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Kotaku: PS5 Controllers Are Drifting, And The Repairs Are A Hassle

FutureLarking

FutureLarking

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
787
Stacey said:
Exactly, why is anyone surprised at this?
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I have launch era GameCube and PS2 controllers that don't drift, and I've never had any Xbox controller drift. Not that I have a drifting DualSense yet, but I don't buy this all controllers drift thing. They certainly shouldn't be doing so within the first 6 months.

Still better than Nintendo though :p
 
Swearing.circle

Swearing.circle

Member
Mar 19, 2020
1,724
Just having mine sent back to me after I called in to get the drift on my controller fixed. I was on hold for 2 hours but they were very good once I got through to be fair.

The drift I had was insane and made games unplayable.
 
JTSilver

JTSilver

Games Actor
Verified
Sep 1, 2019
107
Why do seemingly all modern controllers eventually drift? As some have pointed out, older consoles didn't seem to suffer from it nearly as often.
 
NediarPT88

NediarPT88

Member
Oct 29, 2017
15,077
I see most people talking about drifting in the sense of the thumbsticks not centering properly, which can cause characters walking/cameras to rotate without touching the sticks, but those aren't the only issues unfortunately.

For example a problem I had in both my DS4 was the sticks not having full range of motion in some directions, which would cause characters to walk instead of running in some games.

Another problem is when the controller readings are completely wrong in certain spots, and for example let's say you are tilting your thumbstick to the right direction but somehow hit a spot where the game reads you are actually moving left, this can cause your character to behave erratically with jittery movement.

You can actually tell Richard from Digital Foundry has this problem in the controller he was using while showcasing Ghost of Tsushima on PS5 (it's probably a DS4 since the PS4 Pro version shows the same behavior in the same direction):

~3:52s if timestamp doesn't work:



Some of these problems aren't noticeable depending on the deadzones and ranges of motion in some games, so that's why some people might never notice them.
 
sumo

sumo

Member
Oct 30, 2017
636
FutureLarking said:
I have launch era GameCube and PS2 controllers that don't drift, and I've never had any Xbox controller drift. Not that I have a drifting DualSense yet, but I don't buy this all controllers drift thing. They certainly shouldn't be doing so within the first 6 months.
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that's just your experience. I've had gamecube controllers drift, DS4, xbox one, you name it. Also I remember the first dualshock sticks seemed to suffer really badly, they'd eventually just go limp. Fingers crossed but my joycons are doing fine so far.
 
Soap

Soap

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,167
In the U.K, should I try Sony support or amazon? Will amazon just send me a replacement controller or will they want the entire console back?
 
sumo

sumo

Member
Oct 30, 2017
636
Soap said:
In the U.K, should I try Sony support or amazon? Will amazon just send me a replacement controller or will they want the entire console back?
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It depends if the controller came with the console, if so then they will probably want the whole thing back, that's what happened with my friend and ShopTo. Sony sorted him out.
 
Pooroomoo

Pooroomoo

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,972
FutureLarking said:
I have launch era GameCube and PS2 controllers that don't drift, and I've never had any Xbox controller drift. Not that I have a drifting DualSense yet, but I don't buy this all controllers drift thing. They certainly shouldn't be doing so within the first 6 months.

Still better than Nintendo though :p
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How is this "still better than Nintendo"? Actually, reading people reporting this in this thread, it seems to be happening sooner than it does with Joycons... (which are bad enough in that regard)
 
StarErik

StarErik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
457
Zolbrod said:
I've been playing games since the Atari age, and I have seriously never experienced controller drift in my entire life until the Switch.
All of the controllers on my old hardware still work perfectly.
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Same here, but since SNES and N64. I own most consoles from the 3 major brands and all controllers still work flawlessly except for the Joy-Cons. I had never in my life experienced drift until Switch.
 

Lewpy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,210
Zolbrod said:
I've been playing games since the Atari age, and I have seriously never experienced controller drift in my entire life until the Switch.
All of the controllers on my old hardware still work perfectly.
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Yes, I'm in this category. Never had a problem with drift until the Switch. The idea that this is standard practice is ridiculous. Especially after only 3 months.

The DS4 never had a significant issue, so I'm not sure why people are claiming this is normal.
 
Arn

Arn

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,726
Never had a controller drift in my life, including every DualShock. The "this was inevitable" comments about a three month old console are the purest form of Yikes. Saying that, it is quite an alarmist piece to publish based on a Twitter search.
 

Deleted member 10795

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,302
Zolbrod said:
I've been playing games since the Atari age, and I have seriously never experienced controller drift in my entire life until the Switch.
All of the controllers on my old hardware still work perfectly.
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Yep. I can't believe how quickly some want to hand wave this stuff away. Outside of the N64, Dreamcast and Switch, I've owned every console day one since the PS1, inclusive of every PlayStation, and the Switch is the first time I'd ever even heard of drifting. Certainly the first time I'd ever been effected by it. I don't have drift on my DualSense yet but have some other concerns regarding the build quality.
 
Fizie

Fizie

Member
Jan 21, 2018
2,850
Ooof not good - although I'd be much more concerned about the issues people are having with the triggers and the haptic feedback

I'm pretty lucky as I've never suffered from drift - even my Switch is still fine *touch wood*
 
Pottuvoi

Pottuvoi

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,062
Per controller calibration would be nice feature.
Current design does fail often and it would some extra usable time for controllers.
 
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Kouriozan

Kouriozan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,065
It's really a big mess that the console industry is now ridden with this awful issue, it's so prevalent now I wonder why they're not trying to fix it. It should be priority number 1!
 
dom

dom

â–² Legend â–²
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,438
Didn't someone do testing and the DualSense had the smallest deadzones? That might also be playing into it. If the controller is tuned to have a small deadzone, then drift might become more apparent. This is also why older controllers might not see as much drift. Their deadzones are tuned to be far larger than current controllers.
 

Zedelima

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Oct 25, 2017
7,714
Oh no :( i had 4 faulty joy cons, dont want this problem with dualsense too ;(
 

Kordelle

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Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,612
I noticed some drifting while playing control... hope the good old alcohol cleaning helps.
 
Snake Eater

Snake Eater

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
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Oct 27, 2017
11,385
seeing all the excuses for poor manufacturing by a major company, you love to see it
 
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TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
inguef said:
They need to just support DS4 so we don't have to stress/shell out when the inevitable happens.
I'm already over the haptics, in COD they actually hurt to use. And for some reason COD keeps reverting the 'off' to 'on' when a major update happens.
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This, still waiting for the day I wake up and look on this site and see they did the right thing and allowed ds4 support.
 
Salpal

Salpal

Member
Oct 25, 2017
849
I sent mine in on Saturday. The drift was insanely bad. My brother has the exact same problem and will probably have to send his in.

It didn't start until the most recent controller update. Mid December, I think. A part of me thinks that update did something
 
DisturbedSwan

DisturbedSwan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,815
Hampshire, UK.
Never had issues myself. That article seems based on one guy on r/PS5 who had issues with his in Warzone (which reportedly has drift issues).

It's a bit of a non-story to me until we get more evidence and information.
 
60fps

60fps

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Dec 18, 2017
3,492
Kotaku said:
Few things about the PlayStation 5 are better than the DualSense controller. It feels terrific to hold, somehow just as solid as it is light.
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The Dualsense is light? I otherwise use the Dualshock 4 and Switch Pro Controller, and the Dualsense is by far the heaviest, and not in a good way.

I'm almost sure it is heavier than any of Sony's or Nintendo's main controllers before.
 
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Venom.

Venom.

Member
Oct 26, 2017
424
London
I was playing Skyrim on my PS5 and had the occasional moments of drift, I wasn't sure what it was at first and I did wonder if it was just a BC compatibility issue. But there were moments where it would spin like that video above and more - I captured some of it, might post. It didn't happen all the time and more often it would happen after a long play session of two hours. I contacted PlayStation UK support and went through resetting controller and PS5, but it didn't resolve the problem. So I called again and they asked me to send in my controller, and two weeks later, this morning I've just received a replacement controller.

I understand that Jim Ryan wants people to only experience PS5 games with all the PS5/DS features but with my controller gone I was only able to use a spare DualShock 4 so that was disappointing and I ended up buying a spare with credit I had at CEX (a second hand retailer.)

In all my years of PlayStation use this was my first hardware fault and it was resolved quickly by the support staff who were friendly enough. With a product that has sold millions there will always be a small percentage that has experienced problems. It will take a bit more time to know if the reports are just outliers or indicators of a bigger issue as happened with the MacBook butterfly keyboards. I'm absolutely fine, PlayStation handled it without making me jump through hoops. But if the new controller is busted then maybe I will start asking questions!


Djalminha said:
Honestly, Sony hasn't made a good controller since the PS2, they should focus on making one good, reliable controller before trying to reinvent the wheel.
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The DualShock 3 controller on PS3 was uncomfortable, I believe it was because it was a DS2 that was expanded to fit motion sensing technology and the ergonomics came second. The DualShock 4 was a big improvement. As for the DualSense it's a lovely controller, Sony completely rebooted the design and it feels so comfortable, it's up there with the 360 controller for me. Sony added haptics and adaptive triggers and this really complements games. Astro's Playroom was probably my highlight of 2020 gaming. Phil Spencer recognises how good it is that's why he's hinted at being inspired to bring these features to Xbox.
 
Squall93

Squall93

Member
Oct 29, 2017
295
Paris
Do we have a pourcentage of default Dualsense? No so it's too soon to have a judgement to the quality of this controller
 

Deleted member 9305

Oct 26, 2017
4,064
How many users are affected? Is it as bad as with the Switch?
 
Carn

Carn

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Oct 27, 2017
11,911
The Netherlands
Squall93 said:
Do we have a pourcentage of default Dualsense? No so it's too soon to have a judgement to the quality of this controller
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Not really. We have a bunch of Reddit-posts and various users here and there, versus 4.5 million PS5 sales.

That said, I did have drift and got a new controller. I do wonder if its from a different factory (or batch) since the backprint is different than the original controller that came with the PS5.
 
MrWindUpBird

MrWindUpBird

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,686
aevanhoe said:
That's exactly what I mean, the Joy-Con drift has affected a large number of users in a relevant time-frame so now we can say, without any doubt, that a lot of them failed and that this is a serious issue. With DualSense we just don't have data, so why would you assume the situation will be the same?
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Good thing I never said that it would be exactly the same. But there IS an issue when more than one person has come out talking about their drift issues. You've got many in this thread alone talking about it, so it's clearly not an isolated incident. I've had my Switch for a while and it didn't start to drift until last year, but you know what? I didn't say that it wasn't a problem just because my hadn't developed it at the time. As I have already said, there is an expectation that when you spend $70 on a controller, it shouldnt start to have problems less than a year after it's release.

You make a stink about it now because you have to hope that it can catch the attention of those who designed the damn thing so maybe, just maybe, they can fix it or they'll sit on their ass like Nintendo has and just eat up the lawsuits coming their way.
 
neptunez

neptunez

Member
Apr 21, 2018
1,863
I thought i was going crazy, my Dual Sense controller moves on its own without me touching it, but it doesn't happen all the time.

Is that drift?
 
Zebesian-X

Zebesian-X

Member
Dec 3, 2018
19,689
sirap said:
Have you tried the straw trick? It's what I use for my Elite Controllers, which are notorious for sticky face buttons.

Basically you take a regular straw, make one cut along it's length so that you can adjust the diameter, then shove it around the button. You can add alcohol to the tip of the straw too, this cleans up any grime/lint/dust that's stuck to the sides of the button.
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Hmm, that's interesting. I'll try that tonight, thanks!
 
Lightning Count

Lightning Count

Member
Jan 27, 2019
16,072
Fuck off
Interesting. I have never has any controller with drift so far, fingers crossed everything from my Master System pads right up to my DS4's which have seen regular heavy use since 2014 when I hit my PS4. All good so far.
 
Kholdy

Kholdy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
520
São Paulo, Brazil
Yeah, I have two controllers, one with L2 trigger getting lower tension (adaptive triggers still work fine but the trigger is definitely much more sensible than R2), the other one has drift in the right stick.

I bought my PS5 from Amazon Brazil and they do not exchange the controller only, so I got 20% of my money back.

I was holding on getting some replacement parts for my left joy con, just bought them and got some trigger springs for PS5 from China, just in case.

Very disappointed.
 
Coi

Coi

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Oct 27, 2017
1,808
I don't have any problem with my controller, but I'll definitely buy another soon because I don't have any official technical support around here.
 
Lashley

Lashley

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Oct 25, 2017
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At the risk of ruining my luck, I've never had a drift problem on any controller I've owned (yet)
 
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