Three generations side by side: the first Nintendo Switch (2017), the OLED model (2023) and Nintendo Switch 2 (2025). Photo PantheraLeo1359531, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nintendo Switch 2
What it took directly
- statedJoy-Con 2's magnetic attachment took from magnet prototypes Kouichi Kawamoto showed Satoru Iwata while the first Switch was in development, shelved because they wobbled"I took the prototypes to Iwata-san (13), the company's President at the time, for feedback. But unfortunately, the Joy-Con controllers would wobble when attached to the console using magnets due to the weak connection." Kouichi Kawamoto, Switch 2 producer, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedJoy-Con 2's mouse controls took from Kawamoto playing a PC game with a mouse"when I was playing a PC game using a mouse, the idea struck me that maybe the Joy-Con controllers could also be used as mice." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedThe Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller's grips took from the Nintendo GameCube controller"The grip handles this time were designed with reference to the Nintendo GameCube controller, with the base of the grip made thinner to give the fingers more space." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedGameShare took from Download Play on Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS"In the past, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS had a feature called Download Play, where you could send a portion of a game to friends and play together." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedGameShare took from the streaming that sends Wii U games from the console to the Wii U GamePad"using the same streaming technology that Wii U uses to send images from the console to the handheld Wii U GamePad (21), we could share the gameplay instantly" Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedGameChat's screen sharing took from the team's lockdown-era video calls, where each developer held a game screen up to the camera"So, we had each person place their game screen in front of their camera instead of their faces. When we did that, it felt like we were all in the same place, each bringing our own console to play the game together, which was a lot of fun." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedNintendo Switch 2 took from a custom NVIDIA processor and, by NVIDIA's count, 1,000 engineer-years of work"With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element — from system and chip design to a custom GPU, application programming interfaces (APIs) and world-class development tools — the Nintendo Switch 2 brings major upgrades." NVIDIA (Muni Anda, NVIDIA Blog, April 3, 2025)
- statedThe name “Nintendo Switch 2” answered the Super NES, which could not play NES games"However, Super NES (27), which came out after the NES (28), couldn’t play NES games. Since Switch 2 can play Switch games, it didn't feel right to use the same naming convention as Super NES." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
What it learned to do
- statedJoy-Con 2's magnets learned from years of magnet research by Tetsuya Sasaki's Technology Development team"My team has continued to research the magnets since the development of Switch. We weren't ready to give up on this idea either." Tetsuya Sasaki, technical director, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedJoy-Con 2's mouse controls learned from Gunpei Yokoi's “lateral thinking of withered technology”: new uses for familiar, inexpensive tech"Implementing mouse control that’s widely used nowadays in the Joy-Con controllers isn't that costly, and I think that's exactly what “lateral thinking of withered technology” (14) is all about." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025); Nintendo's note names the idea as Gunpei Yokoi's, the maker of Game & Watch and Game Boy
The tradition it sits in
- statedNintendo Switch 2 comes from the first Nintendo Switch, whose design it deliberately kept"After considering various new ideas, we decided it would be best to keep the Switch console's design and not make any "changes for change's sake"." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- statedNintendo Switch (the design Switch 2 kept) comes from the best parts of Nintendo's previous consoles"Switch is a dedicated gaming console that packs in the best parts from Nintendo’s previous consoles." Takuhiro Dohta, Switch 2 director, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
- documentedSwitch 2's NVIDIA processor comes from NVIDIA's Tegra line: the first Switch ran a stock Tegra X1, a chip first built for tablets and phones"Designed from the get-go for the tablet, phone and gaming market, Tegra X1 was a dud until Nintendo co-opted it for Switch, where it found a new lease of life." Richard Leadbetter, Digital Foundry (November 2023)
- documentedGameChat comes from Nintendo's earlier chat hardware for remote play, such as the Wii's Wii Speak microphone"Nintendo’s dream of bringing distant friends closer together during remote play also predates GameChat; the Wii had the Wii Speak mic accessory" Matt Patches, Polygon (opinion, April 2025)
- inferredNintendo Switch 2 comes from Gunpei Yokoi's hardware philosophy, beyond the one feature it is cited for"This belief impacted Nintendo's product development in the years that followed." inferred — Nintendo's own note says Yokoi's idea shaped its later hardware, and Kawamoto invokes it for the mouse controls; nobody in the interview applies it to Switch 2 as a whole
Where the whole form comes from
- statedGameChat comes from playing games together as children at a friend's house, everyone with their own console"I’m sure many of you have had experiences of playing games together as children at a friend’s house or in a student lounge, where everyone brought their own consoles, and we wanted to recreate that feeling online." Kouichi Kawamoto, in Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 16 (2025)
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