Xbox Controller Drift Lawsuit To Be Settled Out Of Court

A class-action lawsuit that alleges that Microsoft knowingly distributed poorly-designed controllers has moved into arbitration. The console giant moved to settle the case through an impartial adjudicator back in February.

The lawsuit, which was originally filed in April 2020 by US law firm Chimicles, Schwartz Kriner, & Donaldson-Smith (CSK&D), claims that many Xbox players have reported "stick drift" as a result of normal use. CSK&D's suit alleges this drift is due to a manufacturing flaw, and publicly stated that they have a "sufficient volume" of defective controllers to support these claims. In an interview with The Loadout, the law firm acknowledges that these controllers were obtained in return for an undisclosed fee.

As part of the suit, an expert examination of the controller claimed that the stick drift is caused by an issue with the controller's potentiometer, which is "the mechanism that translates the physical movement of the thumbstick into movement within the video game." Stick drift is far from a Microsoft-specific issue: fellow console manufacturers Sony and Nintendo are facing lawsuits due to PS5 and JoyCon drifting respectively. The sheer volume of public criticism surrounding the JoyCons led Nintendo's president to apologize for the issue last year.