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"Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii U gamepad, featuring a built-in touchscreen, will not be sold separately at launch in North America. Many were puzzled today when Nintendo revealed its Wii U launch plans but made no mention of the price for a standalone Wii U gamepad. According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, that is because gamepads won&amp;#039;t be sold on their own since no games will support the use of more than one at launch.   &amp;quot;We have deliberately not announced the availability of the GamePad as a separate, standalone accessory here in the United States,&amp;quot; Fils-Aime told IGN. &amp;quot;The reason for that is simple - there are no games in the launch window that take advantage of a second GamePad. And [because of that], I want all of that hardware production to be focused on driving sales at retail.&amp;quot; There is also a second, more practical reason, as Nintendo hopes to supply enough Wii U hardware to meet the holiday season demand. &amp;quot;What I mean by that is that Wii U is a console and a GamePad together,&amp;quot; Fils-Aime added. &amp;quot;If I were to take additional GamePads and make them available as an accessory, then I would have less Wii U console hardware to sell into retail.  &amp;quot;You know, probably one of your questions is whether I&amp;#039;m going to meet demand. The only way we&amp;#039;re going to achieve that here in the Americas is to not have that GamePad accessory, so I can maximize my overall volume.&amp;quot;  When the Wii launched in 2006, sales far exceeded expectations creating a system shortage, hinting at why Nintendo hopes to avoid a similar situation with the Wii U.  Standalone Wii U gamepads will, however, be sold in Japan, with Nintendo recently announcing that they will retail for roughly \u00A3107 ($172). Nintendo has said that Wii U gamepads will be sold separately in North America eventually, starting some time in 2013 once titles that support multiple gamepads are released. The Wii U will launch in multiple bundles on November 18 in North America and on November 30 in Europe. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/wii-u/news/a405893/wii-u-gamepad-wont-be-sold-separately-in-north-america/>