I've had a Nintendo Switch for a couple years now and the left joy-con is acting up again. It keeps drifting the camera when I'm playing Zelda without me touching anything. Is it normal for them to fail this fast or what's going on? Is it worth getting it repaired or should I just buy new ones?
Switch Joy-Cons are sadly notorious for failing like that - it's a wear-and-tear issue with the analog stick that the whole community deals with. Yeah, recalibrate first like they mentioned above, but if that doesn't work, the reality is that repairing it costs about as much as buying new ones. What most people won't tell you is that if you buy cheap third-party Joy-Cons, they'll probably last even less, so if you're gonna spend money anyway, better get the official ones or save up for Switch 2 Joy-Cons if you're thinking about upgrading at some point. In the meantime, if the game lets you play without the analog stick (like with directional buttons), you can make do that way.
First of all, recalibrate your Joy-Con from the console settings (System Settings > Controllers and Sensors > Calibrate Control Sticks) because sometimes it's just software and fixes itself in a couple of seconds. If that doesn't work, cleaning the joystick contacts with a little isopropyl alcohol sometimes helps temporarily, but honestly it's like putting a band-aid on a bigger wound.
The thing is, Switch Joy-Cons have a reputation for failing pretty quickly, especially the left one. It's not like you're the only one; lots of people complain about the same thing after a couple of years. Nintendo has actually offered free repairs in some cases, so it might be worth reaching out to them or checking if your console is still under warranty. If not, getting it fixed at a service center usually doesn't cost too much, but depending on where you are it could end up being almost the same as buying new controllers.
Buying new Joy-Cons is more expensive in the short term, but they last pretty long if you take care of them. If you play a lot and the left one keeps giving you problems after cleaning, I'd say invest in new ones instead of dealing with something that doesn't work properly. In the end, you'll be using them for years more and there's nothing worse than stick drift in a game like Zelda.
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