Some Nintendo Switch owners have been dealing with a persistent and really annoying problem since it first emerged in 2019: Joy-Con drift. It affects both the original Switch and the Switch OLED, and it's a design flaw that creates false inputs, most commonly on the left-hand controller. That means the joystick is responding to movements the player didn't make.
The good news is that if you're one of the people affected, there's a fix. As Gizmodo reports, controller firm GuliKit has released a replacement/repair kit that should solve the problem – permanently.
What causes Joy-Con drift?
The most likely explanation is wear and tear, which perhaps explains why the issue seems more common among more frequent gamers. It seems likely that the potentiometers in the controllers simply start to wear out over time, and while Nintendo will replace affected Joy-Cons the same issue can recur as the new ones wear.
GuliKit's approach is to take the same switches it uses in its well-reviewed KingKong Pro 2 controller, which uses a technology called Hall effect sensing to eliminate physical friction and wear, and make them available separately. It's a little fiddly to swap the switches out, but it shouldn't be beyond the average gamer if you have the right screwdriver handy.
Price and availability hasn't been confirmed yet but the firm's Hall effect sensors for the Steam Deck are currently £30 on Amazon, so they shouldn't be too pricey.
