When the Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017, it was an immediate success. In February 2022, the Nintendo Switch reached 100 million sales, passing the Nintendo Wii and earning the distinction of being one of the top five bestselling consoles of all time. Despite the positive reception and impressive sales milestones, however, one persistent issue has somewhat tarnished the reputation of the portable console.
Shortly after the Nintendo Switch debuted, reports began popping up about Joy-Con drift, which causes the controllers to register inputs even when there are none. This is a frustrating issue that many players have experienced that causes characters, vehicles, or targeting reticles to move in undesired directions. The problem became so prevalent that over the years several class-action lawsuits have been filed against Nintendo for Joy-Con drift issues.
Nintendo quickly responded to customer complaints about their Joy-Con not behaving correctly. Gamers can send in their console to have the controllers repaired for free, even outside of warranty, and this work is contracted to third-party repair centers. Those living on the eastern side of the United States will likely have their Joy-Con serviced by a company called United Radio in New York, and now a former shop supervisor has spoken with Kotaku to reveal some of what goes on behind the scenes.
According to the former United Radio supervisor, the number of Joy-Con needing repairs was overwhelming, with hundreds arriving every day. In the first year after the Nintendo Switch launched, customers who sent in their controllers received brand new replacements. In 2018, however, United Radio started having to fix each set of controllers that came in, and Nintendo required the shop to repair 90% of the Joy-Con received within four days. The supervisor stated, “We ended up having to set up an entire new workspace just for Joy-Con repair.”
Not only were there thousands of controllers to repair every week, but the people employed to fix the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift issues were temporary employees hired through a staffing agency. This led to inexperienced workers, high turnover, and even people simply not showing up for work. According to the interview, most staff did not reach the three-month mark at United Radio. The problems were compounded by the fact that many employees were immigrants who did not speak English natively, meaning a staffer had to interpret for the English-speaking trainer, and it’s likely important elements were lost in translation.
The communication problems and “very stressful” amount of Joy-Con repairs meant that inevitably there were a few mix-ups. Kotaku recounts the story of one Nintendo Switch owner who received somebody else’s repaired console, losing their own save data as a result. Unfortunately, the Joy-Con drift issue still exists in the new Switch OLED. The company has stated that even the controllers of the original model passed quality control tests, and recently Nintendo’s Toru Yamashita compared Joy-Con drift to car tires wearing down with use.
Source: Kotaku
