Amiibo

Amiibo (Japanese: アミーボ Hepburn: Amībo, officially stylized as amiibo; plural: Amiibo) is Nintendo's wireless communications and storage protocol, for use between compatible toys-to-life figurines, and the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch gaming platforms. It was launched in November 2014 in the form of system software updates and a series of Amiibo-enabled figurines. These figurines are similar in form and functionality to that of the Skylanders and the former Disney Infinity series. The platform was preannounced to potentially accommodate any form of figurine, specifically including general plans for future card games. These figurines use near field communication (NFC) to interact with supported video game software, potentially allowing data to be transferred in and out of games and across multiple platforms.

Amiibo functionality can be used directly with the Nintendo Switch, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS consoles by using built-in NFC readers. In addition, the rest of the 3DS hardware line can use an official NFC adapter. By September 2016, Nintendo reported that 39 million Amiibo toys had been sold, along with more than 30 million Amiibo cards.