Nintendo Joycon-Drift Glitch Provokes EU Complaint

The Joycon-Drift glitch causes characters to move without the controller being touched.

By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 28 January 2021 13:38 IST

Nintendo Joycon-Drift Glitch Provokes EU Complaint

The French consumer protection group would join a complaint against the Nintendo Switch console

Highlights

Nintendo has sold more than 68 million of the units worldwide
The glitch has been dubbed "Joycon-drift"
Around 25,000 players have reported being bothered by the problem

Japanese video game maker Nintendo will face an EU-wide complaint for premature wear of a joystick controller, French and EU consumer groups said Wednesday.

The French consumer protection group UFC-Que Choisir said it would join a complaint launched by The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) against recurring problems with the Nintendo Switch console.

The glitch has been dubbed "Joycon-drift".

It causes characters to move without the controller being touched and has occurred in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia, a BEUC statement said.

Nintendo ‘Laughed’ When Microsoft Tried to Buy It Prior to First Xbox

Around 25,000 players have reported being bothered by the problem, it added.

Que Choisir, which tests widely-used consumer products, said premature wear of electronic circuits and the lack of an effective seal were to blame for the problem.

"A worrisome quantity of debris and dust" was able to collect inside the joystick, it added.

Among Us Launched on Nintendo Switch as Cross-Platform Game

"According to consumer testimonies, in 88 percent of cases, the game controllers broke within the first two years of use," the BEUC statement said.

It called for a pan-European investigation and urged that Nintendo "be obliged to urgently address the premature failures of its product".

Meanwhile, the defective controllers should be repaired free of charge and consumers should be informed about their limited lifespan, it added.

Nintendo has sold more than 68 million of the units worldwide, BEUC said.

A European Commission spokesman said it had received the complaint from the consumer groups and over the coming weeks would "assess the need for further investigation into the matter and a possible coordinated action" by EU and national authorities.

Meanwhile, the bloc's consumer protection commissioner, Didier Reynders, said "early obsolescence is a growing concern for all consumers" and added that new initiatives in that area were in the works.

Does WhatsApp's new privacy policy spell the end for your privacy? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.