Nintendo producer Kouichi Kawamoto says the inspiration for the Switch 2's mouse-like Joy-Cons came to him while playing PC games, and that special adjustments have been made so you can "control the mouse on your pants." Neat.
Nintendo has followed up the Switch 2's grand showcase with a press conference to offer more details about its next big console. Alongside all the other Nintendo Switch 2 Direct news we got, one standout reveal was that the Joy-Con 2 does, indeed, act like a mouse, putting an end to months of speculation and whispers.
As such, it only makes sense that one of the questions we got during the press conference was how the idea came about.
"So as I was playing PC games, the experience of playing is fun, it's engaging, and I was thinking 'what if we could bring this to the Nintendo Switch 2?' So we brought it to the Nintendo Switch 2," Kawamoto says. "But [...] usually the table is quite far away from where you're sitting on the sofa, so it generally depends on the material, but we've made adjustments so that you can control the mouse on your pants.
"And I don't know if you've had the chance to play this, but Drag&Drive, you can play it by using the mouse controller on your pants. There were some people on the development team, [for whom] that was their preferred way of playing the game."
While Drag&Drive was used to showcase what the mouse-like controls can do, plenty of other upcoming Switch 2 games will support the feature. First-party games like Metroid Prime 4 Beyond are among them, and the Switch 2-enhanced version of Mario Party will really lean into 'em with certain mini-games. Third-party games like Civ 7 and Borderlands 4, meanwhile, will also support mouse controls to some degree.
Here's everything announced at the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct and all you need to know about the Switch 2 pre-orders if you want to secure the console ASAP.
