Joysticks: Probably Still Drifty
Joy-Con joysticks use a potentiometer to read the voltage at a wiper that slides across a strip of resistive material. That material wears down over time, or plastic and dust can dirty the sensors.
Stick drift is a huge problem with other Switch models. One survey found that 40% of Switch owners had problems with their Joy-Cons drifting, and things didn’t get any better with the Lite or OLED editions. After a bunch of lawsuits, Nintendo’s president even admitted it and apologized, setting up a free repair program for customers in some parts of the world.
I think the reason the connectors are magnetic is because it is something nintendo’s designers always wanted to do. So once their engineers figured out how to do it (after the launch of the original switch) they designed the switch 2 around the magnetic connectors. I think it’s incredibly stupid when one of the most important things to do for a sequel to the switch is fixing the drift but it’s a reason at least I guess?
Here’s the video I watched about it: https://youtu.be/JDhj8s-i–s
I wil say that the gen 1 slides were clumsy and early units could be broken by forcing them in backwards. It always felt like the part which was the least well designed. I like the new magnetic interface but I agree it’s kind of an odd thing to have a minor quality of life update be the top line.
Lmao they added magnets even after Iwata told them it was fucking stupid
Did iwata ever say they were a bad idea? I thought it was that they had no idea how to make them secure but easy to remove, not because iwata said it was stupid.
He may not have said they were stupid exactly but he did tell the devs they were a flimsy choice for connecting the controllers
Edited to add a more direct source
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-legend-iwata-once-rejected-switch-2s-magnetic-joy-cons-but-the-team-refused-to-give-up/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-could-have-had-magnetic-joy-cons-like-switch-2/1100-6530577/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-could-have-had-magnetic-joy-cons-like-switch-2/1100-6530577/