Nintendo fans waiting on the Nintendo Switch 2 now have a few more details to fuel their speculations thanks to a new report alleging that, among other things, the new Switch will have a different type of Joy-Cons compared to the current model. According to this latest Nintendo Switch 2 report, the next Nintendo console will supposedly utilize magnetic Joy-Cons that attach right to the side of the console rather than having to slot them in place like you currently do. The same report suggests that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be a bit larger than the current Switch we know today, but it won’t be quite as large as the hefty Steam Deck.
The latest on the Switch 2 comes from Spanish publication Vandal which says it got its information from manufacturers who claim to have been able to handle the Switch 2 themselves. By “handle,” we mean that Vandal says these manufacturers were able to touch and feel the Switch 2 while it was inside of an “opaque box” in order to give the Nintendo partners an idea of how big the Switch 2 is without making it actually visible lest someone describe it. It’s somehow more an outlandish source rather than someone who just claimed to have knowledge about the Switch 2, but considering Nintendo’s caginess about the new console thus far, the opaque box origins of these details seem just as likely as any other source.
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These manufacturers who were able to perceive the Switch 2 via touch alone deterimined that it felt larger than the current Switch we know but smaller than the Steam Deck. That’s somewhat expected since one would imagine the console would get bigger rather than smaller, but the Joy-Con details were the more unexpected bit of information.
These magnetic Joy-Cons, if they are indeed used, obviously raise questions about compatibility with the existing suite of Joy-Cons. Connecting to the console when it’s in a docked mode wouldn’t be as much of a problem if those connections are compatible, but if the new model does support magnetic Joy-Cons, it’s difficult to imagine how you’d be able to use the current Joy-Cons with the new Switch 2 if you were playing in handheld mode. For those who have the Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers, however, the current thinking is that those would be compatible with the new Switch 2 console.
Of course, this is just one of many reports about the Nintendo Switch 2, but those are all we have to go off of for now given how Nintendo hasn’t said anything about the new console outside of general commitments to new hardware. Nintendo has alluded to the fact that it would make Nintendo Switch games compatible with the Nintendo Switch 2, though it’s unclear if that’d apply to all Switch games or if there’d be special exclusions.
Nintendo Switch 2 hopefuls think that Nintendo may announce something related to the console in the summer amid the rest of the big gaming events that take place around that time.
