Xbox Controller Drift Lawsuit Has Moved to Arbitration

Over the past year, Microsoft has been in the midst of a class-action lawsuit due to alleged "drifting" problems with the company's Xbox controllers. Microsoft requested early on in 2021 for the case to be taken out of court so that an impartial adjudicator could handle the case instead. Well, as of this week, it sounds like this is now the official course that the case will be taking.

Confirmed to The Loadout, Benjamin Johns, who is a partner at the law office Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith said that he doesn't expect the case involving Xbox to ever enter a courtroom at this point. With Microsoft now entering arbitration, Johns said that this is usually the "end of the road" when it comes to cases being heard in a court.

That being said, Johns and the rest of the team at his firm are still hopeful that this won't be the end of this saga. Johns explained that the office is still collecting controllers that have fallen prey to this drifting issue from owners and are having them inspected by a third-party "expert" to determine what the actual source of the problem is. Johns also expressed optimism saying that the firm is very much committed to "recover damages" for those that have had problems.

It remains to be seen how this entire situation will turn out, but the fact that the case is now likely to never reach court seems to bode well for Microsoft. Still, according to the party that has been inspecting these drifting Xbox controllers, there is an actual problem that has been found with the devices. If that proves to be true, in the long run, Microsoft very well might have to end up paying out some money to those that have been affected by the issue. There's still a lot more left to come in this story though to be sure and we likely won't see an official conclusion for quite some time.

What do you think about this entire ongoing situation? And have you had any drifting issues with your own Xbox controllers that you may own? Let me know your thoughts either down in the comments or hit me up on Twitter at @MooreMan12 if you'd like to chat more.

[H/T VGC]