That has to be the greatest thing I have ever seen!

Nintendo are relaunching 3DS--the lower price point and new advertising campaign are a big part of that, so will new software announcements in a few hours time. A second circle pad model will not be part of that. It is not relevant, was not a factor in 3DS's slow start or in the cancellation and delay of third party games. I don't have a particularly high opinion of the majority of games journalism at the best of times, but this farce with 3DS and the second circle pad peripheral has made me ashamed of my hobby. There should be more reasoned, informed and mature games journalism available to counterbalance the hysterical tripe that has flooded the net recently.

If Nintendo do announce a new model of 3DS at this press conference, I will know for sure they have lost their heads, because they'll be playing to the crowd they will never be able to satisfy. If they stick to their original hardware for 3DS, stick to the new marketing campaign, continue to improve the eShop and work hard to organise an aggressive, full release schedule of first and third party software, 3DS's recovery is assured.

A second circle pad is ridiculous. Loom at the amazing games and the amazing systems in the past that had one or no sticks. Motion and touch screen are more than adequate and if a game is well designed a second stick is entirley unnecessary in the first place. Also, if Nintendo did abandon the 3DS and launched a do-over that would have serious implications for them. The 3DS is fine, all it needs is games - and quickly. That's all. A relaunch is one of the worst ideas I've heard.

Gameboy had the Pocket and then the Color

Advance then had the SP and then the Micro

DS had the Lite, DSi and the DSI XL

Whoever thinks Nintendo won't redesign the 3DS is deluded.......and im surprised people even early adopt Nintendo handhelds anymore knowing they WILL be redesigned.

I can proudly say I waited for each redesign before buying a Nintendo handheld.

I don't think anyone would argue that a 3DS redesign isn't going to happen at some point--the argument is that a 3DS redesign won't appear 5 months after launch, and one month after a price cut designed to increase adoption of the current model.

I don't recall the PlayStation relaunching when the dual analogue pad got released - and that had two sticks added!

Pretty much this.

Nintendo should take whatever advice IGN has and do the exact opposite. If the meat heads at IGN ever ran a hardware manufacturer, they'd be out of business in days.