You might be able to connect your Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons upside down, according to a new patent.
VGC reports that a new patent Nintendo filed suggests you can rotate the Switch 2 screen and still attach its bigger-than-before controllers. Of course, the OG Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons slid into place via a rail that made a satisfying snapping sound, but the hybrid-handheld’s successor is using a slightly different method.
The Nintendo Switch 2’s controllers instead hold onto the console’s sides magnetically, and all you seemingly need to do is push them in. The funky new feature also has a more practical use. Nintendo’s new patent seems to show the console’s display rotated 180 degrees, with the Joy-Con’s still connected on the “wrong” side up.
For anyone too forgetful to remember their lefts and rights, this seems like an easy fix to avoid mistakes. Since the Switch 2 only has one port for headphones and two for USBs, this also means you can have the ports on whichever side you prefer to avoid twisting your earphone wires and whatnot. I’m guessing the Switch 2’s screen will be adapt to whatever you decide and rejig itself. (Knowing The Big N, there might even be an upcoming Switch 2 game or two that takes advantage of the feature, as well.)
“For example, the user can use the game system so that the upper and lower sides of the main body device are opposite to each other, such that the voice input/output connector on the upper surface of the main body device is located below the main body device,” the patent says. “That is, the user can insert the earphone into the voice input/output connector from the preferred direction.”
Another recent patent also confirmed what we’ve all suspected: Nintendo is straight-up calling that new Joy-Con thing a “mouse,” which has me so, so excited for the potential comeback of DS/3DS games and PC-to-console ports that don’t suck. Seriously, a handheld where I can play Baldur’s Gate 3 or city-builders with mouse controls? Sounds like a dream.
Nintendo is making “preparations” to beat scalpers on the Switch 2’s launch.
