If we had to judge by the included diagrams, the trigger and bumper on each controller would act as the mouse click. Multiple included images show a hand with the thumb on the joystick. Multiple parts of the patent mention the use of the thumbstick, and we suspect it could act as the scroll wheel or serve some other scrolling function.

The patent paperwork for the Nintendo Switch 2 and its JoyCons may have just confirmed the theory of the console having a computer mouse-like control option.

This confirms what many fans suspected upon seeing the Joy-Con controllers sliding around a surface on their sides during the announcement trailer last month. Presumably, the “mouse operation” feature will allow some games on Switch 2 to be played with either traditional controller inputs or mouse inputs.

The strongest evidence so far that Nintendo's new console will let you use Joy-Cons as a computer mouse as well as a charging dock.

The international patent was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization in January 2023, but it was only published on WIPO's website on Thursday. The Japanese-language patent—whose illustrations match what we've seen of Switch 2 Joy-Con precisely—features an English abstract describing "a sensor for mouse operation" that can "detect reflected light from a detected surface,