Valve’s developers assure the public that there will be no joystick drift on the Steam Deck. This is a good thing to know because the upcoming gaming console is touted as the main rival of Nintendo Switch moving forward.
Joystick drift is quite common but mostly experienced by users of Nintendo Switch. Hence, it is popularly known as “Joy-con” drift, linked to the name of the Switch controllers.
Anyway, the “drift” is when the analog sticks would sometimes make inputs on their own without being actively used. This has been a longstanding issue for Nintendo, and it continues to be a pervasive problem for some Switch users.
To be clear, this isn't exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. The PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers have also experienced the same thing.
No Drift
According to an article, Valve takes reliability into account when it comes to its products.
Yazan Aldehayyat, a hardware engineer at Valve, said that they’ve done a lot of testing to ensure reliability on all fronts. All inputs are taken into consideration, as well as environmental factors that may affect the controllers in the long run.
Steam Deck designer John Ikeda added that they’ve selected durable parts known for their amazing performance. After all, customers want to be assured that a costly product like Steam Deck is designed to last.
Why Is This a Huge Deal?
Joystick drift is a huge deal not only from a gamer's standpoint but also from a company’s perspective.
For those who do not know, Nintendo faced so many lawsuits pertaining to the Joy-con drift issue. So much that Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa was forced to apologize for the inconvenience.
Apparently, the original Switch was not the only one that had this problem as Nintendo Switch Lite had it too.
Now, it is understandable that all controllers or any devices that rely on input would degrade over time. That is just the nature of things. However, the Joy-con drift is a technical flaw that plagued even newer batches of the Switch.
It is unclear if the Steam Deck will be immune to this issue. Yet the statements made by Aldehayyat and Ikeda would give more confidence to potential buyers to still purchase Valve’s portable gaming console.
What do you think? Will the Steam Deck be safe from the infamous drift issue?
