Late last week, several specialist Nintendo coverage websites cottoned onto an update on the company's UK support pages - the offer to repair faulty Joy-Con units, affected by the notorious drifting problem, for free. Customers who possess long out of warranty controllers will not be charged for fixes, as long as it is apparent that drifting is occurring. The blurb on the official website outlines a pattern of diagnosis: "Joy-Con Control Sticks Are Not Responding or Respond Incorrectly (responsiveness syndrome or so-called "drifting")."

Nintendo has already offered free lifetime repairs to its customers in North America, way back in 2019. Latin America and France received similar treatment shortly thereafter. According to its updated documentation the company is now extending the same service to folks spread across the European Union (and adjacent to): "Until further notice, Nintendo will not charge you in the European Economic Area (EEA), UK and Switzerland for the repair of the responsiveness syndrome irrespective of whether this is caused by a defect or by wear and tear."The Japanese video games giant has been under pressure for a number of years with regards to the long running drifting issue - outraged customers have voiced their frustrations to such a great degree that international watchdogs had to get involved, and consequently leveled legal action in Nintendo's direction. The site attempts some semi-appropriate damage control via the goodwill gesture of lifetime repairs: "Nintendo takes great pride in creating high-quality and durable products and is continuously making improvements to them. Therefore and until further notice, Nintendo offers to consumers who purchased the respective product in the EEA, UK and Switzerland that repairs for responsiveness syndrome relating to control sticks will be conducted at no charge by official Nintendo repair centres. This applies even if the syndrome is caused by wear and tear and even if the 24-month manufacturer's warranty provided by Nintendo has expired. The manufacturer's warranty does not affect any statutory rights which you may have under consumer protection legislation as the purchaser of goods. The benefits described here are in addition to those rights."Nintendo has not addressed the root cause of the drifting problem within the Nintendo Switch's standard controller, and a UK magazine and watchdog is not entirely satisfied with the offer of free repairs. Which? director of policy and advocacy Rocio Concha weighed in on the matter: "Nintendo Switch "drift" has been plaguing gamers for years, and many consumers have been left out of pocket buying expensive replacement controllers, so it's positive that the video game giant has committed to lifelong free repairs." He details the magazine's in-house investigations of hardware: "Which? tests found that these chronic Nintendo Switch controller problems are likely due to a mechanical fault - pointing to design flaws that Nintendo must address to prevent faulty controllers ending up in people's homes in the first place."

He concludes that the Big N should be doing more to improve aftermarket care for its large and dedicated customer base: "As well as free repairs, Nintendo also needs to commit to compensation, refunds or replacements for any consumers who have been impacted by this issue since the launch of the console and promote this scheme so that consumers know that support is available."