Switch 2 ‘Indentations’ Make It Incompatible With Original Switch Dock, Says Genki – Nintendo Life

GuestGuestLogin | Sign UpNintendo LifeGuestLogin or Sign UpEh, what’s up Dock?When Nintendo released the 3DS, it equipped all new game cartridges with a plastic nub, preventing them from being inserted into your classic clamshell. Why are we bringing this up as ‘Switch 2’ leaks reach fever pitch? Because accessory manufacturer Genki (the talk of the town this week) has claimed that a similar ‘indentation’ approach has been used to keep people from squeezing their new console into a ‘Switch 1’ dock (thanks, IGN).In case you haven’t graced the internet in the past 48 hours, Genki has taken this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by storm, showcasing its upcoming accessories via a “Switch 2 replica”. This model, which is allegedly based on the real thing and appears very much in line with what every other leak has suggested, has given us our best look yet at what ‘Switch 2’ might be (remember, Nintendo is still yet to officially reveal anything). What’s more, the accessory manufacturer has been answering questions about it.And so we arrive at those dock-preventing ‘indentations’. That’s what a Genki representative told IGN at CES, claiming that it looks as if the ‘Switch 2’ will fit in the ‘Switch 1’ dock, but “certain indentations” (as IGN puts it) prevent it from being compatible with the classic device.This makes quite a lot of sense. Every rumour thus far has indicated that the ‘Switch 2’ will have a welcome power boost over its 2017 brethren (a mention of 4K 60FPS here, a PS4-equivalent there), so we would expect the new dock to house the relevant tech to make that happen on the big screen. Nintendo wouldn’t want anyone to get frustrated over “missing features” after accidentally mistaking the classic dock for the new one, so why not prevent it from happening in the first place?On top of that, a leaked photo earlier this week from accessibility and cultural consultant Laura Kate Dale showcased what is supposedly the ‘Switch 2’ dock, boasting an input voltage of 20V and an output of 15V (the current Switch has both at 15V). If there is a major difference between the two docks, you don’t want people easily mixing them up.Continuing to speak to IGN, the Genki rep confirmed that the Joy-Con would attach to the screen via magnets, and that the company is “assuming” ‘Switch 1’ controllers will be compatible with the next system wirelessly, despite not attaching physically.To be clear, the representative told IGN that they were unable to comment on the technical specs of the ‘Switch 2’, though all of the above was confidently based on “physically what’s there, what’s pressable and what’s not” — like the means of stopping a ‘Switch 2’ from going in a ‘Switch 1’ dock, we’d imagine.Naturally, this has all caused quite a stir. With Nintendo still keeping schtum on the matter (promising an announcement by the end of March), Genki has become the fountain of all ‘Switch 2’ knowledge this week, yet the company is seemingly surprised at the attention it has gained. “I didn’t expect this much media attention, to be honest,” the Genki rep told IGN, confessing that the company believed people wouldn’t be that shocked given how much information has already leaked. Seems a little naive, no?All eyes — and we mean all eyes — are now on Nintendo to make the next move. It feels like the Genki showcase has provided the pinnacle of all leaks and rumours so far, so surely the only thing left to do is reveal the damn thing, right?Update: Genki backtracks on claimsBut good lord, don’t try itIt’s the notes you don’t playWhat do you make of this Genki comment on the ‘Switch 2’ dock compatibility? Let us know in the comments.[source ign.com]About Jim NormanJim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.Comments 67That’s the first time I’ve ever seen the word “schtum”Well let’s just see how these leaks hold up in the next couple days. We cannot forget our grain of salt when consuming these speculations.I mean, as long as the Switch 2 includes a dock, it doesn’t really matter to me.A bit annoying because I have a two dock setup. Gaming room downstairs has the dock my original 2017 Switch came with, and the tv in my upstairs bedroom has the dock my OLED came with.If I were to upgrade to Switch 2, I’d have to buy a second dock just to keep my current situation going.Also, depending on how system transfers are going to work, I might want to keep my OLED Switch 1 around anyway, so having two docks side by side per TV is gonna be a bit annoying too.The indentations is probably referring to the two small bumps to the side of the USB-C connector. These help to guide the Switch system when you’re slotting it into the dock.
Logically, they only need to change the spacing of those bumps on the Switch 2 system or dock to make the Switch 2 not compatible with a Switch 1 dock and vice versa.I can see why they’d do this based on the claim that the Switch 2 dock requires a beefier 60W AC power adapter.
Logically this also means all the 3rd party Switch docks won’t work with the Switch 2, Genki’s own Covert Dock 2 only outputs up to 45W of power.
There could be other unexpected incompatibilities, did you know that some cheaper 3rd party docks can only output 480p when connecting a Switch OLED?I knew the old docks wouldn’t be compatible but it’s still a bit of a pain when I have three docks set up currently.It’s interesting that everyone’s talking about the boring stuff, and nobody’s talking about the games that are about to launch with it.If Nintendo are truly planning a last minute announcement, <3 months before launch, then in April we could be playing Mario & Donkey Kong (3D), Mario Kart 10 and Metroid Prime 4... That's exciting!I wonder if the reverse is possible, i.e. an og Switch in a Switch 2 dockWhat's the big deal? The system will obviously come with a dock.Besides, it's probably the same reason why Nintendo added the little nub on 3DS cartridges. To prevent people from accidentally or forcing things that are not supposed to go together.@ShaneReactions I think it's german, Depeche Mode first record label was called Mute and the catalog numbers of the records were 'Stumm' (iirc) followed by a number. I think the meaning of the word(s) is "not saying anything" (or maybe more precisely being literally unable to speak - maybe that's Nintendo situation right now - damned if you do speak - damned if you don't).Why would you want to use your old dock for the new system though if the new system was made with the new dock in mind? It's like buying an N64 game and trying to put it into your Super NES, of course it wouldn't go in it's not design to work on the old hardware and even if it does go in all the new components that are required to run that new os or games won't be there anyways on the old thing.Sorry but those images are fuzzy... This is the era of mobile phones with hyper- advanced cameras, yet they botches like every times when they're photographing "Switch 2".Complete quack here only.I'm trying to refrain to commenting like I mentioned before, but it's difficult sometimes.Come again! It's 2025 now and not 2003! What's up with all those fuzzy pictures?Oh, well those are just fakes, so they had to "fuzzing" them then to making even harder to notice it.Nintendo! Stop! The suspense is killing me! Just reveal this thing already!More than the Switch's successor apparently being incompatible with the original one's dock - would've been surprised by the contrary - it's unfortunate that most likely the opposite will be true as well and not just because of the indentations, but also the smaller size of the original Switch (or at the very least you won't be able to put it inside with the Joy-Cons attached and so charge them that way)!@Skunkfish I think it is the only reasonable reason why Nintendo is so silent while everyone is leaking the hardware. They are still working/deciding/preparing 100% the game lineup at a launch and their presentation. But even that almost makes no sense anymore at this point. Just release the freaking Direct.Brownie points for the tagline. XDI'm not bothered by the Switch 2 not fitting into the OG dock. It makes sense if the Switch 2 requires more power. I just hope the OG Switch fits into the new dock.I don't want to have to have 2 docks, basically lolGame Boy Color carts wouldn't work on a Game Boy because the Carts did NOT have the small square cut out.GBA carts did not work on the GB/GBA because the Carts were shrunkDS games would not work on a GBA because. The carts were a different size and shape3DS games would not work on DS because of a tab on the cartSNES games would not work on an NES because of the indents on the cart.N64 games wouldn't work on a SNES because the carts were shaped different.Makes perfect sense.I hope the OG switch will be able to dock on the new switch 2 dock. I'm planning on keeping both of my Switches for a while (for the family) and it would be so nice if I could use one dock to rule them all.The leaked stuffs and the rumours are just like the chaos situation of winged monkeys at Wizard of Oz Palace. Probably Nintendo will suddenly appear and thunderclap like Madame Morrible to clarify the situation.Eh, I plan on making my Switch a Ring Fit machine anyways when I upgrade. Really gotta lose the weight and I'm more of a handheld gamer anyways@Skunkfish Please tell me you don’t consider Tour to be a mainline entry.@JohnnyMind I'm hoping for a GBA/3DS situation. GBA and GB games fit in the GBA, but GBA games don't fit in the GB. Likewise 3DS games don't fit in a DS, but DS fits in 3DS fine. I'd really like it if the Switch 1 fits in the Switch 2 dock, just so I only need one dock plugged into my tv.@StewdaMegaManNerd Sakurai considered Heroes to be a full Fire Emblem Game.Don't be surprised if the next Mario Kart is 'Mario Kart 10' (or even 11 if they count Home Circuit too lol)So it's really called "Switch 2" ? As seen on the dock here ? Or is it just a mock-up ?@Skunkfish Yeah, the games are the real reason I'm hyped for the reveal. Obviously a beefier console to play them on is nice, but that ain't really the most important thing to me. The idea of a new 3d Mario and new Mariokart, ooh man it sounds so good.Does this leak come in a cheesy sauce? Nope! Not interested. More food for thought, apparently the logo seen here is identical to an early fan made mock up from 2023. I’ll see if I can find the link. Something smells.@Keman The images are only 'fuzzy' because they're screenshots taken from Genki's video, which was uploaded to X by Nintendo Life.You can see these same pictures in motion for yourself in the 'Is this our best look yet at Switch 2?' article, posted here yesterday: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/01/is-this-our-best-look-yet-at-switch-2.Watch the last 3 seconds and you'll notice things are much clearer.Is Nintendo even going to have anything left to announce?@nukatha But what about the arcade titles? Those were pretty great, and still felt like Mario Kart. Sure they were made by Namco, but I still don’t see why they are never acknowledged.well that's not a surpriseboth consoles will only share cartridges and bluetooth controllers, that's already good enoughBro probably thinking he's going to be swimming in accessory sales for this lol everyone will forget him and his company the moment the Switch 2 arrives.Learning about new gimmicks is fun and all, but I'm interested about the new hardware capabilities, like storage space, battery capacity, screen resolution and overall power of the device. I wonder if there will be a boost in performance for Switch 1 games...@nukatha That would be the best-case scenario with the only problem being recharging Switch 1 Joy-Cons as I've already mentioned, fingers cross that's what will happen!after all these leaks I am still wondering how is it possible that there is no confidentiality agreement btw third party producers and nintendo. o to put it differently, how is it possible that someone who isn't nintendo unveils such crucial details and designs to the general public without nintendo publicly raising its voice. only thing that comes to mind is that there must be some sort of marketing strategy where nintendo pushes forward third parties to create hype (as if it was necessary, btw) and drops a bomb announcement later on. dunno.@Kazman2007 Launch/Early titles? User interface? Software capabilities? eshop updates (lol)?Can we just not even pretend that these images are real? There’s no way Nintendo are going to slap a big “2” on the front of the dock, because it looks ridiculous. Honestly might boycott this site until it’s actually announced.I already expected that.@Keman They're stills from a marketing video, not someone's mobile phone photos. This isn't a leak as such, just a 3rd party accessories company who claims to have a Switch 2 (or the precise 3D model of Switch 2)I love how many people are eager to be nintendo legal team interns. The guy is explicitly discussing this with press, I think we all know Nintendo would've put a stop to this if it was in violation of any contract.This is a no-brainer.People are being delirious, but there's no doubt Nintendo will stay stubbornly tight-lipped. I'm personally hoping for the last week of January. It should be a sweet spot in-between Donkey Kong Country Returns HD and Nintendo's February financial briefing on the 4th.So many thoughts.First: " so we would expect the new dock to house the relevant tech to make that happen on the big screen "If there is actual "gaming power" in the dock then Nintendo could sell the Switch 2 solo, and the dock solo, and do away with a Lite, sort of how Sony is selling the PS5 Pro w/o a disc drive.I mean not at first, they'll only sell it combined. Unless the dock tech is too expensive, so they sell it as a $400 handheld only and a $200 dock for TV out. Might be why they haven't shown it yet? 🤑Second. People saying stuff like "Wait for Nintendo to show us the Switch 2 to answer all of our questions".Do any of you really think Nintnedo is going to have a launch presentation for Switch 2 and and tell us it doesn't fit in the Switch dock, or the Switch doesn't work in the Switch 2 dock? Or if the Joycons are cross gen compatible? Sure they'll tell us eventually, but knowing Nintendo is will be drips and drabs, and we'll get conflicting info from different people. Anybody remember the Wii U Gamepad sold separately for dual Gamepad games arriving after launch? Japan probably does.Third. Nintendo isn't a hardware company, they are a game company. They license or sell specs to 3rd parties to make cheap cases they can't be bothered with themselves. I really doubt they care about hardware leaks, they aren't making Switch 2 to sell Switch 2, they are making Switch 2 so they ave hardware to sell 10s of millions of copies of Mario Kart on. Have you seen a lot of leaks of Switch 2 launch titles? I haven't. That's where Nintendo has it's NDAs and monkey ninja lawyers focused in full. This stuff is basically irrelevant for what's little more than a Switch Pro. Basically nothing to see here, move along, just don't leak our games please, or we will kill you.Are you saying I can't use my Xbox 360 power brick on my series X!?@EarthboundBenjy,To be honest the new dock most likely has a fan, so you would really need two of those anyways.@rjejr I'm personally never going to buy a 'Switch 2' unless it has a proper D-pad and comes without a dock and Joy-cons.. and that would basically be a Switch 2 Lite (so I believe there will be one eventually - the original sold over 25 million and that's no mean considering it can only be played handheld).(Ok, under very special circumstances, like Switch 2 getting an exclusive Resident Evil Revelations 3 with the same quality as the first one, I guess I could be persuaded)It depends what kind of HDMI hardware there is in the current Switch docks and if they support 4K output?It wouldn't surprise me that Nintendo tried to squeeze out as much profit as possible and use cheaper HDMI components in the Switch docks, since the current max. supported output for OG Switch and OLED Switch is 1080p. So why put a more expensive HDMI component in the dock when it doesn't get used?I mean, physical dimension wise there shouldn't be any issue as long as the thickness of the Switch 2 is the same with USB-C port on the bottom in the middle. It then doesn't matter if the Switch is wider and higher in size. It can slot into the existing dock just fine. The power input is USB-C, so you can just swap the current OG Switch Power adapter with the new Switch 2 Power adapter if that is also USB-C (which I expect it will be).But I simply expect they will come with a new Dock. As others said, it might actually have extra built-in cooling to help cool the Switch 2 when docked, to maximize performance. One of the main drawbacks of the current Switch is that the Tegra X1 SoC had to be underclocked by at least 33% to not overheat the console and in handheld mode its even underclocked as much as 70%!It's insane really when you think about it with the current Switch and how underutilized the Tegra X1 SoC is. Think about how much more they could have squeezed out of the Switch (especially docked), with better cooling! It's pretty sad. Though, of course battery life also had a say in this.@shgamer Stumm being german for Mute…I never made that connection! Always wondered about BONG too but never found an explanation 🤔@Skoffo There’s no agreements between Nintendo and most accessory companies. These leaks are only possible because Nintendo chose to enter mass production on a console months before they reveal it or even announce its name. This made factory leaks to interested parties basically inevitable.Nintendo’s strategy here is that only fandom weirdos like us will follow leaks from CES, while most of their audience will only hear about Switch 2 when ads for it are plastered on their TVs and phones. Leaks might not really matter, so they chose to focus on squeezing every last sale out of Switch 1.I already know tomorrows rumor, so listen up.Genki is the new business name of Nintendo. Nintendo is outdated after more then 100 years, so Genki it is.First action on Friday: Announcement of the "Genki Switch" to be relaesed on March 27th.The new dock probably have 4K support, newer USB etc.Not surprised, and personally not really disappointed. Kinda to be expected I guess. The real question might be if any 3rd party docks could be used with both systems. If so, than really not that big of deal unless your just brand loyal to 1st party hardware. Would be super crazy if the new dock might even support dual monitor (for not stupid reason).@larryisaman BONG was for their maxi singles/special editions or something (iirc).@Skunkfish I get what you're saying but we're not getting more than one big 1st party Nintendo game at launch. Those would be spaced out through the year.But will a standard Switch work in a Switch 2 dock? 🤔@FoxyDude The Switch 2 will be fully backwards compatible with Switch 1 games.So if you get a Switch 2 with new dock (that will offer up to 4K glory, much better performance, much better load times, etc), why in earth would you still want to dock your old Switch 1, just to suffer a subpar blurry experience? Makes no sense.I have not heard from Laura Kate since the days on which the Switch was referred to as NX, will be honest here, can't say I miss any of those namesIf the S2 dock is sold separately, we riot.@nukatha It’s also possible Nintendo adds more storage and faster speeds for Switch 2 cartridges with the same Switch cartridge shape without changing pins or altering the shape in any way, like with how it’s happened to SD cards over the years. Switch 2 cartridges might be a different color tho, maybe red.With the Switch 2 using the same base OS as the Switch, I think Switch 2 cartridges also have something to do with it. If they go with just putting higher speeds and more storage, they’ll probably be a message for Switch 1 telling us that Switch 2 cartridges won’t work on Switch 1 (unless it’s a cross-gen game).Err good? The new Dock had better be packing some extra power!@ShaneReactions that's the second time I've seen the word "schtum"What would one expect of a bigger console won't fit older Docks??? This is no brainer that this will change.@SwitchForce It’s just mindless white noise at this point.I, too, feel the need to comment to express confusion at extremely explicable things.Be nice if we got a double Dock.One slot for the Switch, the other for Switch 2, switch over with ease, pardon the pun, and share an AC Adapter together.@swoose thanks, I understand: I was under the impression that tp producers had to rely on precise data like measurements, ports, button placement and so on and that those aren't part of public patents - so unless Genki made a bunch of bogus prototypes which won't fit anywhere on the console they had to have something reliable from nintendo. but if it's only a matter of leaks it is somehow quite sad.Makes sense that you can't use a Switch 2 on a Switch 1 dock since the Switch 2 requires more power and probably uses a higher HDMI standard, etc.But as others have said, I'm curious if you'll be able to use a Switch 1 in the newer dock, since it could in theory just throttle down the power when the older system is connected. That'd be nice to reduce clutter on the old TV shelf. 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