Topic: Predicting the Amiibo craze Lifespan

I've read about 3 things talking about the impending death of the Amiibo craze, and even comparisons to beanie babies. How long do you think they have left?

Unless more and more games start using them, or more special versions are produced, I don't think these things will be a big craze in 3-4 years. There just isn't enough content unlocked with each Amiibo (besides the Splatoon ones).

Dunno, but I'm going to continue buying them. I reckon it will last longer if they start doing a game along the lines of Skylanders and Disney Infinity. Something similar to Mario Maker, but allowing us to mix series would be awesome.

The craze only came alive because some amiibo became rare so once enough supply is there for the demand the craze will die a little.

That depends on Nintendo. They could make this into their own Disney Infinity or Skylanders type franchise or continue to make it this "hot" item for an exclusive club of collectors. The former has greater potential and could give the amiibo fad a longer shelf life but they'd have to make more supply in order to do that.

I imagine once the last of the Smash amiibo are released it will start to decline.

I almost feel like Nintendo is under supplying to fuel the craze.

If Nintendo keeps doing what they're doing, I'm guessing people will eventually get fed up and the craze will die down a bit. When supply can't meet demand long enough, I'm guessing eventually demand will drop. How long that will take is anyone's guess. Hopefully once the smash line is over, the only line left will be the super Mario one, which they claim will have ample supply

I hope I outlive them

Maybe the cards will help end it if the cards reprint things like Marth?

I dunno, how long will Wii U last?

Because I think Amiibo and Wii U's ends are gonna happen around the same point.

Good point. Unless they carry over to next gen?

I think the difference between a beanie baby and an amiibo is:

A beanie baby is just a stuff animal full of beans

An Amiibo is a highly detailed inexpensive (if you can find them in a local store) figurine of your favorite character from the Nintendo universe.

I don't know if the Amiibo train will slow down, but I think if Nintendo started to produce greater numbers of them that would help calm the fire a bit.

A dedicated game franchise that is built around amiibo would significantly increase the lifespan of the amiibo's I would think.

I don't see why Nintendo would drop Amiibo any time soon. They're not tied to the Wii U (because they're also usable on the 3DS), so I believe Nintendo will keep the Amiibos coming as long as they think they can do something with them (and make a profit off of it).

Besides, lots of people love buying little knick-knacks and merchandise. Why stop Amiibo while people like that exist?

Never, infact I think amiibo are more likely to replace new games than amiibo dying out.

they'll try.

I think they'll keep supporting Amiibo. It's not like the NFC-reader tech is hard or expensive to put into their hardware and Amiibos have, I would assume, a pretty high profit margin. We'll keep getting new ones as long as it remains profitable. It's not like there's a shortage of characters (and variations of characters) to go through.

But the "craze"? My guess is that the frenzy will die down after they've gone through the Smash Bros series. Once the only characters we're getting are things like Super Mario Galaxy 3 pose Mario, Metroid U pose Samus and Zelda NX style Link? I doubt people will be still be breaking websites trying to get their pre-orders in.

I'd hope the current Smash wave preorders would lead to website improvements so they don't break by lets say when Zero Suit Samus is made available to preorder (I expect ZSS to be the most popular of the remaining Smash ones).

Maybe they will do some sort of Amiibo V2 thing with the net gens hardware. Kind of like the Disney Infinity figures.