pad to the Joy-Con is something that Nintendo could well end up doing themselves in the future, especially because third party developers have had some issues with their products affecting negatively the Nintendo Switch—like third party docks that ended up bricking some Nintendo Switch consoles. Whatever the case, Nintendo does offer a solution to this issue with their Pro Controller, which comes with the proper D-Pad and all of the expected functionality for the controller.