New 3DS peripheral spells problems

It seems to be a grim time for Nintendo, after the 15% drop in shares following their less than stellar E3 presence and the somewhat dismal launch and subsequent sales of the 3DS, the cracks in Nintendo's armor are starting to show. After the price drop earlier last month which was touted as a sign of the 3DS’s failure at retail, and their downplaying of the 3D feature of the handheld, once the device's selling point, Nintendo comes from leftfield with a seemingly reactionary move to the Sony PSVita's second analogue with a bulky attachment adding the very criticized missing analogue nub or 'slider' as it is called by Nintendo.

The attachment itself, which was previously rumored by the now notorious website 01net, is very big in size putting the analogue nub to the right of the face buttons. Being so huge and clumsily placed it gives me the impression that this was more of a panic move from Nintendo's part than a carefully planned one. Following the huge success of the Wii, Nintendo seems to be suffering from a very apparent lack of foresight as evidenced by the very confusing and unfocused reveal of the successor to the Wii, the WiiU, and now their apparent admittance of the 3DS's failed design with the release of this new peripheral.

Satoru Iwata, the much loved president of Nintendo who was the visionary behind the Wii which elevated Nintendo to a household name once again after losing out to the Playstation brand for two consecutive generations, is apparently in a very precarious position following the company’s recent musings. Expect a fully redesigned and rebranded '3DS' if 01net is to be believed, and so far their track record has been spot on. If this happens it will be a huge blow to the company as it affects the early adopters which are usually a company's most loyal customers.

Will history repeat itself? Will Nintendo once again get too comfortable with their leadership position in the industry and become too arrogant? Only time will tell.

The attachment is slated for release together with the newly announced Monster Hunter Tri G.