Drifting over to Europe
For a while, Nintendo kind of took a silent approach to the “Joy-Con drift” Switch hardware issues. Eventually, the number of impacted consumers hit critical mass and they had to respond: by offering free repairs. Although Europe and the UK have done this on a case-by-case basis (and not necessarily out of warranty): that’s changing now with a grander, more sweeping statement on the Nintendo EU support pages. In other words, the UK and Europe are getting a little deal-sweetener as of this month.
Here’s the full statement from Nintendo of Europe about the situation:
“Nintendo takes great pride in creating high-quality and durable products and is continuously making improvements to them. Therefore and until further notice, Nintendo offers to consumers who purchased the respective product in the EEA, UK and Switzerland that repairs for responsiveness syndrome relating to control sticks will be conducted at no charge by official Nintendo repair centres.”
Nintendo even calls this “responsiveness syndrome” or “so-called drifting” (ha!) on their official site. Here’s how you can actually get it fixed if you live in the aforementioned areas.
A link to book a repair for Joy-Con in Europe or the UK
You can find the full breakdown on this page here. Nintendo also has a full customer support page to book a Joy-Con repair here. I’ve actually had two pairs of Joy-Con repaired in the US, and it was a painless process. Hopefully this policy is here to stay and everyone can get their controllers fixed going forward.
Update: The European Commission sheds some more light on why the repairs are being offered so freely
On their Linkedin page directly following the spread of this news, the European Commission (which is an organization self-described as “represent[ing] and uphold[ing] the interests of the EU as a whole”) provided a statement on the Europe/UK-centric Joy-Con repair situation, and their direct role in the turnaround on Nintendo’s Joy-Con repair policy:
“Let’s-a go! We’ve got news that’s even better than finding a hidden 1-up mushroom. 🍄 We’ve recently contacted Nintendo to address the recurring technical problem with defective Switch controllers, and we’re happy to report that they’ve agreed to offer all consumers the right to repair, free of charge, even beyond the legal guarantee! This will prevent the disposal of unrepaired controllers and unnecessary waste. So don’t wait, jump into action and get your controllers repaired for free.”
Combined with the aforementioned direct links from Nintendo, that says pretty much everything that needs to be said about the Joy-Con situation. You have an out if your controllers are drifting, even outside of the normal warranty limitations. It only took six years for some regions!
[Thanks John!]
