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No Amiibo Stock Relief in Sight

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Nintendo doesn’t seem to have any good news for those looking for Amiibo stock during the remain spring and summer months. In recent statements it confirms that it’s trying to better handle the Amiibo stock situation, but it’s also noting that new factors could make the figurine shortage even worse for buyers.

Comments about the Amiibo stock situation were included in Nintendo’s financial earnings report this morning. Amiibo are the tiny action figures that Nintendo introduced before the holiday season last year. Besides being collectibles, the figures allow owners of the new Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U to drop extras into their favorite games. Nintendo even notes in its comments that Amiibo are now, “Indispensable” for most of its games.

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Gamers who’ve tried the figures with their consoles and titles seem to agree, but they also noticed a serious drop in Amiibo stock. Finding some of the more popular figures is pretty hard. Even worse, getting your hands on some of the less important Amiibo figures has become a lesson in patience. Stores that have them are typically sold out within a few days. When Nintendo announced a new set of figures earlier this year, pre-orders sold out within minutes, forcing retailers like Toy’s R Us and Target to stop letting people reserve the figures until they could guarantee Nintendo would have enough to fill demand.

Read: New Amiibo Pre-Orders Frustrate Buyers As Big Sales Arrive

Nintendo says that it has boosted production of those Amiibo figures that sold out quickly after launch. It’s also readying a new set of Amiibo cards to lessen the strain on the Amiibo figures. These cards will have the same NFC, or Near Field Communication, technology that allows Amiibo figures to communicate wirelessly with the new Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U.

Read: New Amiibo Characters and Release Date Details Revealed

Theoretically, this would be great news for Amiibo stock hunters. More figure production and more options should mean that supply of Amiibo action figures goes farther. Nintendo is warning that this isn’t necessarily what’s going to happen.

At the same time as it’s adding new Amiibo options, it’s rolling out new games that’ll support Amiibo figures. More reasons to buy means that we’ll likely see demand on Amiibo stock increase even beyond where it is today.

Earlier this year Nintendo confirmed that its teams are working on an Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader and Writer. This NFC Reader and Writer will make it possible for owners of older Nintendo 3DS mobile consoles to make use of Amiibo, which is great because before they needed to buy new hardware. If the accessory is successful, we can expect Amiibo stock to get tighter still. Even Nintendo notes that it expects “further growth in Amiibo sales with this significant increase in the number of compatible hardware systems.” Put simpler, finding Amiibo stock at stores like Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and Target is going to get way more difficult before it gets any better.

Besides putting a damper on the mood of those looking for more Amiibo stock relief, Nintendo also provided some guidance concerning its smartphone games partnership with developer DeNA. Nintendo says it expects the first Nintendo game for “smart devices” to arrive before the end of the year. The company has plans to release 5 Nintendo games for mobile platforms by the end of this fiscal 2016. Fiscal 2016 ends April 2016. Nintendo says that It’ll introduce a comprehensive gaming network that’ll connect games on the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, It’s next major game console, smart devices and interestingly enough — PCs.

Gamers will be encouraged to use a single Nintendo ID across all platforms, something that they aren’t necessarily encouraged to do today. Nintendo says it plans to share more details about this dedicated cross-platform gaming service “at a later date.”

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