Nintendo’s Latest Patents Imply The Switch 2 Will Have Wider, Shorter Analog Sticks – And Splatoon Will Have VR Support

We have some interesting new information on the latest patents that Nintendo has filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

As you may have already guessed, this was shared by Mike Odyssey. Because of the way the US Patent and Trademark Office website is set up, we cannot directly link to these patents. But you can find these patents on their site and confirm they are real, like I did.

And we do have to remind you that while companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft file patents all the time, we don’t always see them get used. And as we saw in the case of Alarmo, we could have seen the patents in front of us, and had no idea what we were looking at.

But we’ll get to the patents so that you can decide for yourself what to make of them. The first patent he discussed illustrated what appears to be a redesign of the analog sticks for the Switch 2. As Odyssey explains, these are still sticks, and not the Circle Pad that was found in the Nintendo 3DS.

But the sticks are shaped in such a way that they don’t protrude as much. There is definitely still a gap between the top of the stick and the surface of the controller, but it’s shorter than it was previously.  Interestingly, Odyssey also observed that the stick has a slightly wider range of motion, meaning the circle that the stick revolves around is a little bit bigger.

Odyssey theorizes that this modified analog stick design is intended to resolve the issues surrounding Joy-Con stick drift. It would certainly be interesting if Nintendo found a design solution to that issue, instead of resorting to the solution the internet has adopted in the form of hall effect joysticks.

As an owner of some controllers with that hall effect technology, I have to say there is some suspect quality control with what is available in the market now. It’s also interesting that Sony and Microsoft didn’t move to adopt the technology when it became popular.

Nintendo may also be constrained on what solutions they can adopt to address the stick drift issue, precisely because of the cases that were filed against them over it. But for now, we can only hope that we won’t have to deal with that issue again.

Nintendo’s other patent has an illustration of a character next to a puddle, and it describes the puddle as a ‘paint region’. Odyssey points out that it is clearly related to Splatoon. Odyssey also revealed that the same patent also shows a diagram that describes Nintendo’s VR patent.

Odyssey apparently isn’t clear from the patent description what this technology is, but it’s definitely an application to play Splatoon in VR. And while we don’t know what the technology is, it’s easy to imagine how Splatoon’s shooting and painting gameplay could be applied in AR or VR.

Odyssey seems to be building a case that the Switch 2 will have VR or mixed reality in some way, either as a core part of the console, or an optional gimmick. And as we stated before, with Apple possibly giving up on the Apple Vision Pro, Nintendo may be VR’s best chance to break through to the mainstream.  It isn’t price, or gimmicks, that VR or mixed reality needs anymore, but a pitch to the public that is genuinely compelling to more than the tech evangelists.

In the meantime, you can watch Mike Odyssey’s video on the topic below.