When the Nintendo Switch 2 was officially unveiled, the teaser showed its Joy-Con controllers being slid on a horizontal surface like a computer mouse. Since then, a patent has surfaced depicting this exact use case scenario.
Unfortunately, the patent itself is in Japanese, so even with machine translation, gleaming accurate information from it would be challenging. That being said, the images in them show the Joy-Cons on both sides of the Nintendo Switch 2 being used this way, as well as having one being used like a mouse while the other being used normally. It does look pretty gimmicky, and not a particularly comfortable way to hold it, but it is possible.
A separate patent looks to be dedicated to depicting the ability for straps to be magnetically attached to the Joy-Cons of the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s not quite the Joy-Cons magnetically attached to the gaming device’s main body, but for what it’s worth, it doesn’t disprove the prior rumours that they do. There’s also an image of what looks like dock for Joy-Cons, presumably for charging.
Of course, patents don’t always translate to products in the market, but considering the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal trailer, the mouse feature seems more plausible than not. To a lesser degree, one can argue the same for the Joy-Cons being magnetically attached as well, since straps attach to them this way.
