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Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo, has apologised for the issues with the Joy-Con controllers for the Switch (via Nintendo Everything).
“Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologize for any trouble caused to our customers,” said Furukawa in the company’s annual general meeting of shareholders. “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 like to refrain from responding about any specific actions.”
In July 2019, this lawsuit was filed against Nintendo after innumerable customers found that their Joy-Cons were reacting like they’d moved the analog stick when they weren’t touching it at all. This is drift, and it makes almost all games impossible to play. The solution is to send the Joy-Cons off for repairs (which isn’t possible right now owing to the pandemic) or purchase new Joy-Cons. However, even very new Joy-Cons have exhibited drift, so this isn’t a favourable fix.
In March, a judge refused Nintendo’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, and it has since been sent to arbitration. This means that the lawsuit is still pending an outcome, but it will be determined by an independent adjudicator outside of the courts. Almost four months have passed, and we’ve not gotten an update, and it doesn’t seem like that will change any time soon.
