Satoru Iwata Explains Why There’s No Second Circle Pad on the 3DS XL

Even before the Nintendo 3DS XL was announced many just assumed any larger Nintendo 3DS console would come with a second circle pad. It was not to be, and here’s why.

In a new interview with The Independent, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed that while it would have been possible to put a second circle pad on the XL that it would have reduced the system’s battery life and made the system even bigger.

[quote]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. The choice, if we were going to include the second analog stick, was to reduce the size of the batteries 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 we had various discussions and had to make trade-offs, and this is the outcome.[/quote]

Nintendo’s main focus on the Nintendo 3DS Xl was to get a bigger screen which means more battery to power it, a second analogue stick would have obviously been a compromise too far. Not to mention the whole user segregation thing…

For those with the love of a second circle pad you’ll still be able to buy a Circle Pad Pro for the XL later this year.