TOKYO: Never discount Nintendo. The revered, if beleaguered, game maker has seen some tough times recently, but recent news is looking up. The company made some of the best games out of an otherwise troubled 2014, and it’s apparently paying off: the Wii U just had its strongest holiday yet, with console and software sales went up 29 and 75 percent, respectively, from December 2013.
The 3Ds also recorded its best month ever for first party software, with Super Smash Bros. and Pokemon leading the pack. Of course, that’s Nintendo doing what it’s always done: making games and selling consoles. What’s more impressive is what it’s doing with amiibos.
Amiibos are basically Nintendo’s take on the Skylanders/Disney Infinity concept: little NFC figures that you can use inside their games. The big differences are that Amiibos can be used in multiple games (with some kinks that may be ironed out, eventually), and, naturally, that they feature Nintendo characters.
That second one is probably more important than any actual functionality — amiibos have become collectors items overnight, with harder-to-find characters rocketing in resale value and speculation taking hold with each successive wave. Nintendo says that total Amiibo sales were “nearly twice” those of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a purposefully obtuse figure that sits somewhere around 2.5 million. At $12.99 a piece, that’s a strong start for what could become a very important product for the company.
Amiibos, like collector’s edition consoles, are a way to leverage the intense and dedicated Nintendo fandom. It’s a smart, high-margin way to generate some revenue by working off of the company’s existing assets. But they’re more than that, too: they can, to some degree, drive software sales into the future.
After all, once we’ve got these amiibos, we want something to do with them. It resembles ecosystem building of the kind that Playstation is doing with its Vita integration, except in a uniquely Nintendo-ish way.
Nintendo has always treated its games more like toys than the ultra-serious world of modern AAA games, and that comparison has become a little more literal with the amiibo platform. Nintendo has a long way to go in that department — both the Wii U and the 3Ds could benefit from closer relationship — but this is an interesting start.
I’m interested to see where this goes: the Wii U arguably remains the best buy out of any current-generation console, and the 3Ds remains the king of the dedicated portable gaming world. And while it’s unlikely that the Wii U will ever truly compete with the PS4 or Xbox One for this generation, Nintendo could still find some measure of success on its own terms.
