Nintendo Confirms Amiibos Will Come As Cards — Out This Year

One of the Nintendo’s newest products, the Amiibo figurines, are selling like hotcakes, especially now that the New Nintendo 3DS XL has released in North America. Amiibos are miniatures of Nintendo characters that can connect to a New 3DS and interact with the game. But the figures may not be the only way to get in on the fun. This week, the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, confirmed that Amiibo cards will be releasing sometime this year.

According to Gamenesia, Iwata made the Amiibo card announcement during a briefing on Nintendo’s financial results from the third quarter of the past fiscal year. There had already been talk of Amiibo cards when Shigeru Miyamoto discussed possible applications utilizing NFC card functionality. Iwata confirmed the idea this week, stating that the company has indeed been developing Amiibo cards alongside the figurines, and they should release before the end of 2015.

“In contrast to the current figure-shaped Amiibo available, we will make Amiibo in the form of cards this year as one of our future plans as Mr. Miyamoto mentioned at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in October.”

One of the possible applications for the Amiibo cards would be an independent Amiibo card game centered around the cards, which may or may not require a game console to play.

“I cannot discuss any of the details today,” Miyamoto said, “but Amiibo has the potential to propose new ways to play card games… By using Amiibo in different forms, we are internally discussing the possibility of using Amiibo with, for example, an ‘Animal Crossing‘ game and other games in some unique ways.”

He also mentioned the possibility of Amiibo cards being used to record play history or releasing cards featuring characters discontinued in the figurine set. According to IGN, Amiibo figurines that don’t sell as well won’t be produced again once the stock runs out. The Amiibo cards could be a way for Nintendo to keep certain functions alive without spending the money on expensive toy statues. If you want to know which Amiibo characters are the rarest, check out this easy guide at IGN.

If you’re interested in the Amiibo cards or the figurines, you’ll need a Wii U or a New Nintendo 3DS. For more information on the New 3DS XL, check out this comprehensive evaluation of the console with everything you need to know before deciding to upgrade your 3DS.

Will you be purchasing Amiibo cards?