In a seemingly polar opposite performance against IBM’s story here, Nintendo’s Switch Joycon controllers have similar issues. Almost all Joycon units will inevitably fail. Perhaps not every unit, but the failure rate is extremely high. Nintendo refuses to acknowledge the issue but will quietly offer free repairs if you report it to them, and otherwise seems to be doing a pretty great job of covering up what should have been a class action lawsuit years ago.

Perhaps it is because of the fact that the result of failure (minor to major annoyances depending on the game before being forced to eventually replace the controller) is not so nearly as catastrophic as total data loss that Nintendo has been able to skate by as long as it has. But the reactions outlined by IBM 25 years ago outlined in the article are eerily reminiscent of the actions of today’s Nintendo.