Prototype Testing: Phase One.

June 10, 2011

So E3 has come and passed, and with it remains longing questions. Namely, “holy shit the Wii U controller is fricken huge,” and, “dear God how much is that going to cost?”

Yes the Wii U controller is huge and daunting. There is no price point set as of yet, only that the console will retail for more than $249,95 at launch, which is unusual for Nintendo, but is inevitable seeing that this system is supposed to be hands down more powerful than the PS3 and Xbox 360. The controller however remains my chief concern. The controller is pretty much a enlarged bottom half of a DS, and will operate much like the bottom screen of a DS. Menu interactions and whatnot can be done one the touchpad. So yeah, this thing has a touchpad, a 1080p touchpad, a 1080p 7 inch wide touchpad. Now a DS has a 3 inch touchpad with a much much lower resolution, and half the cost of a DS is around $75 - $125 based on the model DS you’re talking about, so I can only assume these controllers are going to cost around $100 dollars, or Nintendo’s going to sell them at a loss and make up the difference on software. Either way I don’t think it’ll be any cheaper than $75, but just like every Nintendo system, I’ll buy it.