Nintendo Patent Gives a Ray of Hope When It Comes to Putting an End to the Joy-Con Drifts

Fans have been hearing about the Nintendo Switch 2 for the longest time now. There’s no shortage of information about this next-generation console. People already know that the console, in some shape or form, was present at Gamescom 2023.

Nintendo showed this console off to a bunch of developers and gave them some demos to showcase its performance. But one question kept lingering in the minds of all Nintendo fans: what else would this console bring to the table? New rumors suggest that there might be a significant upgrade to the hardware.

Nintendo Switch 2 might be a very powerful console, and it might launch with new and improved Joy-cons

New details regarding the Nintendo Switch 2 do not stop coming. The latest piece of information comes from a Reddit post showcasing a patent report with interesting details. It appears to show that Nintendo might have been working on a new kind of joystick for their upcoming console.

It’s possible that Nintendo Switch 2 will be released with an improved set of Joy-cons. This means there would be very few chances of players experiencing the famous drift issue that came free with every set of joy-cons. This issue led to the controller’s stick acting on its own and characters on-screen reacting without any player input.

Nintendo files patent for magnetic Joycons
byu/WaluigiWahshipper inGamingLeaksAndRumours

The issue was not even limited to one or two people, a whole slew of Nintendo Switch owners were facing it. There was even a class action lawsuit against Nintendo due to how widespread this issue was. Nintendo had to start repairing those controllers free of charge whenever anyone had an issue with them.

According to more technically sound gamers, this issue occurred due to dust and grime building up inside the control stick mechanism. This led sticks to act on their own after a period of wear and tear. But these new sticks might have induction motors on each axis of the traditional joysticks. This would allow the stick to return to its dead-center location even if the wear and tear happens.

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It would reduce the chances of drift by a mile because drift only happened when the analog sticks were straying from the center due to the above-mentioned dust and grime build-up. But others suggest that this is a patent for a pair of magnetic sticks on Joy-cons, which would somehow help with removing the drift altogether. Everyone has their own interpretation of this patent.

What else should fans expect from this upcoming console?

It appears Nintendo will be granting Switch 2 owners the most important thing they have been asking for – backward compatibility. Every single original Switch owner would be able to carry forward their Nintendo Switch library of games to the Switch 2.

If this information turns out to be true, then backward compatibility would be the greatest selling point for the Nintendo Switch 2.

And then there’s Metroid Prime 4, the game everyone has been waiting for the longest time. It is expected that Nintendo Switch 2’s announcement will bring with it the launch date of this latest installment in the Metroid Prime franchise. There’s much to be excited about when it comes to Nintendo Switch 2. Here’s to hoping this announcement comes soon enough.

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