Steam Deck’s Joystick Drift Rectified by Firmware Update

New tech is always exciting and never perfect. There will always be a flaw or a bug that makes itself known once, paying customers to get their hands on it. The same is true for the Steam Deck. Reports have been coming in of players experiencing the infamous stick drift problems that plague so many controllers. Thankfully, a fix has already been deployed.

Stick drifting is extremely common amongst controllers. The good thing is that controllers that are not part of the gaming system can simply be replaced if the issue gets too bad. However, the Steam Deck does not enjoy this benefit. Several people have been posting about their experiences on Reddit and Twitter, and Valve quickly addressed the issue before the PR got out of hand.

It has been reported that the company was quick to bring a fix for the issue with a software update. Designer Lawrence Yang announced on Twitter that the team has “looked into the reported issues” and stated that it was down to a “deadzone regression.”

Hi all, a quick note about Steam Deck thumbsticks. The team has looked into the reported issues and it turns out it was a deadzone regression from a recent firmware update. We just shipped a fix to address the bug, so make sure you’re up to date.
— Lawrence Yang (@lawrenceyang) March 2, 2022

Even Nintendo’s Joy-Cons suffered from this drift issue, and the company could fix it to some degree. It’s interesting to see how quickly Valve could rectify the problem with the Steam Deck, which means they are paying close attention to how the console is performing in the real world. Completely understandable, given just how highly anticipated the Steam Deck was.

Valve stated that they wanted to solve the drifting problems early on. The Steam Deck was delayed by two months, offering the developers and partners time to work on it some more. It stands to reason that something like this would have been noticed before launch. However, it could be that this is just one of those issues in gaming that pop up regardless of how much people work against it.

Joystick Drift on Steam Deck Receives Fix in Latest Firmware Update — Steam Deck

READ: Steam Users Able to Check Games’ Compatibility with Steam Deck

Valve is also already thinking of ideas for a Steam Deck 2, and more games are being verified compatible with the console every passing day. It is possible, with the amount of power in such a small form factor, that the Steam Deck has begun a new era of gaming.

About Valve Software

Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington. Valve is best known for the software distribution platform Steam, along with gaming franchises such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota.