Nintendo will now fix Joy-Con drift for free and refund previous repairs

Recently, we reported on how a class action lawsuit had been filed against Nintendo America.

The lawsuit revolved around the Joy-Con drift issue, where the joystick on the Joy-Con assumes it’s receiving input even though nobody is touching it. This causes the controller to ‘drift’, causing unintended effects in game.

Now, according to an article from Vice, internal Nintendo documentation states that the Joy-Con drift issue has become large enough that Nintendo has instructed its customer service representatives that the company will officially fix Joy-Con drift issues free of charge, regardless of warranty status.

Nintendo will also refund any customer who has previously sent in their Joy-Cons for repair, as long as they request it.

Vice says that the internal customer service memo says the following:

“Customers will no longer be requested to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs. Additionally it is not necessary to confirm warranty status. If a customer requests a refund for a previously paid Joy-Con repair […] confirm the prior repair and then issue a refund.”

However, as Eurogamer state, it appears that the goodwill repair program is currently only in action in America, as Nintendo of Europe’s customer service apparently know nothing about it.

Nintendo still have yet to comment on the class action lawsuit or issue any sort of direct comment about the Joy-Con drift issue.