How far can you go with the Wii U controller?

We know that the Wii U’s controller will be able to play games without the use of the television set but what will the range of the controller be? Will you be able to play in your bedroom? At your friend’s house over the road?

Iwata has shed some light on these burning questions, and though he does not go into much detail, he does give us an idea of how far we will able to take our controllers from the Wii U console.

We are not saying we can get away from the living room at all,” Iwata told Time. “What I’m saying is that we shall be less dependent on the home TV set; more specifically, the images and all the others are processed within the inside of the console of the Wii U, not in the controller. So, for example, you cannot just take away the controller and continue playing.

From these quotes I think you can pretty much rule out a a friend’s house, but Iwata does seem to confirm that we might at least be able to go into different rooms in the house with the controller.

[It will have] a certain range. Also, it is possible for you to be in a separate room from the living room where the console of the Wii U will be located. However, dependent upon the thickness, for example, of the wall, we cannot tell if you will be able to smoothly play on that.

What do you think the range of the Wii U’s controller will be?

 

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Comments, Reactions, and General Hooliganism

  1. Anonymous

    I’m guessing it goes as far as the Original DS’s WiFi.

    As in, maybe 3 rooms away. Upstairs, if you’re lucky.

  2. Brendan

    that be so awesome if u could take it far away…

    also, speaking of the controller being really expensive, what happens if you brake it, or it gets lost?

  3. Adam

    I can see myself in my bedroom on my bed at 2am playing this on a school night XD

    But I think the range will be about… 50 feet if ur in a open area.. If they(nintendo) want it farther, the price of the bundle(controller+console) will go higher then its planned.

    • Ruthie

      Yeah, I’m hoping it can reach upstairs at least.

  4. Josephus

    I don´t think it will have a too enormous range. I´m pretty it sure it will be shorter than most people think; without any obstacles about ten or twelve meters at best. And it´ll shrink to a maximum of two to three meters with an average wall between the controller and the console. Outside of the above radii I´d imagine the streaming very unsmoothly if it still worked at all.
    This reminds me of my wireless computermouse whose package promised a range up to fifteen meters. Right. I´m nowhere close.
    The effective (exclamation mark), yes the effective range will always be much shorter than the figures they gave us; or, in WiiU´s case, will give us.

    But hey, it will be enough, just like the wiimote´s range, which could also have been greater. But it served it´s purpose.

  5. nottingham forest rule

    12 meters wold allow me to play in bed on tablet whilst wiiu is down stairs i live in a detached new build house open plan down stairs and thin dry walls i think at 10 20 meters ill have total house coverage m bed is directly above living room tv set low ceiling hight also

    looks like im covered WIIIPPPIIII

  6. George Tirebiter

    Whatever number they put out there, the range will be further than advertised. That’s what happened with the Wavebird and Wiimote, so I don’t think it’ll be any different here.

    I’ve managed to get the buttons on the Wiimote to work in every room of the house. I even went in the backyard and got it to communicate with the system without a hitch (minus IR, of course). If the rumors I’ve heard about the Wii U controller’s distance being the same as the Wiimote’s, you won’t hear me complain.

  7. Skawtz0rz

    Range is not a concern for me tbh as it will be in my bedroom not my livingroom. I can however see that it would be a concern for many people though.

  8. 9 jack russel puppys running round my feet

    im studying intel sandybridge and ibm powerpc 32 bit ring bus system on chip and level 3 catch sandybridge and ibm EDRAM,i think sanfybridge has answers,i think cpu/gpu will share level 3 catch and gpu possibly on same die as cpu and level 3 catch shall be huge then a off chip main memory

    sandybridge shares 1mb to 3mb of level 3 catch with cpu cores and gpu

    wiiu could share something like 48mb of edram l3 catch i will work it out and return with my bedroom analyst of wiiu LOL

  9. Wertville

    I was never really worried in the first place.
    If it couldn’t reach my room, which is right across from my gaming room (both with thin doors), then Nintendo must have REALLY been going on a tight budget 😛

    And with the Wii sales, we all know thats not true XD