Not enough space on 3DS XL to include a second analogue stick

Would have meant reducing the battery size or making the unit even bigger.

The 3DS XL, the imminent larger version of the 3DS, is simply not big enough to house a second analogue stick, Nintendo president Saturu Iwata has told the Independent.

"When we looked at the design of the 3DS XL we had to look at various factors, one was battery life, one was the overall size of the unit, and we had to make some trade-offs," explained Iwata. The choice, if we were going to include the second analogue stick, was to reduce the size of the battery or make the unit much bigger.



"What we wanted to do was have a bigger screen in comparison with the overall size of the system, so had various discussions and had to make trade-offs and this is the outcome."

He added: "Attaching a second analogue stick is possible but it would have made the system even bigger and, though it perhaps puts a burden on people that really want that second stick, it's a call we had to make and these people will have to live with it."

Nintendo has said it plans to launch a Circle Pad Pro add-on for the XL later this year.