Of note in this encased Switch 2 shot from a Genki video: the top USB port, expanded shoudler buttons, mysterious C button below the Home button.Genki
Away from CES, Genki’s website was updated Tuesday night with a new video showing encased Switch 2 Joy-Cons attaching to the tablet via a horizontal snap-on motion, as opposed to the vertical slide seen on the original Switch. The video also shows a special lever on the back of the Joy-Cons engaging to detach the Joy-Cons horizontally, seemingly with the aid of a small extendable post near the top of the inner edge of the controller itself.
The inner edges of the Joy-Cons shown in Genki’s video match very closely with other recent leaked photos of the Switch 2 Joy-Cons, right down to the mysterious optical sensor. That sensor can even be seen flashing a laser-like red dot in the Genki promo video, helping to support rumors of mouse-like functionality for the controllers. The Genki video also offers a brief glimpse of the Switch 2 itself sliding into a familiar-looking dock labeled with an embossed Switch logo and a large number 2 next to it.
A Genki representative also told Numerama that the company expects the console to be released in April, which is just after Nintendo’s self-imposed deadline for announcing more details about the system. The company had better get a move on, as third-party accessory makers are apparently getting tired of waiting.
Nintendo’s Joy-Con Charging Stand (Two-Way) seems useful, but it’s coming out at a strange time in the console’s lifecycle.
Nintendo
The stand can charge the Switch Online NES controllers, something that Nintendo’s charging grip can’t do because the handles get in the way.
Nintendo
The charging stand can be removed from the stand part to maximize flexibility.
Nintendo
Nintendo’s Switch launched in March 2017, and all available information indicates that the company is on track to announce a successor early next year. It’s that timing that makes the launch of Nintendo’s latest Switch accessory so odd: The company has announced a first-party charging cradle for Joy-Con controllers, which up until now have been charged by slotting them into the console itself, via Nintendo’s sold-separately Joy-Con charging grip, or with third-party charging accessories.
The Nintendo of Europe account on X, formerly Twitter, announced that the charging accessory—formally called the “Joy-Con Charging Stand (Two-Way)”—will be released on October 17. It will work with both Joy-Cons and the Switch Online wireless NES controllers, and the charging cradle can be separated from its stand (where it looks a lot like the Joy-Con charging grip but without the grip part).
Power is provided via a USB-C port on top of the stand, which can either be connected to one of the Switch dock’s USB ports or to a separate USB-C charger. Other Switch controllers, including the Pro Controller and the SNES and N64 replica controllers, are charged via USB-C directly.
The Verge reports that the accessory has only been announced for Europe and Japan so far, though it will presumably also come to North America at some point. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, either.
Switch 2 is around the corner
Why would Nintendo release a new first-party charging accessory for your old console just months before it’s slated to announce its next-generation console? Rumors about the design of the Switch 2 could hold some hints.
Accessory makers and others with firsthand knowledge of the Switch 2 have suggested that the new console will come with redesigned Joy-Cons with additional buttons and a magnetic attachment mechanism. This would likely make it impossible to attach current-generation Joy-Cons, which physically interlock with the Switch and its various accessories.
But reporting also suggests that the Switch 2 will retain backward compatibility with digital and physical Switch games, which could justify retaining some kind of backward compatibility with existing controllers. This new Joy-Con charging cradle could provide current Switch owners a way to continue charging Joy-Cons and NES controllers even if they can no longer be attached to and charged by the console itself.
But that’s just speculation at this point. It could just as easily be the case that Nintendo has to keep the Switch going for one more holiday season, and it’s eager to sell every accessory it can alongside the shrinking but still significant number of consoles it will sell between now and the time the Switch 2 is released. Nintendo recently announced new games in the Legend of Zelda and Mario & Luigi series, which will give past and future Switch buyers a reason to keep their Joy-Cons charged in the first place.
Nintendo has taken pains to make old controllers compatible with new consoles before. Most Nintendo Wii consoles came with built-in GameCube controller ports, which enabled backward compatibility with GameCube games and also allowed GameCube controllers to be used with compatible Wii games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Wii remotes also continued to function with the Wii U.
One thing we don’t know about the Switch 2’s backward compatibility is whether it will provide any kind of graphical enhancements for Switch games. Several titles released in recent years, including newer Pokémon titles, have suffered from performance issues. Nintendo had reportedly planned to release a more powerful “Switch Pro” at some point in 2021 or 2022, but the update was apparently scrapped in favor of the more modestly updated OLED Switch.
The site notes that this new design could make direct Switch 2 backward compatibility with existing Switch Joy-Cons “difficult.” Even so, we can envision some sort of optional magnetic shim that could make older Joy-Cons attachable with the new system’s magnetic connection points. Current Switch Pro Controllers, which do not physically attach to the Switch, should be fully compatible with the Switch 2, according to the report.
Vandal cites several unnamed accessory and peripheral makers who reportedly got to touch the new console inside of an opaque box, which was used to balance design secrecy with the need to provide general knowledge of the unit’s dimensions. According to those sources, the Switch 2 will be “larger than the Switch, although without reaching the size of the Steam Deck.”
Microsoft has made a point of highlighting that the Xbox Series S/X works with all standard Xbox One controllers (not you, Kinect). PS4 owners, meanwhile, had to purchase new DualSense controllers to use on the PS5.
Regarding software, Nintendo has offered only vague answers on whether the upcoming Switch 2 will be compatible with the thousands of games designed for the current Switch generation. However, some reports suggest that developers are already testing this kind of backward compatibility on Nintendo’s upcoming hardware.
