You Can Now Buy A Replacement Wii U GamePad On Its Own

This would have been a welcome option right off the bat. Up till now you'd have to send it in and be charged twice that amount to be sent a new one. Luckily I found a nice little workshop that repairs them for a a fraction of the price.

Took them long enough.

Your ripping on the elite controller? The elite controller is a luxury item, its not aimed for regular gamers. I dont see you comparing the gamepad to those gaming keyboards or mouse which cost more than 200$.

Interesting to estimate how much they could sell the Wii U without one then. Should have had this option from the get go, but this is nothing new.

I really, really hope Nintendo of Europe (and America) will start selling separate Gamepads as my Gamepad nearly can't connect to my Wii U unless it is uncomfortably close ;^;.

I can play with my Wii Remote and Nunchuck, and Pro Controller, but still I really prefer Off-TV Play over having to look at the TV ;^^.

Still I am really happy for Japan and hope at least they get something out of that the Gamepads are optionally sold separately now .

Does it have the standard battery or the extended battery?

This is low price vs the high price on Xbone and PS4 Gamepads.

All this time, Nintendo kept rambling on that they didn't want to sell standalone GamePads until production and pricing would be tolerable, and THIS is their reasoning point? Does that mean the GamePad is 1/3 of the whole package cost? Maaaan, forget those multi-GamePad posibilities.

@RupeeClock Careful, GamePads are region-locked! You won't be able to connect a japanese one to a european WiiU.

omg finally... Finally I can use a seperate one for guests when we're playing party games...

i wanna have a second one. still got a bit scared my controller got broken someday and i cant play a lot of games anymore with the gamepad function

What if NX will be just a box like PS4/XBox and it will be working with Wii U controller as the primary controller?

i can buy a 8GB white Wii U bundle for 128€ and 149€ on the 32GB bundle in my area. The gamepad could cost more than 100€ if it comes to Europe.

LOL, good lord... Took them long enough.

Makes you wonder why they've not just sold the console less the Gamepad this holiday season. They could patch in support for the few games where it's required (add mini map to Splatoon or button press for full map) and make a very short list of those you simply can't play (Mario Maker).

Half the cost of the console and then you'd likely find a decent chunk of those people picking up the standalone Gamepad later down the line.

I'm musing of course, it's been made abundantly clear they'd never do this...

Wii U can support 2 Gamepads - I recall Reggie stated that at 2011's E3. They should sell a gamepad mini too.

@IAmDeclanJay While true they didn't implement it so without a system update, only 1 Gamepad at a time works.

I would love if the NX supported the gamepad (not saying whether the pad should be the default controller or not) for remote play alone

What a waste of time! Three years ago it might have been useful

They're probably just opening new Wii U's that they know aren't going to sell this holiday season (or at all) and selling whatever they can.

£70 seems pretty cheap, given that a pro controller is £40

@rjejr
Laugh? Cry?

Huh, I thought these were on sale years ago. I distinctly remember something about Japan being able to buy them since launch.

I'd get a spare.

@AVahne So do I, I always thought that was possible in Japan...

This is good news, as long as they sell them in NA. My gamepad has taken an unnecessary amount of abuse and I'm expecting the next drop, game time woth sticky hands, or snot filled sneeze to be the death of it. I'm gonna need a new 1 eventually so if they can get it out for $99.99 then it may save me from buying a back up Wii U at the end of the life cycle.

Holy poopitypooppoop!!! Will Nintendo use their heads and create an option for Splatoon for two players to play online together on the couch? That would be an awesome feature:) Ill pick a spare gamepad in the future cause I love the Wii U and plan 2 use it for a long time 2 come:)

That is cheap have you seen the price of a ps4 controller or Xbox elite controller thing..... Rip off

@Kimite Yeah the Gamepad has really poor signal strength. I can't even leave my room with it.

@sandman89 Both the Dualshock 4 and Xbox One controller are priced at $60, which is significantly cheaper than the apparent cost of the Wii U GamePad. The Elite controller is priced at $150 but the controller itself is almost worth the price (from what I've heard, anyway, though it's likely that bias has played a part). Where's the "rip-off?"

This should have been an option years ago. Hopefully they start selling it to the rest of the world soon as well.

@wazlon Lucky ;^^. I have to be closer than a meter it feels like in order to get a signal from the Gamepad to the Wii U right now ;^;. (I hope your Gamepad wouldn't have the same fate as well after years/months of use).

Though, I have experienced this before and it has gotten better after a while like being to have a straight back again so I hope it will fix itself this time too .

(Still I like my Gamepad).

@Blaa: That is where my head is at too! It would be SO AWESOME to battle with or against someone on the same couch.

The Wii U has a dated hardware, the GamePad has a cheap screen and a crappy battery, and I don't think it's fair to compare the Xbox One elite controller because that is completely optional and has very high quality materials, as opposed to the GamePad. The Wii U has never been cheap for what it has offered.

FINALLY.

@bluedogrulez while playing, just have a vertical or horizontal split on your tv and each person could super jump if needed on separate gamepads. Plus each person could use motion controls!

I don't understand why they never made you able to get a replacement already. To send it to Nintendo for repair, it is nearly $200. I still remember when they claimed that the use of two games pads was going to happen.

@aaronsullivan Well you always make me laugh, so thanks.

I think this confirms NX is a Wii U 2 that can finally handle 2 Gamepads. And 4DS will be allowed to work as a Gamepad for all games, not just SSBU. So sort of 4 Gamepads, like Nintneod did way back when with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Only they've forgotten Link cables and the Gameboy Player were a thing. (I know they weren't related, but I want 3DS games on my Wii U.)

There's your NX set-up, way back in 2003. Only no cables on NX.

NX will be $300 w/o a Gamepad in late 2016. B/c w/ these. 4DS will function as one in early 2017 for those who want to wait.

To be quite honest, I would have sworn these released in 2012 in Japan. My family had an hour car ride on Sunday were all we did was talk about Wii U's failure and NX's future. I told them Gamepads sold separatly in Japan in 2012 when Bill Trinnen was talking up the dual Gmaepad games to come the following year.

http://www.1up.com/news/bill-trinen-interview-eshop-miiverse-wii-u-online?pager.offset=1
"1UP: I think, during the Japanese press conference earlier this morning, they had announced a price for the GamePad if you wanted to buy an additional one. That wasn't mentioned here.

BT: You're right, that wasn't mentioned, and the reason we didn't mention it is that, in the launch window titles, none of those are going to support dual GamePads. The launch window is all going to be single-GamePad. The dual-GamePad functionality, we expect to start seeing that in games sometime next year. Our feeling is, we're not going to sell another GamePad if you don't have something to use it with. We'll make that available as an additional accessory when there's content to support it.

1UP: Which games in Japan are supporting it?

BT: That I don't know. I don't think that they've announced any that are. I think they're just announcing that's going to be the price when it eventually goes on sale. I don't know that they announced a date for when it will be available."

Apparently Gamepad in Japan had a price, guess that's where I got confused.

http://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/9/18/3350940/replacement-wii-u-gamepads-available-for-a-fee

Wii U will go down in history for me a the only home conosle (that I'm aware of) to only support 1 controller. The fact that Nintneod kept talking up dua GMapeads but the Wii U is too underpowered to support them - which I believe to be true - just shows how messed up they are in the HD generation. They built a console based on dual Gamepad games but built a console too weak to support that idea.

And that's why NX is coming sooner rather than later. I bet someday some Youtubers will find the code for Zombi2 w/ 2 Gamepad support. Ubisoft is on record saying they don't make games without sequel potential. Nintneod has said dual Gamepads were coming. I'm betting Zombi2 was planned as 2 player on 2 Gamepads. Spaltoon will have it. Maybe even Starfox 2. Trick is to sell the Gampeads as stand-alone 4DS and let them offload some of the processing, like cloud computing.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/07/ubisoft_will_only_make_games_that_can_be_turned_into_franchises

This has nothing to do with NX. Simply a replacement Game Pad. Says nothing of the future.

The price is also completely fine, the Game Pad is a really cool controller with a touch screen and everything.

The Xbox old gen controller with no screen or NFC or anything that costs 150 dollars is ridiculous lol.

@dumedum Some people can interpret every bit of news as NX news...

@Goob dualshock whatever is £50 in uk not sure about Xbox

There is a lot of tech in the Gamepad, hence a high price, and that as the reason the Wii U was not a success.

The two screen DS was a run away success so if we give the Wii a second screen etc......

>They make a console focused on an accessory
>You can't buy that accessory separately if yours break
>Charge another $300 for a brand new system
>Discards the old console just because you couldn't buy another gamepad

Bravo

Hopefully, this happens in the west so I don't have to be paranoid when I get the Wii U.

@rjejr no... please don't call it a 4DS. Once anyone even alludes to the fourth dimension, I lose all respect [even if that's not what the "4" stands for, it's what the 3 stood for]

This definitely should come to the U.S and Europe .This would be useful when the gamepad needs to be a replacement, however I think Nintendo should put an option to use Wii U without the gamepad being on if you were to use the pro controller or the wii remote alone.

That is about what I would expect for the price of a new gamepad. Up until this point I was worried that I was royally screwed if anything happened to my gamepad but this alleviates my concerns assuming it comes to the states. Make it happen!

@Haiassai How about the 8DS.

Darren Calvert it is a damn shame we didn't get the dual game-play experience from the start because here I was thinking after buying the U that I would be able to play a game from the hdd that I like while my 5yr old son plays what he wants from the disc menu. This idea would have been key to more U systems selling & also the word gimmick would not have graced that idea as it would have shown gamers around the world how strong the system really is.

@rjejr
Well, I'm not as bullish as you for this being any kind of confirmation, but I'm still hoping there is some truth to all of that. Very much looking forward to finding out about the whole NX plan.

Nice sleuthing on the earlier GamePad availability or, in this case, lack thereof.

Hey that Bucakroo reference works two ways. 8th dimension, but also, If you say it like that reporter did. 8-Dees. 80s! Perfect!

@aaronsullivan 8-Dees. 80s! Perfect!

New NX marketing and slogan:

"The Nintendo 8DS, it's like the 80's, when we were relevant. Please purchase an 8DS and help make us relevant again."

@rjejr Kyrie eleison...

Can't believe they never implemented dual GamePad's. I hope the NX has extra controllers available from day-one.

Hmm $108 new or $90 for full repair...

Good, it's about time. Now how much will it cost?

Double gamepads lag the system horrendously. Someone tried in a YouTube video once somehow by tweaking the system to allow it to accept both pads, then showing a couple games drop to 0fps and struggle to do much of anything half the time with the color of the screens being distorted a bit and fuzzy. Also I may be wrong but I thought Sega also mentioned it didn't work because they tried to do it in Sonic All Stars Racing for the WiiU and it was lagging the game. On the other hand in a few articles around the internet, they're saying Nintendo has said the WiiU DOES support 2 gamepads at once, but obviously no implementation whatsoever.

@Dankykong It's obvious that Nintendo may offer that through a future firmware update. It did not work cuz Nintendo didn't implement it yet. You can't try a feature before Nintendo could confirm that it would work just like backward compatibility, you can't try it or make it works unless Nintendo confirmed it.

I remember when it was announced i think E3 2012 that Wii U supports two Gamepads but apparently that was lie. Same with GC VC, Nintendo may have been thinking to far ahead of themselves when demonstrating the Wii U

Too little, too late I'm afraid.

"which is on the expensive side, but you have to remember there is a lot of tech in here."

This needs to stop. The tech, already dated in 2012, is dirt cheap any more. This controller shouldn't still cost $108 just like Nintendo's 1st party titles don't deserve to cost $59.99 5 years after release.

It won't cost £70.00 in the UK though will it? more like £90.00, the Wii-U has been out all most 3 years and this has taken too long to come out. If it makes it to the UK I'll pick one up but I'd love it if (it won't happen) if the B,A X and Y are the same colours as the SNES European controller were / are. They did it with the new 3DS!

Also It will be nice if they did release a separate Wii-U pad if it's bundled with an adapter!

@KomrathDE That wouldn't bother me! Shave the price for a powerful machine and loyal followers got it easier to upgrade. I figured it would be backwards compatible for contollers anyways just like the Wii U is for Wiimotes.

If the gamepad is compatible with the NX and we get to port all our eshop purchases to the NX, this further concretes my midnight day one purchases of an NX.

If NX becomes what GameCube originally hinted at then the NX will be THE best console ever made. And if that also incorporates the Wii U gamepad into it's control ethos in addition to multiple New-New3DS' being connected to the home hardware next year then........ oh my!

I would pre-order in full right now.

Nice. Can't wait until this comes west.

I would love to finally have two GamePads with multiplayer on the Wii U, but that's a fantasy...

What would be really nice is if they released a new model of the GamePad alongside these. Slimmer (though I have no complaints on the bulk), longer battery life, improved camera (hahaha), better speakers, and a built in collapse-able stand (for those who play off-TV with controllers...I did it once...don't judge me).

Best news of the day, now all we need is an update of sort to at least make the Wii U respond to another Gamepad while still keeping the 1st Gamepad connected (not at once but it would be convenient if I can swap Gamepads when one is low battery).

Hope so cuz my joy sticks are not working right 😭😭

@Fazermint where was this lottle shop you found? Any chance near or around the Los Angeles CA area?

@Jop holy crap, are you a necromancer? And erm, Splatoon 2 says hi

@rjejr Wow just read this old comment from you. Hindsight's 20/20. Lol You had some decent ideas but missed the mark there a bit. If the WiiU woulda done better your predictions may have came true.

@LiberatedAnimal This was back when things here were swinging w/ all kinds of nutty rumours and predictions, kind of miss it. But everything I wrote here was way off, some of my worst stuff, somewhere on NL among my 10,000+ plus posts I'm sure I did a lot better. And of course also a lot worse. Me and a few of the other older guys were out of control that summer. Good times.

@rjejr Yeah I had a theory I was so adamant about where I claimed Nintendo was going to be releasing 5 different pieces of hardware at once. The most expensive being the console at $150. The handheld next, then the phone and tablet. Then finally an external computing device that would allow VC and other downloadable game services to the PC and other consoles. All of this was going to be linked under a really advanced online infrastructure. Everything you purchased and all save data would be available through a cloud and the handheld versions of the game would then have a converted version to the phablet. It seemed to make since with the patents being claimed at the time. Little did I know they were going to do most of this with ONE piece of hardware. Also, I believe the external computing device patent points to the dock with ability to overclock.

@LiberatedAnimal Well I still think that's going to happen, or something close enough, Nintneod is just doing it backwards b/c Nintneod seems to do everything backwards. I'm buying a Switch next week but in a couple of years I'm still expecting a $199 SwitchTV and a $179 SwitchBoy and probably even the tablet by itself for $199, maybe after an update - bigger battery, more RAM, maybe some more GPU or CPU speed but not enough to make it a Switch 2, just a New Switch.

So you are going to be right. Well except for the phone, I never imagined Nintedo getting into the phone business, you have to work w/ ATT or Verizon or someone, and Nintneod really does not play well with others. At all. Sometimes I think they do it backwards on purpose just to show no one can figure them out.

I think you're definitely right that we're gonna see newer iterations of the Switch and probably in different forms. I could see a New Switch and a handheld only Switchboy as you put it. I do hope however that they don't release a console only version of the Switch as I think the hybrid nature is what makes the hardware really standout. Maybe they could still keep the original version around and bundle a pro controller. That would give people more of a console option at a cheaper price. I say that because of the Integra chips nature of being so easily scaleable with overclocks. Also, I think it would be nice to be able to still dock the Switchboy because of the same reasons. Maybe if not directly than with an adapter as I don't think it would have detachable Joycons. Another set or a pro controller would br needed. All of this is speculation of course but, it's really fun to do.

Ahhh, the good old days when the Wii U was still relevant. Wait, when was that?

I hope it's still being sold. I want a new white one.