One of the biggest issues that's plagued the Nintendo Switch since its launch in 2017 is stick drift. In fact, Nintendo faced several
lawsuits as a result of the issue, with an ex-repair supervisor previously stating that the workload to fix drifting Joy-Con was
"very stressful".
Now, while we can acknowledge that Nintendo has undoubtedly been working hard behind the scenes to mitigate the issue for the upcoming Switch 2, we're nevertheless disheartened to confirm that the Joy-Con 2's joysticks will not be Hall Effect.
This comes via
our interview with Nintendo of America's Nate Bihldorff, who outright confirmed the exclusion. Notably, he didn't specify whether or not the Pro Controller would include Hall Effect sticks, but the way in which he quickly deflects onto another topic probably implies that it won't:
Let's jump off the sensitivity stuff then and talk about the stick of the Switch 2 Joy-Con because it feels so different to the original Switch's analog stick. So is it a Hall Effect stick? Were you inspired by the Hall Effect stick?
Well, the Joy-Con 2's controllers have been designed from the ground up. They're not Hall Effect sticks, but they feel really good. Did you experience both the Joy-Con and the Pro Controller?
Both!
So, I like both, but that Pro Controller, for some reason the first time I grabbed it, I was like, "this feels like a GameCube controller." I was a GameCube guy. Something about it felt so familiar, but the stick on that especially. I tried to spend a lot of time making sure that it was quiet. I don't know if you tried really whacking the stick around but it really is [quiet]. I'm thinking back to my Smash Brothers days, where you just whack it. [The Switch 2 Pro Controller] is one of the quietest controllers I've ever played.
Bihldorff's comments on the supposed quietness of the Pro Controller is also echoed in the
Ask the Developer interview with producer Kouichi Kawamoto, senior director Takuhiro Dohta, and general manager Tetsuya Sasaki. When discussing the Pro Controller, Kawamoto said:
"In particular, the left and right control sticks are quieter and don’t make noise, even when they’re moved quickly to the edge. Also, they glide very smoothly, so we've taken to calling them 'smooth-gliding sticks'.”
Sasaki then confirmed that Nintendo had been running a long-term project to create the "pinnacle of all controllers", but notably stopped short of saying whether he believed the company had achieved its goal with the Switch 2's Pro Controller.
Of course, it would be foolish to make any assumptions as to the durability of the Joy-Con 2 sticks at this stage, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens following the full launch of the Switch 2 on
5th June 2025.
