Switch joystick drift finally penalized! Nintendo's €35 million fine hides a big pitfall - ZAKER News
Have many Switch veterans fallen into the pit of joystick drift? With a perfectly good controller left unused, characters move around on their own and the camera drifts aimlessly, causing gameplay to break down and ruining the user experience. The long-standing issue of Joy-Con drift on the original Switch, which has plagued players for years, has finally received a heavy official punishment. Nintendo has paid a huge price for its product issues.
On June 8th, local time, the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumption, and Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) officially announced the punishment results, with Nintendo being fined 35 million euros, equivalent to approximately 270 million yuan. This is also the heaviest fine Nintendo has received globally for the Switch controller defect, providing a sense of justice for countless players who have been affected by the drift issue.
Many people are unaware that this rights protection and accountability campaign was initiated as early as 2020, and it was not a sudden punishment. The French consumer protection organization has been following up on the quality controversy surrounding the first-generation Switch controller for many years, conducting evidence collection, investigation, and presenting evidence throughout the process. After six years, the final punishment decision was finally made, and the entire process was rigorous and compliant.
The core point of contention in this penalty case revolves around the highly controversial practice of "planned obsolescence" within the industry. The organization has explicitly accused Nintendo of having long been aware of the inherent design flaws in the original Switch Joy-Con controllers, which frequently experience joystick drift malfunctions. However, Nintendo has deliberately concealed this information for an extended period and failed to proactively inform consumers.
More importantly, Nintendo continued to sell the original Switch console equipped with faulty controllers, even though they were aware of the high frequency of malfunctions in the products. Most ordinary players were unaware of this common hardware issue and mistakenly believed that their own improper use was causing the damage, thus incurring unnecessary losses.
For players who are frequent console users, Joy-Con drift is the most common issue that causes crashes, and it's almost a common problem among early Switch players. When playing daily dungeons, clearing levels, or engaging in battles, the joystick suddenly drifts and goes off-track, causing characters to become uncontrollable. At the very least, this disrupts the game's pace, and at worst, it can directly lead to failure in clearing levels or losing matches, ruining the overall experience.