Nintendo VP confirms Switch 2 Joy-Cons won't feature Hall effect sticks

Nintendo of America has confirmed that the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 will not use Hall effect sensors in the analog sticks of its Joy-Cons or Pro Controllers. Nate Bihldorff, Senior Vice President of Product Development & Publishing at Nintendo of America, confirmed the news in an interview with Nintendo Life, where he posits that the new console's analog sticks have still been designed with durability in mind.

"The Joy-Con 2's controllers have been designed from the ground up. They're not Hall Effect sticks, but they feel really good," said Bihldorff. "Every time we put out a new hardware, [Nintendo is] designing from the ground up to be the best possible experience for our consumers, whether it's the immediate effect of the Joy-Cons that you're playing, how they're interacting with the game, or durability."

The original Nintendo Switch was plagued with stick drift throughout its lifespan, causing issues where analog sticks would drift slightly in an often random direction, while no force is being applied to the stick. Nintendo faced multiple class-action lawsuits over the lifespan of the Switch over stick drift, with Nintendo and Nintendo of America's presidents both issuing statements apologizing for the inconveniences and offering free analog-stick replacement programs.

"Hall effect" sticks utilize a more modern approach to measuring joystick movement than traditional potentiometers. Where standard analog sticks see their wiper move against contact pads, changing voltage to determine where the stick lies, Hall effect switches use magnets to detect movement. Potentiometer-based analog sticks carry a risk of the contact pads wearing down over time, causing stick drift. Hall effect joysticks have become common on third-party controllers and even magnetic PC keyboards, making Nintendo's decision not to use the tried-and-true tech even more confusing.

Bihldorff asserts that durability was a chief concern for Nintendo as it worked to engineer a replacement for the Switch's controllers, a statement affirmed by a recent developer roundtable with Nintendo's product leads for the Switch 2. Switch 2 producer Kouichi Kawamoto shared that "the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller may look indistinguishable from the previous controller at first glance, but it was also redesigned from scratch."

Tetsuya Sasaki, hardware lead, elaborated on Nintendo's long-term goals for controller development. "There's been a long-running project at Nintendo with the grand ambition of developing the 'pinnacle of all controllers.'" While Sasaki didn't confirm whether Nintendo had reached that goal on the Switch 2, the new "smooth-gliding switches" seem to be a point of pride for Nintendo's engineering team.

Only time will tell whether Nintendo has found a solution to early-onset stick drift with the Switch 2. With stick-drift known to affect Joy-Cons as early as six months into their lifespan, we may see our first reports of stick drift before 2026 if the problem persists without turning to the tried-and-true Hall effect tech. For more on what Nintendo has said on the new hardware, including its DLSS and ray tracing features, be sure to follow our other Switch 2 coverage.