Nintendo Outlines Confusing amiibo Save Data Limitations

Not a problem for me.

Only one game at a time...?

Ah, classic modern day Nintendo.

Tells you the figures work with multiple games, which they do, but if you use the figure on a different game you'll lose all your data from the other game so it kinda makes the whole multi-game thing a bit of a hassle. I expect there will be a lot of people who end up wiping their save data by mistake, unless it's made really clear during the scanning process etc exactly what it happening (although some people will surely still mess up), and I even think there might be a few people who will go out and buy duplicates of the same figure just to try and get around stupid limitations like this; which is great for Nintendo but not really great for the consumer.

It's probably my fault. I should have seen something like this coming.

It's good since they don't need to make game-specific amiibos (which cost more money for Nintendo) for not-too-popular characters. They'll just use existing Smashmiibos.

Edit:
Say I buy Peach amiibo now, but I find her useless in Smash. And then came Mario Party 10 with better amiibo implementation, then I'll just reset her and use it for MP10. Some people fail to realize that this adds more value to their amiibos and doesn't limit developers on the use of amiibos.

Much as I love Nintendo's games, their hardware as it relates to storage capacity, is woefully behind the times.

Forgive me for seeming incredulous, but is a 32 GB Wii U the absolute LARGEST capacity console they can offer? My iPad has that much space on it, and I would hardly consider it to be a dedicated gaming console.

While Nintendo should never leave behind their sense of creativity and insistence on releasing Fun to Play games, they really need to welcome themselves further into the 21st Century, in terms of technical specs.

Bummer.

This is a bit unfortunate. I think they've sort of rushed out amiibo. It seems they're still not sure what they want the functionality to be themselves, but just wanted to get figures out there after seeing the Skylanders success.

Right now I'm drawn to them more as little figurines of my favourite characters as none of the functionality is particularly appealing. I don't see myself using much of AI fighter stuff in Smash, so most of my figures will literally just be shelf ornaments. I wonder if we'll ever see a full game built around amiibo like the Skylanders and Infinity games.

Amiibo's are further becoming useless and just sound like a way to lock content away unless you buy one "pre-programmed extras, in the form of Mii race suits and items.".

No - you have 2TB of space that you've either connected using an external hard drive, or that you've somehow retrofitted into your device.

Much as loathe to compare them, the PS4's introductory internal storage capacity is 500GB; the same for XBOX One. If you're going to try to shift people over to downloading software, you need to suck it up and start offering consoles with expanded internal storage capacity.

Only 4kb memory really?

I'm not certain you understand how downloading games works...it's the same, whether you download it off of XBOX Live, PSN, or the eShop. You're downloading the entire game to the HDD. The only difference is that the Wii U doesn't come with the basic storage capacity to accommodate more than a handful of games without having to spend another $50-100 to expand to a larger external drive.

Come on now, if you can have a 64GB micro SD card, you can have a 10MB chip inside an amiibo figure, Nintendo.

Buy a funny flash drive... instead of amiibo...

it can't 'be possible for more memory in a nfc chip like that

So, an Amiibo will basically go with one game but provide a few extra benefits in others. That's a consumerist business model and consumers will ultimately decide whether it's worth it. Will they bought just as figures by some collectors or as gifts for relatives?

Just to clarify, could the WiiU store the data instead of simply wiping it so that it could be re-transferred to the Amiibo as more compatible games are released? Could that work?

That's fine with me. I'd rather lose a couple hours on my Mario figure, then spend 13 bucks on a new one.

@Sakura

This is the problem; it's not exactly clear how it all works when we have to start thinking about multiple games and multiple sets of Amiibos that will use the same Nintendo character but maybe in a slightly different guise and pose; like if there's a Smash Bros specific Mario Amiibo (the current fireball one), a Mario Kart specific Mario Amiibo (maybe in his Kart) and a Mario Golf style Amiibo (probably with his golf club) for example.

At the moment the way I'm now interpreting it is that there will be sets of Amiibos specific to a particular game and you'll basically store the main data for that game with those particular Amiibos and then you can additionally just use those Amiibos with some other games in a limited capacity to open up some small extras that don't really have any direct affect on the Amiibo itself (it's internal save data) .

THEN on top of that there's this kind of confusing and blurry idea that you maybe might still be able to use game specific Amiibo sets, like the Smash Bros one, fully with other games too but you'll have to wipe the Smash Bros specific data first to do so, at which point it becomes really confusing because your Smash Bros Amiibo is now really used as the main Amiibo for some other game.

It's a little bit confusing.

What I get from this is that most games will read data and only a few will write data as well.

What a pain for people who switch between games regularly. Once more games use Amiibos like smash Bros does its Gonna be a real HASSLE for people who play a different game every day and use Amiibos. Silly move Nintendo, should have seen it though really, shame....

Meh.....it's a collectible that has uses in games. Most people are going to get their favorite character and set it on a desk or shelf and smile. Unless they release a true open world Nintendo Adventure then the rest is just fun extra's for a "character" fan.

I think people are blowing this out of proportion a little bit. This is pretty much what was expected right? For example, when I 1st heard of amiibo my first thought was the ability to scan in your favorate character into other Nintendo games and this is kind of what we are getting thus far with the exception of Smash

@PinkSpider

I'm now kinda thinking the point is you're not supposed to keep switching Amiibo's like that and if Nintendo comes out with a new set of Amiibos specific to say Mario Kart or Animal Crosing for example then they expect you to really go out and buy those game specific Amiibo as your main set for that particular game, rather than wiping the Smash Bros data from your Smash Bros Amiibos just to use them fully with Mario Kart.

So; you buy your Smash Amiibo set for Smash; your Mario Kart Amiibo set for Mario Kart; your Animal Crossing Amiibo set for Animal Crossing. and you use each of those sets primarily with the game they were made for but you can also use them just to open up some simple extra bonuses in a bunch of other games too, without having to wipe them.

Nintendo's going to be selling a lot of different Amiibo sets for multiple different games if this is the plan and it's going to be great for Nintendo's bottom line but potentially very expense for the more avid Nintendo gamers and collectors

It's probably not quite as bad as I might have feared, in terms of complexity, but it's probably also not quite as simple and ideal as I might have imagined in the first place either; although, to be fair, I guess if I were paying attention I would have realized that this was the plan along because Nintendo did basically say as much from the start. I actually kinda did know this what how it was going to work but for whatever reason I didn't want to see it fully

I really feel that Nintendo are making it hard to be 100% convinced that Amiibo are worth purchasing.

@Kirk There is no point of a Mario Kart Amiibo set, since Mario Kart doesn't write data.

The issues described in the article are just potential future issues, if there will be future games that will write data to an Amiibo. Huryle Warriors and MK8 don't write data.

@PinkSpider
Would you prefer to buy and spend more on a game-specific amiibo or use/recycle your probably unused Smash amiibo on that other game?

That's not much of an issue right now, but it's bound to become a roadblock later on. Let's just hope that Nintendo either provides a backup management for amiibo data, or that other devices can write on the NFC chip so we can at least create backups manually.

@jariw

But it would if Nintendo decided to release an Amiibo set specifically for it, or any other games in the future, and simply added the code into the game(s) to work as such.

Mario Kart doesn't have Amiibo writing support at the moment, as far as we know, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen. It probably won't but it certainly wouldn't shock me to see a Mario Kart specific Amiibo set with all the characters sitting in karts (would be a big hit no doubt), that maybe lets you create special character specific ghosts or open up unique character specific tracks or whatever. It's a great way to extend the life of the game even further, say six months down the road, and it's exactly the kind of thing Nintendo has been talking about regarding extending the life of its game etc.

I wouldn't be surprised to see specific Amiibo sets for basically every major Nintendo franchise to be honest. Christ, if I were running Nintendo that's exactly what would happen. It kinda just makes sense given the whole business idea behind Amiibos.

@BensonUii no I wouldn't want to lose the many hours its gonna take to level up all the Amiibos in smash Bros to have to delete it if a Nintendo style skylanders game cane out

@Kirk Correct, but this is a thing that could easily be solvable through an OS update when indeed a new game with amiibo write support appears, as @Kaze_Memaryu suggested above.

In fact, since an amiibo is connected to a specific user, I would even say that the amiibo system is already prepared for back-up or swapping between different game data. Since the NFC technology is very fast and the amount of data is low, the process can be made pretty quick.

@S-Miyahon The PS3 in 2006 had 60GB, not 500GB. But 60 is still better than 32.

The only reason it should ever need to be on the figure is if you want to use it with somebody elses Wii U. Backing up and restoring should be something you can do.

These amiibo figures are getting worse and worse. They should act as a key code where their data is cloud based tied to your nintendo network ID so no need for built in memory.
They should have game jumping facility to actually take your personalised character into any game, not just "unlock a scarf" that is pathetic, worthless and pointless.
Amiibo has been designed poorly. Though to be fair skylanders is even worse. Buy a game, then buy figures from us to unlock characters you already have in the game we've already sold you. The figures are pointless apart from to steal money from grabby kids. The whole skylander dynamic borders on the same immorality as 3000% APR pay day loans

This is just how RFID chips work. The data they hold is miniscule. The whole point of the chip is for near field detection purposes. I don't think people have a good grasp on the limits of RFID technology at the moment.

not impressed with this whole ameebo thing tbh...seems like a cash-grab, something the kids and hardcore nintendo fans will buy without a second thought.

A little bit disappointed with this news to be honest. One of the features that really appealed to me was cross game support, and although never mentioned anywhere, I had always presumed that I could level an amiibo up on smash bros. , say to level 23, then take said amiibo and use it on MK8, thus giving you a bit more of a challenge than that provided by AI, whilst at the same time, leveling up a little more and then returning to smash bros. with say a level 25 amiibo!

I get the technical limitations, what I don't get is the point of it all. If you put aside the data storage support for one game, these end up being what? Rather expensive, "physical" DLC for a handful of games, with not particularly inspiring content to boot (so far)?
It would have made sense to have e.g. Link and being able to build a virtual "persona" within the toy. Adding stats from games like SSB, MK, Hyrule Warriors, the upcoming WiiU, and having those feeding into another ... for example unlocking a WiiU costume by having a specific set of data from one/all the other three games present.
THAT would have been pretty cool, and would have create a form of long term commitment to these toys, esp. if you could take them with you to a friend, and have all these "DLCs" readily at hand.
Again, at this point, with such severe limitation, I do not so what it is all about. There is no Skylanders/Disney Infinity application for this - so why bother (Not that personally I'd care for either, but I do get why it's popular).

I had a feeling this would happen, well I'll forgive you Nintendo if you release a Toadette Amiibo once Captain Toad supports Amiibo.

I can see how this can be an issue down the road, but at the moment I couldn't care less.

I thought they said they weren't going to lock away content behind amiibo? Oh well. Like a lot of people here, I am not too fussed on the functionality. If I get them, they'll likely stay in the box anyway.

@mjhopkins81 He has an external, just like many , many u owners do-"retrofitted"..umm ok, I bought my 2tb external and my U all for less than the cost of a ps4 or One..even got a free game thrown in..

I'm still failing to see the appeal of this amiibo thing. Basically you scan a toy and let the computer play for you? Is that an accurate assessment? If so, exactly how is that fun? What is the player supposed to do in the meantime, read a book?

If there's a workaround like the one described in the article, as well as a thorough explanation of the workaround for those who don't understand it, then there's not really a problem.

I think people are blowing this outta proportion. This is only an issue with games that write data rather than just read it. Also remember the current figures are mainly intended for Super Smash Bros and act as a bonus in other games

Makes sense given the storage limits of the NFC chip. I thnk they mentioned earlier on that they were making more figures for other games. I still think it is pretty nifty. Get the full use in smash and tons of smaller usage in other games since they don't write to the figure. I do hope that if they keep amiibo for the next system (and next smash) that they carry over something.

I'm more fascinated by the possibility of Amiibo cards. I could have a thousand card deck and keep scanning it with different games. I think these figures are short term, and more for the collector. Reading the posts above, it seems the collector/hoarder has gone off the deep end.

Dammit Nintendo! First the pee-stand Link, now this... DON"T SCREW THIS UP!

The one complaint I read over and over about amiibos is "it doesn't do much on the game to justify my purchase".

I hope Nintendo will make a Skylanders-like game that rely heavily on amiibos to unlock content. That way these complainers will understand that Smash amiibos are meant to provide "extra" features and contents to some games like Smash and MK8 without breaking these games for non-amiibo users.

Well obviously if Nintendo is smart the amiibo management on the system will allow you to back up amiibo saves to your console or external storage when changing games, I'm pretty sure they know a 1 game at a time with no way of keeping each games data would be a bad sell point. Everyone is most likely getting paranoid for nothing. Lets remember skylanders and Disney infinity can only be used in one game and no one is complaining about that. Have faith, Nintendo knows what they are doing.

Not a problem, the games just need to locally auto save your amiibo data to the WiiU/3DS storage, without you having to aways go to a menu to manage it, and prompt you when your amiibo's data will be overwritten.

Seems like an issue they should have worked out ahead of time. Kinda dumb.

If they give me the content promised on other games then it isn't a problem for me. Maybe they would come up with a solution to this soon if they are going to do more Smash related stuff like possibly a new game using the figures

Well this does explain why there is NO Skylanders like game, it would overwrite your progress in SSBU, the amiibo are "either / or" toys. Well except for the DLC they unlock, which they weren't supposed to do.

So all the time Nintendo has been saying how these are better than the other NFC toys b/c they support more than 1 game they left out the part where if you use them in more than 1 game if will erase all the info from the previous game, so they are only good for 1 game at a time.

And the original Skylanders figures now work in 4 games - Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Swap Force and Trap Team - and all the data they have collected over all 4 games remains the same. Yes the newest figures only work in the new game, but Giants figures work in 3 and Swap Force figures in 2, meanwhile amiibo work in 1. How is that better?

If Nintendo didn't go out of their way to promote these based off the other NFC toys maybe it would't bother me as much, but that is how amiibo were presented to us - they work in more than 1 game unlike the others therefore they are better. That's intentionally misleading.

An ddon't forget, Skylanders do a goo djob at maintiang their upgrades b/c they are always on the portal. With amiibo you just tap them to the Gmaepad and then put them aside. If you level them up for a couple of hours and then forget to tap them back before turning off the system I wouldnt be surprised if you lose all that work. And as a dad who is always calling his kids to dinner and they are rushing to finish something and come up to eat I can imagine them forgetting that last step occasionally. Hopefully the game will store the info until next you play, but we don't know.

I think its no problem for say someone the just buys their favorite character, they get a CPU buddy they can train and bring over someone else's house to beat their CPU buddy, sort of like pokemon.

As a bonus, you get tiny extras in other games. I don't think Nintendo's marketing and sales expect people to buy amiibos for the bonuses. I think they expect people to buy them for the Smash Bros. functionality.

I wosh there was a way for the Wii U itself to store the data and the figure just allowed access to it. That way I could use 1 figure on multiple games and if I was going to take my figure somewhere I could upload the save data. Maybe in a future patch they could do that

@Peach64 agreed. hopefully they look as good in person... Cause if the quality is shoddy, that will definitely affect sales.

Haven't they more or less said this already? They said that some games might require specific amiibos to do whatever there is they do and some games simlpy need any amiibo. Unles they make other games that does something similair like smash bros i really don't se a problem.

@BensonUii Heck! I don't even want a new game per se... But how about (DLC) Nintendoland that incorporates (not dresses, not skins) full on Amiibos? Or Wii U Party? THAT would give those games a bit more replayability, AND the much needed exposure (Ala WiiSports last gen) for the Wii U. Just an after thought... Besides, it's always easier to come up with solutions after someone else has done all the work.

@Platypus101
But it'll be difficult to implement on existing games without some major alterations. Building a game from ground up with amiibo in mind seems easier. Plus you are locking contents on those games for those who already purchased it and aren't planning to get amiibos.

Edit:
I get your point. They could offer free DLCs unlocked through amiibos but they should also offer a separate unlock for non-amiibo users through buying in the eShop. But I can only see it possible when the amiibo's "serial number" is tied/registered to the NNID to avoid exploit.

We'll cross that bridge when we get there, right?

As mentioned by Tom, this is old news. Nintendo is also releasing NFC cards and smaller NFC figures in the future, compatable with the games.

Those saying this is all just a cash grab...............yup, that's what this is, a business profiting from the latest trends, completely expected. (And asked for by many fans if I'm not mistaken)

I see your point... but the deal here is to get people to buy the Amiibo. No one says "I can't use X character in Skylanders/Infinity until I but it?! That sucks!" In fact, it works the other way... Kids continually nag their parents till they get the next toy to unlock X content... And not having a feature because you didn't pay for it? Well, that just makes plain sense.

I think it is a bit early to get upset or disappointed with the Amiibo. It is obviously an evolving idea (I guess you could be upset about that), but look at the way Big N has supported the Wii U in terms of frequent system updates, DLC, etc. Sure the Amiibo have a limited use ATM with MK8; raise you hand if you know for sure it will be like that come in May of 2015 DLC#2. There may also be data storage workarounds as TW mentioned. I can see customers buying 20 different Amiibo before buying a duplicate; and I think Big N knows that.

Pretty unfortunate that they didn't include additional memory in these things considering how expensive they are (at least put in a 1GB chip). The figures themselves don't look to be that high quality for the price tag.
Whelp, not like I had much interest in these anyway. I WAS considering getting Charizard, Shulk, and the Fire Emblem figures, but I don't think the cost can be justified anymore considering how limited these things are.
Though if they were to make Neptunia amiibos....

Well, they still may make a game like Disney infinity and the data can maybe be in the game already, then scan a amiibo but you still get its content.

Does the Disney infinity figures save data on them?

Does any of you "tech-guy/galls" know if amiibo will be working region-free?

The news seems bad but I don't think we'll know just how legit this is until the second game comes out. For someone who is on the fence, this doesn't sound good.

This is disappointing. I'm going to be very careful how much I spend on amiibos until I figure out how much value they add to my gaming. Right now it doesn't seem like much. It seems like most games adding amiibo support are only adding the ability to unlock mostly cosmetic items. This might grab some peoples attention, but not most. Amiibos are only going to sell really well if they are essential to some games. Right now they are very much an after thought and being added to most games in non-exciting ways.

So let me get this straight:

If a game saves onto the Amiibo itself (ie: Smash Bros), I won't be able to use it on another game that saves onto the Amiibo without deleting the previous data?

However if a game that saves onto the Amiibo itself (ie: Smash Bros), I can still use it on games that don't save onto the Amiibo (ie: Mario Kart 8) without looking any data?

Doesn't bother me at all, it seems most of the games will be read only anyway

@AVahne @Yorumi You two need to do your research about NFC chips, because neither have the capacity nor capability as the flash storage chips you're thinking they are.

Well they did say a long time ago that these would only be for ssb while other specialized amiibos would be for other games.

@Jazzer94 It needs to be said that the primary reason this content most likely exists is to provide incentive to purchase Amiibo, to say it's just locking away content is short sighted. Without Amiibo one could argue Nintendo would have little to no incentive to provide this extra content as it's primary function seems to be in selling Amiibo's as it's unessential to the actual game.

@Omarpixel9 Find some evidence of a 10 megabyte NFC chip even existing before saying things like that. It is hard enough to find ones a mere 1024th of the size at 10 kilobytes...

@SanderEvers I'd be interested to know where you found that info. It is plausible and to be honest that info seems to be hard to find for these sort of products and also how their storages compares to Skylanders and Disney Infinity. I do get the impression that 4kb is on the larger side for an NFC chip (as most functions seem to be less than 512 bytes).

Anyway, because of that I won't fault Nintendo for not putting bigger chips but I will fault them for not including data management (given you can register them to a user it seems silly not include this). Then again look at the data management of the Wii U in general, can't have have a the sensible solution of saves on internal, everything else on external, but you have to have a whole game (game, saves for all users, DLC and updates) in the same place.

But maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit as Amiibo data management could always come when some games come out that use them outside of read-only mode.

Thinking of that being locked keys, Nintendo thought so too as the boxes have a strip in them (gameexplain video) so you have to take the Amiibo out of the package to use it. This avoids not opening them, scanning them in the box, unlocking stuff and then returning them to the retailer.

@Discostew
I never said that they had flash memory capabilities on their own. I'd like for them to be able to move data they recieve from the NFC transfer to an internal memory unit, like on an Android phone. Then again, these things don't have their own power source.... Oh well

@mjhopkins81 You just want to pay more or in the very least get less functionality for the same thing. Purchasing an external hard drive is by far a preferred option, you only need to buy what you need and if your system ever breaks the hard drive that comes with the system is useless and you paid for that component in the price of the console. Simply comparing the Wii U's way of going about it to the XBOX360 you can clearly see why Nintendo's way is much better, you see that ridiculously expensive hard drive add on you can get for the 360 is useless if your XBOX breaks whereas if your Wii U breaks you can at least use the hard drive for other things, why would you want less compatibilty out of your components. To further illustrate my point consider how expensive those Xbox HDD's were in comparison to say a Western Digital drive of the same capacity, the value just isn't there.

I don't really know how to feel about this news. As of now, there aren't any games besides Smash Bros. that will also write to the Amiibo, right? And the other games will simply see if the Amiibo figure is Mario, Link, Samus, or whoever else for different in game bonuses?

At the moment, I don't see a big issue with it. I'll likely only have my data saved on the Link figure I plan to get so I have the data when I go and play with my friends. As for Mario Kart 8 and other games, they'll give me whatever bonuses come with them, so that'll be cool.

Also, I don't think buying multiple figures will be an issue either. Collectors already buy everything. That's why they're collectors. And if there are game specific Amiibos, if people want the Amiibo features used in their games, they'll get the figures they need. If they don't, they don't have to get the figures.

As for the storage space each Amiibo has, I don't know if that'll be a big issue for me because if it reads and writes quickly and works like it's supposed to, I'll be satisfied. I don't need the price of the Amiibo figures any higher just to give it more storage space when every game in my Wii U library won't use it anyway. If only a bit more than half of the Wii U's library uses Amiibo and only a portion of that writes to the Amiibo, small storage space shouldn't be an issue. And besides, having a bunch of little figures on my desk won't upset me.

@Yorumi @AVahne NFC chips simply do not have the storage capacity to hold the amount of data that other storage solutions can. There aren't NFC chips that are MBs in size, let alone GBs, that could fit in such a small package. They're all in the byte to KB range (max being around 4-8KB). They aren't like HDD, SSD, or even Flash chips like you'd find in USB drives or the Wii U's internal storage. These are un-powered chips that can only communicate with NFC devices because those devices produce an electric (or magnetic) field that powers the chips so they can be read (or written to).

@Discostew
I never said that the chips themselves have much memory in them. I'm saying that they could've put in another chip for storage that the NFC chip could transfer the data to and from. NO ONE is saying that the NFC chips have memory. You're putting words on our fingers.

@rjejr Skylanders has been out how many years? Of course it's fully compatible with more games. Duh. At launch it was compatible with 1 game, just like Amiibo, and unlike Amiibo it fails to provide additional content in any other gameplay experience. It's so early in Amiibo's lifespan i fail to see how it can possibly be prudent to make such definitive statements on the functionality and compatibility of Amiibo's. If Nintendo announced you could save Amiibo data on the console, to avoid it being lost on an overwrite, there would be no issue with using the same figure across multiple games. Skylander figures can't save data, if Nintendo or a 3rd party wanted they could use them in the exact same way as Skylanders and in the future they might, however the key is they can also use them in new ways that isn't possible with the Skylanders figures. Many of your compaints have to do with implementation, which will most likely vary from game to game, and not to do with the ability Amiibo's have in relation to the Skylander figures. With Amiibo Nintendo now has incentive to create new content for games that otherwise wouldn't exist, where as Skylanders makes the figures a necessary condition to gameplay and provides the reason for the game to exist in the first place.

I saw this coming the instant the things were announced...but it's actually worse than I thought it might be. I expected maybe a short selection of save files, like you have to pick 12 StreetPass titles max. ONE at a time is INCREDIBLY restrictive...but it won't matter until more games trying to write to them release anyway, so it's all academic for now.

@Kevlar44 Terrible justification for the given situation happening, the costumes in MK8 could have been sold for £0.99 each or 5 for £3 (or free even) instead I have to buy a piece of plastic at around £10 just to get access to one costume and everything shown so far is except Smash (and even then the Smash feature is lacklustre) is stuff that doesn't even need an amiibo but has it shoe horned in to make money for the big N. As a corporation that's fine as they exist to make money but what I don't get is there are always fans defending it like it is okay when it isn't.

As long as I can change the game with the same amiibo, I'd be getting more than I expected from those comments at E3... Surely some of my Smash Bros fighters won't be as valuable as to not change their game.

@Jazzer You don't have to do anything. If you want to play Mario Kart 8 you have to buy a Wii U, even though it was developed and can run on a PC, because that's how business's work as they need to entice the consumer with incentives to purchase their products. The DLC you can access via Amiibo is simply the equivalent to video games for consoles, the DLC/games are the reason you buy the Amiibo/console and the DLC provides a reason for the Amiibo to exist in the first place. I don't see why you think Nintendo has to build a business platform most convenient to you and not to their bottom line, it's certainly not unethical for them to provide content to justify the existence of a platform. I myself would never purchase DLC skins, but i'm going to buy an Amiibo and i think the added functionality to say MK 8 is a bonus. Also your argument is ridiculous as in the long term paying individually for each piece of additional DLC the amiibo unlocks would actually be more expensive, and a far less certain business proposition for Nintendo to undertake in terms of profitability (i.e. nobody wins). Amiibo provides Nintendo with a platform that ensures the production of the DLC will be met with a market. You don't need to purchase an Amiibo, you don't need the extra content, and you can't assume it would make enough business sense for Nintendo to develop said DLC unless there was an adequate incentive via profit. Do you actually think it's a slam dunk this content would exist without Amiibo? Do you think it's a slam dunk this content would be profitable without a platform to sell it on? Like i said earlier i think the MK8 costumes are neat, but i would never pay money for a cosmetic addition, however i will most certainly take advantage of this content via Amiibo because the usage in Smash Bros. is what has provided me with the incentive to invest in the platform in the first place, and the additional content in MK8 only goes to further justify my purchase. Seriously your complaint is paramount to complaining you can't play Nintendo games on your PC just because it's possible. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it makes business sense to do so, with regards to DLC and Amiibo it's one hand washing the other and of the other didn't exist you may end up with a mess on your hands.

I don't see the issue. It's either this or make an exclusive lineup for each game. This is the price we pay for the figurines supporting various games down the road. I have no issue with it.

@Kevlar44 "As a corporation that's fine as they exist to make money but what I don't get is there are always fans defending it like it is okay when it isn't."

"Also your argument is ridiculous as in the long term paying individually for each piece of additional DLC the amiibo unlocks would actually be more expensive"
Currently no way to prove this but if it helps you sleep at night sure..........
Everything else you're saying is just painful, and are trying to create lacklustre reasons to justify buying an amiibo it is like personal reassurance and this is not remotely the same as playing Nintendo consoles on PC because they are developed on PC please lets not start with stupid hyperboles.

Isn't there six more amiibo to coming in December?

@Hyperstar96

Sure; that's the problem here

PS. Been gaming since the days of the NES and before. Probably a lot longer than you.

@Jazzer You just ignored my argument after i went through the effort to address yours. Terrific, thanks for the consideration.

Everything i said is true, content is what justifies the platform. There is nothing unethical about what they are doing, if it doesn't appeal to you at the price point then don't buy it, that's how supply and demand works. I'm far from a fanboy who justifies whatever Nintendo does, it's just plainly obvious that Amiibo has been developed as it's own platform and it requires content to justify it's existence.

I fail to see how an example based on principle can possibly be hyperbole, increasing the scope of the argument through analogy to a more pertinent topic is a respected way of framing an argument. Nintendo doesn't want to minimize their profits or increase the amount of risk they undertake just so you can purchase DLC in the way you see fit, just like it doesn't want to make first party games available through other means even if it is easily possible. Also i fail to understand why you couldn't actually answer the specific questions i asked you... oh wait i think i figured it out, is it because you can't maintain your since of entitlement/rightness and provide a logical answer at the same time? I'm thinking so that's why instead of a rebuttal you choose to point out that an apt analogy is somehow representing of a logical fallacy. Please tell me how the example i gave you isn't pertinent? I think i've described above and in my previous comment how it quite clearly applies. I've never had these issues with logic in academic or professional settings so i have my doubts my usage of an analogy is somehow so inapt that you ought to disregard my whole argument. It seems to me that you are dismissing my argument because you are unable to mount a sufficient rebuttal. I've won a lot of debates through cop outs just like yours, so i'm not going to fall for the notion that an argument regarding principle is somehow inapt due to the greater scope it entails. Analogy's aren't fallacies, disregarding them because they relate to a greater issue isn't illogical as the degree of impact doesn't change the underlying cause and effect.

@rjejr The difference between Skylanders working over multiple games and Amiibo working over multiple games is Skylanders all have the same data set, whereas Amiibo will need a different data set for every game. In Skylanders, they just store level, coins, moves, and maybe one or two other things. It's the same across all of the Skylanders games so they just need to update data in the existing data set on the toy. For Amiibo, they would need one data set for SSB, another for Mario Kart 8, another for HW, etc. With the NFC storage limitations, this just isn't very feasible.

To those people saying you have to pay $13 for a tiny bit of DLC such as the Mario Kart 8 outfits, that's just simply not true. You pay $13 but you get a decorative and collectible figure first of all. This alone is worth most of the $13. But to go even further, you're not buying it for content in one game. It provides you with content over multiple games which, individually as DLC, would cost a lot more than $13 typically. Especially if you consider that the number of games that will gain content from one $13 Amiibo purchase is not limited. We will be gaining Amiibo content from now until the end of the Wii U cycle and probably beyond if they maintain the NFC functionality in future consoles. That's worth way more than $13.

I'll just get about 3 to try out and enjoy them. Then I'll have to wait and see what the future holds for this whole figure platform.

@Crillan - I know and agree w/ everything you said. But the way Ntinedo originally presented the amiibo was that they were better than the other 2 b/c they would work across multiple games when this obviously isn't the case. Unless maybe you want to mess around w/ swapping and storing save data on your Wii U, but we don't even know if that will work.

Yeah...it looks like amiibo is going to flop. Nice job, Nintendo.

@rjejr But they will work with multiple games, so to say it "obviously isn't the case" is just a lie. It won't work as you expected, but it will work as they said.

I think Nintendos version of toys with video games is still alot better than Skylanders or Disneys version in terms of value and replay value , Smash Bros. seems and looks to be a massive game as well all the extra games in which scaning one of the toys unlocks game extras be it skins , weapons , outfits etc.., is AWESOME if you ask me . The people on here complaining have not played Skylanders or Disneys Infinity go look up how many uses the toys from those two have - I can save you some time and tell you they are game specific .

Oh well, I am sure Nintendo can sort this out ^-^

I'm not paying $12 for a plastic figure that can only store one piece of data. For that price, you think Nintendo would think that if they plan to incorporate these figures into many other games, the amiibo should be able to support that.

@Hyperstar96

L

O

L

This is already too confusing for me. My fiancé and I will be steering clear of this fad; we'll just have fun playing games instead.

I wonder how difficult it would be to make an app that can backup your data for you.

@Knux Really? How?

I will just wait and see what else these things can do on other games. But for now I will not be getting one.

This is dumb and confusing, but I can deal with it.

Eh, it's not a big deal. Assuming I'll eventually be getting multiple amiibos, I really only need one or two of them set aside for full Smash Bros. functionality.

Ugh, can't we just go back to reading/writing saved data to game controllers (like how you could use Wii remotes to store Miis/Brawl controller mappings), and then scanning AR cards for games which simply read data (like KI:Uprising)?

@mjhopkins81 Speaking as someone who owns both a PS4 and a Wii U, I respectfully disagree. The PS4 has far more internal storage, granted, but that is running out quickly for me. My only option is to open up the console and put in a bigger hard drive, and the options for 2.5" drives are expensive and only afford me up to about 1TB. External drives may be supported one day, but if its anything like the PS3, I won't be able to store games on the drive, which makes it basically useless.

Whereas with the Wii U, I can hook a 2TB drive up to it, which set me back $100, and store all my game data on there. I've basically only used about ITB of internal storage. I think that's a far better option than what Sony offers.

I wonder if the Rosalina Amiibo will unlock any goodies in MK8. She's currently my goto racer although the DLC Cat Peach is a hottie.

A Waluigi character would be cool too although he's not on the Smash Bros roster but you can still play him in MK8 and potential future party/sports titles.

I may collect a few of the figures just to display them as well. If each Amiibo only stores save data for one game, sounds like a ploy to me to get gamers to buy multiples assuming more games utilize the save feature.

I have been through enough external hard drives to know that i don't trust their longevity.... Ive never had a problem with a consoles hard drive failing me. Ever. And Not everyone has superfast unlimited internet at their disposal to redownload these games over and over when these drives fail or act up. (Let alone the time or patience) People these days are oblivious to that fact.
Nintendo is basically making u invest in a third party to play their downloadble games.

I for one prefer my games to read off a console, I'm paying for them so their should be adequate space supplied on the console if they expect downloadable games to sell. So the whole buy an external drive is a silly thing to say. I should be able to download more than 2 hd games i want to my wii-u.

I am first and foremost a nintendo fan but i too have a ps4 and and an xbox one....nintendo always misses the ball when it comes to storage. Enough said. That applies to these amiibos as well. Nintendo makes it hard for the consumer by cutting such ridiculous corners.

Well that sucks. Hopefully, Smash will be the only game to ever write to it, or this is gonna be a real pain in the arse, real fast.

@Crillan - "but it will work as they said"

B/c everybody who buys an amiib will expect to either lose all their save data for each game they play or have to back it up to their Wii U? OK, Nintendo didn't lie, they were just masters of obfuscation.

@rjejr They did say in August already that you will lose data when moving Amiibo from one game to another. Just because you didn't read it doesn't mean they're obfuscating something. So no, they didn't lie and they were up front about how it works, unlike you saying it won't work across multiple games which is a flat out lie.

Someone else already posted this link but I'll show it again:

"Amiibo will hold the information specific to the game that you are using it in, and then when you transfer it to a different game, (because you can use Amiibo in Captain Toad and you’ll be able to use it in Kart), then they’ll be a part of that game. You can bring them back into another game, but you will lose the data"

• Matt Ryan - Nintendo of Canada
  http://3gem.ca/post-e3-14-matt-ryan-interview/

@Crillan - Thanks for the link, never would have found it otherwise.

I'm really surprised the guy said what he did an dind't get alot of coverage at the time. Or a single comment on that page for that matter. He also said the amiibo would be sold in 3 packs:

Matt Ryan: I think that the US did, I could be wrong though, we’ll just stay with that. The price hasn’t been announced yet.They will be affordable though and we’ll send them in singles and three packs.

Have you seen any 3 packs? Google came up empty.

@rjejr That would be sweet actually. They did this with Skylanders and it saves you money. I think Disney does it too but I don't get into those. I haven't seen Amiibo 3 packs online yet either.

It is kind of annoying that you get bits and pieces of information from different Nintendo execs. Not saying they contradict each other necessarily, but NoA tells us one bit, NoE tells us another, NoC another thing and some random spokesperson tells us something else. We have to piece it all together sometimes or wait until they finally give us a Nintendo Direct like the SSB 50 facts thing.

These things are completely useless.

@mjhopkins81 They also can use any USB hard drive that isn't bus-powered. I have a 2TB drive hooked to mine.

pffft i'll probably end up buying duplicates of amiibos for this purpose and labeling them with sticky notes. i swear nintendo has pointed a black hole at my wallet