Nintendo's Latest Patent Hints At Joy-Con Mouse Support For OG Switch

A new patent from Nintendo was recently made public which seems to confirm that, yes, the upcoming Switch 2 will indeed feature mouse support. Phew.

However, upon digging into the patent a bit more, we discovered a couple of additional nuggets that might be of some interest. Namely, it appears that Nintendo has showcased what looks to be a Joy-Con for the original Switch with the additional optical sensor on the side (alongside that extra 'C' button below the Home button, by the way – don't ask us why it's missing on the left image below).

It's easily missed because they look so similar at first glance, but putting two images of the Switch 2 Joy-Con and the original Joy-Con side-by-side, you can see that the latter sports the original rail system for the Switch, not the new magnetic system boasted by the successor.

Images: Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo

See the difference? It's also worth pointing out that reference '774' in Fig.36 is specifically described as a 'mouse operation sensor'. Now, it's likely that Nintendo is simply covering all bases with its patent and we think it's probably unlikely that the company will come out with new Joy-Con controllers for a console nearly in its ninth year.

However slim, mind you, it's still a possibility – and a wild one, at that.

The other thing we noticed is what looks to be a completely different controller utilising the mouse functionality. It could well be that this is merely a prototype design to showcase the technology, but we think it's interesting that Nintendo would go out of its way to include it in the document.

Furthermore, Nintendo refers to the new Switch 2 Joy-Con as the "first embodiment" of the input device, the mysterious new controller as the "second embodiment", and the original rail-system Joy-Con as the "third embodiment", suggesting that, yes, these are indeed separate devices.

Images: Nintendo

As we'd mentioned earlier, it's entirely possible that nothing will come of these images and that Nintendo is simply making sure that it's covered all possible bases. It's fascinating, however, that the company is looking into the viability of mouse-support on the original Switch.

We can't imagine it would be comfortable, mind you. Those things are way too small.