She should still be the star at the foot of Christmas trees: the Switch, the game console Nintendo will exceed three million copies sold in France for the holidays. But there is a shadow on the board: a recurring problem with the controllers that prevents thousands of users from playing correctly. UFC-Que Choisir has just called Nintendo to fix the problem as soon as possible.
"My Switch takes dust"
Said problem is the sweet name of "Joy-Con drift": "Joy-Con" for the name given to the detachable knobs of the Switch and "drift" for "drift". Specifically, the handles affected by this bug create ghost movements: when you are playing but you do not touch anything, you will see your character move alone. "The problem is not recent, it has appeared since the launch of the Switch.But, over the months, we received more and more reports," says Laurie Liddell, UFC Que Choisir lawyer.
It must be said that this problem can be embarrassing, or even prevent play altogether. "I bought my switch a year and a half ago, it cost me a lot of money, I had to pay for it a few times, I bought Zelda and two months later I realize that the character advances alone.In the beginning, it was not disturbing, but the more time passes and the more it became very difficult to play, "says Cedric to Europe 1. As frustrated as he is angry, he says he is disappointed by Nintendo. "Normally, they make quality products, and my Switch takes dust, I can not even play it!"
"Drift" has also been reported on models of the Nintendo Switch Lite, released this year. Except that on this model, the joysticks are attached to the console. In case of bug, it is therefore the Switch itself that must be changed, and it is not the same price.
Towards a free replacement of joysticks?
In less than a week, the UFC-Que Choisir received more than 6,000 testimonies similar to that of Cédric. Beyond the technical defect, the consumer association aims at the after-sales service of Nintendo. "Today, the only option is to send your console with the controllers to Nintendo If you are not under warranty, then we offer three solutions: the exchange of Joy-Con, the price 45 euros, or the return of the defective controller subject to paying 15 euros or its destruction in one month, "says Laurie Liddell.
With this formal notice, the UFC Que-Choisir wants Nintendo to support free repair of dysfunctional joysticks, even when the one-year warranty is exceeded, because the bug can be revealed at any time. So, the association decided to go to the niche before the children wrote their letter to Santa: "The Nintendo Switch is going to be a key holiday gift, so it seemed important to inform the parents that the problem is likely to happen to them and that, in this case, it will be necessary to plan to buy a pair of joysticks in the months that follow ".
UFC Que-Choisir hopes that Nintendo will agree to replace defective controllers and consoles free of charge, whether under warranty or not. A possible situation since it is already the case in the United States since this summer, after a collective action of consumers put Nintendo at the foot of the wall.