Nintendo to release figurines for in-game play! (think Disney Infinity / Skylanders but better)

[cheshirescat]

superchunk said:

Soundwave said:
They might as well try it because they need to find whatever profit sources they can at this point, but I wonder if there isn't market saturation here.

Disney is launching Star Wars and Marvel Universe NFC toy lines this fall too.

If I'm a parent and the choice is buying a $60 starter kit for the XBox 360 my kid already has or paying $300 for a Wii U for the Nintendo figures ... I think Nintendo loses that battle honestly.

I wouldn't be surprised if the main consumer of these Nintendo toys are actually just 20-35 year old Nintendo fans.

Does the fact that a game released in 2008 still sells over 1m a year in 2013/14 due to it having Nintendo IPs in it escape you?

I think you underestimate the power of Mario and Pokemon.

Soundwaves makes a valid point.  Skylanders more or less created this market and has their claws set in pretty deep and by the time nintendo gets their hat into this ring they'll be faced by a three headed monster in infinity's disney, marvel and star wars which presents a very broad potential consumer base, which is not only competing with nintendo on the other platforms but on their own hardware as well.  Not only that but nintendo can't rely on the 3DS being a safety net from the onset as it isn't compatible with nfc out of the box so for the first year the figurines may depend solely on wii u which is far from ideal.

 

That doesn't mean these figures will fail, it simply means it faces an uphill battle.