Nintendo Switch and “programmed obsolescence”: the UFC-Que Choisir complains

In France, the UFC-Que Choisir pronounces to file a criticism in opposition to Nintendo for “deliberate obsolescence”. This resolution follows the various issues encountered by customers on their Switch controllers within the well-known “Joy-Con Drift” case.

While we discuss so much about consoles next-gen Right now, the Nintendo Switch stays probably the most fashionable gadgets within the online game business. However, many individuals have skilled comparable points inflicting Joy-Con controllers to get out of hand. The case had even been entitled to a reputation: “Joy-Con Drift” and had prompted Nintendo to difficulty an official apology.

UFC-Que Choisir goes on the assault

An inadequate gesture within the eyes of the UFC-Que Choisir. The shopper affiliation has certainly introduced that it has filed a criticism in France in opposition to Nintendo for ” deliberate obsolescence “.

Determined that Nintendo evaluation the manufacture of its controllers to keep away from the virtually systematic look of this failure, the UFC-Que Choisir is subsequently submitting a criticism right this moment with the Public Prosecutor of Nanterre.

As a reminder, the UFC-Que Chosir had already acted in 2019 by placing Nintendo on discover to exchange or restore the faulty Joy-Con freed from cost. The group additionally specifies in its press launch that greater than 5,000 customers reported malfunctions to it final November, their Switch controllers being topic to ghost actions disrupting the gaming expertise.

And it doesn’t cease there : ” reviews continued to move to the affiliation. The figures converse for themselves: 65% of shopper victims seen this failure lower than a 12 months after buying the controllers. It seems, regardless of the profile or the age of the participant, even when enjoying lower than 5 hours per week. 25% of customers even noticed the failure happen inside 6 months of buy, regardless of low console utilization “.

“Planned obsolescence” for Nintendo Switch

This discovering prompted the UFC-Que Choisir to look at a number of Nintendo Switch controllers within the laboratory. Its consultants thus realized that modifications had been made to the controller after the “Joy-Con Drift” affair, however the very origin of the failure has not been corrected in response to the affiliation which highlights two causes in all probability on the origin of the failure:

• ” untimely put on of printed circuits;
• a sealing defect which causes a worrying quantity of particles and dirt inside the joystick, the origin of which seems to be each inner and exterior. “

Alerted by these observations, by the frequency of the outage and Nintendo’s lack of responsiveness, the UFC-Que Choisir has subsequently determined to take authorized motion in order that the Japanese big is sentenced for ” deliberate obsolescence “.

As the process could take a very long time to finish, the UFC-Que Choisir invitations customers to contact Nintendo’s after-sales service to request a free restore of their controllers. The affiliation offers a step-by-step information to do that and a kind in order that clients can report a refusal to take cost of the mentioned restore freed from cost.