The Nintendo Switch 2 might fix one of my biggest gripes with the original

There’s many great things about the Nintendo Switch. It gave us The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and got us through lockdown via Animal Crossing. It’s one of the best consoles out there, but there’s one major gripe I have with it. And that’s to do with its dock.

If you’ve ever tried to link up your Nintendo Switch to your TV, you’ll know it’s a pretty annoying endeavour. But the Nintendo Switch 2 might fix that, according to a patent filed by Nintendo.

Switching it up

As reported by Nintendo Life and shared to the Reddit ‘GamingLeaksAndRumours’ page, the patent describes a “rotating I/O (input/output) panel” that is “designed to allow you to position the dock’s ports on either the left or right-hand side,” says Nintendo Life.

This will, in theory, fix the fiddly nature of the current Nintendo Switch dock. The HDMI Out and LAN ports face to the left. If you’re TV ports aren’t also located on the left, then you’ll be left with a series of tangled wires, with no real way to fix it. I can’t tell you the amount of times my cat has pulled my Nintendo Switch from its dock attempting to grab the wires, so for my sake an update is much needed.

More broadly, this patent is yet another sign that a Nintendo Switch 2 might be coming soon-ish. I already think we could be expecting a Switch sequel in Q1 2025, and that it could be as powerful as the PS4. While a patent filing for a new wiring system may not be the sexiest of rumours, it’s a good sign that something is happening in Nintendo HQ.

Jack Needham

About

A writer of seven years and serial FIFA 23 loser, Jack is also Features Editor at Stuff. Jack has written extensively about the world of tech, business, science and online culture. He also covers gaming, but is much better at writing about it than actually playing. Jack keeps the site rolling with extensive features and analysis.