Maybe it’s time to owe up to something about those hall effect sticks.
It’s been an interesting few days after the Nintendo Switch 2’s official launch, as we have seen several rumors and fake news debunked, in some cases by people who spread the fake news themselves. Today we get some interesting insights on one of the most contentious aspects of the console.
iFixit posted a video teardown of the console, revealing that the console did not have hall effect sticks. On the surface, one can see the potential controversy, as the original Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons went through a stick drift controversy. Video game accessory makers like GuliKit marketed the idea of hall effect sticks, which had magnetic parts instead of a potentiometer, as a solution to the stick drift issue. A lot of gamers have embraced this notion although it in itself hasn’t really been definitively proven.
But then, even the idea of this video is somewhat misleading, because Nintendo very clearly stated that they did not add hall effect sticks to the Switch 2. In an Ask The Developers interview, Kouichi Kawamoto, who was the main producer behind the Switch 2 project, explained that they developed a new analog stick technology:
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.”
Nintendo Patents Watch on Bluesky decided to make a thread explaining what we could actually see in the teardown video, in relation to Nintendo’s latest analog stick patents, complete with proofs. In their words:
From the teardown, one can see that the stick’s assembly and components closely resemble the drawings in patents WO2020174902/CN113383287, filed by Alps Alpine in Japan and China.
The invention provides solutions to ensure a resistive stick’s long-term reliability. 1. Reduce abrasion on carbon track (less debris) 2. Ensure consistent contact (debris resistant) https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2020174902
How is this related to Switch 2? 1. One of the patent’s inventors is also named in Nintendo’s EU & UK design registrations for Joy-Con 2 stick. https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/designs/015101575-0001
2. Alps Alpine’s financial report indicates that the company is the suppler of Switch 2 sticks. https://ssl4.eir-parts.net/doc/6770/ir_material_for_fiscal_ym4/171494/00.pdf
Regarding Alps Alpine, the name may seem European, but this is actually a Japanese technology company, founded in 1948 as Kataoka Electric Co., Ltd. Alps Alpine is a specialist in potentiometers, sensors, encoders, and related technology, and as one can expect from a Nintendo partner, they’re a leader in their field. They made the keyboards for Apple’s legendary Apple IIc in the 1980s, for example.
As to whether these smooth-gliding sticks developed by Nintendo and using technology from Alps Alpine will prove to not have stick drift, time will tell. But you can look around for initial impressions of the Switch 2, and especially the Switch 2 Pro Controller, and that speaks to how successful Nintendo’s efforts at improving their analog sticks have been.
