Switch 2 Haunted by Specter of Stick Drift
With reports already coming in that Switch 2 controllers are coming out of the box defective, the ghost of Stick Drift Past is haunting Nintendo. The first Switch had serious issues with its Joy Cons, and now users are concerned history will repeat itself.
Although it was only released on June 5, 2025, Nintendo reported that the Switch 2 sold 3.5 million units worldwide within the first four days. However, one user took to Reddit on June 7 to share a video showing a brand new Joy Con that came with stick drift.
“I got my Switch 2 from Walmart on Thursday but was unable to use it until Friday. The left Joy-Con felt a little cattywampus, but I still was able to play Mario Kart World,” NearlyCrossing said.
“Today, Saturday 6/7, the stick felt worse when pushing right. I guess I already had stick drift or something. Tried to recalibrate it in the Switch Settings, and it showed the joystick all messed up. Called Nintendo and now have to send it in for repair.”
Joy Con Con Job
Another Reddit user, lychee_francais, also shared details on stick drift in their brand new Joy Con. Two users out of millions is certainly a tiny blip, but it does tie into a genuine concern that many gamers have had regarding Nintendo’s Switch tech for quite a while.
Nintendo does promise to repair any defective Joy Cons for free, provided they’re still under warranty. In the US, this means within 12 months of purchase (as stated on Nintendo’s site). Switch 2 users in the EU, meanwhile, get a warranty of 24 months.
Nintendo launched free Joy Con repairs for US players in July 2019, ahead of a class action lawsuit due to “Joy Con Drift,” as it was dubbed at the time. The reason EU users get a longer warranty is thanks to a court case launched in 2021 and closed in 2023. BEUC, the European Consumer Organization (which includes member organisations from across the EU) filed a complaint against Nintendo for premature obsolescence.
“This complaint was filed by consumer organisations who were inundated with almost 25,000 complaints about the so-called ‘Joy Con Drift’ issue,” the BEUC said in an official report on its site in April 2023.
“This meant that controllers began to swerve players’ characters across the screen uncontrollably. According to consumer testimonies, in 88% of cases the controllers of what is one of the most popular games consoles on the market broke within the first two years of use. This meant a lot of trouble for consumers who had to try to get their product repaired or simply bought new ones.”
The core of the complaint, and the class action lawsuit, was that Nintendo sent the Switch to market knowing full well that the Joy Con controllers would experience stick drift and would exhibit signs of this issue only a short while into the console’s lifespan.
Although it is too early to see any serious signs of this with the Switch 2, it doesn’t bode well that the new controllers’ tech is almost exactly the same as the original.
Nintendo’s Planned Obselence
It might be annoying and expensive for consumers, but planned obsolescence is a common business practice. Premature obsolescence, on the other hand, is when a device fails to work as intended within an unreasonable amount of time.
Howard Lincoln, former CEO of Nintendo of America, said in an interview held during CES 1995 that the lifetime of technology changes with the speed at which it improves, which is more true now than ever. “Certainly, Nintendo always plans to keep these hardware platforms in the market for five to 10 years,” he said, while talking about the then-upcoming N64 and previous consoles.
This pattern has been demonstrated repeatedly, though, including with the DS launch in 2004 followed by the 3DS in 2011, the Wii in 2006 followed by Wii U in 2012, and now the Switch in 2017 succeeded by the Switch 2 in 2025. Whether this means current Joy Cons will completely fail soon remains to be seen.
