The Nintendo Switch 2 looks mighty familiar, but Nintendo seems to have saved all of its biggest changes for the Joy-Cons as shown by some new patents.
While we still don’t have an official confirmation from Nintendo, reports came out saying the Switch 2 Joy-Cons would now attach magnetically and could even be used like a computer mouse. These changes are now all but confirmed thanks to a series of patents filed by Nintendo that detail the magnetic attachments and mouse-like features.
According to the patent, “This game controller is detachably mounted to a body device that has a recess, that comprises a first magnet and a second magnet at the bottom of the recess, and that can execute game processing.”
The patent also details how there are two buttons that must be pressed to detach the Joy-Cons from the Switch 2 body. “The first button and the second button are provided in the longitudinal direction in the top surface of the protrusion,” the patent says. ‘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.”
The patent also includes illustrations of the Joy-Cons being used as a mouse with the player holding the controller railside down and treating the shoulder buttons like a mouse button. The R1 and R2 buttons act like the left and right mouse button respectively, and there might be some kind of scrolling function when using the joysticks.
Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con patent includes illustrations for the mouse functionality. More images in the link https://t.co/13ZNQtOMqF pic.twitter.com/ey3ufRUWZE
— Wario64 (@Wario64) February 6, 2025
Further illustrations show that this mouse-like function can be used in a combination of ways whether as a dual mouse configuration, or the player using one controller like a mouse and the second Joy-Con like a standard game controller.
The magnetic attachments for the Joy-Cons were one of the earliest leaks to come out of the Switch 2. The mouse-like function came out a bit later and still hasn’t been officially confirmed. But the teaser released earlier in January showed the Joy-Cons gliding across a surface like a computer mouse which was a subtle nod to the feature from Nintendo.
For everything we know so far about the Nintendo Switch 2 check out our breakdown here. Nintendo is planning a Nintendo Switch 2 Direct on April 2, 2025 so stay tuned for all the official details then.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
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