It’s ridiculous. Yes it’s marketing but it’s ridiculous. I’m glad Pokémon 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
