From November 24, Japanese Wii U owners in need of a new GamePad will be able to purchase one as a standalone unit.

The news comes via the official Nintendo website (translated by Kotaku). According to the site, the solus GamePad will cost 12,800 yen, which roughly converts to around $104 or £70.

Should the West follow suit, and pricing remains in a similar fashion, this can actually be a cheaper alternative than getting a broken Wii U GamePad repaired (caveat: Depending on how badly it’s damaged).

We reached out to Nintendo UK to see if there’s any chance of us seeing the option to buy GamePads separately in the West, and were told nothing has been announced for Europe at this point in time.

In other money-saving news, Nintendo of America recently opened an eBay store. In it you’ll find "new and factory-refurbished systems, games, and accessories,” including a 2DS Mario Kart 7 bundle for $100, and a 32GB Wii U Mario Kart 8 bundle for $300. Who doesn’t love saving money, right?

It'll be pointless unless it can used as an actual gamepad for a second player.

Besides, they'll charge more if it happens anyway

Almost needed a new one. I lost the one I had for the longest time

And you gotta have it to update the console and games

Well they made it so it's basically half the damn console. I got bored turning mine off all the time whenever I wanted to just use the Wii Remote <_<

I honestly like it a lot that Nintendo tried to be really different from what Sony and Microsoft was doing.

Nintendo just made a lot of mistakes with selling to console to people. And now almost no third party developer is making games for it.

Being different is great, but they are being too different.

That said, I do like the Wii U and I loved Super Mario World 3D. I might get mine out again soon