Dataminers have found a new Nintendo patent, that solves a common issue for Nintendo Switch owners.
If you do own a Nintendo Switch, you know how inconvenient it can be to deal with the wires coming out of its dock. Of course, you will need to attach and HDMI to output to a monitor, and the power adapter.
The way this was all laid out, was you could only connect both cables to the inside of the dock going in one direction, and to top it all off, there was a USB A port in between the HDMI and power adapter ports.
The OLED dock was improved in many ways, with a door you could easily remove and reattach, so that you could fasten your cables securely. But even this improved dock retained the issue with where the cables were positioned.
As reported by NintendoLife, the new patent has an illustration of a small square block where the I/O is, once again hidden away inside the dock. This small block can be rotated, so that you can move the cables to go either to the left or the right side of the dock.
NintendoLife believes that this rotating I/O solution is unlikely to become a product. That’s not because it emerged from datamining before any product was made. Rather, they believe it’s simply too late to do so for the Nintendo Switch.
With the OLED already a bit old, and the Nintendo Switch hardware in general being long in the tooth, the console is in long need of an upgrade. Arguably, the pandemic earned Nintendo and the platform quite a reprieve, as Nintendo found a literal captive market to sell games too, even if their graphics were not top notch. In particular, Animal Crossing: New Horizons emerged as the perfect pandemic title.
But perhaps things aren’t that complicated. Nintendo may not bundle this new dock with the console itself, but they can sell this as a separate product. Of course, a lot of people will say they don’t need it, but that’s the point of selling it separately.
Does that sound wasteful? But Nintendo has been revising the Switch’s components, such as its power brick, and of course, the console itself. They could just release this product, knowing there will be people who want it, and at least theoretically, they shouldn’t have to worry about it breaking even.
Given the console’s wide adoption, there’s an honest chance that this upgraded dock could be profitable on its own, but if not, it would still be something Nintendo simply offers to customers of their already successful product.
And, of course, it could be used on the Nintendo console that succeeds the Switch, but we don’t have much more to substantiate that, so that’s all we’ll say about that.
For what it’s worth, since Nintendo already made a Switch that is portable only, why don’t they make a version of the console that isn’t a tablet, and can only be used at home? That might have a chance of breaking even since they’re cutting down even more on expensive parts. In any case, we hope you’re all taking care of your Switch consoles as we speak.
