Eurogamer has an interview
with Jim Merrick at Nintendo Europo and he provides a little more
information on the Nintendo controller. Including this nugget

"We`re
producing a classic-style expansion controller, based on traditional
designs like the Gamecube controller. It`s like a shell with a hole in
the top into which you slot the freehand-style controller, and then you
can play third-party ported games, and retro Nintendo games you`ve
downloaded."

This makes me feel a lot better about plunking
money down for a Revolution now and should help to get third party
developers to produce games for the platform.

Thanks to Evil Avatar for the linkage.