Don’t Panic, Valve Has Already Resolved Steam Deck’s Supposed Switch-Like “Drift” Issues

If you’ve been able to get your hands on a Steam Deck and are worried about the reported “drift” issues, it seems there’s no need to panic.

Valve, in record time (not Valve time, thankfully), has already issued a fix to address the supposed issues associated with the Steam Deck thumbsticks. This information comes directly from Valve designer, Lawrence Yang, in an update over on Twitter.

Here’s exactly what he had to say – explaining how a “recent firmware update” was to blame, and the team has already shipped a fix to address the bug:

“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.”

The speedy response from Valve (including the fix) seems to have impressed quite a number of fans. Many users on social media have also acknowledged how nice it is to see a games company addressing an issue like this head-on. Others couldn’t help but compare the situation to Nintendo’s own ongoing issues with Switch Joy-Con drift, which is a hardware problem.

Here’s a small sample of these comments:

@minus117 – “@Nintendo @NintendoAmerica how’s the drift from the switch being addressed?”

@_Solid – “Huge bravo to the dev team for fixing it so quickly. Meanwhile at Nintendo: Drift? Joycon drift is a myth.”

@ChiYuP5R – it’s taken nintendo longer than 5 years what took steam less than 24 hours.

So, there you go – if you were considering Valve’s Steam Deck, there’s apparently no need to worry about the dreaded drift that has plagued certain other platforms.

Would you be interested in a Steam Deck yourself? Is the Nintendo Switch the only portable gaming device you need? Leave a comment down below.