The ‘WII U’ controller costs like HALF THE F**KING system.

Want a second controller for your Wii U? Better smash that piggy bank open. Cull its innards. Dance the dance of death towards whatever Dark Master you believe in. ‘Cause that fucking thing is going to be like, mad bank. #JessePinkman

Kotaku:

When the Wii U goes on sale in Japan on December 8, the cheaper of the two hardware bundles available will be priced at ¥26250.

If you want to buy a second Wii U controller, though – and remember, the system does support two, even if early games won’t – you’re going to have to pay.

A standalone Wii U pad will cost ¥13440. Or, half the price of the entire console. That’sunprecedented in home console gaming, at least for a standard peripheral at this stage of its life.

Let’s convert that to US Dollars. It’s a little unfair, given the conversion rate doesn’t reflect what the console will actually cost in the West, but this is just for illustrative purposes.

¥26250 converts today to USD$337. A controller, at ¥13440, converts to USD$172.

That’s insane. It’s expected, since so much of the Wii U’s appeal – not to mention tech, since it’s capable of acting as a second screen – is packed into the pad, but still. You can understand why Nintendo doesn’t expect many games, or gamers, to be using two of these things.

Handy tip: don’t ever, ever break your Wii U controller.