A teardown of Nintendo’s latest console has found that the core tech that causes joystick drift is still there. Plus it’s even harder to repair than the original.
Of course it is. Unless they switched to hall effect sticks, which they already said they weren’t doing. For whatever reason, they still want to save the pennies instead of using the better component even after the previous issues and lawsuits. Why do companies insist on shooting themselves in the foot constantly?
They were literally forced to fix/replace broken joycons for free because of the drift issue. In case you weren’t aware. I sent two sets away to be fixed, all expenses paid.
While Nintendo is absolutely to blame for not fixing the situation, I’ve heard they were not going for hall effect sticks because of the interference with the joycons magnets.
Full disclosure, I have no Switch, Retrodeck Enthusiast here 😁
I design things that use hall effect sensors… The magnets in the joycons would not have interfered. Those magnets are:
Too far away from the sticks to matter.
Perpendicular/orthogonal to the magnets that would be in the sticks.
Besides, you can cram hall effect stuff super tight just by inserting a tiny piece of magnetic shielding between components. Loads of products do this (mostly to prevent outside magnets from interfering but it’s the same concept). What is this magic magnetic shielding technology? EMI tape.
There’s a zillion types and they’re all cheap and very widely used in manufacturing. I guarantee your phone, laptop, and many other electronics you own have some sort of EMI tape inside of them.
Just about every assembly line that exists for mass produced electronics has at least one machine that spits out tape a bit like a CNC machine (or they pay the cheapest worker possible to place it).
So they decided that magnetic joycons versus a new rail design were worth another set of drift lawsuits.
Because any potential new drift lawsuit is going to cite the old one as clear proof that Nintendo knew what would happen, had the opportunity to change the design so it didn’t, and decided to do it again anyway.
Nintendo choosing the option that is actively worse for everyone including themselves goes well with my theory that Nintendo is actually just evil and making decisions based on spite and disdain for their customers and fans.
The joycon connection isn’t the only use of magnets I believe. The steam deck has a bunch of magnets too and it’s the reason Valve didn’t include Hall effect sticks in that device. They did a bunch of field tests and found that they created more problems than they solved. Folks who’ve modded their ROG Ally with HES reported similar issues. It just seems like with the current tech they’re just not compatible with handheld consoles.
At scale a hall effect stick is about $0.25 more than a potentiometer version. That’s about $38,000,000 if they sell as many Switch 2s as they sold Switches.
Sooooo… Nothing. That’s basically a rounding error to Nintendo. Remember: That figure is over eight years.
If it means they won’t have lawsuits (which cost millions on their own), fewer returns, and happier customers it most certainly would be worth losing out on ~$5 million/year.
The part you’re missing isn’t the cost. It’s the potential sales from replacement joycons. If you’re going to make a devil’s advocate style, capitalist argument that’s the one to make.
I don’t think it’s any of that, though. I think it’s just management being too strict about design constraints (which I pointed out in an earlier comment).
Of course it is. Unless they switched to hall effect sticks, which they already said they weren’t doing. For whatever reason, they still want to save the pennies instead of using the better component even after the previous issues and lawsuits. Why do companies insist on shooting themselves in the foot constantly?
Wht spend pennies when you can sell more conrollers? They know that Nintendo boys don’t care about money
They were literally forced to fix/replace broken joycons for free because of the drift issue. In case you weren’t aware. I sent two sets away to be fixed, all expenses paid.
That costs them lots of money.
Nobody fucked with that. Everyone just bought whatever new limited edition colors were out and moved on with their lives.
Probably made more from every schmuck who didn’t know they would be replaced for free and bought extra.
Yeah, exactly this. I’m sure they did the math.
While Nintendo is absolutely to blame for not fixing the situation, I’ve heard they were not going for hall effect sticks because of the interference with the joycons magnets.
Full disclosure, I have no Switch, Retrodeck Enthusiast here 😁
I design things that use hall effect sensors… The magnets in the joycons would not have interfered. Those magnets are:
Besides, you can cram hall effect stuff super tight just by inserting a tiny piece of magnetic shielding between components. Loads of products do this (mostly to prevent outside magnets from interfering but it’s the same concept). What is this magic magnetic shielding technology? EMI tape.
There’s a zillion types and they’re all cheap and very widely used in manufacturing. I guarantee your phone, laptop, and many other electronics you own have some sort of EMI tape inside of them.
Just about every assembly line that exists for mass produced electronics has at least one machine that spits out tape a bit like a CNC machine (or they pay the cheapest worker possible to place it).
Thanks for the thorough explanation!
Then it’s a mystery why the didn’t use Hall effect joysticks. It the cost of the part so much more expensive?
So they decided that magnetic joycons versus a new rail design were worth another set of drift lawsuits.
Because any potential new drift lawsuit is going to cite the old one as clear proof that Nintendo knew what would happen, had the opportunity to change the design so it didn’t, and decided to do it again anyway.
Nintendo choosing the option that is actively worse for everyone including themselves goes well with my theory that Nintendo is actually just evil and making decisions based on spite and disdain for their customers and fans.
Bruh, go touch some grass.
The joycon connection isn’t the only use of magnets I believe. The steam deck has a bunch of magnets too and it’s the reason Valve didn’t include Hall effect sticks in that device. They did a bunch of field tests and found that they created more problems than they solved. Folks who’ve modded their ROG Ally with HES reported similar issues. It just seems like with the current tech they’re just not compatible with handheld consoles.
Pennies on one console become millions of pennies on millions of consoles. It’s obviously stupid but it’s all there is to it.
At scale a hall effect stick is about $0.25 more than a potentiometer version. That’s about $38,000,000 if they sell as many Switch 2s as they sold Switches.
Sooooo… Nothing. That’s basically a rounding error to Nintendo. Remember: That figure is over eight years.
If it means they won’t have lawsuits (which cost millions on their own), fewer returns, and happier customers it most certainly would be worth losing out on ~$5 million/year.
The part you’re missing isn’t the cost. It’s the potential sales from replacement joycons. If you’re going to make a devil’s advocate style, capitalist argument that’s the one to make.
I don’t think it’s any of that, though. I think it’s just management being too strict about design constraints (which I pointed out in an earlier comment).
Which is just a footnote to Nintendo’s profits. Let’s not forget the difference between a 1 Million and 1 Billion is roughly 1 Billion.
You think it is important that the gain is small? For a company like Nintendo, number goes up means great! Number goes slight down, oh noes!