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[Banjo-Kazooie]

Any anecdotal evidence from retailers?

Saturday alone at Target I sold 3 Wii U bundles to people, and now we only have 2 left. We have ZERO Xbox 360s/X1s/PS4s in stock right now, we got cleaned out this weekend. We have I think 1 PS3 left as well. Supposed to be getting a lot more in for Black Friday though.

But ya, Wii U's are actually selling...even sold a lot of the Disney Infinity packs.

 

[Pirzolaman]

It will sell ok but nothing major I think.

 

[D-e-f-]

I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo relaunches the Wii U in a year, replacing the Gamepad with a Pro Controller and dropping the price to $149.99, selling the Gamepad for $99.99 separately as an optional peripheral going forward from that point, with future games created to work entirely with the Pro Controller or the Wii Remote/Nunchuck combo.

Hell, they could even rename the system that way, and rename the Gamepad as the Wii U, and label games that require the Gamepad as Wii U games, and label those that don't as Wii 2/Super Wii games. That's probably going too far, though.

Point is, they have options, and, looking at the 2DS, they aren't afraid of uprooting their key selling points to drive down costs for the budget-minded consumer.

This will never happen. Give it up. The GamePad is an integral part of the system's identity, design and appeal. Dropping 3D is not comparable to dropping the GamePad at all. This has been talked to death over the last year and it's still as ludicrous as ever.

 

[Glass Joe]

This will never happen. Give it up. The GamePad is an integral part of the system's identity, design and appeal. Dropping 3D is not comparable to dropping the GamePad at all. This has been talked to death over the last year and it's still as ludicrous as ever.

I don't see the Gamepad-less concept of the Wii U to be a very desirable product either, but I do not deny its possibility. You can already launch games and go through the main menu without the Gamepad. I'm not sure if that happened through system updates or if it was there all along. Anyway, it would not be hard to program the remaining apps (eShop, Miiverse) to at least allow navigation without it.

IMO it would be a bit like that early 360 SKU without the hard drive, but for a few out there the lower price may entice them. Probably a better concept than the OG Basic pack. If they slap some stickers on certain games like Lego City, Zombi, etc stating "Gamepad required," it seems feasible to me. On a side note, they're going to have to start selling Gamepads separately at some point too, as those analog sticks etc won't last forever.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

This will never happen. Give it up. The GamePad is an integral part of the system's identity, design and appeal. Dropping 3D is not comparable to dropping the GamePad at all. This has been talked to death over the last year and it's still as ludicrous as ever.

I disagree. Any multiplatform title or game that supports classic/motion controls would not require the pad to function. If even half the library offers optional functionality, you are leaving customers on the table by not offering a low end, cheaper sku.

The same goes for Kinect.