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A Child And Their Mother Are Suing Nintendo Over Switch Joy-Con Drift

Mike Diver

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A Child And Their Mother Are Suing Nintendo Over Switch Joy-Con Drift

Featured Image Credit: Nintendo

I mean, sometimes a headline just says it all, doesn't it? Just when you thought Nintendo might have been going somewhere with the whole Joy-Con drift thing - albeit by saying, weirdly and wrongly, that drift isn't a real problem - in swoops a kid to say: yo, no.

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As reported by Gamespot, via Wired, said child (named as M.S. in the lawsuit) and their mother (not the ones pictured in this article!) have started legal proceedings in the US, after the kid's Switch controller began to drift after just a month of use. A second set of Joy-Cons was bought but these, two, have exhibited the same problem - movement of an avatar without the player so much as touching the stick.

Luz Sanchez, the mother of the case, has filed a lawsuit that seeks $5m in damages - which does seem a bit steep when you're talking about controllers that cost (several) tens of dollars. Her lawyers put the case forward that Nintendo "has had a financial motive to conceal the defect, as it did not want to stop selling the Products, and/or would need to expend a significant amount of money to cure the defect".

The Nintendo Switch, with Joy-Cons detached / Credit: Nintendo
The Nintendo Switch, with Joy-Cons detached / Credit: Nintendo
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Both Nintendo and Sanchez's lawyers declined to comment further on the matter, as reported by Wired. Wired also quote a law professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law, who says that "businesses are obligated to disclose information about a product that would change the value of the product," which suggests that Nintendo are being pretty naughty for not making it clear, in their own marketing, that Joy-Cons can experience the drifting issue.

I mean, I understand why they wouldn't. But from a legal perspective, the same professor, Christine Bartholomew, adds: "a company has that information and doesn't share it, that would be considered misconduct within the reach of law."

Nintendo Switch play / Credit: Nintendo
Nintendo Switch play / Credit: Nintendo
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I can confirm that Nintendo's previously reported position that "this isn't a real problem or hasn't caused anyone any inconvenience" is, I'm sorry, kinda baloney. Even mild drift has impacted my enjoyment of games as different as Hades and Mario's Super Picross, of late. And I'm a patient player, who accepts that things with lots of complex components will likely deteriorate over time, through use.

But I have controllers from the 1980s and '90s that still work fine, while a pair of Joy-Cons - both of my pairs of Joy-Cons, actually - do not work as they should anymore. Geralt walking off a cliff by himself: that's disappointing. I should probably buy some new ones, huh.

Topics: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo

Mike Diver
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