Newly-published Nintendo patents show that the company has been exploring a version of its Joy-Con controllers that can work like a computer mouse, a feature Nintendo has hinted will be coming to the Switch 2.

This confirms what many fans suspected upon seeing the Joy-Con controllers sliding around a surface on their sides during the announcement trailer last month. Presumably, the “mouse operation” feature will allow some games on Switch 2 to be played with either traditional controller inputs or mouse inputs.

One of the genuinely new features confirmed in the Switch 2 reveal was the Joy-Cons' ability to be used like a mouse, and in a newly public patent, Nintendo calls it exactly that. In the Drawings tab of the patent's webpage,

A recently discovered patent shows Nintendo Switch 2's Joy-Con being used like the mouse on a PC, seemingly confirming system rumors.

It's been a month since we first heard rumors that the Switch 2's new Joy-Cons could be slid across a flat surface to function like a computer mouse. Now, a newly published patent filed by Nintendo seems to confirm that feature and describes how it will work.

In it, the pair of Joy-Cons briefly raced each other across a hard surface Tron-bike style, trailing their wrist straps like tails. The whole thing made them look a lot like computer mice, and it was broadly assumed that this hinted at mouse controls for the Nintendo Switch 2.

An innovative touch for the next generation of Joy-Cons was right in front of us during the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal.

Who better to ask about that supposed Switch 2 mouse functionality than the producer of a popular RTS franchise with deep PC roots?

It’s all adding up