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Wii U GamePad Could Cost You At Least $140 To Replace

wii_u_gamepad_blackThe Wii U GamePad of NeoGAF member nbthedude was, unfortunately, misplaced. The controller, which features a 6.2-inch touchscreen, was never found, so the owner ordered a replacement from Nintendo. To his or her surprise, the owner had to pay over $150 to receive a replacement – the price was accumulated from the cost of the controller itself, sales tax and a shipping charge. If your Wii U GamePad is misplaced, your only option is to order a replacement directly from Nintendo, as the new controllers aren’t currently sold as stand alone products in stores.

167 thoughts on “Wii U GamePad Could Cost You At Least $140 To Replace”

    1. Why? There’s no need for a second one and misplacing one would be hard to do. And if you somehow break it, you really should learn to take care of your stuff.

      1. Eventually games will come out that can use 2 Wii U gamepads. Mario Mart U for example. We already knew 2 Gamepads was the limit for the system.

              1. No problem! They also added it’s support wouldn’t be added near launch, I think one of the latest Nintendo Directs said that they are working on games utilizing it already.

                1. Please tell me this is not going to be like PS and Xbox shit -_- , only 2 players on screen? tell me that nintendo don’t want to loose the 4player screen mode(2 gamepads, 2 pro controller)?

                  1. No, I think some games will go up to 6 player support. They only confirmed 2 GamePads at the same time, but you can still have 4 pro controllers/Wii remotes, so if anything it ups it from 5 players to 6. So there could be a ghost team and have 4 vs 2 players or something.

                  2. Dude if anything, think of the possibilities, 6 player racing in “Mario Kart U”, 4 players on the tv doing 4-way split-screen with your choice of controller, WiiMote+Nunchuck, WiiMote (Wii Wheel), Classic Controller Pro, or Pro Control, and then the 2 people playing off screen game on 2 different Gamepads. :D

      2. technology is unreliable. it sometimes malfunctions for no reason or sometimes things slip accidentally, and at some point technology stops working due to wear and tear. There’s no way many owners will want to pay 150 for one controller. i even feel 150 is too much,i wouldn’t pay that much to buy a new wii u pad, so i hope for nintendo’s sake that all wii u pad’s are extremely durable.

      3. AC youre a fucking fucktard! how do you know how well he takes care of his things? Shit still happens there is no need to have two ac adapters but maybe somebody wants an extra one just in case, and what do you know you can actually find an ac adapter sold separately in stores. So why not a spare controller? FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FOR JUDGING HIM YOU FAGGOT ASS JERKOFF!!!! YOU WILL DIE A SLOW PAINFUL DEATH!!!!!!!!

      4. tell an eight year old that crap and see if he/she listens. some, (very few), eight year old children are not quiet as smart or coordinated as you are. They do accidentally break things. Too many adults are gaming way too much anyway. They need to get a real life and then maybe their thinking skills will return. nintendo has even fused the digitizer and lcd together so you have to buy both parts even though one of them may be working fine. it’s not like they needed the space like in a cell phone. That game pad could have been fifty percent thinner with all the empty space in it. i’ll never buy another nintendo product. pure greed.

      5. That second portion is a stupid reply. ‘And if you somehow break it, you really should learn to take care of your stuff’ really? Accidents happen you forgot to mention that. I swear I highly dislike know it all people like yourself.

    2. I bet when they come in stores, They will be a damn site cheaper. Maybe we might get a slimmer version in future too!

      1. ill bet closer to 80$ would be the in store price, I wonder if they well let 3rd party makers like madcats to make a pro controller, or if 3rd party can also make pro controllers (with triggers instead of buttons)

    3. $140 sounds reasonable for what is inside of the gamepad.
      Since these gamepads aren’t massed produced yet (only one per console, so any extra will cost more than a mass produced version later down the road)

      Acceleromator, gyroscope, touch screen, small CPU/GPU to decode the stream and a brandnew wireless technology that was just released in Sept ’12 that allows the console to broadcast to the gamepad with ZERO latency. (or close to it)

      Look at the posters at Neogaf, most are completely clueless when it comes to the tech inside the gamepad. Just that near 0 latency streaming chip is probably 50-75% of that cost. You would think the posters at Neogaf would understand this, but i guess some of them are just pre-programmed to hate Nintendo no matter what, while giving Sony/Microsoft a pass for all the crap they pull.

      Once they start mass producing it and put it on store shelves, we can expect the retail price to come down a bit as well.

    1. If you read the thread, he didn’t misplace it. he put it in his carry on bag when boarding the plane, since he was late to the gate, they told him there is no more room to store his carry on bag and they turned his carry on bag to checked luggage which went under the plane….. and if you have anything of value in your checked bag, consider it gone as airline workers CONSTANTLY raid bags for valuables (they have an X-Ray machine where they can see whats inside of it, makes picking the right bag for theft very easy)

    1. Idiot! Idiot! Do you not realize productions cost for the Wii U GamePad will go down? Nintendo would have to be retarded to release a $150 controller.

  1. Did people really think they would be $100 with a touch screen full controls, nfc reader and all the other stuff put into it? $150 is a decent price and we probably won’t have to buy a second one until the beginning of next year.

  2. I can see two take-home messages here:

    1) Wii U gamepad costs as much as a Nintendo 3DS, but it does not have any processor in it and harbors only one screen;

    2) The idea of having local multiplayer using two gamepads at the same time seems to be far away from today, since its very expensive and most of people really cannot afford buying a second one, and, as far as I know, currently we have no reports stating that any Wii U “to-be-released title” will feature local multiplayer with two gamepads.

    1. Reggie confirmed sometime ago that 2 gamepads are the maximum a Wii u can do and that games will eventually come out that can use both.

    2. Yeah but no game will be dependent on two controllers, so it might end up being advertised like “bring your gamepad to a friend’s and enjoy Wii U together” or something.

  3. Damn, I think Nintendo’s smart on holding off on games with 2 Gamepad support, it’s way too expensive, that’s half of what the Basic Wii U costs O.O No wonder they’re selling at a Loss.
    *What’s the lessen here: Take better care of your stuff.
    Treat the Nintendo Gamepad like a Fragile lil’ infant in your arms. ;P

  4. First of all, anyway who “misplaces” a thing such as the Wii U GamePad is an absolute moron. It just shows how carless and disorganized some people are. Secondly, $140?! The quality of the Wii U Game Pad is absolutely horrendous and they except you to pay $140 for one? complete rip-off! it really is.

      1. Completely the subject? Typical habit of fanboys. Get back to me when you gain the slightest bit of intelligence, illiterate fool.

        1. He is not being illiterate, just adding something true but humorous. By the way the Wii U gamepad is a sophisticated piece of hardware. You should go and google Iwata asks; it details Satoru Iwata San interviewing the engineers that made the Gamepad and the firmware and software journeys of it. Software was done by a former IBM engineers. The firmware by Japanese engineers. The were even teleconferencing :). By Sony showing off the PS4, they breathed life into Nintendo stock, I bet even they didn’t see that coming lol.

        2. The Gamepad is full of advanced technologies. It’s not a rip off. And macarony64 is a fanboy of Nintendo, he said it awhile back i think.

      1. Look Shithead Factror, this is a website for Nintendo fans! Stop giving head to Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton!

        Get N or Get Out!

      2. Look Shithead Factror, this is a website for Nintendo fans! Stop giving head to Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton!

        Get N or Get Out!

              1. Neutron, Jellybean, Bill, Adarazz, Zigfried. You have claimed me to be all those people! You have wrong every time! DEAD WRONG!

                  1. dont yell at me, but i respectfully think you are troll whisperer, unless you can somehow prove it. give me your nintendo network id and i will ask troll whisperer too.

  5. Id love the gamepad even more if it could transfer some nesor snes games to it and play it on the go like they did with animal crossing on gamecube with the gameboy advance. I used to take my advance everywhere. If anything they should have had the 3ds with a feature like that

    1. Although PS4 retail price has not been informed yet, yes, I bet it won’t be as lower as 449.00 US. But I does not imply that Wii U gamepad price around 150.00 US is ok. This money well worth one 3DS, a handheld whose game library is nothing less than amazing.

  6. Sickr & Alba can suck my Nuts

    $140 for a leap frog child’s plAy thing?! Nintendont just love squeezing money out of their virgin customers lol

    1. Go and read the nintendo ask with Iwata and the PHD degree holding engineers that designed the software, firmware and hardware of the Wii U gamepad. Then it is you that will realize that you need preparation H for all the RROD, GLOD, disk scratching console comments you squeeze from the part of your body that the sun does not shine.

  7. Wierd i was just going to comment that where nintendo didnt put enough r&d was n the gamepad itself. it need at least 4 gamepads for one system. i hate the fact that nsmb multiplayer with gamepad and wiimote was the way it was. i have only 1 GAMEPAD. 1 WIIMOTE… if i wanted to experience mario without gp in 2 players it wasnt happing. uless i didnt use gp. gamepad needs to be sold to the public and game pad cost is too high 150 for a controller is to much. 80$ for this device is fair but only if it supported 4 gamepad contollers locally. nintendo wii u would solve alot of it finacial woes if the wii u suppoted 4 gamepads separately locally. that is their only reason why the havent sold 10 million wii u’s in 3 months. nintendo would have destroyed all the markets if this was feasable but unfortunatly they didnt do it. Also 3D support on the gamepad would have been amazing.

    1. of course 3d would make it that more expensive but this device is completly upgradeable in so many ways. if nintendo had the foresight this system could expand the gamepad to be many different things. the gamepad could eventually be its own console with the wii u serving as a data storage system.

  8. Yet another reason why I lost interest in getting a Wii U. Everything about it is too damn expensive. Including the games. And what’s that extra 10 dollars per game even for? Casual garbage? Having to pay for HD? I don’t get it.

    1. Extra $10?! The genes are the same price as games on current gen consoles, how the heck is that now 10$ more?! You sir are crazy and in denial of actual prices of all games… Except for Wii games, but they never could market those as high price high dev cost games.

      1. To UnitDTH and everyone else who’s saying the same things, I don’t consider stupid Xbox and Playstation games when I’m making my complaints about the prices of Wii U games being an extra $10.00 per game (for the good games). I’m a NINTENDO gamer, and I’m used to that $49.99 price tag (which is also too expensive for me lately). Ever since the NES, most games on Nintendo consoles have cost $49.99 (plus tax). For quite a while, I’ve been thinking about how expensive being a video gamer is, and how it sometimes doesn’t seem worth it. And with Wii U games going up in price, I’m getting more and more tempted to find a new hobby. I rarely buy brand new games anymore due to prices. Maybe I should just stick to retro games and forget about modern crap.

    2. Extra money because it costs more to make Wii U games DUUHH!! Also, the Wii U is no where near as close to the price the Xbox 4 and pS4 will be… Just don’t lose the controller and you are all set!!!!!

    3. I’m also put off because of all the many different controllers being used for different games. Seems like overkill to me. Keep it simple Nintendo.

  9. Last time I paid 150 for a controller I regreted it so much.. sold the Kinect few months after I bought it.. but the gamepad. I will shed out 150 for it

    1. Once it hits the shelves it will be $85US. I had to send mine in for replacement. On the invoice from Nintendo the cost of the new gamepad was listed as $85 with a $6 service fee… Thank goodness for the warranty!

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  11. Not sure what to believe… it IS Neogaf…

    Oh, and can we please get rid of Dual/Trio characters in Smash? I don’t mean Ice Climbers, I mean setting up a fight against Sheik, then she ruins it by turning into Zelda. Gimme stand-alone characters. Switching between them takes too long now anyway…

    1. lol Well that was a change of subject. Also, the point of Zelda is that she CAN change. To remove that ability would make her completely different. I know I wouldn’t like it. She is my best/favorite!

      1. It’d open up another special move… (SIGH) I GUESS I can get used to it… Squirtle/Ivysaur/Charizard makes me mad, though… so does Neogaf (brought it back:)

    1. It is… My TS kept having ghost touches on the left of the screen and the controller wouldn’t stay connected. Called Nintendo tech support and they said send it in, a week later I had a new one and haven’t had a problem with it since! It’s got a one year warranty. Call them up

  12. This is something that has been bothering me for a while. What if your analog sticks start to get stuck after normal wear or any other buttons for that matter? Would u have to replace the whole gamepad. A 50 dollar replacement for the Xbox controller was terrible imagine this !

    1. Well the gamepad has a 1 year warrante. If the stick gets stuck you can fix it for free. It only costs $150 to replace the whole thing.

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  14. He didn’t misplace it. It and some other accessories were lost by Delta baggage handlers. Which is very believable.

  15. Most of the time the customers should blame themselves, I’ve sene so many mistreat their stuff.
    If it breaks so early then take the blame.
    Just watch all these people with the Wii Remotes, swinging like fucking crazy.
    Chill folks!

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  19. mavbraselton@gmail.com

    hi there i bought wii u just for game pad gaming youtube netflix internet useing game pad on this blog i hope nintendo releases game pads in stores soon

  20. I need a replacement gamepad bad a crack stole mine n my wii u has the password setting on.it where can i find ome dude

  21. My son Wii u gamepad it stop working he never drop it, it said your controller is to far or somthing between the console and the gamepad and it torn off send it to get it fix and they cant not found what is the problem and this problem it started happening 3months after buying it.

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