Switch 2 patent seemingly confirms previously rumoured Joy-Con functionality

Switch 2 might have been officially revealed, but there's still a whole lot we don't know about it. And while Nintendo is staying stubbornly tightlipped until April, a newly surfaced patent appears to confirm at least a few previously reported details the company has so far only teased.

Mostly, we're talking Joy-Cons here, with early reports having claimed Switch 2's detachable controllers would include a few new tricks not seen in those of the original console. That starts with magnets, with Switch 2's Joy-Cons have long been rumoured to use magnets to attach to the console instead of the finicky rails system used previously.

Which brings us to Nintendo's newly unearthed game controller patent, initially filed in August 2023 and published today. "This game controller is detachably mounted to a body device that has a recess," it reads, "that comprises a first magnet and a second magnet at the bottom of the recess, and that can execute game processing."

Furthermore, the patent gives some additional insight into how the magnets have been implemented to avoid randomly dropping off at inconvenient intervals. "The first button and the second button are provided in the longitudinal direction in the top surface of the protrusion," Nintendo writes. "The first button and the second button are to be pressed by a user. The first button is attracted to the first magnet by a magnetic force. The second button is attracted to the second magnet by a magnetic force."

Admittedly, the inclusion of magnets isn't much of a revelation - Switch 2's reveal trailer already suggested as much - but Nintendo hasn't actually made it official. And it's a similar story for built-in Joy-Con mouse functionality, another rumoured feature for Switch 2. January's reveal trailer certainly lent credence to those earlier reports, what with it including a controller sliding suspiciously around on its side, but, again, it's a feature not yet made official.

Back over in the patent, however, and Nintendo has included a diagram of a right Joy-Con being used just like a mouse. Its detachable edge is face down on a surface while the user grips it mouse-style, one finger on the bumper - presumably for clicking input - and a thumb on the control stick. Other illustrations show a user dual-wielding two Joy-Cons mouse-style, like some sort of mouse-using ninja, while another shows a Joy-Con being deployed mouse-like in one hand and in standard formation in the other. Flexibility is apparently key.

It is, if nothing else, an interesting reminder that's there's still so much to learn about Nintendo's new console following a reveal that was light on just about everything. Beyond, that is, a general glimpse of Switch 2's Switch-but-more-so aesthetic, and a new Mario Kart that's managed to illicit chatter as wide ranging as 'Could this possibly be open world?!' right through to 'What on earth have they done to Donkey Kong?!'.

Unfortunately, no solid answers to the many questions we have about Switch 2 will likely come until April's Nintendo Direct - which will hopefully finally include the Captain Rainbow revival we've all been waiting for. Until then, feel free to direct your gaze elsewhere on Eurogamer for a refresher of everything we currently know about Switch 2. You can probably add 'almost definitely magnets' and 'mouse, eh?' to that list now too.