It's hard to hate Nintendo. After all, they are behind many beloved franchises, including The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and the Metroid series. But their latest venture, the Wii U and 3DS compatible amiibo, has managed to antagonize a large number of its consumers. This is as a direct result of shortages in stock, and Nintendo's subsequent failure to act on their promises to improve supply.
When amiibo were first released to coincide with Super Smash Bros. Wii U and Super Smash Bros. 3DS, they quickly became the must-have peripheral for gaming fans. The only problem was that demand for the items greatly outweighed the supply. This meant certain figures were almost impossible to find in stores and online. These included the likes of Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, and Villager, which sold out almost immediately upon being released.
It soon emerged that scalpers, intending to sell the figures for inflated prices, had somehow managed to buy these items in bulk. This meant that fans were to be deprived of the digital content associated with the amiibo, unless they were willing and able to part with extortionate amounts of cash.
Another option available to consumers was to wait for a restock. Though this method did not guarantee that they would eventually secure the amiibo of their choice, given the fierce competition for the items. The above also meant that younger gamers, without the disposable income or the means of store hopping, would go without.
At one point, the demand for the items was so high that Amazon and other online stores were giving specific order times to consumers, so as to grant them even the slightest chance of getting their hands on the rare figures.
The second and third waves of amiibo were faced with very much the same problems as the first. Rare figurines once again found their way onto eBay, selling way above their standard retail price. In addition, some areas saw counterfeiters begin to profit from deliberately misleading desperate customers with inferior goods.
Replying to the shortages, Nintendo gave customers the excuse that they did not anticipate the demand for the product. This would perhaps be an acceptable justification, if it weren't for the problems associated with the previous waves of amiibo and the marketing campaign they undertook to entice even greater interest in the product. From the aforementioned reasons, it can be suggested that Nintendo knew amiibo were going to be in high demand, and simply failed to produce an adequate enough supply to retailers.
Many have even begun to accuse Nintendo of limiting supply deliberately in order to drum up interest in amiibo, something they have been accused of before in relation to the Nintendo Entertainment System and Wii consoles. If this proved true, it would be a contemptuous practice on behalf of the company, considering the growing necessity of amiibo to unlock additional in-game content. One such example of this is with the Splatoon amiibo, which grants access to additional gear and challenges in the game. In this case, the rarity of said items has meant that players are being denied content that should have been available to all upon release, and not just to the privileged few.
Nintendo have since commented again on the amiibo shortages in an exchange published on Game Informer. In their response, a Nintendo service agent blames retailers for the lack of amiibo on store shelves, rather than taking responsibility for their own mistakes regarding the production and distribution of the figures.
Given the events surrounding the release and sale of amiibo, it's getting increasingly hard to be enthused about a new batch of characters being introduced. This is because there is no guarantee that players will actually get their hands on the product once they have officially been released. Hopefully Nintendo will soon make amends for this. Though, at the moment, the outlook is poor.