Nintendo 3DS XL Second Circle Pad - Why Not? A Mock-up

Curious as to why the new 3DS model, the XL, doesn't have a second circle pad? Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata explains why.

In an interview with The Independent Newspaper, Iwata was quizzed as to why the new, bigger hardware doesn't accommodate a second stick to avoid the hassle of bolting on an attachment. There does appear to be space on the bottom right of the unit (see our crude mock-up image below), but it seems battery size was the primary reason.

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 analogue stick, was to reduce the size of the battery or make the unit much bigger

Iwata conceded that it was a call that the company had to make whilst developing the revised hardware, with the addition of a second circle pad making the 3DS XL shell even bigger.

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.

Are you happy with the lack of second circle pad on the 3DS XL? Should Nintendo have included as standard with the new hardware?