It Looks Like Nintendo Secretly Fixed The Switch's Biggest Issue
It appears that Nintendo has quietly attempted to fix Joy-Con stick drift in some of the more recent controller models. A user on Twitter by the name of Chicken Noodle Gamer discovered this when they decided to dissect their "Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD" special edition Joy-Cons and found two small strips of foam on the inside, right near the sticks.
As Chicken Noodle Gamer pointed out, YouTuber Victorstk recently made a video explaining how adding some pressure at different spots on the Joy-Cons can solve drift in some instances. This has led to incredibly clever Nintendo fans fixing Joy-Con drift with the use of cardboard inserts. While Victorstk's video is far too recent for Nintendo to have made this design decision because of it, it does appear that Nintendo is aware of the nature of this fix and is implementing it in newer Joy-Cons.
Chicken Noodle Gamer explained, "I opened my Zelda joycons and noticed strips [that are] not in any joycons me or others have seen... It seems nintendo fixed their biggest issue behind the scenes." But is that really the case?
The stick drift plague
YouTuber Spawn Wave also tweeted a picture of a dissected "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD" Joy-Con and found the same set of foam pieces on the inside. Spawn Wave then followed that tweet up with a picture of a disassembled yellow Joy-Con, which also contained the extra foam bits. They said that the yellow model is "from a couple years ago," so it seems possible that Nintendo could have implemented this fix in new Joy-Cons a while back, but fans are only just now finding out about it.
Of course, without someone cracking open a ton of Joy-Cons, it's hard to know exactly when this was implemented by Nintendo. It should also be noted that Victorstk's fix unfortunately doesn't work in every case of Joy-Con drift.
While Nintendo has fairly received a ton of criticism (and a few lawsuits) over Joy-Con drift, it's not the only console manufacture that suffers from this issue. The PlayStation 5 DualSense controller has already suffered from enough stick drift to have a few gamers filing lawsuits and that console hasn't even been out a year. It's enough to have gamers on edge.
Even Valve's Steam Deck has come up in the stick drift conversation, and it's not even out yet. Valve has said that it is paying special attention to the joysticks on the Steam Deck in order to avoid the Switch's biggest issue altogether. At least it finally appears as though Nintendo may be rectifying this issue behind the scenes.