Two of the longest running Joy-Con drift lawsuits have just ended, with a whimper.
As reported by GoNintendo, the two cases are Diaz vs. Nintendo from 2019, and Carbajal vs. Nintendo from 2020. Both cases have just been closed, with a verdict of dismissal with prejudice by the plaintiff.
What the verdict means will likely confound some of you reading this. It means that the plaintiffs, AKA, the families suing Nintendo, have agreed to drop their lawsuits. But even more alarming, under the terms this case has ended, they have also agreed that they have no chance of suing Nintendo for the same situation again.
No official reason has been reported for why the lawsuits were ended, but there is enough information on there for us to at least make some educated guesses. If you may remember, many of these cases, and that does include Diaz vs. Nintendo, alleged that Nintendo knowingly sold controllers that they knew were defective.
These bring back to mind other video game device controversies, such as the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death, the PlayStation 3’s Yellow Light of Death, and the Wiimote wrist strap lawsuit. However, the key point of contention is the claim that Nintendo knew that the product was defective when they sold it.
For whatever critics may say of Nintendo or their lawyers, in this case, no one has made a credible argument that Nintendo knew the Joy-Con analog sticks, which were also found in the Switch Pro Controller, were defective. Speculation on the reason for these issues have pointed to possible problems with new parts suppliers, or issues with how these parts are manufactured that were not present before.
Whatever the case, it also took a few years for some fans to find out that the popular claim for a few years that replacing those joysticks with hall effect joysticks didn’t actually fix the issue. There are scattered posts online of people who found that their hall effect joysticks also came up with defects.
While manufacturers like Gulikit are good for replacements, we should consider why the supposed solution for the drift issue also needs its own replacements.
Nintendo, for their part, started offering free repairs for Joy-Con drift across officially supported regions. However, if you bring in your Joy-Con for repair in a third party shop, they will cite for you that repairs are relatively minor and easy. Some consumers with the training and dexterity to deal with the small parts can do the repair themselves.
Ultimately, the drift controversy did not affect Nintendo’s ability to sell their Switch consoles. With a new console in the horizon, we all certainly hope that Nintendo will ensure that it won’t be an issue again.
