Nintendo Speaks to Public Outcry on Short Amiibo Supply

About a month ago, Gamestop’s website temporarily crashed under the sheer weight of everyone trying to buy the new Ness Amiibo.  Nintendo has been meeting the insane demand for Amiibos with a severely lacking supply, and fans haven’t been too shy to let them know.  On the heels of the Gamestop crash, Nintendo has released a public apology concerning the Amiibo scarcity, promising to do better.

We appreciate the enthusiasm that our fans continue to show toward amiibo. Sales for the product have exceeded our expectations. We understand how frustrating it can be at times if consumers are unable to find certain figures, and we apologize for that.

We’re trying to meet the demands of our fans and consumers by increasing the amount of amiibo we manufacture and ship to retail. We may continue to see consumer demand outpace supply levels for certain characters at times, but we will do our best to prevent that from happening.

Amiibo “exceeded [sales] expectations?”  Like Nintendo expected Amiibos just to be a novelty?  Seems iffy to me.  But, so long as Nintendo wants to do better by us, I’m a happy clam.

Nintendo’s re-releasing numerous out-of-stock Amiibos in the near future, making sure way more are manufactured and shipped so they don’t run out in two seconds.  Look forward to some advance announcements about these reissues through press releases, large-scale social media updates, and marketing plays with the retailers Nintendo works with.  Note: this won’t mean “Amiibos for all;” some will (and certainly should) remain rare, or else what’s the fun in collecting them?

How is Nintendo trying to rectify this ill favor?  What’s the latest from the Amiibo front?

• A free-to-download app called Amiibo Tap: Nintendo’s Greatest Bits came out this past week.  Your Amiibos unlock playable “scenes” from NES and SNES games, basically little demos of retro favorites.
• The Silver Mario Amiibo, while technically still a rumor, is all-but-confirmed to drop soon (related thread).
• More Marth figures are confirmed for re-release.
• Animal Crossing Amiibo cards will come out by the end of 2015.

Stay tuned for more Amiibo goods!