Master Sean,
On the issue of the second analogue stick for the 3DS you have mentioned that you feel it is transforming the the 3DS into more of a Gamecube, implying that it is something Nintendo wants to do as part of it’s 3D mission. But I get the feeling that it is something Nintendo would rather not do, but feel they now must in order to get more third party support for the system.
My thinking goes something like this: You have talked about the fact that the DS launched with Mario 64 and how it did nothing for sales. But remember that because the DS had no analogue stick, the player had to use the touch pad for analogue controls (and remember that thumbpad thing the DS used to come with?). I am willing to bet that internally Nintendo believes Mario 64 DS’s failure was due to no analogue stick. With the 3DS Nintendo ‘fixed’ this problem to make the controls just like the N64 (and look at all the N64 games on the 3DS). Sure the Gamecube had dual analogue, but the second analogue stick was that small little yellow thing and first party Nintendo games didn’t use dual analogue like games from other studios. Dual analogue for 3D console games is a Sony thing after all, first seen on the Playstation One.
I think that Nintendo still believes that it got 3D control right with the N64 controller and it’s a quirk of history that Sony dual analogue is now considered the standard for 3D games. And their arrogance was such that they thought the mighty 3DS, the first proper 3D console, the console that would finally bring 3D gaming to the masses, would set the 3D controller standard going forward to the original ‘correct’ Nintendo vision. Except of course the 3DS is failing and developers just want a standard controller to make their life easier so Nintendo has had to capitulate.
If Nintendo didn’t want a second stick, they wouldn’t be making it.
With the Gamecube controller, Nintendo removed the D-pad. Third parties demanded it back. So Nintendo put it back.
From the information I’m seeing, it is Nintendo who is pushing for the second stick, not the third party companies. I’ll try to find more info on this.