Nintendo will now fix all drifting Joy-Cons in the UK and EEA, even if they’re out of warranty
The free service will continue “until further notice”
Nintendo has announced that it will repair all Joy-Con controllers suffering from Joy-Con drift in the EEA and UK, even if they’re out of warranty.
As spotted by Nintendo Life, a new page on the Nintendo Support website notes that anyone with a drifting Joy-Con can send it in for a free repair, regardless of how hold it is.
This is currently Nintendo’s policy in other regions such as North America, but this new development means it now extends to the EEA (which is the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), the UK and Switzerland.
“Until further notice, Nintendo will not charge you in the European Economic Area (EEA), UK and Switzerland for the repair of the responsiveness syndrome irrespective of whether this is caused by a defect or by wear and tear,” the site states.
The only exceptions to this are if the issue has been caused by a third-party accessory, if it has been caused by accidental damage or negligence, or if someone has already opened up the controller to try to fix the stick.
Last year UK consumer group Which? urged Nintendo to open an internal investigation into the persistent issue of Joy-Con drift.
Joy-Con drift has affected the Nintendo Switch since its launch in 2017, and despite revisions in the Joy-Con internals, it’s a problem that reportedly persists, even with newly issued Joy-Con controllers.
In June 2022 a former supervisor at a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con repair centre in the US claimed the company was inundated with faulty controllers.
Further reading
UK watchdog calls on Nintendo to compensate users who bought new Joy-Cons due to drift
An ex-employee told Kotaku that at one point, “easily thousands of Joy-Cons were coming through each week.” They added: “We ended up having to set up an entire new workspace just for Joy-Con repair.”
Customers who sent in faulty Joy-Cons from 2017-2018 were reportedly sent new replacements, but after the first year, it’s claimed the repair centre was required to repair every set of controllers.
