There is nothing that significant cost wise about the wii u gamepad. Compared to dualshock wireless controller. Android tablets are sold with 7" capacitance screens for £30 at retail and the screen cost of those is probably something like $5. The resistive screen the wii u gamepad uses will be even cheaper. Remember all gamepad screen processing is done in the main console. The gamepad just decompresses and displays. Something easily done by a small low power arm chip. All the wireless functionality is much the same. The gamepad manufacturing cost is probably in the region of $15-25 with $25 being very generous. They have removed analogue triggers from the gamepad but did add a Near field chip but those aren't expensive. People need to realise there is nothing cutting edge about the wii u. The gamepad is great but a low res resistive screen, a few extra chips and a bigger case is not state of the art in anyway.
Surely most people here have seen basic android tablets that while lacking as many buttons or analogue sticks do include everything within including much more powerful cpus, gpus, memory, storage, ports and a better screen. They include a psu and a more powerful lithium battery pack and these retail as low as £30-40 in the UK. Thats full retail price with VAT, shop profit, shipping costs and numerous other costs. They probably leave the factory door at $20 so why are on earth would a wii u gamepad cost more to make than that?
