A Nintendo employee was reportedly carrying a prototype controller that had scroll wheels installed next to the triggers. We would normally reject this kind of absurd claim, but after a little digging we discovered that Nintendo do actually own the patent on this technology.
The Switch 2 might still be years away from release, but we can already allow ourselves to be a little self-indulgent and begin speculating about the new console. What will it look like? How powerful will it be? And, perhaps most excitingly, how will 2023's Game of the Year look when it's re-released on this puppy? All exciting questions, but before we get too carried away let's discuss what we actually know.
Frankly, we don't know much about the Switch 2 except for the fact that it's probably going to be a handheld, and (according to the CEO of Xbox) it's going to be about as powerful as the PS4/ Xbox One. We have just learned something new though, which might sound ridiculous at first but could actually have some truth to it.
New Nintendo Controllers To Feature Scroll Wheels
A 4chan-user recently made the following claim (which was later archived on Reddit by u/Ree373):
I work for the TSA at a fairly large airport on the west coast. A large pelican case came through the X-ray and got pulled for screening, and when I asked the guy questions about the case, he asked that he get a private screening for the contents. He and a coworker ended up going into another room with me and a supervisor, and they popped the locks on the case.Inside was what looked like a large horizontal computer looking thing, almost like a giant internet modem if I had to describe it. The weird thing is it had a controller with it, and it didn’t really look finished (almost like a busted 3rd party little brother controller), but had the normal ABXY buttons, triggers, sticks, etc. only weird thing about it is it had like 2 mouse scroll wheels next to the triggers.After screening the machine and controller, our machine alarmed, so we had to do a check of the guy’s personal backpack and pat down etc. only reason I’m making a post here is that he had Nintendo business cards stating that they were some sort of hardware developer/engineers. (I forgot the exact title) in Research development.
The user in question was able to verify that they worked for TSA, but obviously they had no proof to back up the claim of having searched a Nintendo employee. So why are you even reading about this? Why haven't we rejected this story outright? Because Nintendo actually owns the patent for this technology.
Here is an official link to the patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office's website. Now we don't know whether Nintendo will actually use scroll wheels, or whether this was always just an R&D experiment, but the existence of this patent lends far more credence to the TSA story. We know that Nintendo have at least been considering and researching scroll wheels.
That's all we know for now, and Nintendo have not yet responded to the claim, but we keep you updated if we hear any more news regarding the new console.
Would you even want scroll wheels on your controller? Or do you just want the new console to basically be a Switch with beefier hardware? That would certainly make games like this possible: