The Wii U loses its ability to communicate with near fields as we remove the NFC module and antenna.

What awesome functionality did this bring to the console?

Well, as of launch day…none.

In the future, we might see loading saved games or importing characters from cards or action figures, like in this demo.

There are two prominent ICs on the NFC communications board:

Broadcom BCM20792 KMLG NFC controller

T130 MsEU crystal oscillator