It’s ridiculous. Yes it’s marketing but it’s ridiculous. I’m glad Pok\u00e9mon Rumble World is going to be free, because those may be the only Nintendo toys (though digital) many of us get to play with this spring. Unfortunately many figures are sold out, apparently including the Gamestop exclusive Ness figure, however I can’t find any information about him on Gamestop’s site.<\/p>\n
The real shame of this isn’t that desirable figures are rare, or that rarity at least gives extra incentive for more hardcore customers to pick up figures when they see them. It’s the fact that this tactic isn’t needed. Imagine for a moment if you could play an exclusive mini game, similar to NES Remix content, with each figure based on that character in traditional 2D style. Now that ISN’T something the figures can do, let me stress that. But if it was… they’d be flying off the shelves and if Nintendo could keep up with demand these figures would be printing money.<\/p>\n
Smash Bros over the years has had gamers collecting trophies, similar to figures that Amiibo are based on, as a main core element of the game. We’ve been encouraged but now we’re unable to do that when a physical form becomes available. Again, I get it, rarity encourages purchases. But so does value! It’s an issue all NFC based games face right now. As collections grow, how do you add value to that. Sadly, not many have really addressed that problem. Any hardcore Skylander collector could conquer all of Skylands by now. Collectors need new challenges and that really is what would push any NFC figure off the shelves.<\/p>\n
Seeing all the disappointed comments online really puts a damper on the hype built by all the latest Amiibo announcements. These aren’t no name characters. These are Nintendo mascots! When I told my friend that Rosalina was a figure, her eyes lit up! She isn’t even a hardcore gamer in the least, nor would she ever have a touch pad to use an Amiibo on… However she’ll never own a Rosalina figure either since they seem impossible to purchase from stores and she certainly isn’t going to pay more than retail for a casual fun purchase.<\/p>\n
Disney Infinity figures are easy to find. There have been many times I’ve walked into stores and seen full collections on the shelves. I even know a friend who owns the entire collection himself. That’s Disney, isn’t Nintendo a huge corporation we all know too? Doesn’t Nintendo have a broad appeal that would make collecting these figures worthwhile to many people, not just gamers? I get it with Skylanders. Some figures are unique, different, maybe not for everyone and they are fresh new characters that we know nothing about. Like Disney Infinity, Nintendo Amiibo figures are established characters. Hopefully they’ll eventually be treated as such.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s ridiculous. Yes it’s marketing but it’s ridiculous. I’m glad Pok\u00e9mon Rumble World is going to be free, because those may be the only Nintendo toys (though digital) many of us get to play with this spring. Unfortunately many figures are sold out, apparently including the Gamestop exclusive Ness figure, however I can’t find any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[21,75],"tags":[1006,1386,1216,1168],"class_list":["post-7272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nintendo-3ds","category-nintendo-wii-u","tag-amiibo","tag-nintendo","tag-rarity","tag-sold-out"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AmiiboSoldOut.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6HXYU-1Ti","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5683,"url":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/2014\/06\/nintendos-new-way-to-play-amiibo\/","url_meta":{"origin":7272,"position":0},"title":"Nintendo’s New Way to Play: amiibo","date":"June 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Nintendo unveiled new NFC figures today at their E3 event, which are a little like the Skylanders and Disney Infinity series of figurines. You can import the characters into your game and build their stats. This isn't really anything new for sure, but the fact that Nintendo plans to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nintendo 3DS"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/amiibo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6949,"url":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/2015\/02\/fans-hoping-nintendo-will-change-amiibo-availability\/","url_meta":{"origin":7272,"position":1},"title":"Fans Hoping Nintendo Will Change Amiibo Availability","date":"February 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"You know us. We love Nintendo, and this certainly isn't an article to say anything against them. If anything, it's a plea to try to make a change. I wouldn't even think twice about it, if my own feelings weren't repeated so much around the web. Even my own friends\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nintendo 3DS"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Amiibo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7483,"url":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/2015\/05\/nintendo-to-release-silver-mario-amiibo\/","url_meta":{"origin":7272,"position":2},"title":"Nintendo to Release Silver Mario amiibo","date":"May 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Nintendo announced today the release of another new amiibo, which I will never get my hands on. A new Mario Silver Edition amiibo figure is slated for release on May 29th and while the figure is still a few weeks from hitting store shelves, the figure has already disappeared from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/amiibo_silver_mario_wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8873,"url":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/2016\/01\/dont-tear-open-that-shovel-knight-amiibo-collectors\/","url_meta":{"origin":7272,"position":3},"title":"Don’t Tear Open That Shovel Knight amiibo Collectors","date":"January 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Surprisingly enough, unlike seemingly all other amiibo figures, Shovel Knight is useable through the packaging! So if you're a collector of amiibo figures, you can keep Shovel Knight secure in his box and still use those neat new features available from using him. Isn't that great? This is currently what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nintendo Wii U"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shovelknightamiibo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7621,"url":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/2015\/06\/the-amiibo-craze-is-really-hot-right-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":7272,"position":4},"title":"The Amiibo Craze Is Really Getting Hot","date":"June 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The amiibo crazy is definitely a trend that isn't going away anytime soon. Friday's release of not only new Smash Bros figures, but as well as the Splatoon set saw some incredible and fast sales. Fortunately, fans can still find Splatoon single packs (and potentially triple packs including a Squid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/MarioSplatoonAmiibo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7260,"url":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/2015\/04\/new-non-smash-bros-amiibos\/","url_meta":{"origin":7272,"position":5},"title":"New Non-Smash Bros Amiibos!","date":"April 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"That's right! Splatoon is getting Amiibos! Just a three pack (or two singles depending on how you want to buy them) but check it out! Isn't that just awesome? The squid Amiibo is exclusive to the triple pack. This right here is the kind of out of nowhere exciting news\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nintendo Wii U"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/SplatoonAmiibos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7274,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272\/revisions\/7274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkainarts.com\/gamers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}