Nintendo Instructs Customer Service to Fix Notorious Joy-Con Drift for Free, According to Report

Joy-Con "drift," or ghost movements being registered by some Joy-Con controller units for the Nintendo Switch, has been an ongoing problem for Nintendo. Recent reports and a class action lawsuit have given rise to the issue, and according to a new report, Nintendo is attempting to at least triage the situation.

In an internal memo obtained by Vice, Nintendo told customer service representatives it would no longer charge customers seeking Joy-Con repairs, and would refund those who have already paid for them. The details obtained by Vice include stipulations that the customer must provide proof of purchase, thought it's not necessary to confirm warranty status. The memo was provided by a reported source familiar with Nintendo's updated customer support documentation.

When reached for comment, Nintendo sent us the same statement we received last week and also received by Vice: "At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we are continuously making improvements to them. We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly. We want our consumers to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we always encourage them to visit http://support.nintendo.com so we can help."

Joy-Con drift has been an ongoing issue since the early days of the Switch lifespan, with users often finding their own fixes to attempt to solve the problem. Though new Joy-Cons have since been released, it seems like the issue persists.

A Kotaku report coupled with the news of a class-action lawsuit over the matter has escalated the visibility of this problem, though it hasn't been said if either was the motivating factor behind this new policy. With the new Nintendo Switch Lite on the horizon and an updated revision of the base Switch hitting soon, you'd imagine this is something Nintendo would at least want to mend, if not fix outright.