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Nintendo is reportedly offering free repairs for Joy-Con controllers

An internal memo advises support staff that no proof of purchase or confirmation of warranty is required

Nintendo is reportedly offering free repairs to Joy-Con controllers, following widespread complaints of "drift" in the Switch controllers.

According to an internal memo obtained by Vice Waypoint, customers will not be asked for "proof of purchase" or "warranty status" when asking for Joy-Con repairs, and those repairs will be made "at no charge."

Nintendo has also advised customer support staff to refund any confirmed prior repairs.

The document does outline a troubleshooting process that customer support must go through before offering free repairs, and it also features "stock answers" to two questions that Nintendo expects to be asked.

As Waypoint stated: "Whether it will be an issue with the upcoming Switch Lite hardware revision ('We expect our hardware to perform as designed.') and what to make of the class action lawsuit ('We have nothing to announce on this topic.')."

Nintendo is facing a class-action lawsuit over the defect with the Switch controllers, which is widely referred to as "drift." However, despite the content of the memo, the company does not directly refer to any fault with the hardware.

When asked for comment, Nintendo offered only the statement that it issued in the wake of the class-action lawsuit.

"At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we are continuously making improvements to them. We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly.

"We want our consumers to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we always encourage them to visit http://support.nintendo.com so we can help."

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Matthew Handrahan avatar
Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.
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