Well you can keep insisting that there needs to be a battery pack, that's fine. I agree that it would be a good thing. But come on, don't bring these crazy distortions in here. I have never, ever in my life seen a pack of two AA batteries for $8. You must be shopping in the only convenience store in Zimbabwe or something,
and having them shipped to Antarctica. There are two Wal-Marts in every town and city in America, and you can get
20 batteries for $10 there.
Let me tell you a little story. I was in NYC once and desperately needed a pair of AAA batteries like
right away. I stopped at the first shoes/clothing/fruit/cigarette/"off the back of the truck" electronics store I saw (you know, those kinds of stores that are on every block) to pick some up. You know how much a pair of AAA batteries were in NYC, the magical land of the price goging fairies and Cost of Living Adjustment elves? An even buck. So don't try to tell me that two batteries cost $8 unless you can scan a reciept.
And rechargeables dying over time? Yeah that's true, but it's true of
any battery. Li-ion batteries, the kind that's in your DS and that would most likely have been in the Wii remote, have a lifespan of about three years and then need to be replaced. If you buy a
four pack of rechargeable AA's and a charger for $10, I guarantee you they'll last longer, and even if they don't, you just buy more batteries for another $10. Go look at how much a
replacement DS battery is, and then compare the $20 cost of buying eight rechargeable AA's against buying two Li-ion replacements over six years. You're good at math, so tell me which is cheaper.
Again, I agree that an internal battery would be better, it's more convenient and everything, but you're blowing this just a little out of proportion. Okay, more than just a little. This is not the "failure" of Nintendo that you're making it out to be; they've still got plenty of opportunities to make a colossal mess of this system.