Nintendo Will Debut NFC Character Figurines at E3 and Bring Them to Stores Later This Year
The merchandising is strong with this one.
With Skylanders being pretty much uncontested in the “get kids to bug their parents into buying a bunch of toys for their video games” category, I’m amazed it’s taken Nintendo this long to bring their own NFC figurines to market. They now have plans to capitalize on their massive catalogue of mascots with figurines that can be used across multiple games.
The news of the figurines comes by way of a Nintendo financial briefing, where for the past few years, Nintendo has had to face brutal losses and explain to investors just how they’re going to turn things around. So, “Sell more stuff” seems like a solid plan, and that stuff will be NFC figurines of their famous characters that can interact with the Wii U gamepad’s NFC capabilities and a planned NFC add-on for the 3DS.
What games will make use of the functionality? It’s anyone’s guess, but the financial briefing confirms that they’ll show off the functionality at this year’s E3. Of course, a no-brainer would be a new Pokémon, because what kid wouldn’t bug their parents incessantly to fill up their Pokédex with 150 nice, reasonably priced figurines?
It could also be Smash Bros., which just unveiled that there will be a character customization aspect to the new version of the game. The Wii U Smash Bros. title is slated to arrive this winter, and that would be right on schedule for the expected release of the figurines.
If they want you to be able to take your modified characters to your friends’ houses and battle it out, the NFC figurines are a perfect fit. Luckily for your wallet, each single figurine is supposed to work across multiple games, so you might be able to use the same Link figurine to beat down your friends in Smash Bros. that you use to, say, keep track of all your items in a new Zelda.
Hey, if you can’t convince people to buy a Wii U, might as well convince people who already own one to buy it some friends.
(Nintendo via Eurogamer, images via Nintendo)
- Zelda‘s Temple of Time looks fantastic in Unreal Engine 4
- This $500, aluminum NES looks pretty snazzy, too
- There were rumors that Nintendo would unveil new hardware at E3
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