Nintendo surreptitiously filed a new controller patent last year

Nintendo is certainly one of the more secretive companies in the video game industry, but it’s also one of the biggest innovators when it comes to technology. So leave it to a small discovery to get everyone’s attention.

A Twitter user discovered a patent Nintendo made last July, then published in early January. How come it’s been almost two months!?

The patent is available here, but there’s not much to glean from this page except for a few intriguing design concepts, which – to our eyes – look a bit like the top half of an N64 controller.

So what does this suggest? Possibly, not much, so don’t get your hopes up. But it’s always really interesting to see what ideas Nintendo wants to protect – like this hinged Joy-Cons back in 2019 that we still have not seen. We already have an N64 controller for the Switch, so what else could something similar bring?

What do you think of this new design? Let us know your thoughts below!

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