Topic: How should Nintendo deal with amiibo shortages?

As you all know,trying to find amiibo figures is really crazy right now.So,how do you all reckon the Big N should handle this situation?I think trying to encourage retailers to order more figures for sale can work so there's more amiibos for everyone.

Maybe let an outside source mass-produce them?

They already do that. And the problem is that demand is outstripping supply and Nintendo wants to release more amiibo

Set up an online store, so if you can't find an amiibo, you can order it from there and have it shipped to you... and if you're lucky enough, uou'll get a defective one which will sell for thousands on eBay.

The solution is to keep doing what they're doing. The Super Mario series was pushed out in huge numbers, stock for some of the Smash Bros waves are slowly coming back. They need to do the same for some of the earlier waves also. But eventually it'll get to the point where there'll be different forms for multiple characters. Some of which will be much easier to get a hold of. At which point only the really hardcore Amiibo collectors will be "forced" to go hunting for the Amiibo they want.

For example I wanted a Luigi and hadn't at any point seen the Smash Luigi. I also kinda thought that the Smash Luigi was kinda crap. But the Super Mario series? They're very easy to get a hold of and so now I have a Luigi. Problem solved!

I wonder if Nintendo set up an online store that never ran out (just shipped when they had stock) if that would help. That way people could place orders and if it takes 3 months for them to produce enough to reach your order then at least you got it. I know I would use that

Skywake's solution isn't a bad one: if they make multiple versions of different characters it might make collectors nuts, but it's less likely characters would be impossible to find.

I think other solutions are: reserve some of the stock until a month after launch. They're clearly making more of some characters or shifting stock about because Donkey Kong was sold out for awhile, but I got mine a month or two after release and that character is still available. My other idea is: release card version simultaneously. I'm definitely not buying all characters for Mario Kart outfits, but cards should be a lot cheaper and less popular with collectors and would allow people who are primarily interested in game content to just get on with things.

They should produce a lot more units. Obviously they are losing a lot of money on second hand sales. Just imagine how many more Villagers they can sell if they produced it. A lot. They are losing money because they cannot meet demand. It happens again and again for Nintendo, for years and years.

I would say this more so for retail stores than Nintendo themselves, especially the ones with exclusives to limit purchase quantity to one online per household and maybe up to 2 in-store per person for at least the 1st day. That way it cuts back on the scrapers in front of you at stores and the unfair bots with mulitiple accounts online.

For Nintendo side, just keep reproducing the amiibo that is hard to find and annouce it, like with Marth.

"Well, obviously they should make amiibo cards for those figures just like that new Animal Crossing game." - no one ever

I think it'd be better to limit it to just one per character per customer. And not just for the first day, outright until the store has enough stock that they don't sell out in the first 5mins. I know some people are buying one for their friend but how can you prove that? And what about the dude just behind them in the queue? And sure there are people who legitimately want one in the box and one out. But what's the boxed copy for anyway? To resell down the road right? Shouldn't the dude next in the queue have a chance to get it before the dude ahead in the queue can do his "maybe down the road resell" thing?

I've actually been in a queue for Amiibo twice since launch. The first time nobody really knew how bad the scalping would be or which ones would be rare. So they just picked their favourite characters. I was about 10th in line and there were still Wii Fit Trainers and Villagers. People were buying Mario. The second time? I was 5th in line and the people infront of me were trying to buy out the shop. Some with two sets, some with more. Person behind the counter refused. I just wanted Bowser, Megaman and Dedede which it seemed everyone else also wanted (at least). If she had allowed people to buy multiple sets I would have got nothing. If she allowed "just" two? I would have got just Bowser. I walked out with Bowser and Megaman.

I think that in a similar way to the voting for SSB4 DLC, Nintendo needs to have a fan vote to see which amiibos that are no longer available need to be brought back, such as Pit, Fox, etc.

@GreatGoateeGuy
But they already have that list

I only have two suggestions:
1. Try to produce more amiibo
2. Limit the exclusive deals with retailers thing. Seriously.

Pay for more shelf space. Have as much shelf space as Skylanders has if not more. If manufacturing is a problem at the moment, promise us an entire reprint of every amiibo that faced shortages throughout 2015 and 2016, but make them in higher quantities since they know how popular they are now.

I would say they should hurry up and finish the "waves" just go a few months of just reprinting and restocking. Don't worry about new waves for a little while. That would probably help. We don't need a new wave every two months, especially since we get Amiibo functionality so limited in our games. The next wave should release with the next game that supports amiibo in a similar way as Smash or Mario Party.

Shelf space doesn't matter if you can't manufacture the demand. Nintendo may have to get a second manufacturer for the US and Europe at least

I think nintendo underestimated the demand of the less popular characters amiibo. The mario and peach amiibo is everywhere and its annoying me so much.

And neither were on the top 10 selling list

Well, they weren't in the "most % of stock churned through" list but....

I mean we can complain that there are "too many Marios" all we want but... you can't not get Mario. Of course they make a lot of Mario. They made a lot of the more common characters because they knew those would be the characters that'd sell the most. Imagine how much louder people would be complaining if it was Mario rather than Wii Fit Trainer that was impossible to find....