One of the biggest issues that’s plagued the Nintendo Switch since its launch in 2017 is stick drift. In fact, Nintendo faced several lawsuits as a result of the issue, with an ex-repair supervisor previously stating that the workload to fix drifting Joy-Con was “very stressful”.

Now, while we can acknowledge that Nintendo has undoubtedly been working hard behind the scenes to mitigate the issue for the upcoming Switch 2, we’re nevertheless disheartened to confirm that the Joy-Con 2’s joysticks will not be Hall Effect.

  • masterspace
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    114
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 days ago

    The fact that they dodged questions of durability and did nothing to reassure says that they’re probably identical and Nintendo just enjoys the revenue it gets from people buying more joycons.

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    58
    ·
    9 days ago

    They raised prices a ton, and they didn’t even switch to the better sensor type that would fix such a persistent issue? Why?

    • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      47
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 days ago

      They decided to use joycons to nickel and dime their customers.

      • GingaNinga@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        40
        ·
        9 days ago

        same company that made a system that could always wirelessly pair with bluetooth headsets/ear buds but didn’t enable that function for 4 YEARS then randomly dropped a software update activating that feature. That will always blow my mind.

        • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          9 days ago

          Enabling that BT connection was a mistake that Nintendo made under pressure tbh. Switch doesn’t support low latency audio of any sort so that feature is useless imo.

            • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              9 days ago

              I’d rather buy $5 headphones at a train station shop than to use BT but I envy people less sensitive to latency because I did that and those headphones sucked XD

        • jqubed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          9 days ago

          Didn’t enabling audio mean you couldn’t have 4 players connected while in use, though? But, if you’re using headphones you probably don’t have more than one player anyway.

    • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      9 days ago

      Nintendo hates their customers and fans. Or at the very least view them with disdain and contempt.

      I thought this was universally known and accepted?

      • CallateCoyote@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        9 days ago

        The goofy mouse mode is honestly the only thing about the Switch 2 that reminds me of the old Nintendo, adding new input methods to new hardware. Even if it has limited support, it will be a very good thing for certain experiences like shooters, strategy games, Pikmin, and Mario Maker.

  • missingno@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    9 days ago

    FWIW, Hall Effect isn’t the only way to prevent drift, they could be using some other tech.

    But they really gotta clarify what they are doing about it then.

    • simple@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 days ago

      And also the joycon already has strong magnets inside of it that would probably intefere with hall effect sticks. It’s not a silver bullet.

      • ieatpwns@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        9 days ago

        That’s like saying earths magnetic field can mess up the sensors.

        The Hall effect sensor could be calibrated to ignore the magnets holding the joycons. They’re stationary magnets so they could literally just calculate their effect on the Hall effect sensor

      • JohnWorks@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        9 days ago

        Joycon doesn’t have magnets the switch itself does. Although when docked with the switch it probably would interfere. I have to imagine there’s a way to program against that if there’s a consistent magnetic source.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          9 days ago

          I worked at a company that relied on magnetometers (digital compass) and used strong magnets as well to attach the product to existing infrastructure. All we needed to do was calibrate the sensors with that magnetic field and we got very accurate results. We even had a method for users to do this in the field if something in their environment changed, our method was a lot more precise (we had a motorized, standard rig to do the rotations), but you can get really good results just by following some simple directions.

          I highly doubt it would be an issue here. Worst case scenario, fall back to a relatively user-friendly calibration process. The main goal is to get the device to rotate in all axes, and slowly enough to get a reading for a range of angles. The process wouldn’t be that different than those fingerprint sensor things, but with rotation instead of touching a sensor. They do something similar already with the Ring Fit calibration, so I don’t think it would be a deal-breaker.

          • scintilla@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            9 days ago

            If the magents are in the handheld it would mean that they would need to be recalibrated every time the joycons are taken off right? Thatcwould be terrible in a consumer product if I’m understanding correctly.

              • scintilla@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                9 days ago

                I don’t know why i didn’t think of that. Was kinda trying to figure out why not use them when they aren’t that much more expensive considering how expensive the new joycons will probably be.

                • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  9 days ago

                  The cynic in me says, “so they can sell more replacements,” but there could be a technical reason that I’m not aware of. I’m not familiar with the technical details of hall effect sticks, so I could very well be missing some downsides.

        • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 days ago

          Ah, so that’s why joycons attach magnetically this time! /s

    • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      The pentiometer joysticks were fine, its just manufacturers all cheaped out and produce inferior ones now. Its a win win for them, cheaper to produce and you buy more when they break! Same damn thing happened with mouse buttons.

      • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        8 days ago

        That’s what I did around 2012 and ditched consoles ever since and have no regrets. Gaming on a PC is just so much better in every fucking way

        • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 days ago

          You spend 2k on the PC instead of 600 for the console, but you save all that by then not having to pay double for internet, 90 bucks for a game and whatever much the licenced peripherals cost

    • monke🐵@lemmy.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      At the time I bought my Xbox Series X, an equivalent PC cost 3 times more in my country (India). Sure, i get the pros of owning a PC. But if you’re someone like me who doesn’t play more than 3-4 games (and almost always story driven single player ones) in a year and already has a laptop for work/personal use, buying a PC is just dumb.

      The only people who should be buying a PC imo are

      1. Those who will use the powerful compute for purposes other than just gaming
      2. Those who buy a ton of games as games are typically cheaper on PC and they might end up spending less in the PC ecosystem despite the significant upfront costs
      3. People who want the best performance and have the money to spare.

      Fuck Nintendo though. I will never buy anything they sell

  • slimerancher@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    9 days ago

    Nintendo filed that patent about joysticks that wouldn’t get drift, like Hall Effect, but some other tech without magnets (IIRC), I was hoping we may see it in Switch 2. Seems like either it wasn’t ready yet, or it was just one of the random patents companies regularly file.

    • Sculptus Poe@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 days ago

      They will wait a few months and then sell the premium joycons at twice the price of regular joycons.

        • Sculptus Poe@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          8 days ago

          Well… To be fair, I have a switch for me and a switch for my wife that we played daily animal crossing on for years besides our other games and never had a tracking issue, or any other issue, on either one, so it isn’t an inevitable failure. But it does give me anxiety expecting it to happen at any time.

  • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    9 days ago

    The worst thing about the switch is the pricing of their games, stick drift and the lack of frames. Glad they improved… One thing?

  • w8ghT@lemy.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    9 days ago

    Not surprised, NintenDON’T is all about pure profit now. One can feel the uninspired releases stemming from the Switch/Switch 2 in terms of quality and care. The 3DS, Wii U was their last good releases.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      9 days ago

      The Wii U doesn’t get love but it sure was interesting and an upgrade beyond just resolution.
      The 3DS line was inspired. Practically a smartphone in an era where they weren’t yet everywhere.

      • w8ghT@lemy.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        9 days ago

        Yup you are correct! If only Nintendo got the advertising right, the Wii U would of been a lot more successful despite it being under powered. At least it was innovative with great games, features and unique technology to match! Not to mention (Free) backwards compatibility. Same goes for the 3DS!

        NintenDON’T’s/ Industry (GREED) is the same reasons why Retro gaming is making a comeback!!!

  • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    9 days ago

    I think that tunnel magneto-resistance (TMR) are more favored for 3rd-party sticks. They’ve significant advantages over Hall Effect sensors in latency, power consumption, and, apparently, resolution. Plus, they operate on more similar electrical principles to the traditional pot-based sticks, so, they require less effort to design around.