Nintendo: Court rejects company's motion to dismiss controversial Joy-Con drift lawsuit

There is no denying that the Nintendo Switch has been a huge hit among gamers since its debut three years ago. It is an underpowered game system compared to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but it managed to catch up to Sony and even dethrone Microsoft. Despite all the praises showered upon it from reviewers and consumers, the hybrid console is not without its fair share of troubles. Now the controversial Joy-Con drift lawsuit filed against the manufacturer in 2019 is moving forward in arbitration.

While it seemed that Nintendo had another hit on its hands after the Switch officially launched on March 3, 2017, news started coming in about quality issues. Some reported problems with the housing which cracked in certain spots, others complained about the lack of a backup feature. Then came qualms about the connectivity of the right Joy-Con, which was eventually recognised as a manufacturing defect.

However, one thing persisted ever since and it was the ghosts movements registered by the analogue sticks of the controllers called "drift." The Joy-Con drift class-action lawsuit was filed by Ryan Diaz, a Seattle resident, as published by Screen Rant. After sending his faulty Joy-Con back to Nintendo for repairs, the problem resurfaced after a few months. At this point, the manufacturer allegedly refused to shoulder the expenses to have it repaired once more or even replaced.

The Japanese gaming company requested the court to dismiss the class-action lawsuit, but it was denied by U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly of the Western District of Washington, Seattle. On the other hand, he approved the motion to move the case to arbitration. If an agreement from both parties does not come into fruition during the allotted time period, the case will return to court.

The original Joy-Con drift class-action lawsuit was later modified to include the Switch Lite which launched on September 20, 2019. Despite the positive outlook from consumers that the handheld-only version would finally resolve the long-standing problem. Regrettably, soon after the new model's release, complaints started coming up about ghosts movements all over again. In fact, a French consumer magazine even labelled the Nintendo Switch as the most fragile product of 2019.