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
