If we had to judge by the included diagrams, the trigger and bumper on each controller would act as the mouse click. Multiple included images show a hand with the thumb on the joystick. Multiple parts of the patent mention the use of the thumbstick, and we suspect it could act as the scroll wheel or serve some other scrolling function.

The Nintendo Switch 2 might have a wireless mouse feature, expanding the console’s capabilities when it comes to playing games. For a handheld, this is certainly uncommon but not unheard of. Lenovo’s Legion Go offers a wireless mouse feature with its right controller.

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. In its Switch 2 teaser video last month, Nintendo showed two Joy-Con controllers sliding along the ground, much like you’d move a mouse.

The strongest evidence so far that Nintendo's new console will let you use Joy-Cons as a computer mouse as well as a charging dock.

The international patent was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization in January 2023, but it was only published on WIPO's website on Thursday. The Japanese-language patent—whose illustrations match what we've seen of Switch 2 Joy-Con precisely—features an English abstract describing "a sensor for mouse operation" that can "detect reflected light from a detected surface,

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,

Fans have been speculating about PC gaming mouse-like functionality for the Switch 2 ever since optical sensors appeared in leaks last month. Nintendo then teased the feature in the new Switch’s reveal trailer shortly after.