Amiibo: More games, more content...

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That's not entirely true.

The amiibo situation is stable for the most part, except if you live in a city with unusually high demand.
Even so, you can import it from overseas instead of buying from a scalper.

I've never had any trouble finding any rare amiibos here in Metro Detroit.

Many are also being restocked now too...

"this game is compatible with a certain series of amiibo. please see your local scalper for details. do not forget your life savings."

That's again not true.

Nearly all less popular amiibos have been restocked in North America and are still bountiful in Europe, Australia, and Japan.
If your local retailers doesn't have them, it's due to management not ordering enough.

You can also import them for slightly more as well.

There is no such thing as an amiibo shortage.
There is such thing as retailers purposely not ordering enough, thinking they won't sell.

Dont forget: Nintendo made an apology for screwing this up (such as not communicating well enough with consumers about the whole issue). Hell, I think I KEPT one (or more, probably more) of the articles about it because it entertained me so much to watch them have to do this. This wasnt just retailers (though I blame them too of course, at this point.... all of them, because I hate all of them, particularly Gamestop). That's all known by most people at this point though.

That being said, Adam's thoughts on the "amiibo problem" here arent exactly uncommon right now. The problem still isnt fixed (not even close), and from what I hear, many people still arent able to find most of the amiibos. You, for whatever reason, got lucky; I've heard of few areas that actually have the accursed things stocked well. I've heard of plenty that DONT have them, be it in out of the way holes in the ground or major cities of hugeness. Almost all of the amiibo are still never seen in the numerous areas that I frequent, which includes the area where my main house is, and a couple of places out of state, such as where one of the other two houses is. According to.... everyone I know, this is the case in all of their areas as well. Specifically, people I know online. Anyone I know OFFLINE cant get around unless I drive them, so they wouldnt know ANYWAY, but that's a whole other rant for another day. .....also it's something I see on forums and comments sections alot, whenever the things are brought up. Just MENTIONING them causes a barrage of complaints from those that are still unable to get them. One way or another... there is a shortage. I wouldnt believe otherwise for the smallest fraction of a second. It's at least a bit better than it was before, as SOME people are able to get certain ones now, but the whole thing is still a mess.


Though, honestly, *I* wouldnt be bothered or care if it wasnt for the goddamn idea of them locking game content behind the blasted things (which is bound to just get worse from here). It's still the Splatoon ones that anger me.... I'd love to try all of the different challenges and such and get the other minigames, but nooooooo. Never even seen, not ONCE, any of those stupid figures. Which right now are the only ones I'd care to buy. As I was able to get both Mario and Bowser already, I dont care all that much about any of the others. Well, having Pit would be nice, but that's about it. But yeah, it's not the hard-to-find nature that ended up bothering me so much. Figures of... well, any sort, are usually hard to find. I buy alot of figures, and they're usually A: a pain in the ass, and B: very expensive and need to be ordered. But most figures dont stop you from DOING things in a particular game because you dont own them. Just.... ugh. I'd still like to punch whoever came up with Skylanders, as I blame them for this, not Nintendo actually.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/nintendo-amiib ... rity_Guide

That'd be the current levels of rarity, which pretty much echo what I've seen/heard. The ones that ARENT from the smash series seem to have been the only things that have been consistently easy to get, as well as the absolute most basic characters from the Smash ones (Mario, Pikachu, Yoshi...) but.... yeah, a huge number of these are rare, or.... er.... "unicorns". Which is a hilarious way of marking rarity, that. Having some of them be exclusive to certain store chains didnt help (that.... never exactly pleases consumers). As far as I know, the Splatoon Squid amiibo is the worst one right now, costing around $50-60 in most cases.

Sadly, right now, for most people, if they want any of the ones that are even somewhat rare, let alone Wii Fit Trainer's level of rare, ya gotta buy them online... often from some jackass that, normally, you'd just want to throw a chair at, not throw money at. I've been tempted to go buy the goddamn Splatoon ones but have so far resisted on general principle.

And then of course there's Mario Maker... you dont need the amiibos to use the "special" mushroom, which, gameplay-wise, gives Mario the effect of being powered up yet still only one block tall instead of two... but as far as I know, you DO need a very specific not-yet-released one (which releases along with the game) to get the game's OTHER special powerup, the one that makes Mario become gigantic and smash through walls. Among a few other bizarre/amusing things that happen when you get it. Though apparently he still dies in one hit in that form. I may or many not buy that thing. Not sure. Mostly I just wish that damn game would come out already.... but again I am annoyed that they locked ANOTHER bit of content (and one that has amusing possibilities, too) behind the damn things again.

Nintendo was originally caught off guard by the demand, because market research and focus testing showed a lack of interest in Amiibo.

Though in Europe, Australia, and Japan they have plenty of stock of each by all accounts.

In United States this is how retail works on nearly every product:

1)The company shows it's products to retailers
2) American retailers then order the amount they want to their supplier (which is not the company who makes the product)
3) The supplier then buys them from the company (in this case Nintendo) to distribute to the retailers
4)District managers place orders to corporate to get stock (this comes out of the amount that corporate ordered) based on sales data
5) Corporate analysis the data and determines how many to send if any at all
6) Corporate then will decide whether or not to place a reorder to the supplier
7)Suppliers will then place a new order with the company making the product.

This is how it works in the U.S. and to an extent Canada and Mexico.

Right now Nintendo claims that the North American retailers are responsible for the stock issues, claiming that the suppliers are claiming they have too much stock and not enough interest from retailers.

Target states they soon won't stock any amiibos in their stores, forcing you to buy them online from them.
Gamestop employees have told me that corporate is purposely placing low orders for amiibos, to prevent them from having an overstock.
Best Buy employees claim amiibos aren't moving fast enough to warrant an increase in orders from corporate.
Walmart doesn't have faith in Amiibo.
etc...

Nintendo cannot force the North American retailers to stock their products and to take more than what corporate orders.

What should Nintendo do here?

What should Nintendo do? There's a variety of things they could do... a couple in particular that might help, but it'd take WAY too damn long (as in, well over a page of blocky text) for me to explain those, particularly as the context is different here than what I normally associate these ideas with. Even in the usual context it takes me forever to write up an explanation that actually makes sense to anyone.

Though, for starters, they could communicate with their consumers a bit better; apparently, that's one of the biggest reasons for all the outrage (or so I hear; I dont follow anyone's twitter stuff, for example). When there's problems, people want to know WHY, and they want to know DETAILS. They dont want just "We're sorry! It'll get better! We just wont tell you how!". All anyone really knows is that they've issued a promise to get the things stocked better; what they have in mind, only they know.

Also... I wouldnt too much trust what Gamestop employees have said to you.... not even managers. I say this after having some experience dealing with the company, and I mean those that are higher in the chain than managers. Among others. There's reasons (alot of them) why I dont like or trust that place. Though, most of those reasons are related to how they handle quite a number of things in their stores, but there's other reasons too. Hell, I always warn people I know NOT to go there, if it can be avoided. Of course, many times it cant, unless you're willing to go the digital route.

In my case though it's currently mostly just the Splatoon ones that irritate me. If they'd just stop locking content like that, it wouldnt be AS MUCH of a damn problem. Hell, come to think of it, THAT should be one of the first steps they take. They already know of everyone's anger over this, and something tells me that whatever plan they have, it'll be A: screwy, and B: difficult to implement; or at least take alot of time, as such things normally do once the situation has progressed this far. Yet still, EVEN KNOWING THIS, they continue to pull that crap. I can completely understand everyone's anger relating to this, because that's a NASTY move. It's the sort of crap I dont associate with Nintendo, but instead with Activision and guys like Bobby Kotick. Or maybe with Capcom, just in terms of the level of jackassery involved. Though Capcom at least hasnt jumped into this particular pool of irritation. Yet. They can soothe quite alot of the anger by simply making the damn content accessible: Just offer it as DLC that *anyone* can buy, instead of pulling this crap. And they could go further even and then also say, well, if you buy such and such amiibo, we'll throw in a download code for this specific DLC in this particular game. That'd help ALOT, for.... a long list of reasons. It'd be sort of a way of saying hey, we're sorry this has been so tough... we're going to at least make this aspect over here easier for everyone. It's not like the amiibos wouldnt still have value, after all. They're figures of characters that people know and love; they excite both fans of those characters, AND collectors since there's so many of them. You certainly dont have to have the game in question to get excited over these.


Either way though, regardless of any of the reasons behind it, the scalpers are currently the biggest issue, and most people dont seem to have a good way to get past that. They either buy from those jerks, or they dont get the figure in question. Which just angers everyone further. Sadly though that's the nature of these things...


At this point, I personally just specifically will be wanting that retro Mario one. For the thing in Mario Maker, and because it's a figure of Mario's ORIGINAL sprite (well, almost original, as it's not the ones from Donkey Kong or even Mario Bros), even including the fact that they used the original color scheme.... a nice touch. Normally I wouldnt have need for any more of these figures, at least for now, but that one I think I've decided on. Aint any real reason NOT to, come to think of it. Though... I'd rather not deal with freaking Gamestop for it. I really do dislike them so very much.

I'll stop here before this turns into a rant about Gamestop though, which is where my train of thought is currently headed.

Nintendo has explained it detail on numerous times via twitter and customer service responses about how retailers are treating Amiibo and many of their games in North America.
Splatoon was the most recent case of retailers not ordering enough stock, because they didn't think it would sell enough in North America and in Japan.

Nintendo openly stated they had plenty of copies waiting to be shipped as soon as the retailers decided to place the orders.

Nintendo has made sure the media knows the restocking of amiibos are well underway.
You can now buy Marth, WFT, Ike, Splatoon, Villager and few others in North America again.

If you want the Splatoon 3-pack try Target
http://www.target.com/p/nintendo-amiibo ... m=splatoon

Next shipment is 9/11 according to Target.

Also you can import Amiibos too, they aren't region locked.

Nintendo also stated they are encouraging retailers to set purchasing limits on rare amiibos, though they have no legal way of forcing retailers to do it in any territory.

Nintendo has also openly stated they have no way of legally stopping people from buying up the lot and scalping their products.

Nintendo has also stated numerous times they have no legal way to force retailers to order and stock their products.

But none of these explanations sound as good as "Nintendo screwing us over" when publishing an article.
Sites and publications need articles that drive views (and sales if you are magazine) in order to make money.

Nintendo has also repeatedly stated the reason why content is locked behind amiibos, is due to all the backlash they received in the past years of producing figurines that didn't give any in game bonus content.
Nintendo states the majority of these complaints came from the western consumers, in part from Club Nintendo users.

Do you remember the huge amount of complaints when Club Nintendo NA users heavily complained when this figurine (see pic below) didn't give bonus in game content?

People also complained hugely when the Luigi's Mansion figurine didn't come with exclusive bonus in game content


There was huge backlash in the EU when the MK7/8 trophies didn't get exclusive in game content to go with them.


There was a massive twitter and press backlash when the fabled Mario Kart 8 blue shell figurine (only special editions had them) didn't unlock any exclusive content in MK8.

The response over newly released Captain Toad figurine/light on CN EU, is getting similar response for not including an specific content in Captain Toad.

They received similar backlashes during Gamecube and N64 generations too over the figurines they released for lacking exclusive in game content.

Nintendo gave people what they wanted.
Nintendo said none of this content would exist without amiibos.

The only 6 games to date that have any noteworthy content locked behind amiibos are:

Mario Kart 8 - It's just select character costumes for Mii Racers
Mario Party 10 - special amiibo mode and it's boards (there are daily scratchers 1 per amiibo that net bonus MP10 points)
Captain Toad - 8 bit Toad hides in each level forcing you to find him (need Toad amiibo)
Amiibo Festival (Wii U) - you need the AC Amiibos to play and the AC cards are usable in game (Though you can only import villagers and houses via linking with HHD on 3DS)

You aren't missing much outside of the lackluster Mario Party 10 (the game isn't worth the price).

Splatoon Amiibo content isn't anything that good outside of Squid Ball and Squid Racing

Inkling Girl content is:
School girl outfit
Hero charger replica weapon (not that good of a weapon)
Squid Ball mini arcade game

Inkling Boy content is:
Samurai outfit
Squid Racer mini arcade game
Hero roller replica (not that great of a weapon)

Squid content is:
Robot outfit
Squid Beatz mini game
Hero shot replica

You must beat all the challenges and bosses on each amiibo to unlock their content (it takes a few hours to complete).

Shovel Knights 3DS and Wii U have loads of content and a few modes locked behind Shovel Knight Amiibo, though Yacht Club Games choose to do this without Nintendo's input.
He will also unlock stuff in their other games and work with Nintendo's games too.

Like I said: There's a better way to give content along with the Amiibos. You offer it as DLC.... OR as a freebie that comes packed in with the Amiibo. It's the best of both worlds, and a very sound business idea. EVERYONE can get it, and in the end, Nintendo can get more money due to all the sales on BOTH sides (and that's not a debatable point, mind you). The current way? Even if some think it's a good move, LOTS really freaking hate it. They lose sales from those that CANT buy it, and they lose sales from those that now WONT buy it. AND, even worse, they potentially lose some consumers entirely; people that have already had enough at this point. And besides... isnt Nintendo all about accessibility? Yet.... they're one of the ONLY groups that's pulling something like this: additional game content that CANNOT be gotten, gated by something players often literally are unable to get, or that have to pay exorbitant prices (as even ordering the things is more expensive than buying them at a store... shipping and all of that, particularly if you dont trust BASIC shipping, which... well, there's very, very good reason not to trust that). As opposed to something you always CAN get, but have to pay for. Which is what almost everyone else is doing (again, except for those behind the bloody Skylanders and the other couple of similar products). I mean, really. Just because you CAN do something, like content absolutely exclusive to the figures... doesnt mean you SHOULD. Backlash or not. Hell, considering all of the CURRENT backlash, they didnt actually avoid anything at all. They simply switched it. Whereas the current backlash could at least be dialed down somewhat by the method I mention here.

Also like I said: Adam's comments about scalpers have been repeated over and over and over again all over the Net. And frankly.... it's just a bad move by them. In all honesty, I'm less likely to trust them (though, I didnt trust them too well before this either), after this crap, and this may well be my final purchase on the Wii U, as I've had enough of this crap, really. It's stuff like this that's one of the big reasons why I was pushed away from consoles onto PC in the first place, and practices like THIS just make it worse. Only Smash and LittleBigPlanet convinced me to get a couple of the new consoles at all, and even as much as I like those games... I dont like the companies behind the consoles (Sony I've always found annoying, and I've had actual deep hatred for Nintendo for YEARS, though that's died down a bit to more of a vague dislike since the Wii U came out), and find little in the selections for the things. Only my lack of a practical spending limit made the purchases valid. If I *did* have a limit, like most people? There's no way in bloody hell I'd own either console right now (for most people, buying a console for ONE game is a bit silly). Particularly after learning about this junk.

Also, nobody likes NOT being able to get something due to it being out of stock. Particularly due to it being out of stock FOR A REALLY LONG TIME. And honestly, with something like this? There's no excuse that's truly valid, in this day of digital.... everything. ALL they have to do is offer consumers some options. You get people that want your products, and more people that DONT end up despising you. And even if people complain about "oh you didnt include such and such", well... that means a whole lot of nothing if nobody can get the damn things ANYWAY. Again, they could be making money RIGHT THE HELL NOW by offering DLC. In ADDITION to those that would then be made by the amiibos themselves, which, again, would come with codes to get the DLC associated with the Amiibo itself. Instead? They aint getting ANYTHING from sales that CANT be made, and they're missing a TON of money that they could have been getting from that DLC this entire time. And I'm not even going to go into what I thought of their advertising for the things. That's... a whole other rant. Not a Gamestop level rant, but a rant nonetheless.

Hell, even from a design perspective, this is a bloody stupid idea. Even if they HAD to gate the damn crap, they could have saved alot of complaints by making sure all of it, and I seriously mean ALL of it, was cosmetic stuff only, without even the single tiniest possible exception. Instead? We get entire gameplay sections in something like Splatoon that most players are unable to access. It's that old complaint, yet again, about buying a game for full price... but not GETTING all of it, even if what you're not getting is on the disc. That's been a bad one recently from a ton of publishers, and frankly, I find it damn silly that Nintendo of all companies is jumping on that bandwagon. It just reaffirms my disdain for the company itself (as opposed to the actual developers/designers, who I have great respect for).

Hell, I'd love to try out the challenges in that game myself, but it's not happening. I'm willing to buy that one specific upcoming Mario figure, yes.... mostly due to nostalgia overload. Damn thing is irresistable to me in the same way that Minecraft products are. But the others... no. I've decided against the Splatoon ones, mostly on principle; I'd rather not support that if avoidable.


Just.... ugh. I dont mean to rant so much, but the issue bugs me. I also apologize if I sound a bit too angry here; that's not your fault or anyone's, really. I've just had a.... rather bad weekend, it's making me very agitated at basically everything.

That's enough from me on the topic though, lest I rant this damn place into oblivion.

There really isn't much hate towards amiibos outside of a small vocal group on a few boards.

The rest of the world regularly gets games bundled with amiibo.
Same goes with Mario Maker outside of the NA.

Yoshi Wooly World I do believe gets an amiibo bundle in NA (I know the rest of the world has it).
Animal Crossing: HHD has a special bundle too (includes NFC reader for older 3DSs) globally
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Party has an Amiibo bundle for retail globally.

Scalpers scalp anything they think will be worth it.

Scalpers did quite a number on PS4s at launch.
They did an equally big number on Xbox Ones (by the way those launch Xbox Ones have special day one achievement exclusive to them) and Wii Us.
They snapped up New 3DS XL here in NA
They do this on most LE and SE games.

Hell tonight you can go on eBay and bid on NA Xenoblade Chronicles X LE which briefly went up for preorder on Amazon (first round), before selling out.
The other retailers haven't offered it yet.

---

Why is Nintendo locking small bits of content behind Amiibos?

1) as mentioned in my previous post, Nintendo fans have been demanding that their figurines and such unlock exclusive in game content
2) Hardcore gamers and many other types of gamers were livid that Nintendo didn't give them limited DLC to make their game copies stand out from the rest.
3) Market research showed that people viewed Nintendo games less than other games due to the lack of post launch content
4) Market researched showed that most people would lose interest in Nintendo games faster because of a lack of post launch content

Nintendo finally caved to market pressure and demand.

--

Which 8-bit Mario are you going to get?
Classic (red and green), Modern (red and blue) or both?

Just grabbing the old 8-bit Mario; with the original sprite colors, when he didnt have his blue overalls because the NES would have exploded if they tried it. Couldnt support more than a couple of colors per sprite, that thing. Though I'll be honest, I prefer those old graphics over alot of today's stuff.

Heck, when I see that sprite that is in SMM that's the original sprite but WITH the blue and such added (videos on Youtube showing all currently known "costumes"), it just doesnt look quite right to me at all.

Well, I'm grabbing it unless I have to go to trouble to get it, that is (probably). I dont want to order this. And not because it's an amiibo; lately I'm just really tired of ordering things. I've alot of import games, among other things, and every single time I've ordered one, it becomes a massive hassle that inevitably ends with a journey out to the local FedEx facility. I've not been in a patient mood recently (which is probably apparent by now), so I'd rather not do that. And I dont trust basic shipping. Not after seeing the inside of some of the facilities represented by that. Just.... uuugh. Those places, those places were unpleasant. I could have a damn rock shipped to me, and I wouldnt trust them not to break it. Only problem with FedEx (other than requiring that drive every time) is that they're kinda pricey.

Though I hear that there's a bundled version with the game and the figure? I could swear I saw that earlier online somewhere, but the browser is being a snot and not loading the history, because argh. The internet has been a tad annoying today.

Though, I'm not yet sure if I wanna buy the physical version of the game or grab it via the E-shop. On one hand, E-shop means no Gamestop. But on the other hand, I kinda want that book thing that apparently comes with it.

Hm and there was something I was going to ask here, but heck if I can remember what it was.

There is no bundled version for NA.
American retailers don't like amiibos being bundled with games and Nintendo isn't willing to upset them.
There an exclusive Walmart Wii U bundle that includes the system, the game and the modern amiibio.
All versions of the game come with a physical art book.

If you get the digital version, you have to call Nintendo to get the art book.

Ohh, okay, the full console bundle will have been what I saw, then.

Hm, I didnt know you could still get the book though even despite the purchase being digital... I may well end up just doing that then and grabbing the figure the next day; works out well, it's better for me to buy digital and not have a blasted disc to lose somewhere. Which means I can then preload the game data and all of that. Best to get the downloading done early, usually. Tried doing that at a hotel once, when Smash came out.... good grief did THAT take a long time.

And until then... some more VC buys here I think.

They also apparently only have faith in Disney Infinity now....They have NOTHING for Amiibo or Skylanders anymore, at least at my Wal-Mart...my Target is the same way. News flash retailers, not everybody wants Disney Infinity....sure, the Marvel & Star Wars stuff has me curious, but I'm personally far more interested in Amiibo ( and not just Mario & Pikachu either... ) and Skylanders ( getting 3 versions of Superchargers so I can enjoy it on my Xbox One but also have the Amiibolanders & their vehicles in my collection. Honestly don't care about a Skylanders racing game...and yes, I know the Wii U version is the same as 360/X1/PS3/PS4. I still prefer the Xbox controller and I have the other games on 360 & Xbox One )
That said, nothing better get in the way of my getting the Chibi-Robo and Lucas Amiibo.....or the Xenoblade Chronicles X CE.

Yeah, I hate when one product just takes over all the spots for competing ones.

That's not actually the case at the stores near me... it's pretty equal for the most part, though I think the blasted Skylanders are winning here. And surprise, the Amiibos take up a whole lot of spots, they've a large amount of stock, which.... nobody is buying because EVERYONE ALREADY HAS FREAKING MARIO AND PIKACHU. You dont need 10000 boxes of Marios! It doesnt work that way!

Of course, this being either the Meijer or the Walmart, well.... I dont exactly go into those places expecting VARIETY with pretty much anything. It's no better for actual games either, on any console.

Companies can use their clout to force and/or buy retail space.

Also the reason why you see tons of Marios, Pikachus, because the most popular characters receive the highest orders, because corporate believes they will sell the most.
Lesser characters, get lesser orders, because corporate believes they will sell less and they don't want to waste shelf space on them.

I always get my stuff at Meijer's, unless I know it will be hard to get or on sale.

I also have the luxury of finding everything on release date, regardless of the product.

Feh, the Meijer stores around my area aint worth too much; I go to them only because the more decent stores are too far from here (middle of freaking nowhere, my area). I'll put it this way though: Even most of their employees dont exactly think too highly of them. Not the locations around here, anyway. If you want to NOT find what you're looking for, or spend bloody forever waiting for assistance because one of the managers did something amazingly stupid with employee schedules and thusly there's nobody around to cover certain areas because some poor guy is being forced to cover 3 of them (which, apparently, is just the START of the problems... ah, the stories I've heard from those I know that work there, and the things I've seen for myself, that could be a whole other topic itself), then that's the place to go. Ugh. I dunno if that's more of a tendency for the entire company, or just an effect of them being in the crappy state of Illinois; could be either, but probably the second one. I worked for them once myself, years ago. They tried to fire someone for nearly having heatstroke. I wish I was making that up.

Granted.... to me, the Gamestops are still worse. But I also just outright hate that company, so that only says so much. Though it doesnt help that there are NINE of the damn things around here.

I've forgotten where any of this was going. Inevitably, discussion involving Meijer just leads me back to the same blob of stupid, every time. Or the Gamestops, which is a whole other, much longer rant. I'm just glad I dont have to buy games from either of these store chains anymore, for the most part. How I ever got along without digital distribution, I dont know.