Nintendo Acknowledges Amiibo Distribution Debacle, Promises To Re-Issue Rare And Out-Of-Stock Figurines

Japanese video game maker Nintendo may be beat in the console hardware race in terms of pure computing power, but it makes up for that with its penchant for innovation. This is visible through its pioneering approach to motion control with the Wii and multi-screen approach with the 3DS and Wii U. It's not surprising why the same company has managed to get gamers tripping on themselves to buy pint-sized plastic figurines for a song.

If there's one thing that has outstripped the demand for Amiibo figurines, it’s the public outrage at the shortage and the exploitative auction market that has been spawned as a consequence. In response, Nintendo has issued an official statement, apologising for the shortage of Amiibos, according to VG247. This has been a long time coming, because the shortages for some sought-after figurines had gone on for months without any visible effort to address the issue or even so much as an apology from the company.

However, the statement issued on Facebook isn't just a perfunctory apology. Nintendo has promised to ramp up distribution to prevent such shortages in the future. This should save collectors as well as gamers from the agony of hunting for certain figures in vain. Much of this problem was attributed to terrible communication by the Amiibo maker, which made it difficult to tell which figurines would be produced in abundance and which one of those rolled out in limited numbers. This problem was further compounded by store exclusive Amiibos, which severely reduced availability.

"We’re trying to meet the demands of our fans and consumers by increasing the amount of Amiibo we manufacture and ship to retail," wrote Nintendo in the statement. "We may continue to see consumer demand outpace supply levels for certain characters at times, but we will do our best to prevent that from happening."

The company has assured fans that it will be shoring up production numbers as well with an aim to manufacture enough Amiibos to meet the growing demand. However, the company doesn't make any guarantees about rare Amiibos becoming plentiful again. The good news is that Nintendo will re-issue popular figurines that are currently out of stock. The company will soon be making an announcement to that effect. This should prevent incidents such as this particular instance cited in a previous International Business Times Australia report, where scalpers auctioned rare Amiibos on eBay for ridiculously high prices.

Efforts are on to address the communication gap, and Nintendo assures that fans will be kept updated on new Amiibo rollouts through press announcements and updates on the company's social media channels. Moreover, the Amiibo experience is slated to receive more value addition through a free Wii U app dubbed Amiibo Tap that allows gamers to play certain scenes from classic NES and SNES games using the figurines. The end of 2014 will also see the introduction of "Animal Crossing" Amiibo cards.

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Nintendo amiibo Power TV Commercial (Credit: Nintendo YouTube channel)