Man Files Lawsuit Against Microsoft’s Xbox Over Drifting Controllers

Most controllers get worn out after an ample amount of time. The analog sticks gradually start ‘drifting’ even when left untouched after extended usage worth hundreds of hours of gameplay. Mainly, it causes your character to move or aim in a particular direction by automatically registering the unspecified movements. It seems plaintiff Donald McFadden has had enough of this drifting. According to a VGC report, numerous Xbox owners through several controller models have encountered drifting problems, as plaintiff McFadden declared in his court papers.

On April 28, Donald McFadden filed the lawsuit against Xbox at the US District Court, Western District of Washington. The case specifies that customers have to pay for repairing a known fault in design after experiencing issues with controllers post their 90-day warranty period.

Reason For Donald McFadden’s Xbox Lawsuit

The plaintiff purchased an Xbox Elite controller for $180 only for an analog stick to start drifting after some time. Maybe thinking it was just one such defective piece, he eventually bought a second Xbox Elite controller. But the same problem repeated itself the second time within “three or four months.”

Donald McFadden tried to fix the joystick issue himself and spent “a considerable amount of time” while doing so. Unfortunately, he was unable to resolve the drifting.

His lawsuit maintains that the device within the joystick called a potentiometer, which transforms physical movement into movements in the game, has a flawed design, resulting in “unwanted electrical contact without input from the user.”

Due to this reason, the plaintiff is alleging Microsoft of being completely aware of the flawed design causing the drifting problem. A lot of customers have filed many online complaints regarding the same issue. Donald McFadden’s lawsuit mentions that his experiences, not isolated and “a large volume of consumers have been complaining about stick drift on Xbox One controllers since at least 2014.”

The lawsuit further states: “A simple Google search on this issue reveals multiple forum and message boards dedicated to stick drift; YouTube instructional videos of users attempting to fix the issue on their own; and even replacement joystick components from Amazon and other sellers.”

A similar type of lawsuit was registered against Nintendo last year because of drifting Joy-Con controllers on the Switch. Nintendo didn’t acknowledge the allegations. They responded by ceasing to charge for repairing the faulty controllers and started refunding customers already paid for a fix.

That case is reportedly still ongoing, so only time will tell how long this one will continue.

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