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.

A machine translation of the full text of the patent describes the controller as "a novel input device that can be used as a mouse and other than a mouse." In mouse mode, as described in the patent, the user cradles the outer edge of the controller with their palm and places the inner edge "on, for example, a desk or the like."

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.

It now seems all those online folk speculating about the Switch 2 JoyCons were absolutely correct. A newly revealed patent from spells out what is going on underneath the new, larger sequel Switch controllers,