‘Drifting’ Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons might not be repaired for free in Southeast Asia

Nintendo might have (privately) decided to repair its units affected by the infamous Joy-Con drift, but not every authorised distributor around the world got the memo.

The issue of malfunctioning joysticks blew up over the last couple of weeks thanks to Kotaku’s report, but the problem has been plaguing Switch owners across the world for quite some time already. No noticeable hiccups at the point of purchase, but as Switch units get older, some customers are starting to notice non-existent inputs from their controllers' analogue sticks.

The problem got widespread enough to warrant dragging Nintendo to court. Per Vice, the Japanese tech giant then issued an internal memo to customer service representatives that Joy-Con repairs would be free, even for customers without proof of purchase and the product being out of warranty. 

But that kindness might not necessarily apply to regions outside the United States — which is perfectly understandable, as Nintendo has yet to officially confirm that the company will repair at no charge. 

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Maxsoft — the official distributor of Nintendo products in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand — has yet to confirm the news as well, but for now it seems that affected users will still have to fork out the dough to service their Joy-Cons. According to a customer’s email exchange with a Maxsoft representative seen by AsiaOne, the distributor makes no mention of any changes in policy.

“Unfortunately your Joy-Con is no longer under warranty. Repair-wise, we would need to check on your Joy-Con physically to determine how much the repair will cost,” wrote the representative to a Singapore-based Switch user, who bought his unit from a store at Nex shopping mall in June 2017. 

In a statement to AsiaOne, Maxsoft maintained that their customer service policies are unchanged for now — at least until the company receives further notices from Nintendo with regards about Joy-Con warranties. 

It’s no fault of the distributor's. It currently remains unclear whether the internal changes in policy will be rolled out to regions outside of the US, with Nintendo’s customer support staff in Europe reportedly having no awareness of recent developments. In the UK, the customer service protocol remains the same — provide recommended troubleshooting.

Still, there’s hope. According to a Nintendo Life report, Switch users with faulty Joy-Cons in Latin America are eligible for free repairs. 

ilyas@asiaone.com