The other day, I got into one of those unexpected yet passionate conversations with several of my fellow gamers, and this time, the current state of gaming controllers was the topic. You know, the kind that starts with someone saying they hate a certain controller and suddenly turns into a full-blown tech breakdown. We were swapping stories about gamepads from past consoles, like my Sega Genesis controller that got run over by a car and worked fine afterwards, to the newer stuff that breaks if you look at it. It was during that time someone stated, “Man, they don’t make controllers like they used to.”
And yeah, I couldn’t agree more.
Today’s controllers might look slick and feel premium, but they’ve got one major flaw that’s somehow still an issue in 2025: joystick drift. It’s the bane of modern gaming. You’re in the middle of a game, and suddenly your character starts moonwalking to the left, or the camera starts spinning like it’s had one too many drinks, even though your hands aren’t touching the sticks. That’s joystick drift.
During the chat, someone asked the million-dollar question: “Why haven’t Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo just used Hall Effect joysticks?”...
