The future of Amiibo and its risks

So after having finished reading this thread on Neogaf, I'm becoming further concerned about Amiibos, their booming popularity, and the inevitable role and impact they're going to play and hold on Nintendo's future software.

Nintendo understands the power of its IPs, and I suspect it is going leverage that power full-tilt into coercing gamers to buy their toys if they want to get the most out of their games. Given their astronomical popularity, you can bet your bottom dollar that Nintendo's now going to start shoe-horning Amiibo's functionality into their games more and more until they are a necessity and an integral part to its enjoyment, and I don't mean small bonuses. Mario Party 10 already requires an Amiibo to unlock a game mode. Consider that for a minute. A game mode is now unavailable until you go out and buy an additional $13 toy. This is not a skin nor a superficial pleasantry. Shovel Knight also has co-op locked until, yep, you guessed it....an Amiibo is plunked down for. Yes, it's a third party game, but MP 10 is not.

I fear a future where we are going to get Nintendo games that are no more than shells content-wise that will then require numerous Amiibos to unlock it to its fullest potential. Why should Nintendo invest in big AAA games when they could produce smaller budget titles bereft of content (or at least bereft in comparison), only to have it be contingent upon their toy figures awaiting your wallet on store shelves modeled after much beloved, longstanding characters to fully unlock? Considering how Amiibos have exploded combined with the pull of their IP brands, it's a no-brainer for any business to do this. Gut or lock out content in your games, still charge full price for them, and then tie them into $13 toys.

Do I want to believe this is a future Nintendo will take? No, but from a business standpoint it makes perfect sense. I'll just say that if Nintendo is turning their business towards pursuing such a strategy wholeheartedly with the NX, I'll have nothing to do with it, or them in general.

One of the many reasons I will never buy a Nintendo console.

Not a fan of their role in games. And hearing that about Mario Party and Shovel Knight. That stuff is just awful. That's DLC gone mad.

It's definitely cause for some concern. I don't want to believe it, but evidence seems to be pointing in that direction.

just imagine next smash game, f2p with amibos, to unlock a character you have to use his amibo. f2p at its finest, in order to unlock all cast you have to pay around 300$ , games industry is destroying itself a little by a day. it all started with dlc which many like myself hated cause we could predict how this would go. then the small payments, the preorder bonuses,money to join beta ,buy the demo,the freemium game trap (there is a guy that paid 10.000$ in ffrk,alot of people are doing 100gem pulls each banner, its like a wow subscription, these companies make a shitload of money from anaware addicts)

i cant see us returning to a full normal priced game anytime soon. this will only turn worse. we already have tons of microtrasnactions even on console games,this is one reason i still dont have a "this gen" console, the companies milked last gen to death and in this gen instead of going under for 1-2 years and then make a profit they released hardware to make profit from day 1 and software that makes them profit with different ways.

anyway nintendo's first big move is pokemon go,once they see how much profitable this is they will make mario /fire emblem etc adaptations to mobile, squareenix most profitable game is ffxi then ffrk.....and the game has been out for 1 year only. companies will follow to milk the cows.those are the problem people willing to spend 1000$+ for a single game. first world problems .....

People at NeoGAF like to make a mountain out of a molehill more than people here do. At least we don't be around the bush about our biases and our rationals for them might be amusing to each other, we poke holes in each others positions, point out contradictions and hypocrisy, they keep us engaged with each other though rationalizing our positions, it keeps us self aware... or, we get a rise out of each other for shits and giggles but we keep coming back for more. Over at NeoGAF, it's a Sony fan circle jerk where they ban anybody who doesn't toe the line; and I heard they ban anybody that with a difference of opinion and thought it was hyperbole until it happened.

I wouldn't put much value in what they say. I don't feel cheated out of Mario Kart content because I need an Amiibo to unlock skins and whatnot, the core game is there these are minor things that do give Amiibos some value but not important value. If anything I just like collecting the figurine, or the idea of that. Only own two launch Amiibos, Link and Samus, still want Zero Suit Samus, saw one at Fry's didn't want to get it then but will get it as they had a ton, want a Little Mac still as he's my favorite character after playing the game, oh and word is Bayonetta is coming in DLC so I definitely want that if they have a good one. I'm not so obsessive compulsive I'd let this get abusive, I'm already too hooked on traditional gaming to let something petty get in the way of my unhealthy gaming addiction financially.

What it seems to me they're talking about (gauging by what you say) is hypothetical, like if Amiibo becomes Disney Infinity... well, hey, guess what, if that were the case it'd be a lot more content than what is currently offered now with them. Why worry about it? Nothing I've seen yet really makes me worry about how this can ruin games. Hasn't seem to hurt Hyrule Warriors, Smash, Mario Kart so far. I doubt they'll let the NX ruin itself by going anti-consumer overboard.

This definitely has the potential to get out of hand. I have appreciated that so far, no major content has been locked behind Amiibos (Mario Party 10 actually. Ones with the Amiibo needed to unlock its extra mode, incidentally), but I can easily see Nintendo going overboard with this, particularly given statements made by Nintendo's top brass of late.

I do like Amiibos as collectibles- but I don't think that important data should be gated behind them. I think Smash Bros. did it best.

I agree about Neogaf's mods....it's like a dictatorship sometimes. Meh, still trying to get in as despite this they do engage in some very informative and respectful discourse but you do have to walk on eggshells it seems. Plus, developers often go there after game releases to chat with the players (Ori and the Blind Forest's director did).

Amiibos do present small value right now, but that may be changing now that Nintendo has seen their proliferation and popularity. Nintendo might abuse this, and it looks like they're already taking steps.....as I linked, there's a game mode locked out in Mario Party 10 until a Amiibo is bought. That's not minor, it's a major omission (and apparently a very desired mode by past Mario Party players) locked behind the toy. So this isn't hypothetical anymore. Only one game so far, yes, but then again, Kimishima only recently came out and gave that interview elaborating on their plan to incorporate Amiibos more into their games.

There's a very real danger here, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see increasing amount of content and features placed behind them.

Let me ask you guys something. How many of you have actually used the Amiibo mode in Mario Party 10? I bet the real answer is almost none. I see a lot of concern, real and fake, when it comes to slippery slopes and what they will do with Amiibo in the future but remember something. This is Nintendo. They're the consumer friendliest company in gaming today. MS comes close though. In the end, Nintendo is doing what they always do, which is innovate and evolve gaming because the others refuse to do it. So I say lets get on board and enjoy the ride.

Years later, my amiibo will still be here, when traditional gaming has moved on from the games you wasted all that money with DLC and Season Passes and MTs. I can be buried with my Toad amiibo and that is something you can't do with any other DLC from any game. Like usual, Nintendo is giving more than they should.

I don't care for Amiibos because you have to buy the toy just to get the DLC. I don't want this junk, but I would like the additions they afford. It's not major content, true, but it's still content. If Nintendo offered these cosmetics as separate MTs or little DLC paks (like 5 Amiibos in one, say) I'd buy them. But not at $13 a pop for only one that comes with something I have no room for and just want to throw in the trash.

Nintendo's offered some of the best DLC I've seen (Mario Kart), but Amiibos are problematic because they lock minimalist (yet still desirable) additions behind a toy that is far more expensive than what those additions are worth on their own without giving me any option to obtain them otherwise. If they did, my issue would evaporate instantly, though not if they still attempted to lock modes or significant content behind them, which it looks like they're looking at doing.

I am just uncomfortable with the whole notion of any DLC being put in a physical toy with no options to get it elsewhere for digital products. It excludes an entire subset of gamers of content (big or small) if they don't desire the toy, and in my view is a business model that is not only ignoring that audience, but is at the same time bursting with the potential for immense abuse and exploitation.

So you're saying that you'd pay for the digital DLC that is behind the amiibo? Because I bet that Nintendo does that in the future. They'll call it E-miibo.

Nintendo has some of the most anti-consumer practices in the industry. Accounts tied to hardware, something both Sony and MS haven't had for years but both curiously never get any credit for, yet many ignore Nintendo's failure to implement such a basic digital consumer right that's been the norm for past a decade. Region locking? Excluding an AC adapter for the 3DS and charging consumers extra for a basic component to any hardware? These are not pro-consumer in any sense, in fact they are insanely anti-consumer. I wouldn't say Nintendo's more so than the others, but they are no angel.

You're correct in your assumption. I don't even own Mario Party 10, yet I don't need to for my argument to hold merit. The reality is that it has happened: a game mode has been locked out behind an Amiibo purchase. Let's say, hypothetically, that the day arrives where various Amiibos are required to be able to unlock the green stars in a mainline Mario title. I imagine that still wouldn't bother you because (I'll go out on a limb here and take a guess) you own mostly all of the Amiibos, but I don't, and don't want them either.

Nintendo IS giving more than they should in this case, I can't disagree with you there.

@bunchanumbers: I hope so, because I would pay for it. I just don't want to be forced to buy the toy. Good name for it too.

No proof or even valid inclination that they'll lock serious content behind amiibos in the future. They'll never go beyond anything novelty.

I find it sad that there's only a handful of meaningful Amiibo Functioned games that use Amiibo properly and make me buy more.

They are Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart 8, and Super Mario Maker.

and that's it. Amiibo Party is trash, Mario Party 10 butchered the series and how am I supposed to enjoy the unlocks for Code name S.T.E.A.M. if Nintendo can't stock Fire Emblem characters properly?

Splatoon however is the worst offender, keeping most of the fun of Single Player locked behind amiibo doors and also rewarding you with some good beginner gear for the online. Purely awful.

Lets just hope Nintendo makes a great Amiibo game in the future that just doesn't feel like a cash grab.

This is what I'm banking on. A big game that uses amiibo and in a meaningful way. Amiibo needs a sandbox adventure game. They can use it as a way to test online in genres they don't normally have online like platformers and side scrollers.

I'd say the worst amiibo locked content was Splatoon where it felt like single-player levels were locked behind an amiibo paywall. Mario Party 10's wasn't that bad, I mean the game mode was just meh. I think the problem with amiibos is that it's hard to balance between making them worth buying, but not putting too much into them, and Nintendo is still trying to figure that out. The stock issues are becoming better, I've been seeing amiibos that used to be completely impossible to find in large quantities at GameStop, however Nintendo will need to find a way to give amiibos worth, without hurting their main-line games. That may mean dedicated games just to amiibo, but some people will be worried too many resources going towards amiibos. It's hard to say what they should do imo, but their biggest mistake with amiibos so far was Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, a game with so little to do and a game that revolves entirely owning amiibo (we wanted real AC)!

Honestly I think the BEST use of Amiibo is making Mario Party again but making it Amiibo Party.

No not like Animal Crossing Amiibo Party again and No not like Mario Party 10's Amiibo Party, I mean A DAMN GOOD MARIO PARTY 1-3 STYLED AMIIBO GAME.

A Game that you can royally screw your friends with secret Star Blocks, Harsh Minigames, and BS Rewards towards the end because you landed on that Green tile one too many times. A game where Master Hand or Bowser could come up and take all of your coins or you do a weird minibattle game because you landed on the same space as your friend.

Yes I'm talking about bringing back that old classic Mario Party, but this time you get to play as your Amiibo. Squid, Inkling, Shovel Knight, Marth, Ryu, Mario, Shulk, ChibiRobo, Yarn Yoshi, Mewtwo, Megaman you name it, just attach that Amiibo to your WiiU and play as them on this Magical Virtual Board Game of Slapping your Friends and Family across the face.

Nintendo won't do that however because Mario Party 10 and Amiibo Festival are just garbage and shows the creative talent they have for games like that now.

Glad Xenoblade dont use amiibo

I think you're kinda stretching though. I sincerely doubt that Nintendo will go so far as to prevent you from completing a game because you don't have an associated amiibo. That would be counter intuitive to what Nintendo does. Also, you said that you would buy an E-miibo, but not an amiibo? It almost sounds like a 'Get off my lawn' statement. Nintendo is introducing a new permanent way to have DLC be with you forever, and across multiple games. This is far better than any other game maker, publisher, or developer has ever done when it comes to DLC. Why would you pay for a digital DLC you can't keep with you but not for a physical collectible that will be with you for the rest of your life?

I am 100% against Amiibos. I don't want to buy a little statue in order to unlock certain things in games. I didn't buy Mario Party 10 because of the need for Amiibos to unlock one of the modes. I don't like it and will not support it.

It sucks but that kind of a future is already a reality for the other consoles, the main difference is that Amiibos are a physical media and the content they offer for the most part is insignificant, which kinda makes it a little easier to swallow.

But at the end of the day if they run with this model and start hacking their games to pieces or if half the game is locked behind a subscription fee, then i wont support them simple as that.

Microsoft and Sony made it very easy for me this gen hopefully Nintendo doesnt follow suit.

That's missing the point. The DLC value found in an Amiibo is far disproportionate for the price I'm forced to pay to be able to access it (regardless if I'm able to use it on every Nintendo game from then on). That I have it forever or can use such superficial trivialities in the same manner on so many games does not increase its intrinsic value to $13 for each skin in my view, however that doesn't mean I don't still want it if I could have it otherwise.

Think of it this way: what is on 10 Amiibos is probably worth to me (at best) around $5-10. Yet if I want all of it, I have to end up shelling out $130 to obtain it, to then be further burdened with useless junk I couldn't give a shit less towards. Now I don't know how you view such a DLC distribution system like that as "far better" than all the others, but quite frankly, I consider it to be pretty anti-consumer because Nintendo is not giving me any option aside to pay out the ass far above what that content is worth, or miss out on it. Those are my only options. The minimal DLC is tied to a toy that I neither want nor need, and that's where the majority of my money is going towards when it could be going to more pertinent content if Nintendo compiled them in groups and sold them aside at a reasonable rate. But they don't (nor do I believe they ever will), because this is exactly what they've intended.

I'm sorry, but that's a bit fucked up. And boy, you better believe that we are going to see hundreds of Amiibos the way things are going. Again, not a problem for you as you more than likely own and are interested in procuring them all, that's cool, but personally I have no room or desire for them aside from what's on the chip, and I believe what will be put on that chip in the future is going to be far more relevant to their games than simple skins and cosmetics.

Relax, this is Nintendo not Activistion.

You wanna know how many amiibo I own? I own one.

Toad. I don't even own Mario Party 10 and I'm not feeling like I'm missing anything. But I do plan on buying the Splatoon 3 pack. I want those minigames that you get from the group waiting screen and I play Splatoon every day. I feel that I should give Nintendo more money for the time I spent playing the game. Since I can't buy DLC to further my support, this is the closest way I can. See the thing is that you only buy what you want.

There are actually very few that want everything. Otherwise you'd have people preording tons of different stuff just to get some crappy digital skin before launch. There are very few people in your hypothetical situation about wanting 10 amiibos. And it doesn't particularly matter if its worth $5-$10 to you. The price is whatever the publisher dictates. What it is worth to you didn't stop the horse armor from happening. It didn't stop MTs in Destiny and CoD and it didn't stop every other scheme to get money out of you.

In the end, you decide if its worth the asking price, same as any other DLC.

Codename STEAM had four characters behind a stupid paywall of amiibos. Think about this, to play with all the characters in the game, you'd need to spend an extra 52 dollars. It's bullshit.

Well Nintendo needs to make money some how

I think they're worse than DLC. Because either the content was already on the disk, (something we rightly bash capcom for) or you have to download a patch to unlock the features that the amiibo is supposed to unlock, so why would I have to buy it in the first place?

Bottom line, Nintendo jumped on the dlc bandwagon and they do scummy things just like Sony and MS or any other publisher.

I'm absolutely concerned about how badly the NX will suffer because of the amiibo dlc plague. It's pretty rough that a whole game mode is held behind a paywall for a legit game, never knew about that.

>I have more Amiibos than bunchanumbers

The four characters in question were Fire Emblem characters; characters that were completely unfitting in the Codename Steam universe anyways and I'm assuming had zero story relevance for that game. I haven't started the game yet but I'm sure whatever characters you normally get through just playing the game are more than enough to beat and compleete the game also. Codename STEAM was actually a pretty smart implementation of amiibo. Sure, having the FE characters would be kind of neat, but not having them in Codename STEAM doesn't really lessen the game because as previously mentioned, they have zero relevance to the story or universe of the game (I'm assuming), and I'm guessing they don't drastically alter the gameplay either.

So far the only questionable amiibo implementation for me so far are the ones TC mentioned, ie Mario Party 10 and Shovel Knight.

I had no idea they were locking on disc content behind a amiibo pay wall. That's pretty shifty and I can see it going further down the toilet.

@DJ-Lafleur: What the hell? No! Hiding guest characters behind a paywall is a very bad thing. 13 dollars each! How can you not see that that is bonkers! It doesn't matter if they are guest characters. You had to pay 13 dollars each and that's bullshit.

Season passes cost money. Extra content costs money. Pay up or shut up.

I collect amiibo for the figures, not the DLC or unlocked content. Have they gone a bit crazy with all of them? Absolutely, but they kind of suck you in once you buy a few. I've been interested in every amiibo that had been released thus far, so I have them all to this date. I'm just glad there is an end in sight with the SSB series. I think I'll slow down after that.

Let's try to leave anecdotes aside here, because they neither strengthen nor weaken the argument that I'm/you're making. They're irrelevant to the point.

"See the thing is that you only buy what you want".

That right there is precisely the problem. I disagree, I believe there are many people that want everything but are prohibited due to cost. I want the DLC, I don't want the toys nor could even afford them if I did. So how can I buy only what I want? No, if I want a skin, I have to shell out for a whole toy and that's 95% of what I'm putting my dollar towards. Currently (according the Wiki), there are around 89 Amiibos on the market (someone correct me if I'm mistaken). For all that DLC.....that's $1,157. Don't think that I'm not interested in that DLC in the collective, or even half of it (which would then be at the bargain price of $578 for a compilation of skins) whereas I probably could've gotten it for $30-whatever had they sold it separately. Sure, each Amiibo itself may hold minimal DLC, yet it piles up into something I want, yet is placed behind an insane paywall that overshadows everything else yet seen in this industry.

People claim scummy practices? You cannot even BEGIN to compare Season Passes or whatever else to this. Season Passes grant you far more relevant content, extensions to their games, and value for their cost which is ultimately (and relatively) much cheaper than what Nintendo is asking for simple skins at prices that are ludicrously high for the DLC found within them. Anybody with a reasonable head on their shoulders with a sense for the dollar knows that what Nintendo is charging is not worth the asking price (at least for DLC....if you enjoy toys, have at it). But please, I laugh when people try to argue that the DLC found in these figurines is worth the tag. It's not even close.

It will be best for Amiibos to carry VC games instead of DLC rubbish.

Tatsu amiibo incoming, the DLC unlucks a sound option menu in the game and being able to remove Tatsu altogether. Would be the first one to line up for that amiibo and I don't own a single one.

I don't know how any other games work but I know Hyrule Warriors works with amiibos that certain ones unlock weapons, yes freaking weapons....$12.99 for a freaking weapon(s) unlock.

The only amiibo I have is Ike, I certainly don't want to take him out of the case cause I consider him as a collectible in a way, plus he's mother fraking Ike.

I never thought I'd buy any of it, from anyone. then Disney Infinity 3.0 came out. Good thing about that it's locked to that particular game, but you can spend hundred of dollars on figures, power discs and play sets.

Problem with this is as you outlined. Locking content of any game behind an additional purchase of a figure.

Nintendo can go suck a dick if they think I'll buy any of it.

'lll more than likely skip any game entirely if they lock content behind them.

**** off.

Since Sony and MS dont have such a figure/implementation outside of specific games like Infinity/Lego/Skylanders, I dont have to worry, but if they did implement it and release their own figures, then yes, they can go suck a dick too.

*spits on Wiiu*

It would be interesting if Sony and Microsoft will follow Nintendo and create figures similar to function of amiibo since it is so successful.

It's DLC and you get a little figurine with it. I can understand being against DLC in general (which I am because I like to have a game, not just pieces of it), but Amiibo's specifically?

I don't need the figurines. I would love an option to buy DLC without the Amiibo's, and I think the Amiibo's would still sell well without the DLC. But man... some people in this thread act like expensive DLC is a Nintendo thing.

Ugh. Please no.

This is more or less how I feel. Amiibos are a fun little add-on, and if they want to put extra stuff on them (Mario Party 10), cool.

But co-op? That's kinda nuts. Though maybe it just gives you a CPU controlled partner like Yoshi's Woolly World?

That Season pass that the others offer are for only one game. And the game is usually forgotten in 2 months. Amiibo works across multiple games and are eternal. Also not to mention that some games work for certain amiibos. Splatoon amiibos work with Splatoon. This means you only need 3 amiibos to unlock everything. Mario Party 10 uses 6 amiibo. You're acting like you absolutely need to have all 89 amiibos to work with one game. There are amiibo sets that your average consumer won't buy like the multiple colored marios and the ziplash amiibo.

Lets face it the big star of amiibo is Smash. I sincerely doubt that there are a giant group of average gamers sobbing because they couldn't get a silver mario.

I don't think it will get to the point that story content will be locked if you don't buy the amiibo. Or it will be season pass kind of bad. The worse thing I can see happening is Nintendo making a Skylanders type of game where the amiibos are required to play as certain characters.

Certain developers/publishers get hell for including on disc DLC that requires further payment yet Nintendo gets a free pass for doing the same thing with crappier DLC, albeit DLC nonetheless?

Yeah, it is a real enigma and the height of corporate corruption. People like having game content stored on a physical medium (an art object no less) vs. pixels downloaded on a hard drive or stored on a server somewhere with a “trust us agreement”.