why not? ps3 is going to 199, and vita should have a price cut to 199, 50$ discount for a bundle or a game with remote play ready for 399.99 is not too bad.

*Rolls eyes*

Sony will definitely have multitouch for their PS4pad. No worries.

Three problems and two unknowns

Problem 1: Battery life at 5 hours would be too low for some of the best games (Skyrim, Zelda, Uncharted), because I can play these for an unhealthy but fun 10 hours straight without even realizing it.

Problem 2: System Level Achievements. Here lay the corpses of all 3rd party support for multi platform games on Nintendo Wii U. Also, absolutely anything they do "system" level is a deal-breaker for me. I want stuff to tie to my profile and I want others in the household to have their own profile. I need to be able to move around with my profile and not loose all my stats and other such data if my system toasts. When I sent in my Wii for repair, they sent me a refurbished replacement and I lost everything... all the Nintendo Channel stats/ratings as well as friends. They only thing I was able to get back was my purchases which were tied to my Nintendo Club account.

Problem 3: Lack of multi-touch support. Their reasoning for not doing something is generally stupid and this is one of the most stupid ones to date.

Unknown 1: Launch Date & Price
Unknown 2: Launch Line-up and Bundle details

Iwata confirmed you can play with the Pad while it's charging.

Actually we're not sure on the upscaling thing anymore either. Last time Nintendo talked about it it was a no, but who knows what might have changed since then? The details on backwards compatibility as a whole remain sketchy

While it's no big deal, what do you all think about them deciding on having the charger plug into the bottom of the controller?

One issue I had with the Wii Classic Controller was the the cord was at the bottom. It made it feel weird, having that extra tug at the bottom. I was so glad when the CCPro had it on the top. It just makes more sense considering how you hold a controller, plus the fact that the console it is plugged into is no doubt in front of you.

With it on top, the cord leaves the controller and follows straight towards the console.

With it on the bottom, the cord leaves the controller, then wraps underneath the controller and then follows straight towards the console.

Anyone else think their decision is a bit odd?

It would be possible for pretty much all Wii games to be transferred to the pad... it has it's own 'sensor' bar.... of course you would have to stand the pad up and play froma metre away at least, so the screen would look tiny.

RE: 5 hour battery life

In my living room if I manage to completely drain my PS3, X360, or Wii remote, I basically switch to second controller. I have each of those on docking stations that always keep them charged and only if I forget to put my active game controller back on charge do I use the second controller.

Or if I have friends over for couch-multiplayer but those sessions never go over 2-3 hours.

The Vita lasts ~5 hours and there have been times when I have had to let it sleep until I can get it attached to cable to play. I don't see how I would attach the Wii U Gamepad to cable in my living room. I suppose it is something that I will figure out. In hindsight to my reaction... I think 5 hours should be sufficient and for the few cases where it isn't I'll figure something out.

RE: Friend Code crap

I just don't want that crap tied to some System Code. After going through all that tedious Friend Code non-sense, when my Wii disk drive failed and I sent it to Nintendo for repair, they returned a refurbished model with my System Code changed. That basically meant that all my Wii everything was kaput. They had transferred my purchases so I could re-download VC games but everything else was toast (incuding game saves that could not be moved to SD card before I sent it in for repair). I did not bother reconnecting with even family members and close friends with all that Friend Code nonsense because aside from Mario Kart Wii which we stopped playing, there was no reason to go through that hassle on Nintendo Wii.

RE: System Level Achievements

This is still a huge problem for me because it means if your system dies... all your data is kaput. It also means that there is no household member level profile or achievements. I stopped playing Wii mainly after it failed on me and the refurbished replacement didn't have any of the Nintendo Channel stats and other stuff that I enjoyed as part of the gaming experience. Surely gamers that frequent VGChartz understand that this suplemental data is added value to the game. I dont' care about achievements, but I do care about my game data and being able to share my activity and if there are achievements those... I don't like poor service architecture where what I consider to be a cool feature and personally vested data can go NULL with the loss of the system.

RE: No multi-touch

This one will bite Nintendo just like the lack of dual-analog keeps coming up for the 3DS. They too arrogant and narrow minded. You really think people will not want to use multi-touch on the Wii U GamePad when using a Web Browser application? What about iOS or Android game ports that are designed for multi-touch? They wont go to Wii U GamePad but they sure as heck will port and play on the PS-Vita. It will be a missed opportunity and it will be recognized within months of launch if not earlier just like lack of dual-analog is recognized as a short coming of the 3DS.

I agree, it would be better if the power cable went on top for the rare cases in which one might have to use it while plugged in. However, because of the power-dock like for the PS-Vita they are probably going to have it on the bottom for more intuitive use of power-dock.