Nintendo's Fix For The Switch's Left Joy-Con Is Absurdly Simple

The Switch's left Joy-Con connectivity issue, in which some players' controllers lose their wireless connection to the Switch in the middle of a game, has been a major blemish on what's otherwise been an incredibly successful launch for Nintendo's newest console. Now, nearly a month after critics first discovered the problem, Nintendo has devised a solution—and it's really, really basic.

According to Nintendo, the "manufacturing variation" (which is a very odd way of saying "design flaw"), which the company claims only affects a "small number" of users, has been addressed at the manufacturing level, and shouldn't be a problem for Switch consoles going forward. People who currently own faulty Joy-Cons can contact Nintendo and send their controllers in for free repairs, which Nintendo says should take less than a week.

CNET's Sean Hollister took Nintendo up on its offer, and said that the repair process "was just about the best electronics customer service I've ever experienced." Hollister claims that Nintendo repaired his Joy-Con in five days (he shipped the device off on a Wednesday, and the fixed version arrived on the following Monday), and confirms that the Joy-Con controller he received in the mail is the same one that he shipped to Nintendo, not a replacement.

So, what exactly did Nintendo do? Hollister opened up his left Joy-Con and found out. Apparently, the "repair" process consists of putting a small piece of foam on top of the Joy-Con's wireless antenna, protecting it from outside interference. That's it. When Hollister tried removing the block of foam, the Joy-Con's connectivity problems returned. When he put it back in, they went away.

And there you have it. Given that Nintendo can't really afford to have the Switch fail—there are a number of reasons why, but in short, it'd be really, really bad—it's nice to see one of the console's biggest problems resolved so soon. Now, if we could just get a few more games...