According to a report from Siliconera, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has finally taken the time to address the shortage of amiibo products, but his remarks weren't the optimistic answers that fans were hoping for.
He first addressed that beginning March 31, 2015, 10.5 million amiibo figures have been shipped worldwide. However, he followed this up with the statement that because the toys are relatively cheaper compared to actual video games, it is difficult to gauge just how much each individual amiibo is in demand.
Iwata explained, "However, we are very sorry that we can't promise at what point we will likely be able to resolve the current situation because figures such as these require a considerable amount of time to produce, store shelf space is limited and it is difficult to precisely predict the exact amount of overall demand."
He also explained that the company is trying to focus on reproducing the amiibo toys that are "indespensible to play certain games" since those are the ones with the strongest demand from consumers and retailers alike.
Iwata did state that the popularity of amiibo figures is growing, particularly with the increase of video games that utilize them, so it is possible that stocks will continue to grow over time.
To put things in comparison, the United States and Canada represent the areas with the highest demand for amiibo products, totaling up to 66 percent of all amiibo shipments. Despite this, Nintendo continues to ship thousands of unpopular amiibo models while limiting those that are in high demand, such as the Wave 4 Marth.
A Reddit user posted a leaked chart of the stock information for amiibo Wave 4 in North America. The chart shows that there are over 57,000 stocks of Jigglypuff ready to hit store shelves but there are only 4,000 Marth amiibo toys. The stocks for Robin and Lucina, both from the "Fire Emblem" series, total to 5,680 each but Pac-Man has over 18,000.
