Nintendo is Nintendo, and while plenty of people came out of the woodwork earlier this year to criticise it for being too conservative with the Switch 2, it was cooking in private. While the lengthy Nintendo Direct we got this week gave us a huge amount of information about games coming to the console, it also confirmed some kooky new features for the hardware.
In classic Nintendo style, the corporation gave plenty of prominence to some surprisingly weird new options, like being able to use the Joy-Con 2 controllers in mouse mode. Another thing thrown into the spotlight was the slightly baffling Nintendo Switch 2 Camera.
Nintendo was plumb in the middle of showing off its new Game Chat feature and trying to sell party chat as a huge new innovation in the year 2025. As it went on, though, it did start to introduce features that aren't available on other consoles, with the option of easily hooking up a camera being one.
The accessory, which will launch at the same time as the Switch 2 on 5 June, will enable a range of interesting options. One is that, during party chats, you'll be able to see your friends' floating heads while they talk, superimposed on their screen portions. In some supported games, like Super Mario Party Jamboree, their faces will even appear in-game, near their characters, to give you live reactions.
It's a real curiosity, and anyone who grew up in the PlayStation 2 era will immediately be wondering if this is basically just an EyeToy born again. After all, consoles with cheap cameras to work with tie-in games have been around before. Indeed, with the Switch 2 Camera priced at $49.99, less than the price of a Switch 2 game, it's clearly intended to be approachable.
We only saw a few applications of the camera, but I've no doubt that Nintendo will have more up its sleeve. With any peripheral of this ilk, the big question is whether more uses will still be cropping up in a few years, and I have to admit I'm doubtful. Still, at that price, I can't help but love Nintendo for throwing its camera into the mix.
It's the sort of slightly surprising detail that made the whole presentation such fun this week, so here's hoping developers step up with weird and wonderful ways to support the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera.
