PlayStation 5 – DualSense Controller Drift: Everything You Need To Know About It
If you own or intend to own a PlayStation 5 at some point, you may have recently found a reason to ask yourself an important question: how often will I have to spend on new controls because old ones started drifting for no reason?
Ideally, if you are budgeting for a new control, the ideal situation is because you want … well, another control! That is, one more than you had before. But recently, numerous user-reported issues with DualSense controls have made it clear that with the PS5 at least, you may have reason to consider replacing the ones you have more often than expected. As more reports of the DualSense drift come in and a class action lawsuit looms, you may be wondering how this issue will affect you and what to do if you find it.
What is DualSense drift?
What is basically happening is pretty straightforward: something is wrong with some DualSense controls where the controller is registering inputs from the left or right joystick that the player is not actually entering. East hilo from Reddit on November 26, just a few weeks after the console’s launch in the United States, it shows the problem quite obviously in Destiny 2. The first-person camera rotates on its own, despite the player not touching to the right stick swims.
The issue is not limited to Destiny 2 or the right stick. Other users have posted about issues in Call of Duty, Immortals: Phoenix Rising, Watch Dogs: Legion, Apex Legends, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and (in the comments on many of those posts) Cyberpunk 2077. Some have also mentioned that the The problem also affects both the left and right analog joysticks.
These are just a few examples, but for months since the PS5 launch, people have been posting on social platforms about the same issue. Some have postulated that it could be an issue with a particular game or that it could be linked to a console update. But in general, the consensus is that the problem is internal to the PS5 controller hardware and is not easily solved by swapping games, downloading a patch, or uninstalling something that has already been downloaded.
Who is having trouble drifting the DualSense?
The drift of the DualSense is by no means a new problem, even though it has only recently made headlines due to the class action lawsuit. Previous examples of reported drift date back to the time the console first came out, with many more posts on the PlayStation and PS5 subreddits complaining about the problem since then.
So far, DualSense drift doesn’t seem as widespread as Nintendo’s Joy-Con drift problem – in an MRT survey in February, 10% of respondents said they had experienced DualSense drift, while one A similar survey in May 2020 saw a whopping 72% of respondents claiming to have experienced the Joy-Con drift. However, it is significant enough that a significant number of people are turning to social networks, which implies that there are many more who are experiencing it and who have not published it on the Internet. And it’s quite possible that, as with the Joy-Cons, we will see the DualSense’s drift problem become widespread over time – a recent disassembly process from iFixit estimated that parts of the controller could start to wear out after 400 hours of use. game. It’s a reasonable chance that your average PS5 owner may find you with at least one controller at some point in the life of the console.
Can the DualSense drift be fixed?
Specifically, drift seems to be related to the same issues that plague other video game controllers that have had similar issues as well, including previous PlayStation controllers, Xbox controllers (including, yes, the Elite Series 2), and Joy- Nintendo cons. Drift, experts say, is not a matter of a specific manufacturer or controller manufacturer shipping substandard technology, but rather it appears to be a specific problem of how modern control hardware is designed in general. Disassembly processes have suggested that the problem could be related to controller potentiometers, internal springs, or internal contaminants.
So what can be done to correct the drift of the DualSense? In case the drift is due to dust or software problems, things such as cleaning the surroundings of the analog stick with a dry cloth, updating the control software, resetting the control and connecting / disconnecting the Bluetooth are recommended. Other than that, several users have reported going to Sony technical support. At this time in the United States and some regions Sony is willing to repair or replace controls as long as they are still under warranty, but owners will have to pay for shipping to bring the controller to Sony for that repair, as well as provide the box, and It may take a few weeks to ship it there, have it repaired, and get it back.
For now, any DualSense control purchased new should be covered under warranty, but eventually, this will no longer be the case. There is currently no established procedure on what to do with the DualSense drift if your warranty has expired, nor is there a protocol on what to do if you buy a used control with the problem, unless the store where you bought it has a low return policy. coverage.
Will Sony take any action on the drift of the DualSense?
The pressure of pending lawsuits may eventually affect how users experience DualSense drift in the future. A class action lawsuit filed against Sony earlier this month over this issue criticized Sony for allegedly releasing control knowing this was a problem and failing to provide a more effective repair process. In particular, agreeing to Sony’s terms and conditions during PS5 setup forces PS5 owners to resolve issues like this with arbitration rather than a legal battle, but the recent class action lawsuit was made possible by a plaintiff submitting a letter to Sony opting out of arbitration, which appears to have worked. The forced arbitration clause may make it more difficult to get people to join new lawsuits, but as the matter spreads, more may be added – especially considering the number of lawsuits Nintendo faces over the Same problem almost four years after the Switch was released.
It’s also worth noting that drift may not be the only problem with Sony’s control. Some users report that the adaptive triggers on their DualSense have broken, and users describe a “click” that results in an unresponsive trigger or decreased sensitivity from repeated use. This issue also appears to be covered under warranty and is therefore subject to the same process as drift, but depending on how widespread it becomes over time we may see it make its way to court along with drift as well.
Given that both drift issues and adaptive trigger malfunctions appear to be intrinsically linked to current controller technology, it seems unlikely that Sony is sitting on a magic bullet that it refuses to implement. It’s much more likely that it’s simply too expensive to make controls with whatever secret sauce they need to avoid drifting altogether – a cost that would inevitably be passed on to customers. It is potentially more profitable to simply handle lawsuits as they arise and, apparently, discourage most of them with arbitration clauses.
However, with enough pressure, Sony will eventually need to set up a more streamlined process to fix, repair, or replace controls. It took Nintendo over two years to set up such a process, but in the United States now completely free drift Joy-Cons (including shipping) will be replaced or repaired in just a few weeks. Nintendo even implemented an online queue system when COVID-19 slowed down its repair center operations, essentially allowing customers to maintain their controls for as long as possible before the company was ready to accept and deliver them in a timely manner. . Microsoft, meanwhile, extended the warranty on its Elite Series 2 controls from 90 days to one year in response to concerns about drifting on its own controls, bringing it in line with the one-year warranty offered by Sony.
Under the circumstances, it seems likely that Sony will establish a more convenient process in less time than Nintendo, simply by virtue of complaints that drift is already so widespread across multiple controllers. For now, simply handling issues under warranty has been enough for Sony to get by, but what happens in a year when and if the issues are widespread enough that consumers complain of having to spend $ 70. dollars per year, per check, just to have a working device? After all, that was one of the reasons Nintendo has endured the brunt of bad press for drifting for so long – the problem was widespread, but it was also echoed by two controls per system rather than just one. , which means expensive replacements for indescribable numbers of Switch owners every year.
Ultimately, what gaming companies choose to do regarding drift of control is likely to be decided over a long period of time, based on pressure from user complaints, the courts, and the financial viability of repair or replace controls that have problems. For now, if you own a PS5, your best option to mitigate expensive controller replacements is to opt out of Sony’s arbitration clause as soon as possible, report any issues with the controller through Sony technical support as soon as possible. notes to take advantage of any repair or replacement services they offer, and be sure to try or verify the refund policy for any used controls you may purchase in the future.
