Nintendo won’t sell Wii U GamePad in America until 2013

When Nintendo (NTDOY) launches the Wii U on November 18th in North America, please try not to fling your GamePad controller across the room or break it. Nintendo of America president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed to GameInformer that the company will not be selling standalone Wii U GamePads until 2013. There are two reasons for this: first, there are no launch window titles that will support multiple Wii U GamePads, only ones built for use with one Wii U GamePad, up to three Wii Remotes and the Wii U pro controller (Example: New Super Mario Bros. Wii U). Second, it’s not a cheap accessory by any means. Although Nintendo of America didn’t explicitly say how much a standalone Wii U GamePad will cost, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed on Thursday during a Nintendo Direct webcast that it will sell the Wii U GamePad for 13,440 yen (about $172) in Japan, which is over half the cost of the Wii U Basic Set that will sell for $299.99. It’s believed that the large touchscreen, NFC, universal TV remote and camera are driving the Wii U GamePad cost up.

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