good article. that explained a lot to me. thank you.I've had issues with pretty much every controller I've had.. From the cheapest to the most expensive, I can't see a difference in "quality" in this context.
But the issue is actually simpler to explain than you would think. MS and Sony and others actually tend to buy the same off-shelf third party products for their controllers. Mix this with the eye-opening fact that the cycle limit of the sticks is often reached within 400 hours of gameplay and you'll understand that issues are eventually par for the course..
Here’s Why PS5 Joysticks Drift (and Why They’ll Only Get Worse) | iFixit News
apparently i have been very lucky for about 20 years. but now all the sudden its two controllers in one year. and from the responses itt, its happening more with new gear than it did in the past. however there are a number of people claiming its been happening their whole ives.Literally never. Maybe I'm very lucky.
I've never understood why the industry hasn't moved to optical sensors for sticks.
same. and since then ive been hearing about it more and more. these days im hearing every controller on every console has it. and im sorry but people saying its always existed and always been as bad as it is now, i dont buy that. i think this did happen in the past, but not at the rate which we are seeing it today.I didn't even know what Stick Drift was until Nintendo released the Switch.
Same here.Literally never. Maybe I'm very lucky.
In my experience, a good 50 to 60% of drifting can be fixed rather easily as it's dirt related rather than a hardware defect. But you do need to open your controller up and clean the track the potentiometer runs along at inside the stick.Sorry for the bump but probably not thread worthy.
My fucking Dualsense has drift on the right stick! Absolute piss take! I’ve never had drift on a Sony pad before.
Only games I’ve completed are GoW and Astro, and I’ve played on eFootball for about 15 hours.
I’d noticed it on eFootball but thought that it might be more sensitive on a football game.
Just started Uncharted Lost Legacy on my day off and the fucking camera is panning around non-stop! What the actual fuck man. Absolute bull shit. £59.99 for a replacement if I want to play today
Know any good videos showing how to do that, would be a good place to post something like that.In my experience, a good 50 to 60% of drifting can be fixed rather easily as it's dirt related rather than a hardware defect. But you do need to open your controller up and clean the track the potentiometer runs along at inside the stick.
Know any good videos showing how to do that, would be a good place to post something like that.
I have had some success using rubbing alcohol to clean the sticks from the outside, but opening up the controller I had (Xbox) required a special tool that I didn’t have
What a pain. I still contend this became more of a problem this last gen, despite those saying it’s always been an issue. Never had it happen and heard of it happening so much u til the last 7 or 8 years.
This is a great video as it shows in detail the inside of the stick and how it works/ how the issue presents itself. It's for a PS3, but all modern controllers have the exact same analog sticks so nothing really changes. Just find a video for disassembling the controller you want and then follow this guide for cleaning. I've fixed several DS4s over the years and recently a Dualsense this way. A few times the problem reappears very soon as there's damage in the track rather than just dirt, but more often than not it's been fine for like a year where I just had to repeat the process.
For the more tech-savvy you can always buy extremely cheap replacements sticks and solder them yourself, but that's a discussion for another time.
Maybe whenever Sony releases the new Pro controller, though I highly doubt it's going to have hall effect sensors for the sticks. Best chance would be the controller is fully customisable and you can easily replace the entire sticks wtih no extra tools.Hopefully the industry gets a handle on the drift issue this current gen.
Just an update on my experience with Sony support in the UK. I only managed to send my controller to them a week ago last Thursday, 10 days ago, they’ve sent me what looks like a new controller today no cost to me at all.Sorry for the bump but probably not thread worthy.
My fucking Dualsense has drift on the right stick! Absolute piss take! I’ve never had drift on a Sony pad before.
Only games I’ve completed are GoW and Astro, and I’ve played on eFootball for about 15 hours.
I’d noticed it on eFootball but thought that it might be more sensitive on a football game.
Just started Uncharted Lost Legacy on my day off and the fucking camera is panning around non-stop! What the actual fuck man. Absolute bull shit. £59.99 for a replacement if I want to play today
I've experienced stick drift on every console since the N64. The parts inside analog sticks are just small and fragile so they wear out. Even back on the Atari 5200 the contacts would wear and not register correctly. At least on that console you could easily take the controller apart and clean everything. Cleaning corrosion from contacts with a pencil eraser was a common activity with that lousy controller.
The industry needs to make controllers easier to repair. Optical sensors won't fix the problem because sticks, buttons and triggers on controllers are still mechanical so eventually they're going to wear out. Having to buy a whole new controller because a mechanical part breaks is crap.
Got a switch earlier this year, playing some Mario kart on it and my character keeps drifting left and right. "Oh ffs HERE WE GO, brand new and I've got the stick drift gaf is always talking about. Just my luck".
Turns out I forgot to turn off motion controls on the kart select screen
mfw
Same. Been gaming for decades. Never had it. Then again I don't exaggerate when I'm speaking either. Most people claim they take care/take it easy on their shit. Apparently not.Maybe I got lucky or take extra care of my controllers but I have never experienced drifting sticks.
Same. Been gaming for decades. Never had it. Then again I don't exaggerate when I'm speaking either. Most people claim they take care/take it easy on their shit. Apparently not.
I have a strange thing happening to me.
I seem to experience more drift on certains games than others...
I also had a problem with an old controller where certain games did not understand my input when i pushed the joystick diagonally, making the character move really akwardly up and then left but not "up-left".
I don't kown if my ps4 is haunted or if each game has its own settings and that is why, but its freaky.
So here's my train of thought then. You claim I'm being dismissive of a larger problem and that it is in fact a big issue. Then, you proceed to say it only happens to you on XONE AND XSX. Well you've been gaming for over 30 years! How many controllers on those systems did you own? Even if it's seven between the two that's pretty good odds that's it's not a major issue.Ahhh, the typical "if it hasn't happened to me, everyone else is either lying or is an idiot" train of thought, c'mon man...
I've been pushing buttons on joysticks/gamepads for 3 decades now and the the XONE/XSX gamepads are the only ones that have given me trouble - and I don't exaggerate when I'm speaking either.
Shit, i've had people telling me that "welp, it's a joypad/peripheral, you shouldn't expect them to last more than a year", i mean, goddamn if that isn't some fucked up logic (not to mention, privileged).
By that stupid logic :
- I should replace my motorcycle's handlebars/clip-ons every year 'cause, you know, they get get heavy usage.
- I should replace my car's steering wheel every year 'cause, you know, i drive a lot and shit breaks.
- i should buy new shoes every couple of months 'cause i also walk a lot.
Meanwhile, every other day there's a couple of new posts regarding stick drift, broken bumpers etc on the usual internet places regarding Xbox controllers.I don't have a switch nor a PS5 but i suppose the myriad of posts about 'em (stick drift specifically) must also be lies.
Fun fact : my original Xbox Duke and S controllers still work fine, as does my X360 one and...DualShock 2 (last time i tested it 6 months ago).
Shit just isn't made like it used to - and this goes for pretty much everything, still, i'd expect the main way of interacting with a console (the joypad) to last more than a few damned months, this shit it used to be built like friggin' tanks, nowadays ? not so much.