The good news is here: UK Switch owners can now have their Joy-Con controllers repaired by Nintendo for free.
Joy-Con drift has been a major issue plaguing the Nintendo switch since its launch in 2017. The gist of the problem is that Joy-Con controllers are prone to “drift” in that movement will be detected by your Switch even when you’re not touching your Joy-Con.
The speculation is that this drift problem boils down to a design flaw in the Joy-Con controllers themselves, so it’s always been an issue for Switch owners. Nintendo, however, hasn’t been as good at solving this problem as Microsoft once was about the Xbox 360’s red ring of death back then. According to Nintendo, the Joy-Con drift simply hasn’t impacted gamers enough to warrant a more robust response.
However, that is now changing for those in the UK. Nintendo UK has updated its support page to say that “until further notice, Nintendo is offering consumers who purchased the respective product in the EEA, UK and Switzerland that repairs for Joystick Reactivity Syndrome will be made free of charge by the Official Nintendo Repair Centers”. Basically, if you experience Joy-Con drift in the UK, Nintendo will fix your controller for free.
There is other fixes you can try yourself to deal with Joy-Con drift but ultimately if you’re not progressing on your own you now have another option aside from buying another controller which is a definite win for the consumer. It’s unfortunate that it took Nintendo five years to offer to fix its own faulty hardware, but better late than never.
If you live in North America, Latin America, or France, don’t worry because Nintendo has already repaired the Joy-Cons in those territories for free.