We may have reason to believe that Switch 2 could still enable a feature that’s been rumored, but still hasn’t been confirmed.
This all starts from several Nintendo patents filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office, from before and after the Switch 2 was officially revealed. All the way back in October 2023, we reported on a patent for a new double screen video game handheld. However, what made this patent different was that the top and bottom screens could be separated.
Jumping to just this February, shortly after the first Switch 2 reveal trailer, YouTuber Mike Odyssey brought back this double screen handheld patent again. He pointed out that there was a new Nintendo patent that allowed players to literally flip the Joy-Cons to play the Switch 2 upside down. In this way, the USB –C port and the 3.5 mm audio jack at the top of the console can be accessed from the bottom instead.
Odyssey speculated that the reason that you can flip the Switch 2 to play it upside down is because it will allow you to connect a screen at the top. He believes that patent from October 2023 may be for a product in the future that will allow you to play dual screen games on the Switch 2 once again.
That’s incredible stuff if true, and it makes you wonder why Nintendo hasn’t mentioned it. It may be that they’re actually not sure if they’ll go through with the product. It’s also possible that they’re still working on manufacturing that peripheral. And Nintendo may be planning for the bigger picture, meaning that they’ll release this second screen attachment a few years after launch to revitalize interest in the console.
But all that speculation may turn out to not be true if Odyssey’s speculation isn’t correct at all. So we should give him credit because he went ahead and tested his theory when he got the chance. As you can see in this timestamp in his latest video, Odyssey got his hands on the console itself. He was lucky enough to be invited to a Switch 2 preview experience in Dallas, and he set to work flipping the Joy-Cons. As you may have seen in this video or on Twitter, they Joy-Cons do connect on the Switch 2 even after the screen is upside down.
So does this mean that the rumor is true? Not necessarily, but there’s reason to believe that this is still possible. While keeping in mind that a lot of patents don’t lead to actual products being released, Nintendo has to follow certain rules to reveal patents. Really, any patent that we don’t see being used in any product they released can always end up being used in the future.
We don’t want to raise any false hopes here, but given the experimentation that’s been going on with display technology lately, a detachable second screen isn’t that wild an idea at all. But we’ll see if this will lead to anything that actually gets released in the future.
