Switch Controller Conspiracy

[Variety.Gamer 4438]

My sister came up with the idea that similar to how cars nowadays break down on purpose as a way to get the consumer to shell out money for repairs, Nintendo and other game companies may be designing crappy controllers on purpose in order to make more money off of consumers buying warranties for their controllers and eventually buying new controllers altogether when the warranties expire.

If there is any truth to this, this is a very shady and unnecessary practice imo for video game companies to undergo especially with all the plethora of ways they make money already, i.e. collectibles for use in games, spin-off board games, and paid DLC just to name a few. I'm just not so sure I want to support Nintendo in this practice and I am thinking about just playing my retro systems' video games, as well as more computer games, for the most part and no longer buying Nintendo's new products and games until Nintendo decides to fix their controllers and bring them back to how they used to be.

 

[Romaki]

I don't see how that'd help them. Joy cons are not iPhones, they're much easier to repair too. This whole situation is bad PR and if Nintendo needs to make more money (which they don't considering the profit from Pokémon GO and everything else), they can just release new Joy Con colors. I'm surprised they haven't released much more colors. I think the drift is an issue that's too common. Like, 0.01% might be less visible than like 0.1%. But if they'd plan it, that'd be something that would affect much more controllers. Maybe I'm just biased because I have 4 Joy Cons that had no issues in almost 2 years. But Nintendo makes enough money from so many sources, they don't need the PR nightmare.

 

[eggie_]

part of me really wants to buy into the conspiracy theory lol! but as the user above said, it would just be such bad pr and definitely not worth it for nintendo
if anything i really think the poor joystick problem really just comes from trying to find a way to cut the cost on parts so they can sell it a bit more cheaply. thats one of nintendo's selling points - more affordable than brands like xbox and sony, and family friendly to boot, so more people who play games casually and less intensively are buying the system. the people who only play a few hours a week or a few minutes on the train honestly probably arent going to get joycon drift. they probably figured anyone who plays games more frequently would buy a pro controller anyways.
so yeah i think it just comes down to cheapness and logistics

 

[DarkDesertFox]

I mentioned this in another thread, but Microsoft is just as guilty with their Xbox One controllers. I've had a ton of them break on me over the years because they are made of the cheapest materials. Broken bumpers, broken triggers, stick drift, etc. I think in Nintendo's case it's just poor design. I would just switch to the HORI controller for the Switch, but it only works in portable mode and does not include gyro controls. The problem is we can't go any where else for joy con alternatives because of the motion tech. It's too difficult to replicate for other companies. Nintendo just needs to really release a better designed alternative or updated model.

 

[ForgottenT]

There's no way that they didn't know about the joycons, mine broke after a couple months.
And yet they still haven't fixed the design.

 

[Belle T]

Rather than "intentionally making faulty controllers," it's more likely that they're simply not financially incentivized into making better controllers. JoyCon malfunctions are genuine, legitimate problems, but rather than complaining to Nintendo or taking their wallets elsewhere, people are just buying more JoyCons to replace the broken ones. So essentially, Nintendo really has no need to invest any amount of time and resources to actually fixing the problem.

Coincidentally, I was actually just talking about this in a group chat. Nintendo controllers have always been sort of... lackluster. They're great when they work, but when they mess up, they really mess up. I have so many war flashbacks associated with analog drift on my GameCube controllers. And the N64 joystick was the most prone to breaking of any I've ever seen, even accounting for its time in history. It's not a conspiracy to get people to buy warranties, it's Nintendo being Nintendo. The difference is that the Switch just happens to align with a period of time when Nintendo is extremely relevant in pop culture again for the first time in a couple of console generations, so this old wound feels new to many people.

That's not to say that Nintendo products are completely cheap and you shouldn't buy them or anything. They do work more often than they don't, but these sort of issues have always been a problem with Nintendo.

 

[Damniel]

i think Nintendo was trying to cut down on the costs of joycons as much as they can which leads to all these malfunctions. i’ve heard some people never having any issues with drift, so it may also just been poor quality control and the wonky controllers just passing through. I don’t think they really had to care until they got a big fat lawsuit over it

Nintendo’s customer support site allows you to send in your joycons for inspection/repair for free, so they’re certainly not benefiting from their defects now. Once the costs of continually having too provide free repairs becomes to high, they may start to improve the quality control and put a fee on future controllers

this case actually reminds me a lot of Apple’s issues with their butterfly keyboards on the new Macbooks. When they had come out, they broke down so often with dust/debris getting displaced under the keys. These complaints ultimately led to apple offering free repair for broken keyboards and now the newer models have newer improved keyboard designs. i could see the joycon issue turning out the same

i don’t think the intention was so consumers would have to buy new controllers/warranties, but Nintendo wanted to cut costs and didn’t mind if people had to buy replacements until the complaints turned into a lawsuit

 

[Belle T]

i think Nintendo was trying to cut down on the costs of joycons as much as they can which leads to all these malfunctions. i’ve heard some people never having any issues with drift, so it may also just been poor quality control and the wonky controllers just passing through. I don’t think they really had to care until they got a big fat lawsuit over it

I had forgotten about that whole lawsuit business. Whoops.

 

[dragonair]

My sister came up with the idea that similar to how cars nowadays break down on purpose as a way to get the consumer to shell out money for repairs, Nintendo and other game companies may be designing crappy controllers on purpose in order to make more money off of consumers buying warranties for their controllers and eventually buying new controllers altogether when the warranties expire.

You don't buy a warranty for your Joy-Con, a one year warranty is applied to your console (including the Joy-Con) as soon as it's purchased. Certain countries at this point now allow you to send in your Joy-Con even if they warranty has expired for a free repair. Nintendo has also been working with different developers on improving the Joy-Con's design. So this doesn't really check out lol.

 

[Hobowire]

there was a discussion for a class action lawsuit against faulty joycon with the drift. Recently even when the joycon is out of warrantee Nintendo honor the repair of joycon drift but it take a while for them to respond.

If you are tech competent I suggest replacing yourself. There are plenty of DIYs videos and the task is relatively simple.

 

[dragonair]

Recently even when the joycon is out of warrantee Nintendo honor the repair of joycon drift but it take a while for them to respond.

Usually it goes a lot quicker but due to COVID and understaffing it's taken a bit longer as they set these up by hand. The amount of time it's taken lately isn't the usual.

 

[Larsi]

If you are tech competent I suggest replacing yourself. There are plenty of DIYs videos and the task is relatively simple.

 

[Hypno KK]

Other techn companies 100% do this. They make sure that the hardware and software becomes obsolete or broken very fast so people will people will be forced to buy new ones. Worse, in some places your rights as a costumer are bad and there are no Right to Repair (look it up) laws.

The joy cons? Nah. They're just poor design. There's 0 reason for Nintendo to use this as a way to make money when it's something people have complained about. There are alternatives from other brands so it's not even guaranteed that people would buy new Joycons. Finally, in places like Europe electronics have a 2-year warranty and I think joycons are covered under this, so they'd be losing money in markets where this is the case.

 

[JSS]

My only gripe with the joycons other than their joysticks is that they can feel uncomfortable at times especially at first. I like the firmness of the other buttons though

 

[Alexander97]

Never really thought about it in that sense. I always assumed Nintendo were the nicer company out of the big three, but it does seem to make sense since Sony’s dual sense has begun to do the same issues as Nintendo’s joycons. If this is a strategy by the company’s then this is not going to end well for them. After all, they are hurting their reputation, and as much as you deny it, the news will eventually get out there, and the more people complain the less others will want your products.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

personally I think it is done because cheaper materials means cheaper purchase costs. I would buy into your theory more, if the joycons last a bit longer than they do. I mean it is known that consoles aren't made like they use to... and old consoles continuing to work is money lost for new consoles. Old consoles and old games (think about physical vs digital) sold to other people when you are done is also money lost.
Old games that could be a remake on a new console is now a bump in the plan of making more money if the old games and old consoles that went with the games were still operational.
Or perhaps the joycons were miscalculated on how soon they'd break...lol.

 

[sleepydreepy]

My sister came up with the idea that similar to how cars nowadays break down on purpose as a way to get the consumer to shell out money for repairs, Nintendo and other game companies may be designing crappy controllers on purpose in order to make more money off of consumers buying warranties for their controllers and eventually buying new controllers altogether when the warranties expire.

If there is any truth to this, this is a very shady and unnecessary practice imo for video game companies to undergo especially with all the plethora of ways they make money already, i.e. collectibles for use in games, spin-off board games, and paid DLC just to name a few. I'm just not so sure I want to support Nintendo in this practice and I am thinking about just playing my retro systems' video games, as well as more computer games, for the most part and no longer buying Nintendo's new products and games until Nintendo decides to fix their controllers and bring them back to how they used to be.

Not sure if this is completely true, since at least for the infamous joy-con drift, you can actually send them into a Nintendo repair service for free and have them fixed with no additional costs. If Nintendo did not pay for these repairs I would be livid, since I've now had joy con drift 3 times and would have had to pay for 3 separate joy cons.

BUT could potentially be somewhat true since the very first version of the switch released had a very limited battery life, only for it to be upgraded a couple years later. This could have been a play to get most people to buy the switch "twice." I wouldn't put it past current-day Nintendo since they have seemingly been "cutting corners" and exploiting loyal fans for their money (@sword and shield lol)