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UFC Que-Choisir (French consumers group) is suing Nintendo for planned obsolescence (around 65% of joycon failures happen after less than a year)
- Thread starter Oreiller
- Start date
Yeah I believe it, both my original neon joycons have failed as well as another right joycon. All happened after warranty expiration though.
Having just read through what the actual lawsuit entails, Since they're trying to prove that Nintendo purposefully made Joycons have drift via programmed obsolescence so you can buy more joycons, I feel like they're gonna lose against Nintendo with that case.
Proving they are unwilling to claim responsibility for and are stubborn to change a design is one thing, they can't prove that Nintendo planned all of this.
Proving they are unwilling to claim responsibility for and are stubborn to change a design is one thing, they can't prove that Nintendo planned all of this.
Good. Nintendo can get fucked. It still boils my piss that they offered free repairs to US customers, but still told european ones to get fucked basically.
65% is huge. For once I'm lucky with my joycons, but this is inacceptable, hopefully this'll lead to something concrete.
My brother just got new Joycons for free after sending them to Nintendo a few months ago, drifting issue of course. (France)
Again. It's not 65% of all joycons are failing. It's that of the sample size of drifting joycons taken by the UFC (5000+ submitted), 65% of the then did so in less than a year. The actual percentage of joycon failure out of sold joycons is not mentioned.
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I didn't have such luck (UK). I even mentioned the US lawsuit/free repairs and nothing..
if this gives us better joycons, i'm all for it.
the main reason i stopped using the joycons for everything was these horror stories. i never even opened the lite i got because of that.
thankfully, 99% of the games are playable with Pro controllers.
the main reason i stopped using the joycons for everything was these horror stories. i never even opened the lite i got because of that.
thankfully, 99% of the games are playable with Pro controllers.
Like what I don't get is how do you prove that the Joycons were made to fail because of the circuit board. You'd think this would be something that people would see like, real early.
Like the bulk of the lawsuit isn't even really about the sticks themselves.
Like the bulk of the lawsuit isn't even really about the sticks themselves.
This is why nobody should never, ever buy a Switch Lite.
Who on earth wants to gamble with those odds?
Especially with the drift problem.
Who on earth wants to gamble with those odds?
Especially with the drift problem.
Yeah, it absolutely bothers me that I can't trust my Switch's JoyCons and that there'll likely come a time in the far, far future when it's useless as a portable machine, but to prove what they're trying to prove here sounds like an extremely tough sell.
Good. I don't know if they'll win over Nintendo's gargantuan lawyers, but these Joycon shenanigans are INEXCUSABLE.
Wait wait wait!
Nintendo is not offering out of warranty free repairs outside of the US? Because in the US, you can definitely ship your joycons for repairs, no questions asked.
And I bought 2 pairs, one at launch and one 4 years later. Both have drift despite very light usage. Got one repaired, going to send the next pair now.
Super annoying and It's a real sleaze-ball move from Nintendo to let people buy replacements while they cash in on their fat profit margins.
Going to add this to my Nintendo shit list (alongside their hypocritical lies about emulation and the Fire Emblem gacha game).
One thing that might ultimately fuck over consumers is that they're pushing their case on a fairly recent planned obsolescence law that so far has only produced settlements out of court.
What seems risky here is that planned obsolescence requires an intent to push consumers to buy new products. I honestly believe Nintendo was more negligent than anything else, that selling more joycons is more a side effect than an initial intent.
I guess my point is that I'm 100% for putting pressure on them because the joycon situation is frankly unacceptable, but that this should be done regardless of intent, what matters is the fact that after 3 years, it still sucks, and Nintendo haven't done anything about it. Their motives for doing so are entirely immaterial IMO.
What seems risky here is that planned obsolescence requires an intent to push consumers to buy new products. I honestly believe Nintendo was more negligent than anything else, that selling more joycons is more a side effect than an initial intent.
I guess my point is that I'm 100% for putting pressure on them because the joycon situation is frankly unacceptable, but that this should be done regardless of intent, what matters is the fact that after 3 years, it still sucks, and Nintendo haven't done anything about it. Their motives for doing so are entirely immaterial IMO.
When Nintendo shipped the first joycons, sure they were probably unpurposefully broken and there was no clear nefarious evil plan to fuck people over.
When Nintendo had the problem reported, investigated it, and found the cause....
...and THEN decided "let's not fix it", that is basically the corporate equivalent of saying: "Nah fuck it, It would cost us tons of money to fix the issue. Let's make our customers pay for new pairs! Not only does it cost us nothing, we actually make money from the obsolescence."
Nintendo will lose this one. I don't see how the don't.
How often does the UFC lose in court, anyways?
At least in my experience (in Finland), you have to pay when the warranty has expired. I checked the email and the estimated """repair""" cost is 45 euros. Of course there is the option to ask advice from Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority, but that takes time and energy, which I don't have. Easier to suck up the loss, avoid buying new joycons and overall prefer to play multiplatform games on other consoles/PC.
The intent is to prove that they planned the obsolescence from the start, not that Nintendo refuses to majorly change the design flaw that could lead to drifting.
And I'm not confident that these sort of lawsuits can win the case like that after Nintendo won the refund case in Germany.
If this drifting problem wouldn't exist i would love them. They are really comfortable to use and i'm impressed by the tech inside them for how small they are. I have been surprised many times in how Nintendo can use them for so many different tasks, it's amazing... if the drift wouldn't be. It totally destroys any joy i had with them. I have gone through 3 pairs before i bought a cheap third party controller and a tablet stand to keep being able to play almost anywhere. I have no problem if they get taken to court for this and i hope they lose. Really they need to fix this. It might be a hard problem to fix but that's their problem. They should have noticed the high failure rate
Wow. what a scam. Apple replaces their shitty 2015-2019 butterfly keyboards regardless of warranty not only in the US but in the rest of the world as well: https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-notebooks
Nintendo has 0 excuses.
What the fuck? Why would they do that? Why not go with the safer approach?
2 pairs of Joycons, both with drift AND bluetooh issue.
In fact, I sent last week my joycons to the official repair service and yesterday they told me the right joycon had 3 factory issues: defective rail, defective bluetooth motherboard and, of course, defective stick. Still, since it's out of warranty I've had to pay 38 euros.
I hope they drag them to the ground.
In fact, I sent last week my joycons to the official repair service and yesterday they told me the right joycon had 3 factory issues: defective rail, defective bluetooth motherboard and, of course, defective stick. Still, since it's out of warranty I've had to pay 38 euros.
I hope they drag them to the ground.
They deserve everything bad that can happen from such a colossal failure they refuse to permanently fix. Crappy joystick and one if not the most uncomfortable controller they ever designed.
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Here you go!
Eh I think UFC Que Choisir is using the wrong approach. It's not as much a planned obsolescence issue as it's a core design issue. Nintendo of Europe should handle it better though by offering free repairs/replacements.
If they stick with the planned obsolescence angle I'm afraid they'll lose as it's very complicated to prove that the obsolescence was planned at the design stages
If they stick with the planned obsolescence angle I'm afraid they'll lose as it's very complicated to prove that the obsolescence was planned at the design stages
Seems more like shitty or cheap engineering than planned obsolescence especially after <1 year. I remember also having issues with my GameCube and Wii controllers. Pretty sure I had drifting with my Wii nunchucks even.
Anecdotal but my joycons have been working fine though thankfully since I sent them in to repairs, which were free (that said I remember it wasn't free in some or all places outside the US so that's shitty).
Anecdotal but my joycons have been working fine though thankfully since I sent them in to repairs, which were free (that said I remember it wasn't free in some or all places outside the US so that's shitty).
Wouldn't it be planned obsolescence if they failed AFTER 12 months? As within the first 12 months they are under warranty? I always thought planned obsolescence was when goods were manufactured to fail within 2-3 years i.e once warranties have expired
Either way the joy con issue is a huge one and they are right to take Nintendo to task over it. Still can't believe there hasn't been a design change to stop the issue but they carry on like nothing is going on so the more attention that gets focused on it the better
Either way the joy con issue is a huge one and they are right to take Nintendo to task over it. Still can't believe there hasn't been a design change to stop the issue but they carry on like nothing is going on so the more attention that gets focused on it the better
At the youth center I work all 6 joycons we've bought have drift problems.
Agree with this, I can't believe for a minute this is planned obsolescence, I'm amazed they have gone that route. It's a shoddy design / quality issue.
My pro controller and Switch from day one have not a single problem, like i said my switch turns a lot, maybe i am lucky then? But i understand it can be a real problem!
I wonder why they did the free fix in North America but screwed Europe
Europe is always screwed, look we have PS5 the latest and we pay 80€ the game :(