Nintendo is settling a long-running dispute in France over the original Switch’s notorious Joy-Con drift, agreeing to pay a €35 million ($40 million) fine to the country’s consumer protection agency, the DGCCRF.
The French watchdog accused Nintendo of misleading commercial practices and planned obsolescence. According to the investigation, Nintendo was aware of the widespread stick drift issue, where the controller’s analog sticks register phantom movements, as early as 2018.
However, the company failed to properly notify consumers until 2020. Because Nintendo remained quiet about the defect, many players simply bought replacement controllers instead of utilizing the company’s free repair program.
Despite the €35 million payout, Nintendo is standing its ground. In a statement to Le Monde, the company denied intentionally misleading buyers, stating that the fine does not constitute an admission of guilt and reflects only the amicable resolution of legal proceedings. Recent financial filings from the company show a matching ¥6.4 billion loss on litigation, effectively confirming the settlement on the balance sheet.
Joy-Con drift was a defining, frustrating hardware flaw for the original Switch’s 155 million user base. Investigations by consumer groups previously attributed the drift to a fundamental design flaw, specifically rapid wear on the joystick slider’s plastic circuit boards.
While Nintendo quietly revised later Joy-Con models to mitigate the wear, it has historically avoided discussing the exact hardware changes. Fortunately for current players, the company seems to have learned from the hardware misstep. The Switch 2 has been on the market for a year now, and so far, there are no widespread reports of the dreaded drift returning to Nintendo’s newest console.
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