Steam Deck Owners Are Already Reporting Joystick Drift

gamespot.com:

Despite releasing just three days ago, Steam Deck owners are already reporting serious hardware issues with their brand-new consoles, the most notable being joystick drift. Since February 25, two separate Reddit threads (here and here) have been created showcasing users with defective Steam Decks. In both instances, the console owners shared a video of their system's right joystick experiencing substantial drift.

some people are already experiencing Steam Deck drift https://t.co/iQjLeEFJewhttps://t.co/18PYesa4hn pic.twitter.com/vVe4MgFtJo

In the comments, the owners and several Reddit users have attempted to troubleshoot the issue. However, it seems the Steam Deck's UI does not have an option to recalibrate the controls. Many have noted the problem might stem from a manufacturing issue with this particular batch of units, as reviews did not report issues with drift and all of the consoles just released to the public are a part of Steam's «first quarter» launch. Several others urged the owners to contact Valve, Steam's parent company, to either resolve the issue or replace the console. Neither of these users have reported the issues as resolved, though both have reportedly contacted the company seeking help for the issue.

However, some commenters were quick to suggest the owners merely replace the old joysticks with new ones. As the Steam Deck is a modular console, they are, reportedly, much simpler to repair than other handheld systems or controllers. However, if the issue ends up being a software issue rather than an apparent hardware one, this fix won't actually resolve the issue. In addition, Valve has expressedly warned owners against tinkering with their Steam Decks, writing that doing so could «mess things up, like