Nintendo’s legal troubles surrounding its Switch Joy-Con controllers continue thanks to a new complaint filed earlier today in France. Dating as far back as the console’s release back in 2017, players have been complaining about a defect in the Switch controllers that causes an uncontrollable drift while playing, even if the joystick is in the neutral position.
This naturally proved to be problematic, and it wasn’t long before disgruntled players decided to take legal action against Nintendo for the company's apparent inability to correct the issue effectively. Last July, Seattle resident Ryan Diaz filed a lawsuit after a drifting problem in his Joy-Con controller continued even after Nintendo sent him a replacement. The US judge in charge of the case moved to continue the lawsuit in arbitration in early March, despite Nintendo’s efforts to have it dismissed, and the situation grew so bad that Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa acknowledged and apologized for the ever-persistent defect during a financial Q&A session in June. Unfortunately, it seems that the legal hits keep on coming for the long-running Japanese console giant.
According to French news site Le Monde, the consumer group known as UFC-Que Choisir filed a planned obsolescence claim against Nintendo to the Nanterre, Paris public prosecutor today. According to this claim, UFC-Que Choisir collected over 5,000 testimonies from consumers over just two days regarding the ongoing Switch Joy-Con defect, which experts say could be caused by “premature wear of the printed circuits” and “a lack of sealing which causes a worrying amount of debris and dust within the joystick.” A spokesman for UFC-Que Choisir stated in a press release announcing the obsolescence claim that 65 percent of the testimonials gathered for the case show a malfunction within the first two years, and 25 percent experienced Joy-Con drift within six months.
Aside from its continuing Joy-Con woes, Nintendo has had a pretty rough 2020. Back in April, the company suffered a massive data breach that left over 160,000 Nintendo Network IDs compromised, though thankfully, no personal information was accessed. Additionally, many Nintendo titles were delayed as a result of the recent outbreak of COVID-19, despite the developer initially assuring fans that they would remain unaffected by the global pandemic.
However, it is the Switch Joy-Con defect and its many resulting lawsuits and legal complaints that seem to be the most persistent and long-running dilemma facing Nintendo over the past few years. Having such a serious recurring issue in a company’s flagship product is problematic enough, but the fact that the issue has been a present part of the Switch’s lifespan is especially concerning. As a result, it seems that Nintendo’s legal troubles regarding its defective Switch Joy-Con controllers are only going to continue in the months to come.
Source: Le Monde, UFC-Que Choisir