Nintendo has filed paperwork for a new product. It’s not the unannounced Nintendo Switch 2, but the documents could tell us plenty about how the new console will operate.
A filing for a Nintendo device has appeared on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) database.
This body regulates communications equipment, and anything with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or comparable tech needs to go through its registration process to go on sale in the US.
The device has the product code CLO-001, and does not appear to be a Switch 2 console or a traditional controller for it.
Nintendo’s documents show roughly what shape this mystery box will be, though. It’s a rounded rectangle that needs to be plugged in over USB-C and there’s no battery inside.
It does not have Bluetooth either, but does have a 2.4GHz radio and a 24Ghz MmWave sensor.
You don’t have to be an engineer to appreciate how that sensor might be used. These sensors are, in some situations, used to detect motion and track objects within a specific environment.
Components retailer DfRobot offers an idea of how this tech might be used in context, in its own listing of such a sensor.
“The sensors are highly effective in various domains, such as smart homes and item tracking, enabling precise determination of an object's position within the environment,” it says.
Nintendo’s CLO-001 may not be a gamepad then, but could be used as a form of game controller.
It’s still largely a mystery. But its timing does suggest it could have some part to play in how the Nintendo Switch 2 operates.
Nintendo’s Switch console successor is not expected to be released until at least April 2025, but this does not mean its initial launch will not happen months earlier.
The original Switch was announced on October 20, 2016, and was available from March 3, 2017. Nintendo may even mirror this pattern eight years later.
Leaked renders of the upcoming console depict a hybrid handheld much like today’s model, but with a larger eight-inch screen.
