Amiibo

Amiibo (Japanese: アミーボ Hepburn: Amībo, officially stylized as amiibo; plural: Amiibo) is Nintendo's toys-to-life platform. It consists of a wireless communications and storage protocol, for connecting toys to the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch video game consoles. The platform 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 Disney Infinity series of toys-to-life platforms. The Amiibo platform was preannounced to potentially accommodate any form of toy, specifically including general plans for future card games.[1][2]These toys 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 New 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.