After years of mostly silence from Nintendo in regard to the ongoing Joy-Con drift problem that many Nintendo Switch owners have had, the Japanese gaming company today provided a new update on the issue. And while this update doesn’t promise that Joy-Con drift will stop being a problem for many Switch users well into the future, Nintendo has said that it continues to “make improvements” on the controller.
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In a new interview published on Nintendo’s website that talked about the release of the new Nintendo Switch OLED Model, Toru Yamashita, who is the Deputy GM at Nintendo, provided a bit more clarification about the current state of the Joy-Con controllers. Specifically, Yamashita explained that Nintendo has tried to improve the durability of Joy-Con thumbsticks over the years, especially compared to when the Switch first launched. “Joy-Con controllers have lots of different features, so we’ve been continuing to make improvements that may not always be visible. Among others, the analog-stick parts have continuously been improved since launch, and we are still working on improvements,” Yamashita said.
Speaking more to what those improvements look like, Yamashita talked about how Nintendo has tried to redesign the thumbsticks just a bit in the pursuit of making them more durable. In addition, he also said that the tests that Nintendo conducts internally to make sure that the Joy-Con are reaching a higher level of fidelity have also been improved. “The parts of the Joy-Con analog sticks are not something that can be bought off the shelf but are specially designed, so we have undergone a lot of considerations to improve them. In addition, we improved the reliability test itself, and we have continued to make changes to improve durability and clear this new test,” he said. “When the effects of our improvements were confirmed, we promptly incorporated them into the Joy-Con controllers that are included with the console, Nintendo Switch Lite, and the ones sold individually, that were manufactured at that time. This involves the internal components of the Joy-Con, so you can’t tell the improvements from the outside, but we use the new versions of the parts when we repair them. Also, similar continual improvements have been made for the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller as well.”
At the end of the day, though, Nintendo explained that no matter how much it might try to improve the Joy-Con thumbsticks, general wear and tear is still going to lead to the thumbsticks getting worse over time. Even though there might be no definitive solution, Nintendo said that this is a problem that it is “continuously tackling” and will only look to further iterate on in the future.
If you’re someone who has experienced Joy-Con drift on your own Nintendo Switch in the past, how does this new message from Nintendo sit with you? Do you feel like Nintendo is doing enough to try and fix this widespread problem? Let me know your thoughts either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
