Don’t Worry, The Steam Deck’s ‘Stick Drift’ Can Be Fixed With A Software Update

Over the past few years, we’ve been hearing Nintendo Switch owners complain that the Joy-Cons are experiencing stick drift. For those unfamiliar, this is where the console thinks you’re inputting a direction with the joystick, except that you’re not. Now it looks like Valve’s brand new Steam Deck is experiencing similar issues as well.

Before you start panicking, there is some good news. Apparently this stick drift issue with the Steam Deck isn’t hardware failure, but rather caused by a bug. This is according to Steam Deck team member Lawrence Yang who said that the team is aware of the issue and have already pushed out an update that should fix it.

According to Yang, “The team has looked into these reports and has determined there was a deadzone calibration issue introduced in a recent firmware update. We have just shipped a fix to address the problem, and the team will continue to watch for reports related to this issue.”

Issues like stick drifting are natural largely due to the fact that it is part of the wear and tear of a console’s controller. Nintendo hasn’t really done much to try and fix the issue, except to issue free repairs for affected gamers. We’re not sure if over time will the Steam Deck run into actual stick drift issues, but for now, if you are experiencing that problem, update your console and it should be fixed.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gadgets, Gaming
Tags: steam deck, Valve