Newly unveiled Nintendo Switch 2 patent confirms mouse functionality and gives more details on exactly how it will work, and I don’t know if I like it

With the Nintendo Switch 2 set to launch this year, there’s plenty of fervour around the handheld but perhaps the most interesting new thing is confirmed in a recent patent. Said patent shows how you can use the new and improved Joy-Cons as lil’ gaming mice, and suggests you can use both mouse inputs at the same time—dual-wielding, of sorts, which is enough to make any PC gamer blush.

Filed in 2023 but only published this week, a patent (via Notebook Check) describes an ‘input device’ (the Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con), complete with a “sensor for mouse operation”. Patents are always quite word-heavy, and so specific that they can be hard to read but this patent is even harder as it’s originally filed in Japanese, a language no one on the team speaks fluently. However, there is an abstract at the top of the page going over some of the functionality and logistics of this mouse functionality.

The sensor is at the bottom of the Joy-Con (where it clicks into the Nintendo Switch 2) which means you have to have the bottom facing a surface in order for the light to deflect and accurately report to the console itself. However, the Joy-Con attachment for mouse use was shown to have some sort of skate attached to the bottom, which means you won’t literally have to hold them.

With the help of translation tools and graphs, this patent shows off a way of using the triggers on either side, alongside the thumbsticks to control the Nintendo Switch 2 in mouse mode.

Both Joy-Cons can be used separately in mouse mode. Though this could have some functionality in niche singleplayer puzzle games, it could be used in co-op games too. Nintendo is known for using weird tech in multiplayer games, like 1-2-Switch, the launch party game or Snipperclips, the co-op adventure game where you snip chunks out of teammates to solve puzzles.

We don’t yet have confirmation of gyroscopic controls so this mouse functionality could be an alternative for Nintendo. Nintendo is one of the console manufacturers most well-known for its implementation of gyroscopic technology. The Nintendo Wii used movement controls by pointing at a sensor but the Wii Remote Plus implemented a gyroscope for better control. Then, both the Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo Switch had gyroscopic controls you can turn on and off. The same is true of the Nintendo DS, and all later DS revisions.

You can technically use a mouse and keyboard on the first Nintendo Switch so this combination of mouse and controls could serve as a replacement if you don’t fancy busting out all that equipment to get a win in Fortnite.

Though, usually, patents aren’t a confirmation of the existence of new tech (just the idea), you can see the sensors in the Nintendo Switch 2 first-look trailer from last month. You can also spot bracers of some kind that the Joy-Cons fit into, which not only help it slide on a table, but also stand up by itself. The patent even says the Joy-Cons could function on a device that isn’t specifically the Nintendo Switch 2. We don’t yet know if that is just Nintendo covering its back in case it wants to let the new Joy-Cons work on the next console after Nintendo Switch 2, or if there will be some sort of accessory functionality like with Labo.

I don’t yet know if I’m convinced by the idea of this mouse input but it’s still very early stages, and, despite playing mostly on PC at this point, I don’t think I can ever quite stay away from Nintendo. Bring on the weird control schemes.