Switch 2 Patent Suggests You Can Flip The Console Upside Down

A new patent from Nintendo suggests that the Joy-Con controllers for the Switch 2 can be inserted into either side of the main console, effectively letting you flip it 180 degrees according to your preference.

As spotted by VGC, the patent includes detailed images showcasing the idea, with the two Joy-Con controllers effectively making full use of the new magnetic connection system to allow you to attach them on either side of the console. With the original Switch, this simply wasn’t possible unless you wanted the Joy-Con to be facing backwards, which… y’know, isn’t ideal.

With the Switch 2, then, being able to flip the console upside down will allow you to choose whether you want the single headphone jack pointing up or down. Naturally, other features that you’d normally see on the top of the device, including the power button, volume control, and cartridge reader, would also shift to the bottom.

What’s interesting, however, is that while the USB slot on the bottom of the device will presumably be used to dock your Switch for TV mode, the new USB on the top sits slightly to the right when looking at it head-on. So, if you want to flip the Switch 2 upside down, it seems reasonable to assume that you might not be able to dock it in this manner.

As of the time of writing, we still don’t really know what the new USB slot does. This would have been a perfectly fine explanation had it been situated dead centre like the bottom one, but it seems we’ll have to wait until Nintendo confirms this in the coming months. Could we possibly expect some wacky peripherals..?

Of course, as with any patent, this functionality might not actually be present in the retail model of the Switch 2. It seems likely that you will be able to flip it, however, given the new magnetic technology being utilised, but for the time being, we’d recommend taking this with a grain of salt until Nintendo either confirms or denies.

Would you be interested in flipping your Switch 2 upside down? What benefit do you think it could bring? Let us know with a comment.