So, Nintendo May be Restocking Sold-Out Amiibos After All

[Steven Bogos]

So, Nintendo May be Restocking Sold-Out Amiibos After All

Nintendo is now saying that it "may" restock "certain" sold-out amiibos.

Do you remember that whole kerfuffle about discontinued amiibos [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138937-Nintendo-to-Discontinue-Less-Popular-Amiibos] we heard earlier in the week? First, they were discontinued, then, Nintendo said they wouldn't be, and then, finally, it released an official statement stating "We will aim for certain amiibo to always be available. These will be for our most popular characters like Mario and Link. Due to shelf space constraints, other figures likely will not return to the market once they have sold through their initial shipment."

Now, Nintendo has gone ahead and (sort of) backflipped on that comment, stating that some of these sold-out figures may get restocked after all. A Nintendo representative sent us the following statement via email:

"Some amiibo were very popular at launch, and it is possible that some amiibo in the United States, Canada and Latin America may not be available right now due to high demand and our efforts to manage shelf space during the launch period. Certain sold-out amiibo may return to these markets at a later stage. We are continually aiming to always have a regular supply of amiibo in the marketplace and there are many waves of amiibo to come. The distribution and availability of amiibo in other regions around the world may be different."

Again, the wording is very vague, but it looks as though the amiibos that are currently flying off the shelves will probably return in the near future.

So that's the final word, at least for the time being, on amiibos. As always, our advice is to just buy up your favorite character if you happen to see it in stock, just in case!

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[Johnny Novgorod]

Company creates demand by producing an extremely limited product line.
Once the desired level of demand has been reached, it meets it with supply.

 

[Jandau]

Can someone please explain what the big deal is with these things?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a smug prick or anything like that, I genuinely don't understand why everyone's so worked up about these things. I understand people liking things I don't like or don't care about, but I can usually see WHY they like it (even if I don't share that preference). But for months now there have been stories about these Amiibos on various gaming sites and everyone seems to be acting like they're the hottest shit ever and no further explanation is needed.

And I literally can't even (begin to understand what's going on).

So please, can someone tell me why all the hype? Why's everyone out to get as many of these as they possibly can? A few extra costumes in a couple of games and an AI bot for Smash Bros? Help me out here...

 

[NPC009]

Can someone please explain what the big deal is with these things?

Affordable collectable figurines with benefits.

Mario merchandise is easy enough to come by, but for many gamers this is the first real opportunity to own some Star Fox or Fire Emblem merchandise. They're not all that expensive either (atleast, they shouldn't be, all this wild speculation is driving the prices of some figures up) so pretty much anyone who wants one can get one. The fact that you can use them with various games is pretty much a bonus.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Can someone please explain what the big deal is with these things?

I don't even own a Wii U, I bought the Marth Amiibo because Fire Emblem figures are just insanely hard to find and I'll take what I can get. Nintendo[footnote]other developers as well, but Nintendo I mean really all that trouble for Xenoblade and it becomes a huge success and they didn't even release enough to fill the demand for it. They didn't bother localizing the sequel to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. [/footnote] also has an issue with releasing certain games overseas if they don't believe the franchise has any selling merit. Hopefully the fact that Marth is one of the most impossible Amiibo's to get because of the insanely high demand and low availability, may help drive the point home that people like this series.[footnote]but I doubt it[/footnote]

 

[mythgraven]

Product once thought unavailable was given some time to be bought and sold, and was then given more availability? Color me shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

 

[Micah Weil]

Affordable collectable figurines with benefits.

Affordable and GORGEOUSLY crafted collectible figurines with benefits. Seriously, the only reason I want a few of them is to sit on the mantle and be beautiful.

OT: Between this kerfluffle and the "we're not putting out balancing patches every month for Smash", I'm willing to bet this is just Nintendo going "Hey, these things are what the other companies do, and it ruins the fun. We don't want to do that".

 

[FoolKiller]

Again, the wording is very vague, but it looks as though the amiibos that are currently flying off the shelves will probably return in the near future.

So that's the final word, at least for the time being, on amiibos. As always, our advice is to just buy up your favorite character if you happen to see it in stock, just in case!

Let me explain how it works.

The problem is the way they're trying to extort stores. The amiibos come in boxes of 4. But the store doesn't know which four are in the box. They just have to order some boxes and open them to find out. This is made more complicated by which wave it is. In wave one Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, and Animal Crossing Villager was rare.

Now say a store orders 50 boxes. They'll get 200 amiibos, but only two or three will be the rare characters. So you'll end up selling all rare ones quickly but have dozens of regulars left over. Now in Erini's screencap, Nintendo stated that stores will need to reorder to get the sold out characters, but that means that a store would have to spend more money to get a chance at getting those characters again while ending up with even more doubles of the common ones. It doesn't make good business sense from the store's point of view.

Now let's return to your favourite controversial store, Video Games Plus. Wave 2 was recently released and Little Mac and Diddy Kong are considered rare. Video Games Plus figures this out as they get only a couple. They then don't even sell them at retail, instead choosing to post it on Amazon instead... for $100.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/B00O982JSU/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1418745041&sr=8-1&keywords=diddy+kong

So now a store that sells the figure is selling it for more than 600% of the MSRP not only to make profit but to counteract the value of the stock they're going to be stuck with that they won't be able to sell.

This ends up being foolish from Nintendo's side as collectors won't actually buy the toys if they can't complete a set with reasonable effort.

As for stocking up on my favourite character, I can't because I've never seen the Wii Fit Trainer at any store.

 

[Rednog]

Honestly the way Nintendo is handling this just riles me up. It's obscene how hard it is to get your favorite characters. Damn near every store I called on release day, no one had a Little Mac. The few places I called and who had any clue pretty much told me that they pretty much only got a single one. Seriously Nintendo, wtf?! And it's not like I live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, I live in a major metropolitan city and these figures aren't available within 50 miles of me on launch day? I hope one day I'll want a Kirby or a Peach because damn near every other store is flooded with them. Seriously how can you put these out in such an obscenely limited quantity. I understand releasing them and then discontinuing them if they aren't popular, but for no one to have stock on launch?! Nintendo stop treating this like a treasure hunt, let people get Amiibos of their favorite characters. Seriously you want Amiibos to become a thing that gets integrated into other games...but you won't put them out in demand.

 

[FFMaster]

Do you remember that whole kerfuffle about discontinued amiibos [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138937-Nintendo-to-Discontinue-Less-Popular-Amiibos] we heard earlier in the week?

You mean the one that was based on a single retailers tweet that turned out to be utter rubbish, but was made a big deal off by all the sites reporting on it?

The one where it was dealt with last week when it was pointed out that they were always going to rotate the amiibos on offer, in fact they said it right at the start of the whole thing.

That one?

Let me explain how it works.

The problem is the way they're trying to extort stores. The amiibos come in boxes of 4. But the store doesn't know which four are in the box. They just have to order some boxes and open them to find out. This is made more complicated by which wave it is. In wave one Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, and Animal Crossing Villager was rare.

Calling citation needed on this one. Stores are not going to order stock blindly. Its entirely possible that they have to be careful of how much they make, since stores will not want statues lying around (take up more space than games) so both the stores are ordering conservatively and Nintendo are making them in conservative numbers. Currently estimated sales would put them at around a million sold, its hard to ensure you have the right ones.

They made more Marth's than Link's, and links were the ones in higher demand.

Can we actually get proof of this, I mean actual proof involving pictures or some sort of documentation, not just someone saying it happens because there uncle from Nintendo said it was true?

I mean believing someone without proof is what started this whole farce :/

 

[FoolKiller]

They made more Marth's than Link's, and links were the ones in higher demand.

Do you mean the opposite because it seems unlikely that they made more Marths than Links. There were and are Links in every store I've been to and I haven't seen a Marth yet.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

It may have slipped under the radar but Fox and Samus are discontinued at Target now. Of course they may be brought back into circulation after the holidays and this is only Target stores in the US...well...southern US...Anyway, I'll have pics up shortly.

Spoiler: spoiled because of large images

Anyway, I would really hope these hard-to-find Amiibo are going to come back into circulation. It would suck to have these be a single-run kind of thing but Nintendo has done this kind of thing before...though mostly with DLC...Lookin' at you Pokemon...

 

[Hazy]

In the event they do, stores really need to think about instituting a "one of each character per person" policy.

People go in and buy out the entire line, Nintendo moves in slow motion to make more, and we're right back at square one.

 

[144_v1legacy]

"Considering how much of the software has been updated to be amiibo-friendly, it would be weird for Nintendo to discontinue any of them so soon. The Amiibo initiative was an investment for Nintendo, and as such will have a longer payoff."

I said that in the last amiibo-cancellation-related thread, and I'm restating it now. If Nintendo were to sink so much money and then not have the products available, it would be strange.

I think there's something else at work, perhaps slight changes to the molds or something, and so shops weren't getting shipments until the new batches were ready. That's one potential hypothesis. Another is that some stores fucked up and jumped the gun saying "cancellation," when in fact, Nintendo just underestimated demand and is trying to get new ones to the market already. Another is that Nintendo simply sends certain Amiibos to countries that they are more popular in, explaining why the USA would get more Zelda ones, and it sends certain figures in smaller batches to the USA. Another hypothesis is that none of us are businessmen and therefore we have no idea what we're talking about from an economics point of view, and when it comes to market trends, this is typically true of gaming communities and their guesswork.

ps. still hoping optional higher-quality statues are in the works. After all, I imagine the chip is in the base.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

I don't even own a wii u but i want the shiek and the ike figures for my shelf. Ike is one of my favorite game heroes of all time and the fact that this is litterally the only figure of him i can find is kind of annoying. but nintendo would be missing a huge oportunity not to restock them at least online or other places where shelf space would not be an issue.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Spoiler: long explanation

Again, the wording is very vague, but it looks as though the amiibos that are currently flying off the shelves will probably return in the near future.

So that's the final word, at least for the time being, on amiibos. As always, our advice is to just buy up your favorite character if you happen to see it in stock, just in case!

Let me explain how it works.

The problem is the way they're trying to extort stores. The amiibos come in boxes of 4. But the store doesn't know which four are in the box. They just have to order some boxes and open them to find out. This is made more complicated by which wave it is. In wave one Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, and Animal Crossing Villager was rare.

Now say a store orders 50 boxes. They'll get 200 amiibos, but only two or three will be the rare characters. So you'll end up selling all rare ones quickly but have dozens of regulars left over. Now in Erini's screencap, Nintendo stated that stores will need to reorder to get the sold out characters, but that means that a store would have to spend more money to get a chance at getting those characters again while ending up with even more doubles of the common ones. It doesn't make good business sense from the store's point of view.

Now let's return to your favourite controversial store, Video Games Plus. Wave 2 was recently released and Little Mac and Diddy Kong are considered rare. Video Games Plus figures this out as they get only a couple. They then don't even sell them at retail, instead choosing to post it on Amazon instead... for $100.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/B00O982JSU/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1418745041&sr=8-1&keywords=diddy+kong

So now a store that sells the figure is selling it for more than 600% of the MSRP not only to make profit but to counteract the value of the stock they're going to be stuck with that they won't be able to sell.

This ends up being foolish from Nintendo's side as collectors won't actually buy the toys if they can't complete a set with reasonable effort.

As for stocking up on my favourite character, I can't because I've never seen the Wii Fit Trainer at any store.

That's the operating model for trading cards. But those are sold unseen to consumers. And a retailer wouldn't care that they don't know the exact contents of a box of trading cards, because they resell them without concern for the content, and let the end consumer deal with the mystery.

However, this seems like an incredibly dubious model to use if it's the retailer that has to deal with the uncertainty, because the retailer opens boxes and sees this variation in rarity, and their natural inclination would be to vary the price based on the rarity.
It seems like an incredibly bad idea, and I find it hard to believe Nintendo would do it...