November 11th, 2012

There’s a “mystery connector” on the bottom of the GamePad

35 Comments
Mystery Connector

Ars Technica has shared the above photo of the Wii U’s GamePad to share the existence of a port that, for the moment, doesn’t have a use. The instruction manual suggests it’s for “controller accessories”, but no accessories have been announced that would make use of it. It should be interesting to see what’s attached to it in the future.

(via arstechnica.com)

  • Jairo

    … the Wii U Zapper? :3

    • ABEzilla116

      Bingo. I would expect so given the early E3 trailer.

    • http://www.fanfiction.net/u/3204673/ GameManiac

      I’d give you a medal, but I don’t have one.

    • http://www.facebook.com/AlexAtkinUK Alexander Atkin

      Indeed. I wouldn’t call it much of a mystery connector when they already showed us an example of what could connect to it years ago.

  • umegames

    Possibly for some kind of future docking thingys’, perhaps even some crazy kind of crazy arcade stick with a dock port for the tablet. Sounds clunky, but who knows….

  • IkeFE

    I GOT IT! 3DS connector!

  • Andy

    looks like the charging cradle port from the 3DS

  • http://twitter.com/bmcj199 Brandon Martinez

    Isn’t it for the charging cradle?

    • http://twitter.com/ZpeedTube ZpeedTube

      No, It charges from the metal parts on the sides of the “mystery connector”!

  • King Boo

    I think it’s a microphone port, maybe for sing party, or is that a usb mic. we always see them using.

    • http://www.facebook.com/AlexAtkinUK Alexander Atkin

      Its a USB Mic, which is interesting as it probably means the PS3 wireless Singstar microphones will work as they just show up as USB microphones when plugged into PC.

      You can connect a mic to the gamepad though, but its through the headphones port I believe. No idea if its good enough quality for singing though.

  • Anubis

    Perhaps it could be a tri pod for the Wii U Game Pad. That could be one of the future acceceries.

  • Crillan

    The only thing I see in the picture is the charging cradle port and the 2 black indents on the side of it are where some rubber wheels rest when it’s in the cradle.

  • MetroidHunter08

    well they had a buch of footage of it hooked to a mount of some kind. id expect that to be it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=578823242 James Stringer

    The Wii U’s Serial Port 2?

  • torpedofin

    Yea David that is for the charging cradle pre-packed with the Deluxe set, you could probably buy it seperately too.

  • Hybrilynx

    U circle pad pro.

    • http://www.facebook.com/chris.parlamas Chris Parlamas

      huehuehue

    • http://www.facebook.com/john.oreilly.564 John Oreilly

      And calling someone an idiot isn’t being an idiot? People who don’t know that there’s an original song and praising a cover song. Now whos’ the idiot. Get a life.

    • http://www.facebook.com/chris.parlamas Chris Parlamas

      >implying I have never heard the Tears For Fears version.

      >implying a cover is a rip-off

      >implying you didn’t go out of your way to reply to me by finding another article I commented on.

  • Kae

    Actually, the metal rectangles on either side of the connector are the charging terminals for the cradle. The Wii manual identifies that thing as the accessory connector.

    wiiunews.at has scans of the English manual.
    http://wiiunews.at/wii-u-news/3894-erste-scans-der-wii-u-handbucher-veroffentlicht/

  • Omarsonic9

    DUN DUN DUNNNN!

  • Game Master
    • Ice Climbers

      Thank you for posting that link! We’ve known about this port for a long time now. Not sure why everyone is making a fuss over it. Also, for those people that think its for the charger, the metal rectangles on the sides of the port are the charging terminals.

    • http://twitter.com/ZpeedTube ZpeedTube

      Exactly!! Finally 2 intelligent persons! :D

  • Suffer

    Charger it has the two copper plates like for the 3ds

  • http://www.facebook.com/8xBIT Thomas Reifenberg

    A link cable for 2 Gamepads? Could be like the port the Virtual Boy never used. Also, the NES had a port that was never used, nor given access to. It was under a blocked piece of plastic.

  • http://www.facebook.com/AlejndroForero Alejandro Forero

    Nintendo 3DS Player. (Wii U Capable of 3D in both screens.)
    I’d buy that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/freakfour Man Hill

    3D-VR-GOGGLES!

  • http://snakefish21.deviantart.com/ snakefish

    Hopefully an accessory which will allow DS/3DS games to be played on the system.

  • Tails the Foxhound

    It’s definitely for the Wii U Zapper (like many others have said) but it wouldn’t be the first time there were slots on a controller that didn’t end up getting used (look on the back of your original Classic Controllers).

  • http://www.facebook.com/b2j135 Brian Jones Jr

    that is for the charging cradle

  • Hugo

    I was looking at that in Target! e.e

  • http://twitter.com/SeemsBreloom Chris Beck

    Don’t forget that there is a microphone accessory for sing party and if it works like in the trailer then is should connect to the gamepad

    • http://twitter.com/ZpeedTube ZpeedTube

      I think the microphone is connected directly to the Wii U.