Entertaining new Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit leak suggests surprising addition for the controller

Once again, 4chan has provided an entertaining leak in regard to the next-generation Nintendo Switch console. There have already been a couple of so-called leaks about the Switch 2 that have been posted on that infamous site, with at least one of them later admitting that the information was fake. It is even possible that this supposed Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit leak has been made up by members of one board to troll users of another board, so the biggest pinch of salt possible here. While it is more than likely all fake, the details are entertaining enough to share, and there is even the remote possibility some of it is true thanks to a past patent awarded to Nintendo.

The original poster (see screenshots below) claims to be a US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer who came across a possible Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit while working at an airport on the west coast of the USA. The source apparently screened a person who was carrying a special case that contained “a large horizontal computer looking thing” that was purportedly the size of an Xbox One. Suspiciously convenient Nintendo business cards were also discovered, leading the OP to presume Nintendo was out of the handheld business, obviously not knowing that development kits are a lot larger and clunkier looking than final products. They also stated that a controller with the device had “2 mouse scroll wheels next to the triggers”.

Users of the popular Famiboards site have rapidly shut down this leak as a fake because of the mention of scroll wheels, but those on Reddit have been a little more open to the idea. This is mostly because of a patent that was awarded to Nintendo in 2015 that shows a handheld console with a left and right scroll wheel where the shoulder triggers would be (see images below). It’s probably something Nintendo mulled over for the original Switch console, and it is possible, if unlikely, that the Big N might be considering such a feature for the Switch 2/Switch successor. The same poster also claims the potential Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit and controller were “fairly generic overall” and decked out in gray. Tellingly, the main console part had a vent and lots of ports, which is ideal for developer usage.

It is the description that has led some to believe the TSA agent may have had a good glimpse at a Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit being hand-delivered to a US-based developer. Presuming the source had no idea of how dev kits generally look, that could have led to the presumption that Nintendo was “out of the portable console business” (which is almost certainly not going to happen). One look at the PS5 dev kit and the final console shows just how different the devices are in design; game developers just need access to the processing capabilities of the end machine. For one final touch at sincerity, the OP also posted an image of a TSA badge along with the date written on a post-it note, but this is still 4chan and should be treated with the skepticism it warrants.

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