Nintendo apologises for ‘trouble’ caused by Joy-Con drift

[ UPDATE 6/07/2020 12:30 ] Maxsoft told us that there are no official notices from Nintendo with regards to repairing Joycon drift issues in Malaysia yet.

The Nintendo Switch, despite being an extremely popular gaming console has had quite a few problems. But a really common complaint is the Joy-Con, as users are reporting joystick drifting problems—and after facing a lawsuit in the U.S. regarding the controllers, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa apologises for ‘any trouble caused to our customers’.

Joy-Con drift is an issue where the analog sticks on the controllers to randomly move around and input commands to the console, even when they’re not being physically moved. The problem not only affects the detachable Joy-Cons on regular Switches, but the analog sticks on Nintendo Switch Lites.

“Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologise for any trouble caused to our customers. We are continuing to aim to improve our products, but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would like to refrain from responding about any specific actions,” Furukawa said in the statement.

The lawsuit was first filed back in July 2019, but after the Nintendo Switch Lite had similar reports of drifting controls, it added to the suit a few months later. In response, Nintendo began issuing free repairs for the Joy-Cons afflicted with the drift.

In the U.S., customers won’t need to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs. However, according to the Malaysian branch of MaxSoft Pte Ltd (the sole and official distributor of Nintendo products in Singapore and Malaysia) in 2019, they will only service defective Switch consoles or accessories that are currently under warranty. I’ve reached out for them and will update on the matter if they do reply.