Wii U GamePad won't be sold separately at launch
Nintendo of America director of public relations Marc Franklin confirmed to Shacknews that additional GamePads will not be sold at launch.
In Japan, additional Wii U GamePad controllers can be purchased separately for more than $150. However, Nintendo fans in America won't be able to do the same.
Nintendo of America director of public relations Marc Franklin confirmed to Shacknews that additional GamePads will not be sold at launch. Instead, customers that want to buy another controller (or potentially repair a broken unit) will have to contact customer support instead.
Franklin noted that while the Wii U can support two GamePads, they will not be available for purchase at retail. As M2 Research senior analyst Billy Pidgeon pointed out to me, there are currently no games that take advantage of that feature. Offering a standalone controller at retail that serves no real purpose might cause retail confusion.
Nintendo has admitted that titles that support two GamePads will come "well after launch."
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Shacknews
replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Wii U GamePad won't be sold separately at launch.
Nintendo of America director of public relations Marc Franklin confirmed to Shacknews that additional GamePads will not be sold at launch.-
Huh, well I mean I guess no games are going to use another one at launch so that's ok, just be really careful with it in the meantime.
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They have at least one more left, if this and that one both flop then Nintendo turns into Sega 2.0.
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I don't know, I think this is going to be a big fail. Hell the 3DS was a pretty bad launch fail. Yea, they maybe have cash to burn by trying one more time. However, their strategy is pretty conservative when it comes to hardware so they are not going to leap past the PS5/XBOX1080 generation with whatever they have up their sleeves after the Wii U. I think they would be better served by focusing on making a killer hand-held before smartphones completely kick them out of that market.
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Who knows, this might be the last console generation period for all we know.
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Seriously, it's all merging. Nintendo will probably make it to the end, at which point, they will be competing with Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Sony in the wireless-entertainment-hub-device market. It will look a lot like the smart phone and tablet market now.
The upside, we might get to play Zelda on PC!
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Wait, why are they releasing this in Japan then? Seems pointless to have a second one if no games utilize it.
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They will next year I'm sure, Japan gets them because they're Japan.
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$173.329 USD --> http://i.imgur.com/ugdC6.jpg "wtf bro" no really its that much :(
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ok so then can i buy the system without the pad for the 99.99 you just made it worth Nintendo ? #Nintenfail
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W-what?
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$173.329 USD --> http://i.imgur.com/ugdC6.jpg
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which means it'll be $150 here in the states. wow..
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You need the pad if you're going to play any of the games, yes.
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You can't use the Asynchronous stuff in Nintendo Land and Rayman Legends with a pro controller though. Or use it to manage your inventory in ZombiU or throw batarangs in Arkham City, etc.
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Wii-U price - controler price != 99.99
Isnt the console going for $350?
350 - 150 = 200
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There is a basic bundle for $300.
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but if you want two players wont it be like $450?
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So what than its greatest advantage/newest thing is one player only? I mean you can still play the other style games with wiimote and nunchuks normally but not two player with the fancy controllers, that would be sad.
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It was announced at this years e3 that it would be able to use 2 WiiU controllers. It's still a huge performance hit so I don't imagine a lot of titles will take advantage, and it isn't something Nintendo is pushing on developers to support.
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The fact that the player can hide information from other players opens up lots of possibilities for multiplayer gaming. ZombiU's VS multiplayer mode is a great example of that (one player plays the game normally on the HDTV while the player with the tablet spawns zombies on a minimap to try and kill him). The augmented reality stuff they've put into the single player is also great (hold the controller up to scan a la Metroid Prime), very immersive.
I haven't turned on my consoles in ages and a next-gen with just higher specs and nothing else (4k resolution holly shit!) bores me. I'm mainly a DOTA 2 and Starcraft 2 PC guy, hard game club, and if I do play a console game like Darksiders 2 I'll just play the port from my PC to my home theater.
The WiiU tablet controller is the first good reason not to play on my PC in a while.-
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It was one of the best things at E3, so good. And I agree, it was more fun and innovative than the Mario demo I played. I wish Nintendo gave a bit more time to show off the Ubisoft games in their media. I understand that they want to push their own games first, but Pikmin 3 is the only Nintendo game I played that I'd put up on the level of Rayman Legends and ZombiU.
There was a deathmatch demo they showed at E3 2011 that was amazing, one player controlled a UFO that he controlled with the WiiU tablet controller using the screen, sticks, and gyroscope, while two players on another team controlled players on the ground with standard controllers on the HDTV. Both teams were out to kill each other. The players on the ground don't always know where the UFO is because he has his own screen, and the UFO controls made great use of the gyro to aim.
It was just a demo to show the capabilities of the system, but I'd love for something like that to end up in an actual game. Maybe it is one of the minigames in Nintendo World that I don't know about, I dunno.
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Uhh... no.
What's always been the reason to get a Nintendo console over another console?
First party exclusives. And that hasn't changed. The pad is just another reason to get it, like the pad was.
But on top of that, it supports the wiimote and nunchuck. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, because the number of FPS on wii is so slim, but the wiimote is infinitely superior for FPS than a regular controller. Apart from turning it's arguably better than using a mouse as well, and apart from all the buttons available to your hand on a keyboard the nunchuck is better than a keyboard because you can hold it in any position, it's more ergonomic, and it allows analogue movement, which WASD doesn't.
I say this as a predominantly PC gamer who hasn't touched my wii other than for Zelda in a good 3/4 years.
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at $150 a pop, I am betting Nintendo is hoping for just that.
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