We’re about to hit you with the latest round of Nintendo Switch 2 rumors, and this one is a doozy.
Spanish language website Vandal has a new interview with one Ruben Gallego, CEO of video game accessory maker Blade. Ruben is the one with these new tidbits about the Switch 2, and what’s interesting is not what he knows, but what he doesn’t know.
We’re going to focus on the summary of this article on the GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit, as posted by user Joseki100. Basically, the Switch 2’s final form has been completed. While that itself is no surprise, Gallego claims that the leaked images of the prototype are obsolete. While they are not exactly the same as the console’s final specs, they are not dissimilar. So perhaps小宁子 XNZ did not 3D print the prototype in vain after all.
Nintendo is now planning a worldwide release, and they are preparing to manufacture enough supply to satisfy that launch demand. Gallego believes that Nintendo will stretch the console’s release to sometime between March and April 2025. In other words, Nintendo will try to time this release at or near the end of the fiscal year.
That decision may not have to do with the fiscal year itself. After all, it’s really October to November that is the best time to release such a product. That would match the launch with some big holiday periods. At the same time, that would give Nintendo sufficient time to stock up the consoles for the December holidays.
Maybe it has something to do with February 2025 seeing a large number of AAA game releases? In any case, we think Gallego is guessing, or quoting someone else who is guessing, and you’ll see why below.
Now here’s where things get really interesting. Gallego says there is something different about the analog sticks on the Switch 2. It’s so different that they can’t sell their old analog stick caps for the device, and they also can’t make new caps.
So what could be different about these analog sticks? ProjectPorygon replied to this subreddit that this could be connected to a patent Nintendo filed last year. That patent is for a ‘multi positional joystick’ that can tell where you place your thumb on the stick. So, even if you didn’t push the stick to a particular direction, just placing your thumb at the middle or the corners of the analog stick is a different input.
Some redditors compared this to the trackpads found on the discontinued Steam Controller. We wonder if it will be another gameplay innovation that will only make sense once we see it for ourselves. It certainly seems to line up with Mobapad, another accessory maker, having some information about the Switch 2, but also being withheld from learning more about it.
Nintendo certainly did not invent putting gyroscopes on game controllers, or motion tracking devices. But they popularized those gameplay conventions with Splatoon on the Wii U, and the Wii Mote on the Wii. That’s the kind of potential industry changing innovation Nintendo may have prepared to unleash on us with the Switch 2.
