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Nintendo CEO Iwata Says Amiibo Potential Has Yet To Be Fully Realised By Consumers

Nintendo CEO and president Satoru Iwata believes that many consumers have yet to realise the full potential of the company’s toys-to-life range Amiibo. During the investors Q&A session following the financial results briefing last week, Iwata outlined the amiibo models’ current profitability, the differences between region sales and consumer attach rate. Though he didn’t address stock shortage concerns for the NFC character models, as has been an ongoing problem in both North America and Europe, Iwata did address consumer confusion with amiibo.

Unlike the Skylanders and Disney Infinity franchises, amiibo are usable with a variety of software and, until this is emphasised to consumers, the attach rate for amiibo consumption will remain low between regions. However, the president understands it will take time to do this, and has looked at rethinking the company’s marketing strategy.

We will continually propose different play styles that take advantage of amiibo. But first and foremost, we understand that we have to change the current situation where many people are still wondering what they can do with amiibo. We will persist until consumers understand that they just need to tap the amiibo figure and something will happen, and will excitedly try it with a variety of software. If we can achieve this, amiibo will become a precious possession for our consumers, so we definitely want to bring it to fruition, but in doing so we also understand that it will take some time.

72 thoughts on “Nintendo CEO Iwata Says Amiibo Potential Has Yet To Be Fully Realised By Consumers”

    1. They should try to integrate Amiibos system wise, instead of *JUST* game wise.
      For example the scanned character can unlock a Wii U theme, or the character can unlock it’s outfit for Miis, or it can give some sort of Miiverse feature designed after the Amiibo character…

  1. Uhhhhhh. Shouldn’t they have thought about this BEFORE releasing Amiibo? I don’t recall there being such confusion with Skylanders or Disney Infinity.

    1. They did think about it. And what confusion are you talking about, nobody is confused. Amiibos already have more function than any skylanders do. Plus once Nintendo makes a dedicated game specifically for Amiibo everyone will be happy.. Which I do agree they probably should have already done..

        1. The God of the New World

          Everything from Nintendo is in the works according to their fanboys. OS features that should’ve been there from the get go. Coming two years already. Online games, coming soon. Game that will turn the Wii U around. Coming soon. Game that will do this, Metroid, the game that will show off that the Gamepad isn’t just a gimmick, next whatever the fuck. Always in the works, but nowhere to be found. Fucking delusional morons. How about they actually do something right at the start and probably eventually maybe?

          1. don’t be so spoiled… also, the gamepad has already proven itself with Nintendoland which is an amazing game, but you probably didn’t play that game… lastly, calm down…

            1. The God of the New World

              Yeah, one game showed that it was made for the controller and no game since. They all use it just to use it.

          2. Nintendo Elite Commander Quadraxis

            What a primitive cattle God, no wonder why your creations are as pathetic as well…

            I’m so satisfied I was not created by such pathetic low-life cattle…

            1. Lmao ^. Man Cattle Commander that is very funny stuff up there. You should start a comedy tour, ill even support the shows brah. Dont forget your tip jar!

          3. No, it’s just when things finally get here, you don’t realize it. Mainly because you’ve already jumped to the next rumor, or Nintendo hating fad. Metroid will get here, and you’ll be bitching about something else. Nintendo haters are far worse than any fanboy I have ever met..

          4. You do have a point. Nintendo always hypes us up for something we want only to show us stuff like Kirby: RC and Code Name STEAM, which is still fun but not something expected

    2. Skylanders had major stock problems when it first launched. I stopped buying them because of that. Same with amiibo. They fucked up their launch with a dozen or more figures no one but scalpers can get.

  2. Let miis have the clothing of the amiibo that we scan, than I will finally fucking realize that amiibo has potential. The don’t do shit like hyrule warriors where you scan a amiibo and get 1 fucking rupee.

    1. lol I get one rupee pretty often, and why the heck did they put a limit of five on there? it’s just plain stupid it can read which ones I’ve placed down so if I payed for more shouldn’t I be able to use more? Honestly I’m not sure nintendo knows what to do with them.

      1. I get 1 rupee almost every time and if it’s not rupee than it’s the same damn weapon that I’ve already gotten. It’s fucking bullshit that what they are. Make them do more than I might buy more other than pit, palutena, and dark pit. Those are the only amiibo that I’m planning on buying.

        1. I got a new captain and bowser, used them, one rupee, my brother uses his mario 50,000 rupees! the character favoritism is blatant lol! I’m still buying the ones I want like sonic and megaman and pacman but I’m not opening them until nintendo actually creates something I can use them with.

            1. haha it’s sad but I think I’m burnt out on that game, they just recently released the new characters and map pack, me and my brother were all excited to play it together but we only played for one afternoon. Idk they keep increasing the skill cap, I was almost done upgrading link and then they increased the skill cap to 200, it’s too much work for this completionist! XD

              1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

                255 now. *sigh* If I never took a break from the game to play other games like Omega Ruby or Majora’s Mask, I would probably have most of my characters around 125-150 by now. But instead, I’ve only got two characters, TWO BLOODY CHARACTERS, over 150 with everyone else below level 125. Well least this game will keep me busy while I wait for the next game to come out that I intend to buy, when I can afford it. And with Zelda U delayed to 2016, I have a Zelda game I haven’t 100%’ed to keep me busy til it does release.

              1. The GameStop near me never has any good amiibo. Samus, Mario, pikachu, luigi , and peach. That’s all they ever have. I’ll check website again. Haven’t check the GameStop website in almost a month.

                1. sorry they probably don’t it was up at 1:00pm I’m eastern time but you can try, they seem to be the only ones getting them in.

  3. I mean, most of your consumer are well aware of what amiibo’s do. Instead of worrying about marketting strategies, focus more on your current stock situation first so your customers will even show an interests in amiibo’s…

  4. You could just put a little sheet of paper with amiibos/games that support ammibo, explaining how to use them. But that’s none of my business….

    1. Except for every Amiibo stand they show the damn Gamepad with the Amiibo hover over the NFC spot. Not difficult to figure out how the hell to use it. Problem is there’s way too many stupid people out there now.

      1. no the problem is nintendo thinks there are way too many stupid people out there, we all know how it works nintendo! quit insulting us and fix your stock problems already.

          1. I swear why do they even do these interviews if not to address current problems to the public. and I know that the nintendo fanbase is being vocal when it comes to the problems, they’re just ignoring us. I got an email back from nintendo customer service three days after I emailed it, they said that they were sorry it took so long to respond that they have had a lot of emails/calls/complaints to go through. It had to have been custom written and not just click and paste type of response because it went into detail on my complaints, but ultimately told me that nintendo of america didn’t have any additional information on the 3ds coming to the u.s at this time.

            1. For a short while they were sending me the same stupid automated response, that somehow they are always busy with emails. Oddly every single time I seem to email them, no matter what time of the year.

              Now, even worse, they’ve literally stopped responding to my emails altogether.

              I’ve never been an ass about it either, or ever sent multiple emails one after the other. I’d always give them a month or two before sending another. I’ve never even gone on my long rants in them either, they were general questions about their upcoming products or games…

              Nothing… and those were sent last year.

              That is insulting. I spend a lot of damn money on Nintendo, and they can’t even be decent enough to respond to my emails at all anymore. After I patiently waited for responses and they never came, only to send another email, wait again and it never receive a response either.

              I just gave up. I guess you’re lucky they even email you back.

              1. I’m sorry that happened to you, because it bugged me that I had to wait three days before I even got my response. I don’t understand why nintendo of america is so bad, at pretty much everything. I mean I’d like to say something positive about NOA, but I’ve got nothing.

  5. This might have something to do with the fact that certain amiibo are so rare. How could we conceive their potential when we can’t even buy most of them?

  6. Nintendo seems to have a big problem w/ their products.

    When their products are amazing, they don’t market it

    When their products are subpar and mediocre (and in amiibo’s case stock shortages), they don’t try to add variety and instead market the hell out of it.

  7. Yes, I hope amiibo are something that lingers minimum through the next gaming gen if not evolve with the times and become even more interesting. If a certain company that makes a certain football game franchise had upheld it’s promise to support the Wii U, the amiibo would make for some very interesting and amusing house rules to sports game. Things from Mushroom Kingdom rules to simply Nintendo skins for players. A team of Wario, Waluigi and Bowser vs Mario, Link, and Captain Falcon would probably blow some minds or bust some guts.

    But I would suppose that would require levity and lightheartedness in an industry mostly saturated by “realism”. Why one would wish to utilize their entertainment time to indulge in reality I will never understand.

    1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

      Or some racing games that allow us to unlock special race cars inspired by the amiibo we use.

    1. It’s not a misspelling – the UK and Australia spells words slightly differently. Any word America would spell with a ‘z’, like realized, colorized, organized etc., they’ll usually use an ‘s’ for. That’s just how English speaking countries outside of the U.S. tend to do it.

      1. props to you for staying strong and not buying any more than you initially planned..
        I planned on only buying Donkey Kong… I’m currently up to 13 and counting, darn me and my weak constitution!

    1. Disney Infinity playsets (the themed games) are fun, but short.Most of your time is spent building worlds in the Toybox mode which is fun if you’re creative, but boring otherwise. The problem with Disney Infinity is that it takes a while to really build anything, and putting pieces and “toys” together to properly make your game/world work is a pain. If Nintendo does decide to go the Infinity route they need to make sure it’s functional and easy to use.

  8. I think the consumers have already fully realised the amiibo’s potential when it comes to games, just tap the little thing on the gamepad and that’s it, you have a sparring partner or a cute little costume for your mii.

    So, is he talking about the fully potential when reselling them? Is he saying that the scalpers can sell them for a bigger profit?? XD

  9. I swear to god this guy is fucking senile. The full potential hasnt been realized cause fucked up in your pre market analysis and didn’t make enough of the damn things ,idiot.

  10. WHAAAAAT!?! “The attach rate is below expectations” are you kidding? you’ve just sold aprox. 6 million worldwide in 4 months! consumers Don’t know what amiibo do, more like we’re waiting on you guys to implement them in games in worthwhile ways. He talks about amiibo but won’t discuss the one dang topic we all want to talk about, where the he#@ are waves 2, and 3? and why are they so terrible at manufacturing and distributing them evenly. marth was one of the most rare amiibos in the U.S, but in the japan it’s the third best selling figure!

  11. Pingback: Iwata ci spiega cosa fare con gli Amiibo | VG247.it

  12. Pingback: Satoru Iwata diz que os consumidores ainda não percebem o verdadeiro potencial dos Amiibo

  13. It would be really really cool if their Next console uses amibo instead of disc forse their Videogames. Really, ho cool thai would be? You Just download The software in The harddisk And Then a unique code Will validare your game.and forse each game there will be an unique amibo lire The smash Bros trophy

  14. Ridley, the Angel of Death

    *twitch* We, the consumers, haven’t realized it’s potential!? WE haven’t REALIZED it’s potential? More like YOU haven’t been stocking them very well which leads to not many being sold ESPECIALLY if some of us only prefer certain amiibo which also happen to be the ones that you fucking idiots aren’t even stocking well & apparently only seem to want to do limited runs of them. If you idiots weren’t going to fully support every single amiibo at least for when there is huge demand for it, you should have just started out with the god damn cards instead since apparently they would have been easier to mass produce!

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