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Wii U Controller Won’t Be Completely Wireless?

Those of you that have seen the leaked Rayman Legends trailer for Wii U will notice that the one Wii U controller featured in the video is wired. While it’s understood that development Wii U consoles feature wired controllers, it seems rather odd that Ubisoft and Nintendo haven’t included a wireless Wii U controller in the promotional video. The reasoning behind this is could be that Nintendo is having trouble streaming data from the HD console to the tablet controller’s LCD touchscreen.

65 thoughts on “Wii U Controller Won’t Be Completely Wireless?”

  1. I think a big part might also be the battery life. I would rather play it plugged in then have a four hour battery life and be wireless. I think there will be an option to plug it in or keep in wireless though.

  2. If it isnt wireless then give it a really long cord. I dont miss having to sit up right at the TV to play video games..

  3. Maybe it’s just a cord the Wii U controller might need at times. If you look at the cord, it looks detachable. And one of the stressed features of the Wii U controller last year was that you’d be able to break away from the TV–and you can’t do that with a cord.

    I think the cable is a cord supplied to provide a more powerful feed into the Wii U controller (perhaps for helping to stream large higher-resolution games) and that probably charges the Wii U controller (think about it–a screen is a real battery eater). Hey, it might even possibly allow the Wii U to support and stream to two different Wii U controllers, to provide a powerful direct feeds with cables.

    Anyways, I think the cable is simply something that’ll be needed at times, not all the time. That’s fine with me, personally. As long as I get to play games like that fun-looking Rayman Legends, preferably at launch!

    1. dude…. u read the words out of my mouth! I couldnt have said it better!

      The cord might just be for extreme display or usage. It could used to charge the controller ( hopefully), and could be entirely optional ( I would find this option freaking awesome! Hope we’re right)

      1. Another thing I just thought of right now–the cable could also allow for faster game downloads and game data transfers–esp. in light of Nintendo saying people will be able to download full games digitally.. Downloading a full game wirelessly can take forever, but you can download games much faster with a direct-feed cable than wirelessly. The same is true for transferring saved game info, which, with the advent of downloadable content, grows larger these days. As simple as it might be, the detachable cable might just prove to be the most important accessory for the Wii U controller.

    1. Ok I’m on a computer now. The charging slot, I assumed, was that thing on the bottom so I don’t think its that. This thing looks like its in the headphone slot. But still, I wouldn’t worry, It looks far too thin to be much help with streaming. At other events, and when there were those rumours that the controller didn’t work right, the cables were pretty thick.

      1. The slot on the bottom looks like it would be used for accessories, a la Nunchuk. Only the Dreamcast controller was silly enough to have a cable coming out of the bottom going to the console.

  4. Nah. It looks like an early build of a charging cord. Also used to keep the controller close to the system, since it’s probably a devkit.

    1. I feel the same, to outsiders it’ll look like a really big step back. Wireless is like a basic requirement these days. Hopefully it will just be like the PS3 charging cable.

    2. It’d be suicide for Nintendo to not make the Wii U controller optionally wired because they already announced as a chief feature that gamers will be able to play wirelessly away from the TV. But it could mean also suicide to Nintendo if they do not allow a cable to connect to the Wii U controller, just for recharging the battery alone. A wireless controller already uses a lot of battery power, but a touchscreen wireless controller would likely use more battery power, thus providing an attachable cable would prove smart.

      Also, another thing I just thought of–the cable could also allow for faster game downloads. Downloading a game wirelessly can take forever, but you can download games (and transfer saved game info) much faster with cable than wirelessly. The cable might just prove to be the most important accessory for the Wii U controller.

      I don’t think having this cable would hurt Nintendo’s popularity. I think Nintendo would only hurt if the cable wasn’t detachable.

  5. Guys, it’s the classic controller hooked up to it. When you watch all 4 people playing, there are only 3 characters on-screen, and the player with the WiiU controller is moving the platforms via touchscreen. 2 players have Wii remotes, 1 player has a classic controller hooked to the other 1 player with a WiiU tablet. :)

  6. Watched the trailer again and noticed that the cable is a whiter color than the tablet lending me to believe that it is a charging cable or some other kind of cable. Plus as others have said its off-canter and last I checked most controllers had their cables center haha.

  7. Wired is better then wireless. Faster response time, no batteries. xbox controllers drop out a lot the time, Wii ones too once the batteries drop below half-1/4. Very annoying.
    Wired would be my choice.

  8. I’m gonna agree with the majority and say it’s either a charger or a tethered developer controller. The rumors are that it is having trouble putting HD on the controller but that seems weird considering it was doing it well at E3 and I guarantee they have changed the hardware a little.

  9. Hopefully Nintendo isn’t having trouble streaming video from the console to the tablet, cause that would mean bad news for games like FPS’s, Sports, & games like smash bros in the sense that it would be awesome if you could use 4 tablets for games like these.

  10. UPDATE:A note on the wired controllers: Wii U dev kits are currently wired to their tablets, as evidenced at E3 last year, but this will not be the case with the final product.

  11. Or the controller has not battery, Besides its pretty obvious that is not going to be completely wireless and that you will be able to use the controller conected because fun fact batteries need to be charge.

  12. Wired or wireless uPad, it doesn’t matter to me! I’m still buying the U whenever it’s released worldwide.

  13. I can believe that this is just a wired dev kit, not so sure about this being the charging cable… If you look closely at the bottom of the controller it has two metal connectors that look very much like the ones used for the 3DS charging cradle. I think it is very likely that we will have both a charging cord and cradle for the Wii U tablet.

  14. Pingback: Leaked Rayman Legends Wii U Video ‘Doesn’t Represent Final Game’ | My Nintendo News

  15. Lol its obviously a charging cable

    how else would you charge somethign that big
    I highly doubt Nintendo would waste money on a charging station when its much cheaper and easier to plug in a cable lol

  16. ok ok ok. i pretty know a lot a bout consoles computer and i have a good eye….the place where the wire is, if you look ant the unplugged controler there is a port there, my theory is… you can play while the controler is charging and the chord is quite long enought to sit in your couch while play [not like ps3 that is way to short to want to play while charging] as far as i watched on many videos about wii U, in last year E3 i was a thick chord atached to controler, but it was probably just an atachment to people don’t run away with it. besides many companies like the one for darksiders and alien colonial marines are crazy with the controler so i can;t beliebe that the hardware is just giving hell the crap in development

  17. It looks more like a charging cord to me, like the one you have on the PS3. The debut trailer they showed last year didn’t use that cord and they were carrying the controller around. A game like Rayman is more about sitting down and having fun. In fact, I guess this confirms the controller will use a charging cable, which I like a lot.

  18. It was obvious to me that it was a dev kit, so the controller is tethered to the console. I don’t think we have anything to worry about, guys. The controller will most likely be wireless with a usb cord to plug it into the console for charging, like the PS3 controller.

    Leave luck to heaven.

  19. You dumb asses, Don’t you know that they have those for two reasons, 1 it keeps the controller charged and 2 people can’t walk off with the controller. Idiots.

  20. Pingback: Leaked Rayman Legends Wii U Video ‘Doesn’t Represent Final Game’ | Gaming RSS

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