Don’t pay Microsoft for stick drift on the new Xbox Nano controller | usagoldmines.com

This weekend a friend of mine told me she’s playing through The Witcher 3 again, as soon as she could get a new controller, as her Xbox model had succumbed to the dreaded analog stick drift problem. She asked me to recommend a new one, and I heartily suggested a budget 8BitDo option I’d bought for myself. “It has Hall effect sticks,” I said, “so it shouldn’t ever have that problem.” 

“Aren’t first-party controllers always better?” she asked. I explained that that’s the prevailing wisdom, but Microsoft hasn’t had a major revision of its controller design since the launch of the Xbox One six years ago. There are leaks of a new Elite controller, but the current standard pad is still on relatively old tech in this regard.

Then I got to thinking more. Actually, Microsoft has issued a redesigned controller, and it just launched. The Xbox Nano controller might just make sense for my friend, as she’s on the smaller side. So I looked it up. To no great surprise, there’s no mention of Hall effect sticks in this new design. So my recommendation of 8BitDo’s $30 pad stands for her, and anyone else who wants a basic, affordable controller for PC. 

Michael Crider / Foundry

I kept mentally poking at this topic. As a matter of fact, none of the primary console makers offer default gamepads with drift-resistant sticks, whatever other features they might have. Microsoft’s Xbox pad is happy to connect over 2.4GHz or Bluetooth, but its sticks are vulnerable. Ditto for the Elite Controller 2, which hasn’t changed much since 2019. Sony’s DualSense for the PS5, for all its fancy haptics and adaptive triggers, doesn’t use Hall effect. The DualSense Edge, the PlayStation version of a “pro” controller, doesn’t feature them. 

And Nintendo doesn’t use them for the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons or the Pro Controller, despite nearly a decade of well-documented troubles with the problem. It’s an infuriating exclusion on that point — with a 2025 debut and years of problems, there was no reason for Nintendo not to use HE or TMR sticks. Aside from, of course, the idea that people will buy the Switch 2 whatever they do or don’t include in the hardware. 

Nintendo

That puts us at a point hitherto unknown in the history of gaming: Third-party controllers are, at least in this particular area, superior to the official offerings. The 8BitDo I mentioned earlier is a measly $30, half the retail price of the Xbox pad, and it features Hall effect sticks. GameSir, another reliable budget brand, has a similar one at the same price. Sony is more protective with its official licensing, but you can find a well-reviewed option under $50. 

There’s even a smaller controller that offers Hall effect sticks. And naturally, it’s cheaper than Microsoft’s upcoming option, though it doesn’t look like that one’s officially licensed for Xbox.

This feels weird to me. I can remember the days of Nyko and Mad Catz (with a Z), back when the cheaper options were universally reviled. They were relegated to younger siblings and guests, giving them a handicap in multiplayer for all their claims of “turbo” buttons and fancy lighting. And yet today, despite controllers being shockingly expensive, the “official” options are mostly falling behind. Unless you need something like Sony’s touchpad or Nintendo’s NFC reader, there’s really no reason to spend more. 

Valve

Valve’s Steam Controller has TMR thumbsticks, unlike the Steam Deck, but it’s $100, so not a great choice unless you’re making use of its many other features. You can mod magnetic sticks into popular pads thanks to third-party components — here’s one for the DualSense Edge, and one for the Xbox Elite 2. But most users aren’t going to want to crack open their controllers, and I can’t blame them. The upcoming updates for both of these designs are rumored to have magnetic sticks that are resistant to drift, but those will probably land at around the $200 mark.

“Aren’t first-party controllers always better?” The answer is no, at least not right now. What a time to be alive.