Summary
The Joy-Con controllers used by Nintendo’s upcomingSwitch 2console could have technology in them that predicts a player’s next move. The information comes from a Nintendo patent filing published on January 23, referring to potential tech that could be incorporated into theNintendo Switch 2interface.
The Nintendo Switch has had a good run. Launched more than seven years ago, Nintendo’s hybrid handheld/desktop game machine is the leading console of the current generation. In fact, theSwitch recently became the best-selling console of all timein the US, surpassing the PlayStation 2’s lifetime sales numbers. Now, Nintendo is getting ready to pass the torch to a new generation of hardware, aptly called the Nintendo Switch 2. After months of leaks and rumors, the company officially unveiled the Switch 2 with a brief trailer. More questions about the console’s capabilities remain, though, which might be answered in an upcoming Nintendo Direct set for April 2.
Some of those questions will undoubtedly be concerned with the console’s controllers, which seem to be packing a number of new features, includingJoy-Con features originally intended for the first Nintendo Switch, like magnetic attachment. One such feature could be a system to predict future player inputs. A patent application filed by Nintendo in August 2024 and published on January 23 details a system that tracks the position and direction of the player’s finger when near buttons, with the potential to predict the player’s next input.
Nintendo Patents System to Track And Predict Player Inputs
According to the patent application, which features little more than a system flowchart detailing the logic of the mechanism, Nintendo describes a system that tracks the player’s finger as it contacts buttons on a controller. When the player’s finger moves to press other buttons in sequence, the system can then automatically perform future inputs based on the order of the buttons the player contacted or pressed. In other words, the system as described can record the movement patterns of players' fingers on the controller, then perform actions based on predicting their next input. This could smooth out operations for certain things, like menu selections, or even in-game actions like attack sequences. Predictive systems have been at work in games for years, and similar attempts to use game logic to “guess” a player’s input underpin systems likerollback netcode in fighting games.
It should be noted that a patent application is merely an attempt to patent an idea or mechanism, and not an indicator that the technology has been built or even deployed. Thus, absent confirmation from Nintendo itself, none can say whether the system patented is in the Switch 2, the original Switch, or any actual hardware Nintendo has made. That said, patent applications do reveal what Nintendo’s engineers and designers are at least thinking about, such as hownewspapers might work in a futureAnimal Crossinggame. Whether or not these systems do make it into actual products is a different matter.
