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Wii U Controller Too Expensive For Nintendo?

Wii U Controller Too Expensive For Nintendo?

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From the moment we saw the Wii U in action, it was clear that this console was going to be an expensive piece of tech. With impressive under-the-hood specs and a tablet-like controller, we couldn’t help but wonder exactly how expensive this thing was going to be to produce. Of course, the more important concern was how Nintendo would pass that expense down to consumers. While we don’t have any hard answers about either of those questions, Nintendo has opened up a little bit about how the price of the Wii U’s hardware has affected their plans for production.



During E3, the news broke that the Wii U would only support a single Wii U controller, with regular Wii-motes picking up the slack for multiplayer games. This news dismayed many, and Nintendo’s refusal to comment on why the Wii U had that limitation seemed to point to trouble with the hardware. However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has refuted these claims. He said in an interview today that the issue is actually the cost, as the controllers are quite expensive by themselves. “Technically, it is possible for the Wii U to support multiple Wii U Controllers,” Iwata said, but the “considerable” price increase would not be worth the investment to consumers. Of course, this makes us wonder what astronomical price point we’ll be seeing on the console.

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