Stick drift is the bane of existence to many a game console player. For those unfamiliar, it’s when a controller’s thumbsticks don’t respond accurately to input and can move on screen without being touched. Traditional thumbsticks and joysticks use a physical connection with a potentiometer to measure the stick’s position in space.
Stick drift is usually caused by wear and tear on the potentiometer over time, leading to inaccurate measurements. It can and does happen to any controller with a potentiometer over time. The Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons were notorious for their stick shift issues, so in 2023, they announced they would repair all Joy-Con controllers suffering from Joy-Con drift in the EEA and UK – even if they were out of warranty.
The same issues reportedly won’t happen with the upcoming Switch 2. A scoop by NextHandheld on back in late December with multiple claims about the upcoming console is being looked at in a new light today. The revisiting of the scoop follows on from the console’s official reveal on Thursday, which proved accurate to some of the claims.
According to and , the big reveal of the other claims was that the console will use Hall effect thumbsticks. With Hall effect sticks, there is no physical contact between the stick and the sensor. Instead, magnets and electrical conductors measure the stick’s position.
As there is no physical connection, drift is essentially eliminated. Other claims by the scooper that the Nintendo video do.
