Is The Nintendo Switch Getting A Pen Or Stylus Accessory?

During a recent interview with Time, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto made a throw-away statement that may have revealed a yet-unannounced pen or stylus accessory for the Nintendo Switch.

In response to a question about the Switch's much lauded "HD Rumble" haptic feedback, Miyamoto began describing how it feels to use the device. "What's incredible is that it's not just this monotone vibration, but you can feel the taps. So when you put your pen on the screen, it's not just this dull vibration, you can feel the tap that the tip of the pen makes on the screen."

But does this mean a pen or stylus accessory is coming to the Switch? Will games or other applications be designed to make use of one? It's not clear at this time, but it has led to some speculation. It's definitely possible this is a misconstrual in the "lightly edited" interview, or that Miyamoto was referring to application that might use finger inputs to control a virtual pen or stylus. We have reached out to Nintendo for clarification.

Elsewhere in the interview, Miyamoto reflected on the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's involvement in the development of the Switch, saying "the idea of Nintendo Switch being a device you can take out and anywhere, and the idea of it being a system that really allows networking and communicating with people, I think that's something Mr. Iwata put a lot of emphasis on."

On virtual reality, he said "when I see people play virtual reality, it makes me worry, just as for example if a parent were to see their kid playing virtual reality, it would probably make them worry. Another issue and challenge that I think everybody faces is how to create an experience that's both short enough while also fully fleshed out in virtual reality."

To the assertion that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be more story-driven than its predecessors, Miyamoto said he believed the team had struck a unique balance between the story, and being on an adventure. "It’s not that I don't like story, that I'm denying the importance of story. I think after someone has played a game, it's important that a story lingers in their mind.

Miyamoto believes that it's important for the story of a game like Breath of the Wild to have room within it for each individual player's experience of the game, so that story and experience become one. "I think the story in Breath of the Wild still doesn't break the balance that's been established in previous Zelda games. But we also wanted to make a game where, after someone is done playing, their own experience in that game is what the story is, and I think we've been able to accomplish that with this title."

In other Nintendo Switch news, Rayman Legends creator Michel Ancel said the Switch version of the game would include "several surprises," watch more than 100 minutes of Breath of the Wild, and new details about Switch interconnectivity and mobile app features have been revealed.