UFC Que-Choisir (French consumers group) is suing Nintendo for planned obsolescence (around 65% of joycon failures happen after less than a year)

[Oreiller]

Article in French

France's main consumers group is suing Nintendo because they claim Nintendo is knowingly selling Joy-Cons that are designed to fail after less than a year of regular use. According to their study, around 65% of surveyed consumers said their joycons failed after less than a year regardless of the user's profile and how much they play. 25% failed after less than 6 months. Some machine-translated pieces of the article:

After having collected more than 5,000 testimonials in only forty-eight hours, they decided to "diligently conduct an expertise on several defective controllers, more or less recent, in order to analyze the origin of this failure," they in their press release. Result :

"The experts noted that Nintendo had made changes to the design of its controllers a few months ago, but not to the problem that caused the failures. While Nintendo was informed of this malfunction, the Japanese giant chose not to intervene on the components subject to this failure. »

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Experts have found two possible causes for the problem: "premature wear of the printed circuit boards" and "a leak that causes a disturbing amount of debris and dust within the joystick". By not modifying these characteristics, denounces the association, "the company continues to sell joysticks that are destined to fail before the end of the first year of use, with full knowledge of the facts". According to the association, "Nintendo indulges in practices of programmed obsolescence".

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The thousands of testimonials received by the UFC-Que choisir have allowed it to get a more accurate picture of the problem:

"65% of consumer victims noticed this breakdown less than a year after purchasing the controllers. It appears regardless of the player's profile or age, even when playing less than five hours a week. Twenty-five percent of consumers even saw the failure occurring within six months of purchase, despite low usage of the console. »

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[Herb Alpert]

Read that this morning.
Well, it's deserved.

 

[Santos]

Good

 

[Theswweet]

Holy crap, 65%?

 

[Dust]

It's why I am holding off buying a Switch.

 

[Deleted member 10726]

It's legit why I don't even use the attached joycons on my Lite rather than an 8bitdo Pro mixed with a 3D printed stand.

They felt fragile from Day 1 onwards so I have 0 faith in their longevity.

 

[supervino256]

Nintendo should have done something about it ages ago : offer free support in Europe, redesign the damn thing and stop manufacturing the old design. They didn't communicate about it. Hopefully this will make things change.

 

[Arklite]

I bought an 8bitdo pad after a week with the Switch. The Joycons are trash, and any Switch buyer should factor in the cost of a replacement pad when buying one.

 

[WordsintheWater]

Good this is deserved.

 

[Rosebud]

Good. It's especially bad on the Switch Lite because you can't change them.

 

[Deleted member 8593]

If this is what it takes. They've done a shit job with how they've handled this issue.

 

[SoulsHunt]

65%, what the fuck is this shit.

 

[GHOSTDEATH]

I use my Switch Pro controller mostly but still no problem on my Joycons on my day 1 switch. 65% seems too much, where this number is coming from?

 

[Goslopo]

They're so expensive and so prone to breaking for no reason, I'm honestly surprised no one has taken them to court over this already. I doubt they actually end up getting anything out the the lawsuit, but hopefully it prompts Nintendo to actually do something to help the situation.

 

[Alien Bob]

65% seems extreme but even 6.5% would be too much

 

[Chainsawkitten]

65% of consumer victims noticed this breakdown less than a year after purchasing the controllers.

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So 65% of joycons that fail do so within a year. Not 65% of all joycons fail, since it's a survey of "consumer victims", not all consumers?

 

[MouldyK]

I use my Switch Pro controller mostly but still no problem on my Joycons on my day 1 switch. 65% seems too much, where this number is coming from?

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more than 5,000 testimonials in only forty-eight hours

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This calls for an Era Poll.

 

[mopinks]

I use my Switch Pro controller mostly but still no problem on my Joycons on my day 1 switch. 65% seems too much, where this number is coming from?

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I've owned three drifty joycons so 65% sounds kinda low on my end

 

[Aran]

How the hell did this thing reach the market if 65 % of the controllers fail. Cheering for the consumer group to win big with this fiasco.

 

[Phabh]

Yep, it's deserved.

 

[Deleted member 10726]

I use my Switch Pro controller mostly but still no problem on my Joycons on my day 1 switch. 65% seems too much, where this number is coming from?

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Testimonials received by the UFC-Que choisir, meaning most likely every single one of the thousands they received were about broken Joycons, with 65% of them reporting failure within a year.

 

[delete]

Yeah nintendo fucked up.

 

[S1kkZ]

They're so expensive and so prone to breaking for no reason, I'm honestly surprised no one has taken them to court over this already. I doubt they actually end up getting anything out the the lawsuit, but hopefully it prompts Nintendo to actually do something to help the situation.

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outside of europe, they did and nintendo was forced to repair joycons (even outside of warranty). its only europe were they can fuck over consumers.

 

[mclem]

Legal pressure is a good thing, although I have to admit those stats surprise me, they sound very high; none of mine have.

Edit: Ah, the later clarifications make a lot of sense.

 

[Homura]

Good.
Hopefully this leads to free Joycon repairs in Europe. (I bet Switch Pro releasing next year will have fixed Joycons btw)

 

[Issen]

Good. This shit makes me fucking livid.

I've owned three drifty joycons so 65% sounds kinda low on my end

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100% of my SIX joycons (bought at different times) have drifted.

I've also had SL/SR/Sync/LED strip failures (these are again caused by extraordinarily shit design) and battery failures (probably not Ninty's fault but icing on the cake for my experience).

 

[Hermii]

I hope Nintendo looses.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

But will they win. I haven't been confident in any of the European proceedings of these sort of lawsuits ever since Nintendo won against the no-refund thing.

 

[Oreiller]

I use my Switch Pro controller mostly but still no problem on my Joycons on my day 1 switch. 65% seems too much, where this number is coming from?

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From a study UFC conducted by surveying thousands (more than 5000) consumers. They haven't made their study public yet (they're probably waiting for the trial to publicize it) but they're beyond legit.

 

[Noppie]

65% of consumer victims noticed this breakdown less than a year after purchasing the controllers.

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This does not say '65% of joy-cons fail', this says: 'for people who's joy-con fails, 65% happens within a year of purchase'

That's not even close to the same, very misleading topic title.

They're obviously in the right to do this, the joy-con situation has been handled horribly.

 

[Ravager777]

I have 4 joycons since 2017. Not a single one is malfunctioning.

 

[-shadow-]

Can't believe the sticks to this very day haven't been redesigned on the inside. You'd think they would've done so after the problem became widespread two years back, but they're still using that generic part...

I have 4 joycons since 2017. Not a single one is malfunctioning.

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My six (neon red/blue pair and purple/orange) don't either still, but I've used enough drifting Joy-Con to know the issue is very real and very frustrating.

 

[Ombala]

Good finally, I haven't bought a Switch and this is one of the reasons.

 

[Oreiller]

Testimonials received by the UFC-Que choisir, meaning most likely every single one of the thousands they received were about broken Joycons, with 65% of them reporting failure within a year.

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Yeah, my title isn't the best, I was limited by size.

 

[Selphie]

Good, also hopefully this study will shut down some of that "but mine are working fine" bullshit excuse that you read so often in joy-con threads.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

How the hell did this thing reach the market if 65 % of the controllers fail. Cheering for the consumer group to win big with this fiasco.

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It's not 65% of them fail, it's 65% of them that did fail did so within a year.

The failure rate is still absurdly high for joycons though.

 

[Nessus]

How the hell has Nintendo not fixed this already? They clearly are aware of it, and it's clearly a widespread problem.

They've already done 2 Switch revisions/different models. They've had plenty of time to figure out what the issue is and address it.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

I have 4 joycons since 2017. Not a single one is malfunctioning.

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Lucky you, I've had to replace the left joycon twice and the right one is unusable unattached, because the triggers on the side stopped working.

 

[PS9]

I use my Switch Pro controller mostly but still no problem on my Joycons on my day 1 switch. 65% seems too much, where this number is coming from?

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Consumer Affairs research.

 

[Rikimaru]

Is not PS Vita sticks use hall effect sensor for sticks? Nintendo should use same system. Dirt won't be a problem then.

 

[Amalthea]

I love Nintendo but the Switch is the worst built piece of hardware I ever had, worse than the X360, half a dozen fried motherboards and two sets of Joycons that started to break after a few weeks.

 

[Hokey]

I have 3 sets and I've seen the problem on every single one

 

[Aprikurt]

Not only do they drift but if you're constantly removing and replacing the joycons, the connection between the system and the joycon becomes incredibly weak, leading them to slide off without warning and the "Connect controller" screen CONSTANTLY popping up

Hardware issues such as this should simply not be allowed to exist with such a profitable system

 

[Nano-Nandy]

Should be added to the title that it is 65% of those that reported drifting, some are reading as 65% of the units sold and are replying based on that.

 

[jdh96]

The Pro controller also suffers from similar issues.

 

[CaviarMeths]

Good that Nintendo is being taken to court over this, but my understanding is that most hardware failures of all consumer electronics happen in the first year. That's why extended warranties are such a scam. If your new TV is gonna fail, it's because of a manufacturing defect and it's going to happen within the first year.

 

[Gnorman]

I can totally understand how this wasn't forseen in the design phase but to not act on it after all this time is disgusting.

 

[BowieZ]

I bought a second set after less than a year, hoping that would fix it, but nope. Same issues, less than 6 months later.

Fool me once.

 

[Strings]

It's honestly fucked they've done nothing about the design for years now.

 

[Mama Robotnik]

Good, this situation has gone on long enough.