The Switch 2 reveal on Thursday didn’t tell us much, but the one thing Nintendo was quite particular about showing was the suite of I/O options on the console. I’m pleased to see we’re getting an extra USB-C port, but nothing could compare with the joy of seeing a real, proper headphone jack highlighted so prominently in a 2025 hardware reveal.
Headphone jacks still prominently feature in many of the best gaming handhelds, including modern devices like the Steam Deck OLED, as well as standard PS5 and Xbox Series controllers. But ever since 2016, when Apple declared its own “courage to move on” from analog audio output in favor of Bluetooth, I’ve been increasingly nervous that other tech companies would start to crawl in the same direction.
Is Nintendo the only console producer whose consoles get used for mega LAN events? I was at a regional Pokemon event the other day where there were 500+ people playing Switch within a few tens of metres of each other. Aside from the fact that wireless gear could enable cheating, the wireless interference would be a real issue.