Nintendo apologizes for amiibo shortages, promises change

Since their debut last year, Nintendo's amiibo, collectible toy figures that interact with certain Nintendo games, have been all the rage.

Modeled after Nintendo's iconic characters, such as Mario, Link, and Pikachu, fans have been been snatching up these figures faster than Nintendo can keep up with. Retailers sell out of amiibo quicker than they can get them in stock. In most cases, fans must line up at a store to pre-order a figure the day it goes on sale or resort to secondary channels like eBay and risk paying more than double the original cost.

Point being, the whole amiibo situation, while successful, has also been incredibly frustrating for fans. And finally Nintendo is acknowledging the problem.

In an official statement today, Nintendo admitted consumer demand may continue to outpace supply levels for certain characters, but vowed to "do our best to prevent that from happening." To that end, Nintendo plans to re-release select figures that sold out quickly, and provide more information regarding new shipments.

Here's the publisher's full statement:

“We appreciate the enthusiasm that our fans continue to show toward amiibo. Sales for the product have exceeded our expectations. We understand how frustrating it can be at times if consumers are unable to find certain figures, and we apologize for that.

We’re trying to meet the demands of our fans and consumers by increasing the amount of amiibo we manufacture and ship to retail. We may continue to see consumer demand outpace supply levels for certain characters at times, but we will do our best to prevent that from happening.

As our library of amiibo continues to grow, some figures will be easier to find than others. We are constantly looking for the opportunity to reissue amiibo and are already making plans to bring back some currently out-of-stock amiibo figures. Stay tuned for details.

Nintendo plans to make it easier for consumers to know when new amiibo are on the way, through Nintendo press announcements, timely updates on our social media channels and working closely with retailers.

We remain committed to keeping amiibo affordable and easy to access as a platform to enhance game-play experiences. These plans include Animal Crossing amiibo cards that will become available by the end of 2015, and a free-to-download app for Wii U calledamiibo tap: Nintendo’s Greatest Bits that launched on April 30, 2015, that lets consumers enjoy playable scenes from certain NES and Super NES games with amiibo.”