Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says that the company’s recently announced Amiibo figures will have a significant impact on Wii U sales worldwide. Reggie says Amiibo could be a major business opportunity for the Kyoto based company.
“I think Amiibo can have a significant impact on driving the install base for Wii U on the sales of figures themselves. I think this could be a significant business opportunity.
“We will continue to make new figures available through the balance of holiday 2014 and then we’re going to continuously launch new figures throughout 2015. For us, we’re not putting a numerical limit on how many varied figures we can launch. Our potential catalogue of figures in the space is quite broad.”
“One, we wanted to be thoughtful in our approach,” Fils-Aime explained. “In our view, going down this path you have to have differentiation. Second, we wanted to make sure that we would launch the concept with a big franchise, and certainly Smash (Bros.) fits that bill.”
“Smash is really perfect. All the various characters, the gameplay that Mr. Sakurai has created is fantastic. So for us it was really making sure we had the right approach and the right method to launch it.”
It will make Nintendo money, but I doubt that it will really help Wii U sales. Aren’t the Wii U sales good enough for Nintendo yet?
Why wouldn’t it? It will make children want to get a Wii U to make use of their figurines
Would kids really figure out that it goes with the Wii U? They’d likely just think of it as an action figure and wouldn’t look at the box. It would be up to the parents probably and they may not figure that it goes with thew Wii or something. It would be good if it helped the Wii U of course….
Heheh, maybe Nintendo would put some ‘compatible with Wii U’ sign on the box or something…
They should definitely put a lot of Wii U promotion on the box to help out. Still, even if nobody gets a Wii U for the Amiibos, at least the toy sales should still help Nintendo since the prices are so high
Advertising is enough to show they’re used with the Wii U so kids would know without needing to read the boss
The same could be said about skylanders or Disney infinity
Agreed and those bombed. Well, maybe not bombed, but I wouldn’t say that they helped to move more units. Kids bought them and Collectors bought them…but that’s about it
Those bombed? Skylanders is worth 2 billion dollars. So no, it didnt bomb. Quite the opposite actually. Thats the entire reason why disney and nintendo are following suite with their own nfc toys. If skylanders bombed you wouldnt see several other big hitters trying to get a piece of all that money. You shouldnt talk on a subject when you dont know the facts kid.
*wouldn’t*
*shouldn’t*
“kid” is subjective….
you are seriously understimating children and their parents…
Yeaaaahh “Children”…. *Puts wallet away*
Reggie is a fucking idiot if he thinks this will have a dramatic impact on wii U sales. At least the kind that we are hoping for. Reggie is as much as an idiot as Selina is for letting Sasori “ruffle the pariots feathers”..
Who knows. He could end up being right. We won’t know for certain til they release.
Well, I think it’s definitely gonna make money. One thing for sure, I’m definitely getting a Zero Suit Samus and Greninja amiibo. I’ve always wanted Nintendo figurines, so I’ll be buying these regardless.
with or without wiiu, i would still buy them.
Making your console more expensive with what can be called a gimmick at best is not what you need right now, Reggie. The figurines aren’t going to sell as much units as a single game of your abandoned franchises would.
Gimmick? Yeah, did you try it before? And what abandoned franchises? Like Star Fox, which they JUST ANNOUNCED?
Chill out. What they’ve shown so far isn’t really needed and saving data from games can be done with wiimotes, there’s no need to buy anything else if that’s the reason. I’m just saying they could use the money to fund another game.
The point of it isn’t really much about saving data, the point is to attract children to buy the toys, then use it on Wii U games.
Supposing it’s going to be sucessful, which I personally don’t, then they’re going to sell toys, maybe games, but not Wii Us. Do you really think there are parent out there that are going to buy a +200$ system so their children can use the figurines? That’s a very small market they’re trying to pander.
I agree it’s not going to convince people to buy a Wii U, but if your already buying a Wii U then you will most likely get one at the time or some will get it with Smash.
I don’t think they are gimmicky. It’s made Activision and Disney nearly billions, but Amiibo is going to make much more uses such as support more games which 5 are already announce and they will be more in more ways than just evolving the character in Smash, but they haven’t gone into much detail about it yet.
I think these will sell like hot cakes and people are bound to get more than 1.
Sure, people that already have a Wii U will probably buy some, but Smash really isn’t a game that will benefit from this, the hype for the main game alone is enough. Nintendo needs to compromise with the use of the figurines in most of their games if they want them to really sell.
Money doesn’t really dictate what’s a gimmick and what isn’t, but I see your point. For me,as of now, they’re just figurines with little to no utility. Nintendo has a long history of dropping support for similar add-ons, although they never pushed them as much as this.
I want this to be successful, I really do. I’m just not seeing it yet.
I don’t see it driving sales like Reggie said, but with Smash probably going to be a system seller and there is over 6 million with a Wii U still and that’s not counting the big sales since MK8 launch, I do think they are going to make quite a bit of profit out of it.
I think what were going to see is Nintendo to be a little more detailed about them in future or atleast I think they should so people can understand them more.
As an older gamer, I will buy smash brothers and I will buy the figure, maybe a couple to check out plus they look like a cool thing to have outside of the game usage… I am not sure it sells Wii Us alone, but it adds to the complete package I guess… the system is shaping up
If you buy a console because of its games and this figurines make you want some games…do the math.
You know Reggie can’t hear you right? Also, its been said before, but fans of nintendo from 5 to 35 are going to buy these, with or without a wii u. And yes, for some of those consumers it only makes sense the toys could lead to a higher curiosity over the wii u, since they are compatible. Lets not forget about the adapter for the 3ds! And gimmicky? Its a toy you can train and level up like a godd@#& pokemon! Thats not a gimmick, its genius. And its the realization of what smash bros has always been about. Nintendo toys coming to life to battle. Battle against them, team up with them, or pit them against each other? Sorry thats the coolest video game concept ive heard in a long, long time. A gimmick is something that wont stick around. I have a feeling nfc toys are here to stay.
Very possible. This is a good idea. I love the trolls call everything a gimmick. Best to ignore them
Nope. Sorry.. but Skylanders and Disney infinity never really took off. So why should this?
Exactly my point. Although, to be fair, Skylanders was a new IP entirely, wasn’t it? And I don’t really know how well Disney Infinity is doing. It’s going to be amazing for collectors, that’s for sure.
Skylanders and Disney Infinity never took off? Where did you get that from? Skylanders is one of Activision’s cash cows, and Disney Infinity was the reason Disney’s gaming division had a lower loss compared to previous years
I don’t know what these do. I don’t get it.
Doubt it. I’ve already heard from people such as collectors they’ll get the amiibos without getting a Wii U. Heck I have a Wii U and I will get them more for the figure itself than it’s functions. (The functions are a plus though, don’t get me wrong)
I cant wait for these to- I mean figures to come out. The designs are flawless and they’ll make great collectables to go with the rest of my Nintendo stuff. A price would be nice, but it’s soon to come out along with Smash Bros.
I believe that right now the roster is 33 characters, so if Nintendo were to make a figurine for everyone, it would cost… $264. Not a bad deal, IMO.
How the hell did you come up with a number for the price cost?
I heard that the price for a figure was $8
Are they really that cheap? Where did you read that?
Another article. I think Sickr wrote it.
Okay, I misread the article, sorry! :|
Their going to cost 15 a piece. Reggie said so lololol
Ill for sure be getting Kirby the day it comes out!
Amiibo has to have meaningful interaction with games. Nintendo needs to make a game like Skylanders but with Pokemon and other Nintendo franchises.
Reggie what the hell are you on about nintendo is so deluded. No one wants the wii u why the hell is amibo going to change anything. Wii u is the Worst console i purchased in my entire thanks nintedo for your shit ass console.
The 6 million people who have it make your argument mute because your opinion is not fact, therefore the subject is debatable.
What GLaDOS said. Your entire life does not equal everyone else’s.
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you expect a toy to conivnce someone to pay $300 for a console. lol thats like sony expecting to convince people to pay $600 ps3 to get blue ray.
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this fucking gimmick isn’t going to do a thing for the wiiu. no one in their right mind would buy a wiiu for these things.
Key word, ladies & gentlemen: he said could have. He never said they WILL. Now quit going all ballistic, or whiny, on Reggie’s opinion about amiibos. This is like the time people threw a hissy fit because Miyamoto “insulted” their precious virtual reality gimmick.
I honestly think it depends on what they actually do to the game. For Skylanders and Disney Infinity you bring your characters to life. They haven’t really said all that much about what they’ll do. Like maybe you can unlock a racer if you buy a certain Amiibo? Or a special move for Smash Bros? I already want them cos they look pretty awesome, would be cool to display them, but I wanna know more about what they do. He knows something we don’t and he needs to spill damnit!
I’m a huge Nintendo fan, have no doubt they’ll succeed, and am totally buying at least one or two Smash Amiibo figures, but unless these Amiibo things have some extra gimmick besides what’s already been shown, I have a hard time believing they’ll sell WiiU faster. I’d put much more stock into Splatoon and Zelda U than Amiibo to help Nintendo.