Amiibo: More games, more content...

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For those of you who have bought Amiibos, you may be wondering what they do for other games.

Hyrule Warriors:

Link Amiibo will give you the spinner weapon (the first time)
The other Zelda amiibos will give you a weapon 3 stars or higher.
The non Zelda Amiibos will give you:
1 Rupee
5,000 Rupees
50,000 Rupees
Weapon rated 3 stars or lower
Crafting materials

Maximum 5 Amiibos per day.

Mario Kart 8:



The other Amiibos may get costumes later on.

One Piece: Super Grand Battle! X (3DS):


Ace Combat (3DS) gets plane designs featuring those characters.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U):

The Kirby amiibo grants infinite star dash
The Meta Knight Amiibo gives Kirby a Meta Knight mask and higher attack
The Dedede amiibo a Dedede hat on Kirby and higher health.

Via today's trailer reveal

Also these games feature Amiibo support in some fashion, though Nintendo hasn't said how.
Yoshi's Wolly World (Wii U)
Mario Party 10 (Wii U)
Captain Toad: Treasure Trackers (Wii U) will get Amiibo support sometime in 2015

There will be more games in the future as well.

Majora's Mask remake may have Amiibo support as well (it is in consideration).

These compatible games only read the Amiibo data, thus aren't capable of overwriting your saved files.

On the note of these things, it would appear that Nintendo may be discontinuing MORE of them already. Again.

I only just now heard about this.

Their stated reason: "Shelf constraints". Note that as they say this, the same amiibos arent available ONLINE either.

The rumored reason: "Idiotic/controversial/irritating/whatever move by big company with popular product drums up interest in it, pushing sales even further". Sadly, THAT is a completely viable tactic. People ARE talking about these things, ALOT, and the absolute number one thing I keep hearing more than anything else is how irritated people are at the 3 figures they already can never get, due to them being nowhere to be found except on the Net for insane prices.

Whatever it is, it's bloody irritating.

I've hated the funky hell outta Nintendo as a company for a LONG time now (just the corporate side; I've nothing at all against the designers/programmers/whatever that actually MAKE the games)... probably right around the time when good ol' Iwata took charge is when the loathing began. And stuff like this is just yet another wonderful example of why. Ugh.

Not that the other 2 are much better than Nintendo with stuff like this (because they arent), but still.

Whole thing is WAY too much of a hassle for my long-dead patience. I'm probably going to order Bowser at this point, and then just say "screw it" with the rest. Just too much trouble.

If I got any Amiibo's, it would be pretty much only the Legend of Zelda, Mario and Pokemon ones (if they do end up making Pokemon ones).

The concept of them is pretty neat. Another game that looks interesting is Disney Infinity, but I've heard mixed responses on that game (I generally don't pay attention to others opinions on games, I judge it for myself)

There are Pokemon Amiibo....Pikachu was part of the first wave, Lucario is coming next month exclusively at Toys R Us in the US. Jigglypuff, Charizard & Greninja, and likely Mewtwo, will come eventually ( EVERY Smash Bros fighter will get an Amiibo, Nintendo said as much at E3 2014 ). Now the question is whether or not they can be FOUND due to Nintendo being ret*d about them....

You do know that retailers control what products they stock.
Retailers refuse to stock products that don't sell fast enough or enough in general to meet their demands.
Nintendo's CEO openly stated that retailers refused to give them the space they demanded for Amiibos, because retailers didn't think Amiibos would sell enough to warrant the shelf space.
He also said they had to fight retailers just to get adequate shelf space for 3DS.

The reason why Nintendo only sells refurbished products and cases on their online store, is not to violate their retail agreements.
Major retailers told Nintendo they would destock all Nintendo products, if Nintendo opened a full online store.

There is also rumblings from certain retailers on how Amiibos aren't selling enough to please them (even though they are selling out)

Nintendo also claims that retailers will not stock new Amiibos alongside the existing ones.
Disney and Activision also claim this for Infinity and Skylander.

Retailers have the upper hand in video games.

Even so, frankly, they should have figured all of this out BEFORE they put such a heavy product out. Instead of sort of stumbling drunkenly into it. One thing that you NEVER EVER EVER DO as a business: Promise the existence of a product, in this case these figures, yet not make absolutely freaking sure that you have a guaranteed way ("guaranteed" being the key word there) of not only GETTING the product out (*all* of it), but also KEEPING it out. Nintendo though, being Nintendo, managed this sort of problem, which frankly is what I expect of them these days. They've never quite been.... "on the ball", so to speak. While I'm usually not too fond of major retailers as a whole, I dont blame them in the slightest for this one.

As it is, all Nintendo has done is create *alot* of really angry customers. I mean, seriously, people are really ticked off about this. Heck, every single person I know that was interested in these, now is not. They had the same reaction I did: "How did those idiots let this happen? It's going to be impossible to get these now, and such a major hassle! You know what, I just dont care anymore, I'll buy something else instead". I'm thinking that this is likely a common idea right now. And I was indeed going to buy a bunch more myself, but after this? No. I'll get Bowser, because I want that one badly enough, but beyond that.... I'll give my money to someone putting out a product that actually knows what they're doing and isnt irritating the hell outta me.

There aint much else Nintendo-related that I'm interested in at this point anyway. I have the Wii U and the few games I wanted (particularly Smash), about 4 or 5 of them, only the remaining Mario platformers yet to get, and the 3DS that was entirely an impulse purchase, cant think of much that I'd want on there right now.

In the case of Amiibo, Nintendo based production on market research and retailer demand.

1)When they showed off Amiibos at trade shows, they received a lukewarm reception from the public.
They were seen as an ill fated attempt at cashing in on Skylanders.

2)Then when preorders for the first wave opened, the numbers were low of most characters.
Then retailers told Nintendo only Mario, Link, Pikachu and DK were in demand and to make sure the majority of Amiibos were them.

3)Amiibos were off to a slow start, causing retailers to report back to Nintendo, demanding they cut the production of the majority of the characters. Thus Marth, Peach, and Villager (others too) quickly ceased production due to an original lack of sales.

4) A few weeks later Amiibos take off and U.S. retailers choose not to order more of lesser selling characters.

5)Wave 2 is released to a bigger demand, but U.S. retailers were reluctant to stock lesser known characters to any degree.

6) U.S. Retailers aren't ordering high stocks of lesser characters of Wave 3, because they don't see pent up consumer demand for them.

7)Nintendo is left with market research data and retailer orders telling them the lesser characters aren't what the consumers are demanding.


In EU and Japan there is ample supply of the Amiibos due to retailers ordering them accordingly.
North America, the retailers are the ones causing the troubles by not ordering enough to meet their newly found demand fearing they will be left with a huge overstock.

YOU CANNOT FORCE RETAILERS TO RESTOCK IF THEY DON'T WANT IT!!

This has also happened to many lesser known games too.

Yep.

And part of my point is, they should have thought a bit harder about that, before even deciding to go through with the project... particularly when they decided on HOW MANY figures there were.

In other words, it was a BAD IDEA. From the beginning.

That type of thing leads only to broken promises, and broken promises are a huge no-no when it comes to putting out any sort of product. If you SAY you're going to do something, you bloody well BETTER DO IT. Which means you better make sure you CAN even before you DO.

And the whole bit about all the numbers making it so that they couldnt be sure about the lesser characters.... irrelevant. It still boils down to the same thing: They announced a product to their consumers, and they couldnt follow through on it. They couldnt follow through on making sure that those that wanted it (whatever "it" happens to be at the time) could get it WHEN they wanted it. Believe me, most of those consumers couldnt possibly, conceivably care one little bit less about any of that gibberish. All they know: They want the product. They are being denied the product. To them, these numbers are a mere excuse, and a crappy one at that. This is ANOTHER thing Nintendo should have thought of. Consumers dont like excuses. Not one bit.

Simply put, if you are going to put out a product, ANY type of product, regardless of the demand, you make absolutely freaking sure that your consumers can CONSTANTLY get it into their hands. Putting out something while NOT being able to absolutely guarantee this is all sorts of stupid.

Not to mention you stay in touch with your consumer base. Make sure you know, for certain, what they want and do not want before you go forward with a project. KNOW your consumers BEFORE making decisions. Nintendo simply looked at Skylanders, saw it selling, and BAM, threw figures out there. Alot of people thought this was a damn strange move for a reason. What makes it even worse is they're propping one gimmick up on ANOTHER gimmick that people already find to be really strange, AKA the Wii U's controller. This, again, is a bad idea. People are already unsure about that thing. It's not like the Wii, where the gimmick created extreme simplicity, that anyone could easily grasp. The Wii U's gimmick creates confusion; what the heck is up with that strange controller, people wonder. Why does it need that screen? Game controllers dont have screens. It looks so complicated! Why is it so expensive? Why can the console only use one screen-controller at once? How are other players supposed to join in? What if my kids start fighting amongst themselves about who gets to use the special controller? Does it need batteries, because I dont want to buy batteries for it like I did with the Wii (as some Wiimotes need those)? The questions go on and on. So they then add a gimmicky product, the figures, that require an already confusing thing before they can even do their stuff.

Sales projections, as well as other related aspects (like manufacturing estimates, which also ties into sales projections, as you cannot sell something that does not exist, and trying to do so irritates the funky hell out of consumers, who will then be dramatically less likely to buy from you later) go all sorts of wonky when you have that many screwball variables involved. And that's NOT a good thing.

And this isnt a "lesser known" publisher doing this. This is one of the Big Three, and the OLDEST of them, as the gaming industry goes. They should know this stuff like the back of their hand by now. They should be making by far the fewest mistakes.

The one thing that makes this work whatsoever is, as always, Nintendo's franchise lineup. It's easier to sell things when they are based on Mario, Zelda, and those other franchises. Without that aspect, this idea would have collapsed nearly instantly.



I grow tired of typing about this subject though... arguing about it further doesnt have much point, which I always wish I'd think of before I start the rambling stream... but whatever. At least it gave me something to do.

The situation is as it is, the mistakes in it are already in place, and it's not something that's going to be solved easily. I'll be interested to simply follow through on the events to come, but that's about as far as I'm going to care from this point on. It's gotten just too messed up for me to put further money into it.

I'm just glad Smash itself came out. As far as I'm concerned, that's enough. More than enough. Fortunately, unlike the Skylanders games, Smash itself does not REQUIRE the figures in order to succeed. And succeed it has...

@misery
The last thing I'm going to say is this.

American retailers, as I have stated aren't ordering many of the lesser characters because those characters do not sell enough to warrant restocking.

These retailers are:
Walmart
Best Buy
Target
Kmart (though who really shops here anymore).

Retailers actually ordering significant quantities of lesser characters are:
Toys R Us (there online store is crap)
Gamestop
Meijer (seen and bought plenty here)
Amazon (they go quick here)

Those 4 retailers I listed, are the biggest in North America.
They only stock well to high selling products, everything else isn't restocked once they run out.
They also won't stock lesser selling games in any significant quantities, let alone restock them.

I don't know why you cannot grasp the fact that Nintendo cannot legally force retailers to stock/restock products they don't want.

Long story short, I found all the Amiibos in stock in the Metro Detroit region with great ease.

Again, that's NOT the point. I kinda already explained why... more than once. It was never about the decisions made by the retailers; it was about the decisions made by Nintendo in the face of those obvious choices by the retailers.

Granted though, I'm often bloody terrible about phrasing and not confusing others (or myself) when posting.

Simply put, if they couldnt manage it, it shouldnt have been brought here. Or at least shouldnt have been brought here in it's current entirety. All they've done is anger the hell outta consumers. There's a reason why there are many games that never reach the states, as opposed to just all of them coming here. Because those games simply wont justify keeping them around in stores. Saying, from the start, "We're going to bring THESE SPECIFIC Amiibos to the states, in such-and-such number of waves, for now, we'll see about the others later on. Support the current releases if you'd like more!" would have been ALOT more sensible (and it should be ultra-obvious as to WHICH ones are the right ones to bring, and which arent). Hell, any basic publisher knows this. Announcing that a certain game (or whatever) ISNT going to certain places is never a fun thing for anyone, but it's the honesty and openness that matters. Note those two key words there. Also note how Nintendo wont give clear, obvious answers to all of the media outlets that are asking them questions about this. Note also that honesty and openness are important when dealing with consumers. Consumers dont like hassle.... but they dislike being lied to even more, or having things simply withheld from them (example, one of the many reasons why EA is so very loathed, is that they do this). In this case, that's what happened. As opposed to just making the rational decision from the start to simply bring only the ones that, currently, are absolute guarantees as far as being placed on shelves. In this case, that's not what happened. They didnt choose the smarter option.

Again, it would still be annoying... but it'd also be the norm, as these things go. Announcing that something isnt coming, like any publisher does when needed.


But anyway, yes, that's enough chatter about that. It's getting to be kinda a dull subject. And for me, even if it had turned out well, it would never be enough to change my very negative opinion of Nintendo as a company. Though that's improved a little recently, changing from abject hatred to a sort of simmering contempt. As negative as I am as a whole, that says something.


...though there's also not very many interesting subjects to discuss right now as gaming goes, or at least not many I can think of. Aside from the violently explosive release of Smash itself, there doesnt appear to be much going on. Hell, I havent bought anything in probably two weeks. That's rare for me.

Very few consumers are truly upset over the situation.

Now that Amiibos are a hot button item, Nintendo has more leverage to force their products on the shelves.

If Nintendo only would have brought over the popular Amiibos, it would have done significant damage to their brand.
Right now only a few people are upset, while most were able to get their Amiibos.



It's still remain to be seen if U.S. retailers are willing to order significant quantities of Wave 3 of Amiibos (February).
Hopefully they will order enough stock, but probably are still reluctant to stock anything Nintendo made due to the less then stellar sales of 3DS, Wii U and Amiibos.

The only other way to get U.S. retailers to order large quantities, is to pay them to do it (this is quite expensive).
This what Microsoft has been doing with Xbox since the launch of the original Xbox.
This has cost Microsoft over a $1 billion, since 2001.

Gamestop is reporting they have sold out of their initial Wave 3 stock.

Wave 4 details from Nintendo Direct!!

- Robin
- Lucina
- Pac-Man
- Wario
- Ness
- Charizard

Coming spring!

AND NEW SUPER MARIO AMIIBO LINE COMING MARCH 20TH!

- Mario
- Luigi
- Yoshi
- Peach
- Bowser
- Toad

Works with Mario Party 10.

If you use your Smash Amiibo on Mario Party 10, it will erase the data and replace it with MP10 data.

Also, Fire Emblem Amiibo will work with Codename S.T.E.A.M. and the Toad Amiibo will work with Captain Toad

Better get to Gamestop ASAP....if I get screwed out of a Ness Amiibo I will have to beat a scalper into a freaking coma.

Here are the pics of the new Amiibos.

Mario Party 10:
On March 20, redesigned amiibos of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Bowser, and the new Toad amiibo will reach store shelves. Compared to the Smash Bros line, these figures will be in more casual position than combative, like how Mario is waving his hand instead of shooting a fireball from it. While these redesigns will arrive alongside Mario Party 10, Mario-related amiibos for Smash Bros will still be compatible with each game. The only downside is that amiibos won't be able to carry save data for both Smash Bros and Mario Party 10 - players will have to pick one or erase the data.

Activating an amiibo in Mario Party 10 unlocks quite a few features. First of all, it provides access to "amiibo Party" mode, opening up character-specific boards that relating to that amiibo's abilities (the Mario board includes mushrooms, the Luigi board includes vacuums that suck up coins, etc). Players will also be able to attach tokens to their amiibo avatar that gives them an in-game boost, like extra dice during your turn.

Captain Toad: The Toad amiibo from the Super Mario Bros set will unlock hidden character called Pixel Toad in a stage, according to Senior Product Marketing Manager Bill Trinen. This new visitor will hide from the player and must be discovered "hide and seek" style.
Also on March 20th.

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M: Nintendo has announced that New 3DS XL owners playing the upcoming Codename S.T.E.A.M. will have the option of bringing some guests into their game. Using the Marth, Ike, Robin, and Lucina Amiibos, those characters can fight alongside Abraham Lincoln and other historical figures.
The Fire Emblem cast brings its own wrinkle. Those characters can’t be revived at checkpoints, unlike S.T.E.A.M.’s native heroes.
Marth wields his Falchion and can heal teammates and Ike has his sword and battle axe (and an area of attack smash). Robin and Lucina will have moves reminiscent of their titles, too.