Nintendo’s new console, the Switch, comes out a week from today, on March 3. Some reviewers and members of the press have gotten Switchs early and some are reporting hardware problems.
According to Polygon article, multiple reviewers have run into syncing problems with the left Joy-Con controller. Polygon’s own pre-review states, “Over the course of my time with Breath of the Wild, I’ve had repeated problems with the left Joy-Con controller partially or even completely losing sync from the Switch console while docked and connected to my television. This is a pain in the ass at best, but has also resulted in several deaths playing Breath of the Wild.”
Others who have reported having this issue include IGN’s Jose Otero, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier and SIFTD’s Shane Satterfield among others.
Many are hoping that this is a temporary issue that will be fixed by the Switch’s Day 1 update on launch day. Though it seems curious that people tend to only have problems with the left Joy-Con, it could be due to the two Joy-Cons having slightly different hardware. For example, the right Joy-Con can read Amiibos while the left can’t, and the left has a screenshot button that is absent from the right one.
A YouTube video by GameXplain attempts to solve the mystery behind this issue. They reveal that the Joy-Cons seem have difficulty with their wireless capabilities when there are solid objects between them and the Switch console. Furthermore, people may just be reporting problems with the left Joy-Con due to that being the one players control the character with in games such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can watch the full video below.