When the Wii U goes on sale in Japan on December 8, the cheaper of the two hardware bundles available will be priced at ¥26250.
https://kotaku.com/all-of-japans-big-wii-u-launch-details-right-here-5942868
If you want to buy a second Wii U controller, though – and remember, the system does support two, even if early games won’t – you’re going to have to pay.
https://kotaku.com/nintendos-wii-u-will-support-two-gamepads-5915867
A standalone Wii U pad will cost ¥13440. Or, half the price of the entire console. That’s unprecedented in home console gaming, at least for a standard peripheral at this stage of its life.
Let’s convert that to US Dollars. It’s a little unfair, given the conversion rate doesn’t reflect what the console will actually cost in the West, but this is just for illustrative purposes.
¥26250 converts today to USD$337. A controller, at ¥13440, converts to USD$172.
That’s insane. It’s expected, since so much of the Wii U’s appeal – not to mention tech, since it’s capable of acting as a second screen – is packed into the pad, but still. You can understand why Nintendo doesn’t expect many games, or gamers, to be using two of these things.
Handy tip: don’t ever, ever break your Wii U controller.
