The controller drift lawsuit saga continues, but we’re seeing Microsoft under the judge’s gavel this time. A new Xbox One controller class action lawsuit was filed at the end of April, alleging multiple consumers encounter control stick drift problems — right after the 90 day warranty ends.
The news comes from Video Game Chronicles, and the suit was filed in Western District of Washington by Donald McFadden.
McFadden says he experienced issues with his pricey Xbox Elite controller, where the stick registered movements when he wasn’t actually moving it. He bought another one and experienced the same issues again a few months later.
According to McFadden, the problem is a design flaw in what’s called the potentiometer — in layman’s terms, the thing that turns stick movement into game movement.
McFadden says he dug into the controllers himself to try and fix the issue, because Microsoft reportedly refuses to acknowledge the design flaw or repair the controllers for free. However, he says he couldn’t fix the issue himself and believes Microsoft needs to disclose the design defect.
Apparently, he’s not the only one who thinks this, since the suit says multiple people experience the issue and it’s a common forum topic.
While a handful of these posts every year doesn’t necessarily qualify as “common,” there are a number of credible-sounding responses in each thread, with people either explaining how they fixed the issue themselves or asking if another fix would solve their problem too.
Interestingly, the problems forum users report don’t match up with McFadden’s description of undesired electrical contacts in the potentiometer mechanism either.
It doesn’t sound as if the problem is universal or truly unfixable as McFadden claims, but it remains to be seen how Microsoft handles the issue. As we reported with last year’s Nintendo Joy-Con lawsuit, Nintendo soon stopped charging for Joy-Con repair after the Joy-Con suit gathered a fair bit of steam.
The original story lives on Video Game Chronicles. Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Xbox One controller class action lawsuit news as it develops.
