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amiibo (NFC)


Hero-of-Time

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Yeah, nintendo said they see the real growth in amiibo with kids, even acknowledging that currently it's nintendo fans getting them. So with this in mind they have to make them readily available. They've played the game, they've made them rare and desirable, now let us all have them. They've done the great marketing work, but it's only worth it if they then allow every one to take that desire into purchases. Keeping them rare and hard to find for too long will just put people off and slowly it'll just fade away!

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Surely it's already putting people off. I don't have any inclination to start collecting them, but if I did suddenly want to start, I've missed them, so what's the point? Unless you've been keeping up with them since day 1, you've currently got not chance of going back and getting them and thus it's not accessible to newcomers, it feels like a hassle before you've even begun. That's no way to operate.

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Surely it's already putting people off. I don't have any inclination to start collecting them, but if I did suddenly want to start, I've missed them, so what's the point? Unless you've been keeping up with them since day 1, you've currently got not chance of going back and getting them and thus it's not accessible to newcomers, it feels like a hassle before you've even begun. That's no way to operate.

 

Exactly, I think they're at tipping point. But awareness is high, demand is still high, if they were to become readily available, maybe people who weren't interested would pick some up to see what the fuss is about or whatever

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Surely it's already putting people off. I don't have any inclination to start collecting them, but if I did suddenly want to start, I've missed them, so what's the point? Unless you've been keeping up with them since day 1, you've currently got not chance of going back and getting them and thus it's not accessible to newcomers, it feels like a hassle before you've even begun. That's no way to operate.

 

My mate is a fine example of this. He bought his Wii U the other month ( as seen in the Wii U thread ) and has seen my collection and wants to get involved himself. I told him he had no chance in hell of catching up, despite him having the money and willingness to do so.

 

He also wanted a Toad as he bought Captain Toad last week. Couldn't find one anywhere.

 

Nintendo are really leaving money on the table at the moment with these things. People are turning to ebay for the things when Nintendo could be making more and pocketing the profit for themselves.

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Yep.

 

Awareness is high, demand is high... but unless they become accessible, price is even higher. No way would someone choose to start collecting them from scratch as things stand. You'd be spending ridiculous amounts of money and time for that matter.

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I'm sure if Nintendo were able to manufacture enough to keep up with demand, they would. I doubt they're just sitting on their hands and thinking meh, whatever, let's not make as much money as possible. Obviously the manufacturing part is proving a challenge, considering this is basically a totally new sector of the market for them.

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I'm sure if Nintendo were able to manufacture enough to keep up with demand, they would. I doubt they're just sitting on their hands and thinking meh, whatever, let's not make as much money as possible.

 

Before you were saying that there was nothing wrong with making a few of them rare to increase demand, which implies Nintendo would be quite happy to sit on their hands and do nothing.

 

Something is going on because going by the time frame they gave us, major restocks should have happened by now.

 

So it's either they are holding back stock ( which is shoddy thing to do ) or they are incompetent when it comes to manufacturing these things. Either way they ain't coming off smelling like roses in this situation.

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I totally agree they're not coming out of this smelling of roses. I think it's a bit of both, they want as much money as possible but at the same time probably aren't against the notion that sold out signs increase demand, just as it did with the Wii. When Mario probably sells 20x more than Marth does, why focus on restocking Marth when you can restock Mario.

 

Would people be as chuffed with their Rosalina or Villager amiibos if they knew they could find them in plentiful stock everywhere? I don't think I would be, I like the fact that I managed to find a rare one. Increases the value for me (I mean personally, not resale wise). I'm not excusing the supply problems, I think they're ridiculous but I'm not quite as outraged as a lot of other people are.

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I totally agree they're not coming out of this smelling of roses. I think it's a bit of both, they want as much money as possible but at the same time probably aren't against the notion that sold out signs increase demand, just as it did with the Wii. When Mario probably sells 20x more than Marth does, why focus on restocking Marth when you can restock Mario.

 

The issue with the Wii was that at least you knew you were going to be able to get one eventually. There was confusion when Amiibo launched about whether certain ones would be limited and the mixed messaging from various Nintendo reps just made things worse.

 

Do we even have the sales data for individual Amiibo? The likes of Marth has never been readily available anyway, so it's a bit unfair to even compare it to one that is always on the shelf.

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During the recent fiscal year financial results briefing, Iwata stated Nintendo had shipped 10.5 million amiibo figures worldwide.

 

66% = U.S. and Canada

20% = Europe

11% = Japan

3% = Australia

 

Sales of amiibo in Japan for December last year were ranked as follows:

 

01. Amiibo Link – 39.399

02. Amiibo Mario – 39.274

03. Amiibo Kirby – 35.744

04. Amiibo Pikachu – 19.375

05. Amiibo Marth – 19.246

06. Amiibo Villager – 16.199

07. Amiibo Pit – 16.096

08. Amiibo Yoshi – 15.180

09. Amiibo Captain Falcon – 13.823

10. Amiibo Samus – 13.541

 

Someone asked for figures earlier so there you go.

Edited by Wii
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I'm glad that I never got into collecting them - got two at Christmas and then I'm planning on getting Zero Suit Samus and a Wooly Yoshi. It seems way too stressful to get hold of them.

 

Whoever made the point about kids raised a very important issue, though. These aren't raising Nintendo's visibility/appeal in stores because supply is so low. Most kids probably don't know they exist. Have they been advertised on TV at all? I know with supplies so low that'd be counter-intuitive, but you can easily get almost any Disney Infinity or Skylanders figure - kids see these in shops and want them. If they can't see amiibo in shops, they won't be bought by that audience, who are the ones who need to be got on board - they're the customers of the future. They really need to flood stores with them and do deals to get large amounts of shelf space akin to the other two 'toys to life' brands. It'll be even harder once the Lego range launches later this year. At the moment, it's only the lifelong Nintendo fan and scalpers who are online at the precise moment they go on sale that get them, and even then, people are left disappointed.

 

Although they're selling out straight away, I wouldn't call amiibo a success. If amiibo is to be a real success, they really need to step things up and get them out there.

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