A huge feather in the cap of Nintendo coming out of last week’s E3 was the introduction of the Amiibo , a tiny figurine themed in the styles of your favorite characters (which will integrate with various games).
While an innovative concept, it certainly drew comparisons to other products already in stores. Both Skylanders and Disney Infinity have carved out a nice piece of the market for themselves already, so some suggested this was simply Nintendo’s attempt to jump on this bandwagon. Marketing Exec Scott Moffitt, however, insists this is simply not the case. Touting how their product is different than its counterparts, Moffitt states, “We want to be different. We want to create innovation and Amiibo is a perfect example. We didn’t just mimic what’s been done before with Skylanders and Infinity , we are bringing out a whole new idea in this toys-to-life gaming segment.”
While the notion that the new Amiibo are a “whole new idea” might be a bit of a stretch, the integration with the Wii U (specifically the GamePad itself) is certainly unique to Nintendo. “”It makes ours a great value,” he goes on to explain “as parents don’t have to buy a starter kit…I don’t know how many of those portals people are going to want underneath their TV…Maybe it’s better if we standardize and there’s one portal and we hope the GamePad could be that. We’re already the destination of choice to play those games. Maybe everyone can align on using the NFC in the GamePad.”
Amiibos are intended to allow players to house their important stats of characters like Link, Mario and more, which can be downloaded into the figure and upload at a friend’s house or even into other games that support the feature.