Nintendo Has Filed A Patent For Hinged Joy-Con Controllers

Will these have drift issues as well?

Nintendo isn’t satisfied with making weird fitness-focused peripherals for the Switch- they’re a company that likes to innovate with its controllers, from the three-pronged N64 controller to the Wii’s motion stick to the Wii U’s Gamepad to the Switch’s detachable Joy-Cons. With the Switch though, it seems they’ve still got some innovating left to do.

Nintendo has filed patent for a Joy-Con controller with hinges. These hinges are placed right above the analog stick on the right Joy-Con, and right below it on the left Joy-Con- you can take a look at what these will look like – should they ever materialize – in the illustration below. Patents don’t necessarily always lead to actual products, so there’s no guarantees that this will ever see the light of day. But if it does, it’ll be interesting to see what its applications are, and why Nintendo feels it’s necessary to even make these.

One thing is for certain- Switch Lite owners won’t need to concern themselves with, given they won’t even have detachable Joy-Cons. Could this be something that Nintendo plans on including in the long-rumoured Switch Pro (if such a thing even exists)? Either way, should we find out anything else about what this all means, we’ll let you know, so stay tuned.

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