With last month’s Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, Nintendo teased something we’d all been waiting for (well, following weeks of leaks) — a potential ‘mouse’ mode. A little sneak peek at the optical laser, the Joy-Con swiftly rolling along a surface like a mouse.
There are a few obvious candidates for games that’d work wonders with a mouse controller, but the most apparent is next week’s new release, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII. So trust the folks over at IGN to ask developer Firaxis about its thoughts on the potential feature in an interview.
Speaking to IGN were Civilization VII’s lead designer Ed Beach and the game’s executive producer Dennis Shirk. On the subject of Switch 2, Shirk gave an expectedly tight-lipped response, calling it “intriguing” rather than confirming anything.
Of course, that’s to be expected — why show your hand when Nintendo has only teased the feature? But Shirk is full of praise for the reveal and the potential, particularly because “You always do some trade-offs when you have to deal with pure console controls.” Additionally, he told IGN on the console’s reveal:
“And the announcement has some great stuff in it. I love what they’re doing with the controllers. It’s all very cool. That’s about all I can say about it in terms of an opinion. I think it looks awesome and they’re not wrong, so it would be cool for something like that.”
At the very least, Firaxis does love the sound of a mouse controller — and we do, too. But what on earth could Nintendo do with the thing?
We’ve been speculating, of course, but there are a few obvious candidates, including Civ VII — this is a PC-first franchise, or at least it used to be. But whether Nintendo will go backwards compatible with that functionality remains to be seen.
Civilization VII launches on Switch on 11th February 2025, which is day one with every other version. Reviews dropped for the game yesterday, though all of them are for PC, and the general consensus is good, if a little mixed on the more streamlined design.
Do you think we’ll see mouse compatibility with Civ VII on Switch 2? Let us know down below.