Mother and son sue Nintendo for $5m over Joy-Con drift

Nintendo’s legal worries over the Joy-Con drift continue, with a mother and her young son filing a class action lawsuit against the company, seeking $5m in damages.

That’s according Wired, who report that Luz Sanchez and her 9/10 year old son (who, as a minor cannot be identified in court documents) filed a complaint in Northern California. The complaint states that Sanchez purchased a Switch for her son in December 2018, and within a month encountered the Joy-Con drift problem.

The ‘drift’ refers to a defect in the Switch controllers, which even when in the neutral position, will cause an uncontrollable drift to one side while playing.

Less than a year later, the filing states, “the Joy-Con drift became so pronounced that the controllers became inoperable for general gameplay use.” Sanchez bought another set of controllers, which began to drift after seven months.

Nintendo does offer free repairs to affected users, but Sanchez’s lawyers claim that this is not sufficient, given that Nintendo continues to sell the Joy-Con at full price, despite the known fault.

“Defendant continues to market and sell the products with full knowledge of the defect and without disclosing the Joy-Con Drift defect to consumers in its marketing, promotion, or packaging,” the filing reads.

“Defendant has had a financial motive to conceal the defect, as it did not want to stop selling the products, and/or would need to expend a significant amount of money to cure the defect.”

This isn’t the first time Nintendo has faced legal worries over the Joy-Con drift issue – it isn’t even the first time this month. Just 2 weeks ago, French consumer organisation UFC-Que Choisir  announced that it is suing Nintendo for planned obsolescence and anti-consumer practices.