Xbox was the subject of a lawsuit related to thumbstick drift back in April and was filed by the US law firm CSK&D. After just about a year, it now looks as though the Xbox lawsuit is nearing the end of its road, as it is positioned to be resolved out of court.
CSK&D's lawsuit alleges that a high number of Xbox players have been affected by defective controllers with thumbstick drift issues since 2014. Thumbstick drift is an issue that console gamers are all too familiar with that sees a controller's thumbstick becoming misaligned so that it constantly "drifts" in one direction, which can effectively make a controller unusable in extreme cases.
The move towards an out-of-court settlement began back in February when Microsoft filed a call for the case to be resolved by an impartial adjudicator outside of the courtroom. The filing was accepted and means that the case will be decided after the adjudicator examines evidence and testimonies from both sides of the case before making a legally binding decision on the case. Adjudicators are fairly common in civil cases similar to this one to help keep lengthy cases from clogging up the court system.
An expert examination submitted with the case found that the drift issue comes from a design flaw in the Xbox controller dating back to 2014 that sees the controller's potentiometer incorrectly transmitting the physical movement of the thumbstick to movement in the game. CSK&D argues that the lengthy presence of the design flaw is sufficient grounds for the case, and recently acquired a number of Xbox controllers to support its claims. The move to an adjudicator means that it is extremely unlikely the case will ever make an appearance in public court and likely signals that the case is in the final stretch to its conclusion.
Nintendo has been subject to multiple similar lawsuits, including one also by law firm CSK&D that was moved to arbitration back in March 2020. The outcome of the lawsuit against Xbox is impossible to tell ahead of time, but thumbstick drift issues are a widely known factor of being a console gamer. No matter what the final decision happens to be, hopefully, the case can lead to an improvement of Xbox controllers so that Xbox players can reliably use their controllers for longer. Now would be the perfect time for the improvement to occur, as the next generation of Xbox consoles will start becoming more widely available and will find their way into more fans' homes.
Source: gameindustry.biz