For six months, the confidentiality agreement between the FCC and Nintendo restricts access to information.
A new confidentiality agreement with the FCC reveals that Nintendo is working on a new controller for the Nintendo Switch. The new mystery gadget is simply called a “game controller” and has the model HAC-043, which confirms that it will be a Switch add-on (because all models of this console use the HAC prefix).
A brand new Game Controller has been registered today by Nintendo
FCC ID BKEHAC043
Right now all the data is lockedhttps://t.co/yO7pWp4ntV pic.twitter.com/YhjMB9IIEY— Samus Hunter | Nintendo Leak and News Inside (@SamusHunter2) September 16, 2021
At the moment only its name and serial model are known. The rest of the details are confidential and will be released in 6 months, probably on March 16, 2022: “Please note that the following information will be kept confidential for 180 days from the date of the grant of equipment authorization and on our behalf”. The confidentiality agreement between Nintendo and the FCC also restricts the publication of photographs of the controller, its user’s guide, block diagram, and engineering plan until a certain date.
Nintendo and its confidentiality agreements: This is not the first time this has happened
The company already used the same confidentiality strategy when submitting new designs to the FCC in 2019, when it submitted the design of the SNES wireless controller. That filing was supported by a diagram that made it clear that the device was shaped like a SNES controller. However, this new controller has a similar diagram, but it only shows two rectangles with no discernible details.
There are a variety of speculations about the new controller: some claim that the device will have a completely different form and is why they’re keeping the specifics under wraps. Some believe that the gadget is wireless, while others suggest it’s not. This is because just a radio test report was provided for the device, which examines the safety of the controller’s wireless transmissions.
We currently only have this information, but it will be fascinating to see what sort of goods it will be and what expectations it will generate when additional information is released.
