Will Amiibo drive Wii U sales?

[JWeinCom]

Based on what I've seen I'm inclined to say no.

With Disney Infinity and Skylanders, it's a simple sell. You buy these characters and you can play as them. Easy. With Amiibo it's not so clear.

Well, you can play Link without any figurine. But, if you buy a Link figurine, then you can have a computer controlled Link character who can learn to fight you. Then you can have your toy Link fight other toy Links.

It's just not a clear benefit, especially to younger or more casual players I think the idea of toys coming to life on their own is kind of neat, but they haven't really shown it to have a meaningful impact on gaming.

Nintendo is in a weird spot with this. They want the figures to work with multiple games, which would help them stand apart from things like skylanders. At the same time, they don't want to lock content from key releases behind cute figuring paywalls. That's admirable, but without making the figurines necessary for certain content, it's a tough sell.

With all that being said, the figurines are really neat looking. Definitely going to be picking up Mega Man, Kirby, and Zero Suit Samus when they're available.