Wii U Gamepad Gets Extra Beefy Battery Pack

[Steven Bogos]

Wii U Gamepad Gets Extra Beefy Battery Pack

The extended battery pack increases the battery life of the Wii U gamepad from five to eight hours.

"The battery life sucks," is one of the top complaints gamers had about the Wii U's iconic gamepad. Indeed, for something that is supposed to be the main feature of the game, that allows gamers to play games literally anywhere within the Wii U's wi-fi range, its five hour battery life doesn't quite cut it. Nintendo have announced an "extended battery pack" for the gamepad, that should give you about an extra three hours of playtime. The news came alongside the announcement of a new white color option for the Wii U Deluxe set.

The new 2,550 mAh GamePad battery pack will have between five to eight hours on a full charge, while the current 1,500 mAh battery pack has between three to five hours. The new battery pack will be released in Japan on July 25, and retail for 3,150 yen ($31).

Right now, the Wii U is only available in white in the "basic set," which only comes with 8 gig of internal storage. On July 13, Japanese gamers will be able get a white Wii U with 32 GB of storage, a white GamePad and stylus. The white Wii U deluxe set costs the same as its black counterpart.

In Japan, Nintendo Land does not come bundled with the Wii U, so Nintendo have also announced a special version of the game that comes bundled with a blue or pink wii remote plus. It will retail for 5,985 yen ($59).

There's no word on when the battery pack and white Wii U deluxe are coming stateside, but we can probably expect them in the near future.

Source: Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/05/29/white-wii-u-deluxe-set-and-8-hour-gamepad-battery-pack-coming-in-july/]




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[The White Hunter]

Ehh I've not had any realy issue with the battery life but I just chuck it down on the charger whenever I'm not using it to be honest. If that was more arduous or I still had time for 10+ hour gaming sessions I might be more annoyed by the 5-6 hours I get out of the thing.

What does suck is if you leave it for a week turned off the battery tends to lose charge.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Ehhhh. I'd be more excited for the beefy battery if it wasn't for the fact that the Wii U comes with a cradle for the GamePad. Whenever I'm not using the GamePad, I sit it right down on the cradle, which is plugged in.
Battery life is kind of a non-issue, for me.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Ehhhh. I'd be more excited for the beefy battery if it wasn't for the fact that the Wii U comes with a cradle for the GamePad. Whenever I'm not using the GamePad, I sit it right down on the cradle, which is plugged in.
Battery life is kind of a non-issue, for me.

I second this.

If my battery is running low, and I'm still playing, I just plug in the charge cable and carry on.


I suppose it's an issue if your crap is plugged in the opposite side of the room

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Ehhhh. I'd be more excited for the beefy battery if it wasn't for the fact that the Wii U comes with a cradle for the GamePad. Whenever I'm not using the GamePad, I sit it right down on the cradle, which is plugged in.
Battery life is kind of a non-issue, for me.

I second this.

If my battery is running low, and I'm still playing, I just plug in the charge cable and carry on.


I suppose it's an issue if your crap is plugged in the opposite side of the room

Well, I also find myself not actually using the GamePad very much. ZombiU and(to a lesser extent) Nintendo land are the only games I've got that require it. I use my Pro Controller for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and a Wiimote for New Super Mario Bros. U. But even then, the charging cable is freaking huge. So even across the room you could still plug the GamePad in.

I guess it would be handy if someone else needed the outlet socket? I'm having a hard time thinking up scenarios where a 5-8 hour battery life is really necessary. Even if it is plugged in, the cable attached to the GamePad isn't even remotely in the way. Not even when I play ZombiU.

Maybe if you felt like sitting in another room while you do off-screen play? But that's kinda dumb if the TV is still available(unless you're one of like, three people that actually prefer the smaller screen over the larger one).

Bah. I guess it's like the off-screen play, in my case. Useful for people who need it, but it's not particularly useful for me, personally.

 

[Jumwa]

Yeah, the battery life on the gamepad has never been an issue for me. As one previous poster said: I just don't have THAT much free time in my life right now, and when I do play a lot the recharge cable is freakin' long. It's no issue to slip that in.

 

[weirdee]

I guess this is largely for the people who use the gamepad for the primary purpose....bathroom gaming.

 

[Kahani]

So how much does it add to the size and weight? It's not exactly the best controller ever to start with, so a chunky battery that makes it harder to hold for long periods isn't really going to help matters.

 

[The White Hunter]

I guess this is largely for the people who use the gamepad for the primary purpose....bathroom gaming.

Who the hell spends like 5 hours on the crapper?

Maybe you can play it in the bath but that seems like a warranty voider to me.

Ehhhh. I'd be more excited for the beefy battery if it wasn't for the fact that the Wii U comes with a cradle for the GamePad. Whenever I'm not using the GamePad, I sit it right down on the cradle, which is plugged in.
Battery life is kind of a non-issue, for me.

I second this.

If my battery is running low, and I'm still playing, I just plug in the charge cable and carry on.


I suppose it's an issue if your crap is plugged in the opposite side of the room

I third it, I chuck it down on the cradle after turning the display off whenever I go out the room and even if it needs to charge the cable reaches across the room anyway.

Know what I do want? To turn the gamepad display off and still use it at the same time, I don't need the display down there whilst I'm playing Mario on the TV.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Maybe if you felt like sitting in another room while you do off-screen play?

Maybe some people have long play sessions on the toilet, who knows.

I don't own the WiiU so i can't really say from experience with it. But form my experience with the Wii and other wireless gamepads, battery life isn't really an issue for me. The wall socket is close to me so I could plug it in and keep playing, but that would mean I have 5 or more hour long play sessions on consoles, which isn't the case for me. I never play for longer than 3-4 hours on consoles. But on the PC on the other hand... well, lets just say that Anno keeps reminding me to take a coffee break after 6 and more hours of playing.

 

[Dragonbums]

Wii U Gamepad Gets Extra Beefy Battery Pack

The extended battery pack increases the battery life of the Wii U gamepad from five to eight hours.

"The battery life sucks," is one of the top complaints gamers had about the Wii U's iconic gamepad. Indeed, for something that is supposed to be the main feature of the game, that allows gamers to play games literally anywhere within the Wii U's wi-fi range, its five hour battery life doesn't quite cut it. Nintendo have announced an "extended battery pack" for the gamepad, that should give you about an extra three hours of playtime. The news came alongside the announcement of a new white color option for the Wii U Deluxe set.

The new 2,550 mAh GamePad battery pack will have between five to eight hours on a full charge, while the current 1,500 mAh battery pack has between three to five hours. The new battery pack will be released in Japan on July 25, and retail for 3,150 yen ($31).

Right now, the Wii U is only available in white in the "basic set," which only comes with 8 gig of internal storage. On July 13, Japanese gamers will be able get a white Wii U with 32 GB of storage, a white GamePad and stylus. The white Wii U deluxe set costs the same as its black counterpart.

In Japan, Nintendo Land does not come bundled with the Wii U, so Nintendo have also announced a special version of the game that comes bundled with a blue or pink wii remote plus. It will retail for 5,985 yen ($59).

There's no word on when the battery pack and white Wii U deluxe are coming stateside, but we can probably expect them in the near future.

Source: Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/05/29/white-wii-u-deluxe-set-and-8-hour-gamepad-battery-pack-coming-in-july/]




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Honestly, the 5 hour battery life issue is only really a problem when you are throwing a party and a bunch of kids are over and you can't really put the tablet down to give it some juice now and again. Or when the family wants to watch sports, a movie, or some kind of marathon and you have no choice but to play on your tablet.
I'm not saying that it's not a nice addition, but when looking at my friends who own a WiiU, they have found that it never presented itself as a problem.
Chances are, if you are playing by yourself you wouldn't want to hold something that big for 5 hours anyway.

 

[Strazdas]

This is nice actually. i would lvoe something like that for my laptop. i dont mind carrying an extra batter if i can just plug it in without having to turn off the computer. just allow me to stack on a bigger battery.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I usually get higher mAh batteries for virtually everything, but this is really a non-issue to me. If the orange light sends its warning, I just plug it in. That power cable is long as hell, and even if I don't want a cable running across my living room I'll plug it in next to my couch. It's probably a step backwards or whatever, but it's good to not feel pampered/lazy sometimes. I really hope the Dual Shock 4 has the same awesome life of the DS3 since we're talking about battery life.

 

[RicoADF]

Maybe if you felt like sitting in another room while you do off-screen play?

Maybe some people have long play sessions on the toilet, who knows.

I don't own the WiiU so i can't really say from experience with it. But form my experience with the Wii and other wireless gamepads, battery life isn't really an issue for me. The wall socket is close to me so I could plug it in and keep playing, but that would mean I have 5 or more hour long play sessions on consoles, which isn't the case for me. I never play for longer than 3-4 hours on consoles. But on the PC on the other hand... well, lets just say that Anno keeps reminding me to take a coffee break after 6 and more hours of playing.

To which I happily comply *goes downstairs and grabs coffie, continues all nighter* well use to, since I started full time work that has reduced.