Nintendo of America recently issued a statement, pledging to address the constant shortages of Amiibo figurines in North America. Speaking with investors and analysts at a financial results briefing, company president Satoru Iwata touched upon the subject once more, although he wasn’t as optimistic.
Iwata began by revealing that, as of March 31st, 10.5 million Amiibo figurines have been shipped worldwide, and that people appear to buy Amiibo without any seasonal bias, as they are relatively affordable compared to videogames. However, he added, it’s difficult to gauge just how strong demand for the Amiibo line is, and the fact that producing the figurines involves considerable manufacturing expenses doesn’t make things any easier.
“We have increased production for Amiibo figures that have sold out very quickly after launch, that are indispensable to play a certain game and for which we have received strong demand from retailers and consumers,” Iwata said. “However, we are very sorry that we can’t promise at what point we will likely be able to resolve the current situation because figures such as these require a considerable amount of time to produce, store shelf space is limited and it is difficult to precisely predict the exact amount of overall demand.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the number of software titles compatible with Amiibo is increasing and consumers’ recognition and understanding for Amiibo has improved significantly compared to the launch period, so we believe that we can predict further sales growth.”
Iwata also revealed that the figurines have seen the most demand in North America, which accounts for approximately 66% of all Amiibo shipments.
