The thing with Nintendo and Sony is that they can't really afford to go chasing after a small number of whales with their first-party games. These games are specifically designed to push their consoles into as many homes as possible, so they need to keep a good reputation with them.  You could also see this with Valve during the late 2000s when they were trying to make a case for Steam as a platform by releasing hit after hit after hit, at least until Steam started selling itself after 2010.  Third parties don't have this incentive, so they can do whatever the hell they want to make money with their games, as long as it isn't TOO obvious like with Battlefront 2.

As for Microsoft, they seem to have given up on the idea of exclusives anyways, so I'm not surprised to see microtransactions in their games. Wii U exclusives also took a dive in quality after 2015, precisely when Nintendo gave up on the console.

agreed Don't mind the figurines themselves..but fuck Nintendo for locking Epona and Wolf Link behind amiibos..the asking price for the amiibos necessary are ridiculous now especially the one needed for Epona

Trust me, you are missing NOTHING by not having wolf link.

Same for Epona. Just name a horse Epona. There are horses with better stats than the Epona in game if you didn't know, so it's not like your prevented from getting the best horse. You only get 3 horse spots in the game and Epona is not worth a spot. There is as I said a horse with better stats than Epona, so for the bst horse possible, Epona is not it. Then there are 2 other unique horses in the game that one would like to get. So tell me which 3 horses you would want in your stable?

1. Epona

2. Zelda's horse

3. Ganon's horse

4. The best horse in game that matches also box art/cutscenes

Lol I know she doesn't add anything but I still want her and wolf link..also there are 5 horse spots not 3. I already have Zeldas Horse, Ganons Horse  and 2 other horses in my stable

I've seen Wolf Link and Rider Link amiibos at Toys R Us and Fred Meyer.

I don't think there would be a backlash anywhere near as big for nintendo.

If EA locked things behind star wars "amiibo" the shitstorm would be 10 to.es bigger then it is right now. Nintendo seem to get a free pass on a lot of things.

This is insane. They are literally figurines.

You know, there have been other companies with toy to life products (figurines with ingame content). Not a peep. Somehow Nintendo only gets singled out by you guys. Very odd. Why possibly?

No.

1. Gameplay/Cosmetics. EA is locking gameplay elements behind lootboxes. There is a difference to say having a darth vador amiibo that unlocks a darth vador skin, versus a darth vador amiibo that unlocks darth vador himself.

2. Single Player Vs. Multiplayer. Most of all Amiibo stuff is single player stuff, so even if they did give a benefit to skills, you aren't paying to win against anyone else. But as I said before, it is mostly all cosmetics with Nintendo. All outfits that give skill bonuses can be acquired through other ingame items just the same.

3. Guarantee. With an amiibo you are guaranteed that with your $12 purchase that you get what you pay for. You could spend $1000 in EA an still not be guaranteed to get what you want, due to the gambling nature of lootboxes.

But I would say the reason Nintendo gets a "free pass" is more along lines that they are usually so late to any game that by the time they do something its no longer a big deal and people have accepted it as just gaming. Heck, people have been begging Nintendo to charge for Online for years now. People begged for Nintendo to go on the DLC train. No, not the big expansion packs that PC games had, but like the $5 horse armor dlc train. They want to pay $5 for say the option to buy Epona in BotW, Ect

They are so late to adopting certain things that things people hated, get begged for on Nintendo. If Loot boxes don't become banned for gambling in the next couple years, expect to hear people begging for them on Nintendo games for god knows why.

If it happened with core franchises like Nintendo do it it would be 10 times bigger the backlash. 

Obviously it will be more accepted in kiddy games like skylanders.