Microsoft is facing a lawsuit over the Xbox controller drifting issue

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Drifting has been a problem for many Xbox players. The plaintiff, Donald McFadden, is suing the Xbox on behalf of a group of American gamers.

According to reports, McFadden filed a complaint with the U.S. district court for the western district of Washington on April 28, stating that all drifting issues outside the 90-day warranty period required out-of-pocket repairs, and that the problem was a known design flaw and therefore not legal.

The problem of drifting occurs after the rocker is used for a long time, even in the original position will trigger a signal in a certain direction.

Nintendo's Switch joy-con controller has faced similar charges before. Last month, a judge in the Switch rocker case rejected nintendo's request to withdraw, but agreed to mandatory arbitration.

McFadden said in his complaint that he bought the Xbox elite controller (with a suggested retail price of $180) and after using it for some time found the controller had drifted. He then decided to buy a second elite handle, but after 3-4 months the same problem arose again.

XBox Controller

The complaint alleges that he spent a lot of time trying to fix things himself, including common methods such as modifying dead zones in Xbox Settings, but nothing worked.

The plaintiffs argued that Microsoft was fully aware of the problem because customer service had received numerous complaints, but the company did not disclose the design flaw and refused to repair the handle for free.

According to the complaint, the design defect of the handle is explained that the reason for the drifting is that the contact brush component of the potentiometer frequently cuts against the metal impedance material, resulting in the deformation, thus producing the phenomenon of "drifting". The complaint says Mcfadden's case is not unique and that there have been a number of complaints about Xbox One controller drifting since 2014.

Nintendo, by contrast, stopped charging for repairs to its joy-con controller and offered refunds to users who had previously paid for repairs, even though no court rulings or arbitration have yet been issued.
 
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