Nintendo Teases Animal Crossing Amiibo and "NFC Cards"

Although Nintendo's first wave of Amiibo toys have yet to hit retail, Nintendo is already teasing that future forms of the NFC-powered toys could extend beyond Mario, Peach, and Zelda figures.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained during a recent Q&A session with analysts that not only is the company planning to make more games compatible with Amiibo, but that the Japanese firm has a bolder vision for how the GamePad's NFC functionality could work someday.

"We are thinking about making many more games compatible with Amiibo from next year," Iwata said during the presentation. "We do not think Amiibo always needs to take the form of a figure, either. We believe that Amiibo could take a variety of different forms."

Iwata revealed that Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is already working on "multiple ways" to use the GamePad and the NFC functionality "more aggressively." It could be as early as next year that we get to see what Miyamoto has been cooking up, Iwata teased.

"We do not think Amiibo always needs to take the form of a figure" -- Satoru Iwata

"Some of our products in 2015 might be a result of this new focus," he said.

Miyamoto also spoke during the presentation, saying that Nintendo's goal for the Amiibo toy line--and whatever comes next--is to make gamers feel a "sense of wonder." He explained that in order to differentiate the Wii U and 3DS from the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, Nintendo needs to make the gaming experience feel like the user is playing with a new toy.

He also revealed that the Amiibo product range will eventually include cards.

"For example, when Amiibo become cards, we can create a game which can be played only by passing several cards over the NFC reader/writer, and the results will be stored in the Amiibo card," he said. "I cannot discuss any of the details today, but Amiibo has the potential to propose new ways to play card games."

Some of Nintendo's other future Amiibo plans, Miyamoto said, involve launching "smaller and even more affordable" figures so that the toy line can appeal to a wide variety of users. He said he's even thinking about how Amiibo can be used for Animal Crossing games in the future.

"Wii U has so many attractive features, and we have not been able to communicate all of its charms yet" -- Shigeru Miyamoto

Meanwhile, Miyamoto admitted that Nintendo focused too much on the dual-screen nature of the Wii U (i.e. the GamePad/TV functionality), instead of showing gamers the unique capabilities that the GamePad's built-in NFC could provide.

"Wii U has so many attractive features, and we have not been able to communicate all of its charms yet," he said. "We are still making efforts to demonstrate the potential of Wii U even today, we have to admit that we might have focused too much on the unique uses of the two screens. We should have put more effort into using the NFC functionality much earlier, but we are now moving forward with projects that make use of NFC in a variety of unique ways."

The first game to support Amiibo toys is Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, which launches on November 21. Mario, Link, Samus, Fox, Donkey Kong, and Pikachu are among the figures featured in the first wave of figures, though more are coming in December.

Amiibo toys will only work on Wii U right away, though Nintendo plans to release an adapter for 3DS later. In addition, the New 3DS--available only in Japan right now--features built-in NFC functionality.