It became Nintendo’s fastest-selling console in Europe, but Nintendo Switch was soon swept up with concerns surrounding the left Joy-Con controller.
The “desync issue” saw players report that the Joy-Con would temporarily lose wireless connectivity with the console, resulting in losing control over movement in whichever game was being played.
CNET suffered this issue and, after contacting Nintendo Support, sent their Joy-Con away to be fixed. Returned within a week, they opened it up to see what had changed in comparison to before.
That came in a small, black piece of conductive foam, which is specially treated with nickel, copper or both to shield electronics from RF interference. It is speculated that this has been placed to protect the antenna from interference, or to keep other wires from touching it.
Nintendo has since reiterated that there has been “no design issue with the Joy-Con controllers,” but has quickly moved to address a “manufacturing variation” which had caused the wireless interference that has been seen in the left Joy-Con.
“There is no design issue with the Joy-Con controllers, and no widespread proactive repair or replacement effort is underway,” Nintendo of America explained in a statement. “A manufacturing variation has resulted in wireless interference with a small number of the left Joy-Con. Moving forward this will not be an issue, as the manufacturing variation has been addressed and corrected at the factory level.
“We have determined a simple fix can be made to any affected Joy-Con to improve connectivity.
“There are other reasons consumers may be experiencing wireless interference. We are asking consumers to contact our customer support team so we can help them determine if a repair is necessary. If it is, consumers can send their controller directly to Nintendo for the adjustment, free of charge, with an anticipated quick return of less than a week. Repair timing may vary by region. For help with any hardware or software questions, please visit http://support.nintendo.com.
