Following a demand, but short supply, that sees Animal Crossing: New Horizons players in a desperate search for Amiibo cards, Nintendo is finally reprinting the merchandise and is bound to hit retailers this coming November.
This November, #AnimalCrossing #amiibo Cards Series 1-4 make their return to select retailers for $5.99 per pack. Use the amiibo cards to Invite characters to live on your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as well as other features!https://t.co/VcPSj4tKZU pic.twitter.com/aHSJy5Qo6X
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 25, 2020
Nintendo has previously ventured to sell Amiibo cards for Animal Crossing, which serves a collectible and in-game purpose. While not as fancy as their figurine counterparts, the appeal boils down to pricing. Which, for the most part, is relatively cheaper and comes in a pack.
Sleeper hit merchandise
Throughout its stint, the Animal Crossing Amiibo cards have managed to spawn multiple series. The first four contain as many as 400 unique villagers just waiting to join anyone’s island. The fifth series is technically unusable in Animal Crossing: New Horizons as it contains villagers not made to appear in the game.
The supply for Animal Crossing Amiibo cards sees drop around 2018 in the United States, making the products hard to come across in most stores. While still technically purchasable through online means, they come substantially more expensive due to profiteering. Electronic commerce platforms such as eBay and Amazon are becoming commonplace for the goods.
Rising demand for certain villagers
The release of the phenomenal hit, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, saw rising demand for the Amiibo cards. Primarily due to the ease of recruiting specific villagers into the island through scanning of specific cards. A feature that is otherwise random and may not always guarantee a favorable outcome. Some villagers, after all, are more or less preferred by people.
For instance, out of all the available villagers that could pop up in anyone’s landmass, the likes of Raymond and Marshall are often most liked. Although mostly a popularity contest, the preference also boils down to the NPC’s unique traits and personality.
For a game that relies heavily on RNG, getting the most popular villagers by chance can be a painstaking and long-waiting process. This could imply having to entertain multiple visiting villagers until, subsequently, someone favorable comes along. But it’s also a problem that can be offset by literally taking a specific villager from someone else’s island—with permission, of course.
A resolve to an illegal trade
However, that is where a trend came into existence, where people have begone conducting a black market in New Horizons. When there is a great demand for specific villagers, some people chose to supply in exchange for real money.
As it appears, that is a practice that clearly goes against Nintendo’s policy and is, therefore, a practice it tries to squash where it can. While the company has a system in place to ban those who dabble in the illicit trade, it also is adding another measure—by supplying what players needed from the start, which is an ample supply of easy-to-access Animal Crossing Amiibo cards.
Image used courtesy of Hassan Ahmed/YouTube Screenshot