Nintendo’s latest money grab: The Amiibo.
The Amiibo, which works by tapping a “Toy-to-Life” figuring (first made popular by the Skylander franchise) to your 3DS or your Wii U gamepad, can have an impact based on which game you are playing.
What started out as a broken Super Smash Brothers AI, hitting for more then the average player would, turned into a takeover at Nintendo. Suddenly every character is getting its own Amiibo, Super sized Amiibo’s are releasing, and Animal Crossing creators have even admitted they made Happy Home Designer because they wanted an Amiibo functionality for their characters as well.
Nintendo has also been known to go back and forth on the issue as to whether they are actually reprinting Amiibo’s or doing limited runs, and because of this, have only sold 14.7 million Amiibo’s worldwide as of June 2015. 7 million of that in the US alone.
The Skylander phenomenon has sold over 240 million units. Just for a comparison.
The ability to create people hunting eBay for the Villager Amiibo, or limited edition Amiibo’s that become even harder to find then regular Amiibo’s has led to small stores selling them for upwards of $50. And selling them well.