The U.K. consumer group Which? is urging Nintendo to open an independent investigation into pervasive Joy-Con drift reports.
Which? surveyed 919 Switch owners in the U.K. and found that 40% of respondents had run into Joy-Con drift problems, according to British outlet Sky News. Of those respondents, 73% said they had contacted Nintendo about it, presumably to make use of the two-year warranty Nintendo offers on the console. The rest opted to suffer in silence or pay for replacements themselves.
"Our research shows that drift problems continue to plague Nintendo Switch owners, yet too often they can be left footing the bill themselves to replace faulty controllers or face a lottery when they contact Nintendo for support," said Which? director of policy and advocacy Rocio Concha.
"Nintendo needs to commission an urgent independent investigation into why this problem occurs and make the findings public. The video game giant must also commit to complete free-of-charge repairs or replacements for those affected by the problem and must promote this scheme so that consumers know that support is available."
Around 19% of survey respondents that made complaints to Nintendo did not receive a repair or replacement. The company maintains that only a small percentage of Joy-Con controllers develop drift problems, and that a revision to the controllers' internal design has helped alleviate the problem.
"We expect all our hardware to perform as designed, and if anything falls short of this goal we always encourage consumers to contact Nintendo customer support, who will be happy to openly and leniently resolve any consumer issues related to the Joy-Con controllers' analog sticks, including in cases where the warranty may no longer apply," Nintendo said in a statement.
