Over the past few days,
Nintendo has been called out by a law firm that has opened a class action investigation in order for the company to own up to a recurring problem that Switch owners have been having since the popular handheld hybrid console was released in March of 2017: the infamous Joy-Con drift issue.
For those who stil are unaware of what the Joy-Con drift issue is, it is basically the analog stick responds to stimuli without it being manipulated by the user in any way; in most cases causing the playable character to wander around without the player actually doing anything.
Yesterday,
Nintendo addressed this issue by stating that they were aware that users have been having issues with their Joy-Con controllers — encouraging players to send in their defective units for repair — as well as reminding customers that they are continuously making improvements on their products.
According to a new report, Nintendo will also be willing to fix faulty Joy-Con controllers suffering with the drifting issue, completely free of charge, from now on. On top of this, if a customer has already had their Joy-Con fixed by Nintendo, they can request for a refund; something that will surely satisfy quite a bunch of users.
Nintendo's official statement reads as follows:
"Customers will no longer be requested to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs,” the internal customer service details say. “Additionally it is not necessary to confirm warranty status. If a customer requests a refund for a previously paid Joy-Con repair [...] confirm the prior repair and then issue a refund."
The company still hasn't officially said anything in regards to them having fixed the issue for good, but it is still good news to know that they are at least owning up to their mistake. What's disappointing is that it took a potential lawsuit to get them to address this issue that their own customers have been reporting since day one. Better late then never, right?