Nintendo Confirms Continued Improvements To Its Joy-Con Controllers
Posted on October 08 2021 by Alexis S. Anderson
A new installment of Nintendo’s “Ask the Developer” feature provided insights into the continued development of its Switch Joy-Con controllers. Toru Yamashita of Nintendo’s Technology Development Department explained that because Joy-Con are specially designed, the company is invested in making ongoing changes. He added,
“Joy-Con controllers have lots of different features, so we’ve been continuing to make improvements that may not always be visible. Among others, the analog-stick parts have continuously been improved since launch, and we are still working on improvements… we have investigated the Joy-Con controllers used by the customers and repeatedly improved the wear resistance and durability.”
He noted that the degree of wear depends on factors like the combination of the controllers’ “materials and forms,” so they continue to research which combinations are less likely to wear. The team even altered its reliability test to better reflect the Switch’s demands, as its joysticks were originally tested under the same standards as the Wii U GamePad’s analog stick.
Every time an improvement is confirmed, it is “promptly incorporated” into the Joy-Con controllers made from then on. Thus, the Switch OLED’s Joy-Con reflect all of the upgrades made to the controllers. The same is true for those packaged with newly shipped Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite consoles. Separately sold Joy-Con controllers and those repaired by Nintendo use the advanced parts, as well. Yamashita also confirmed that “similar continual improvements have been made for the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller…”
In describing the Technology Development Department’s philosophy when approaching various hardware improvements, Yamashita said,
“Hearing customers’ opinions, we have been thinking about what we actually wanted but couldn’t do at the release of Nintendo Switch in 2017 and what we think can make customers happy once realized… At Nintendo we tend to say that whenever we release new hardware, we immediately start thinking about the next one. But this doesn’t only mean that we’re always working on new-product development, but also that we are constantly working on what can still be done to products even after they are released.”
Are you happy to hear that Nintendo is continuing to work on addressing issues players experience with their Joy-Con? Have you had any trouble with your Switch controllers? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Nintendo (via Nintendo Life)
Alexis S. Anderson is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon who joined the writing team in November, 2014. She has a JD from the UCLA School of Law and is pursuing a career in Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law. She grew up in the New Jersey suburbs with her parents, twin brother, and family shih-tzu.
