Depending on your home size, the Wii U GamePad can or cannot be used around your house.Apparently, for best performance, the Wii U GamePad needs to be about eight meters or less from the Wii U console. In terms of how many feet the controller can be taken away from a powered-on Wii U, it’s about 24.

…Is there a limit on the distance that you can take the [Wii U] GamePad away from the system?

“There is. And it’s… Of course, when we’re generally giving limits on things like that, and I think the same thing can be said for the Nintendo 3DS battery life… We tend to be more conservative, because we’re looking at it from a performance perspective. What, really, is the range where you’re going to get the best performance out of that? And you’re going to get the best performance within a range of about… They had a very precise number at one point. In meters it’s like eight meters. In feet it’s about 24 feet. That’s for best performance.”

-Bill Trinen, Nintendo product manager

8 meters seems like a considerable distance for the Wii U controller, I sit about 6-10ft from my T.V.

That's fine. I think? I live in an apartment now. 

I'm not going outside and playing the Wii-U because it isn't a handheld.

That's cool.

Seems to be just right. Plus who would want to play from 8meters/25ft anyway. Unless you have a big ass screen.

Hmm 8 meters... So I could use it in the living room, my bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, guest room, and the outside patio. Pretty good distance for me.

Odd, you'd figure they'd at least net the 65 ft of the original DS

damnit... I don't think I could continue to play a game while taking a dump on the toilet by taking the gamepad with me.. -_-"

My bathroom is about 15 ft away from my tv where im gonna put my wii u, it's a pretty good distance without any latency issues to worry about while playing......bayonetta 2......in the bathroom......fappy...I-I mean happy time ;)

Not bad, pretty much what I expected of it, especially since it's not just an RF signal like the Wavebird was and you're constantly streaming video and/or data to the screen.

I remember when the Wavebird was originally released Nintendo stated it only had a range of like 20-25ft or something and people were flipping out. Then I actually bought one, and I could play games with no latency through walls. Outside of my house. Me and a friend tested it once and it worked up to around 50 ft away from the console.

The only thing that bothers me is that Ninty said the battery only lasts 3-5 hours, which is decent I guess but man, expect to be tethered to a wall outlet alot if you tend to game for lengthy sessions at a time.