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After several years, two lawsuits brought against Nintendo over Joy-Con drift issues are reportedly set to come to a close, after both Nintendo and the individuals who filed the class action complaints allegedly called for their dismissal.
'Joy-Con drift' refers to a fault sometimes found in the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con controllers, which sees the control sticks start responding to inputs incorrectly. Sometimes, inputs might be detected when players aren't touching the sticks at all, while other times, the controller's input might get stuck in a direction for longer than it should, or the sticks might not register movements accurately at all. While it doesn't occur in every Joy-Con, there's no doubt that it's frustrating when it does, especially given that new sets of Joy-Con controllers don't come cheap.
As Game File's Stephen Totilo reports, the class action complaint Diaz vs. Nintendo, which was filed in 2019, and Carbajal vs. Nintendo, which was filed in 2020, both initially alleged that Nintendo had conducted "unfair, deceptive, and/or fraudulent business practices," which caused the plaintiffs and other Switch owners to suffer "an unascertainable loss".
NEW - 5 years of efforts to sue Nintendo over Joy-Con drift have all but ended with a whimperPlaintiffs (parents/kids) and defendant (Nintendo) in the 2 main class action claims in the U.S., filed in 2019/20, agreed last week to call for their dismissal https://t.co/dTLhP7Wzci pic.twitter.com/DEJM76F9y9May 13, 2024
Now though, Totilo writes that both Nintendo and plaintiffs Diaz and Carbajal have called for their respective cases to be dismissed. On the cases' CourtListener pages (which you can find here and here), the most recent changes made on May 13 both state: "Terminate Civil Case." It's not clear at this time why this has suddenly happened with both cases.
Lawsuits aside, if you do happen to experience any Joy-Con drift issues, you might still be able to get it sorted out at no extra cost. Last year, Nintendo confirmed that in the UK, Switzerland, and European Economic Area countries, it will repair drifting Joy-Con controllers even out of warranty for free for the foreseeable future. At the time, the company noted: "Nintendo takes great pride in creating high-quality and durable products and is continuously making improvements to them."
If you're looking for more games to play, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Nintendo Switch games.
