Nintendo Has Big Plans For Amiibos In The Future: Card Amiibos, Cheaper Toylines, And More

Nintendo already has expanded plans for amiibos for future games.

This was brought up in Nintendo’s latest investor meeting, in the Q&A following positive news of Wii U and software sales. Nintendo may also be emboldened seeing how preorders for the figures have been on the upswing.

They are planning card amiibos as the first in many potential lines for nonfigure based amiibos. This made mention of the GBA e-Reader cards when talking about this. Those cards could hold extra levels , bonuses, even full games, granted, the most basic 8-bit NES games, in them.

Another possible fork is a cheaper line of figures than the Super Smash Bros toys. This is speculation on my end, but could these cheaper figures possibly be at the same quality as M.U.S.C.L.E., or the more recent Trash Pack toys? It may also open Nintendo up to the idea of using the Skylanders/Disney Infinity model of gating certain content in specific toys, since consumers won’t be spending that much if they wanted to be completists.

They are also considering using the figures in Animal Crossing, although no details have been shared. They could, again, go the Disney Infinity route and gate specific player models, or they could repeat what they’ve done forSuper Smash Bros and make amiibos that aren’t vital, but add something novel and fun to the game.

Also in the works are ways of keeping amiibo games like Mario Kart 8 popular and profitable longer, and even more uses of the NFC reader.