Due to “market conditions,” the Nintendo Switch, OLED Model, and Nintendo Switch Lite will see pricing increases. You can also expect physical and digital titles, accessories, amiibo and Nintendo Switch Online memberships to cost more. Of course, the company clarified that the Switch 2, its software and accessories won’t see price increases (for now).

The updated prices will be revealed later today on the Nintendo Store Canada website, so stay tuned. Whether the same price increases will affect other regions worldwide has yet to be confirmed.

As for the Nintendo Switch 2, it’s available worldwide for $449.99 and CAD 629.99. Titles like Mario Kart World, which ordinarily cost $79.99, retail for CAD 109.99.

The Samus amiibo will provide players will an extra energy tank, which will increase their maximum health by 100. Meanwhile, the E.M.M.I. (the robots that stalk Samus through Dread) amiibo will give Samus a Missile+ tank that increases her maximum missiles by 10. Both are one time upgrades.

Once the one-time upgrades have been applied, players will be able to use the Samus and E.M.M.I amiibos to restore their health and missiles once a day, respectively. While it’s not awful that Nintendo has decided to put amiibo exclusive stuff in the game, it is pretty terrible when the thing affects gameplay and there’s no other way to get it, especially because amiibo often sell out before release. Sure, you could try to buy the Metroid Dread amiibos or the Skyward Sword Loftwing, which allows players to fast travel whenever they want (a pretty important feature), but good luck finding one. Neither has released yet, and they’re already sold out and being scalped on eBay.

Super Mario Maker had a lot of interesting things to do, being a Mario level editor first and foremost, but one feature that often went overlooked was its fairly deep amiibo support. The game had support for almost every amiibo on the market at the time, and allowed you to use any scanned amiibo character in multiple versions of Mario levels. Not only that, some of them even had custom sound effects based on their own games. While some people will never be a fan of the concept of amiibos, it was one of the more inventive uses of the toys. However, it’s possible the upcoming sequel, Super Mario Maker 2, could be dropping them entirely.

Some online fans have noticed something odd about the promotional posters for Super Mario Maker 2- particularly, what it didn’t have that other recent Nintendo titles did. As compiled at GameFAQs, you can check out promotional posters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Yoshi’s Crafted World, and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. All had amiibo logos in their promotional material, but Super Mario Maker 2 lacks the same. Of course, for now we have to file this under speculation, since Nintendo still hasn’t detailed a lot of the game’s features (we’re not even sure what role online functionality will play in the game, though limited editions of the title will have a free year of Nintendo Switch Online). We’ll keep you updated either way.

Super Mario Maker 2 will release on Nintendo Switch on June 28^th. While we don’t know if amiibos will be in, we do know what time periods of the Mario franchise the game draws from, which you can check out through here in the meantime.

MOTION CONTROLS

Nintendo has been the originator of what are today some of the most fundamental control inputs, the prime example being analog sticks. Another type of controllers they pioneered in gaming was motion controls, which was brought about with the Wii. At first, it truly did seem like the future of gaming. The possibilities were endless, especially it tech was properly improved to capture 1:1 movements (which it was, with the Wii Remote + and the PS Move, but it still didn’t work out all too well). Ultimately, though, as it turned out, motion controls were just another phase. Sure, they’ve still managed to stick around even today, in some form of another, but as time went on, most people came to realize that while shovelware titles chose to experiment with motion controls, more traditional, hardcore gaming experiences chose to stick with regular controllers. Have motion controls replaced traditional controllers the way we thought they would? Definitely not.

The toys-to-life market has seen better days. Once burgeoning on the back of Activision’s Skylanders, Disney’s Infinity, and Warner Bros.’ LEGO Dimensions, now, it’s pretty much a wasteland. The one exception to this has been Nintendo’s Amiibo, which have continued to do consistently well, and which survived the fallout of the crash of the market somehow.

Now, going forward, Nintendo still plans on remaining committed to Amiibo, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime revealed in an interview with Game Informer. Fils-Aime said that Nintendo’s approach to the toys-to-life market – where each toy can provide value across a multitude of games, as opposed to being locked to just one – continues to keep Amiibo relevant.

“We continue to be all in [with Amiibo],” Fils-Aime said. “Amiibo within the toys-to-life category has always been different. It’s been a message you can use your Amiibo across a range of different content and experiences. When you do use it, it really does add some significant value. To be honest, I traveled to E3 with eight of my Zelda Amiibo so I could continue to get those items as I put more and more hours into [The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.]

“We use Amiibo to add value to the experience, versus being a unique game or single idea. It really is leveraging these figures across a range of different experiences.”

Given that Amiibo have yet to see a slowdown- they contribute a healthy amount to Nintendo’s earnings every year, after all- and that Nintendo themselves have moved away from locking essential content behind them, I think in the end, it’s fine if the company wants to keep them around. They’re honestly pretty well made figurines available at cheap prices, if nothing else.

Even with its age and competition from the Nintendo Switch’s handheld functionality, Nintendo reported some very solid 3DS sales to round out the fiscal year ending March 31st 2018. According to the company’s recent earnings report, the Nintendo 3DS sold 6.4 million units, hitting a lifetime sales total of 72.53 million units.

In terms of software sales, the company managed to hit 364.89 million sold. Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon contributed to that total with 7.51 million units sold. Though its line-up isn’t exactly the most packed for this year, the Nintendo 3DS continues to receive solid support. Meanwhile, the SNES Classic Edition proved to be successful “in every region”. It sold 5.28 million units worldwide.

In other financials, Amiibo sales are with 10.3 million figures and 5.8 million cards sold. Smartphone revenue is also up with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp joining the likes of Fire Emblem Heroes and Super Mario Run. Total revenue from “smart devices and IP related income” hit ¥39.4 billion, up by 62 percent year-over-year.

With the Nintendo Switch finally being named and revealed, all sorts of questions are being asked. For instance, will it support Amiibo? You would think so considering that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be receiving them and how prominently they featured in the reveal trailer.

A Nintendo representative clarified with IGN that Amiibo would be supported on the console but that’s only “if a Nintendo game supports Amiibo.”

It was also revealed that the main unit of the Switch is the screen part we saw in the trailer. The docking station is used simply to output to one’s TV screen.

“The Nintendo Switch Dock has been created so that it is extremely easy to seamlessly switch from playing games on a TV to transition into a portable mode. The dock is not the main console unit of Nintendo Switch.”

As for touch-screen controls, Nintendo noted that it would share more information as we get closer to launch. The Nintendo Switch is currently slated to release in March 2017.

We’ve seen Nintendo do some truly bizarre things, and we have seen them file some even more bizarre patents. So take my word for it when I say that this new patent filing, unearthed by Rösti on NeoGAF, may in fact be the most bizarre Nintendo related thing I have ever seen. I have read through the entire thing a few times, and I am still not quite sure what it means.

The most meaning that I have been able to wrest from it is that it may pertain to Amiibos, Nintendo’s NFC enabled figurines- it could read multiple of them, from different angles. It also seems as though it has optical sensors of some kind that could have some augmented reality applications. Put together, it sounds like it might be possible to scan not just an Amiibo, but also the surroundings, together into a game, for example.

If you want, you can read through the full patent filing here, and see if you can get it to make more sense. As for me, at this point, I just want Nintendo to announce what the NX is already- this cycle of patents and leaks is getting annoying, now.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD looks great- it’s a chance for many of us to revisit one of the most maligned Zelda titles almost a decade later, separate from all the hype that caused so many to be so disappointed with the game in the first place, back when it first launched.

Most of Twilight Princess HD looks like a safe remaster, with not much in the way of changes- and if any changes actually exist, we don’t know about them, mostly because Nintendo have not actually shared much information on the game beyond the fact that it exists. However, according to a listing spotted on Amazon France (the listing may have changed since then), it seems as though the game will have one additional dungeon beyond what was offered in the original game.

That’s good news! … until you realize that this dungeon can only be unlocked with the Wolf Link Amiibo, effectively making it $13 DLC. Worse, considering how scarce Amiibo figures can get, there’s a very good chance most people will never actually get to play the damn thing.

It’s a damn shame, and certainly the most egregious instance we have of Amiibo usage in a game yet. If this is indeed true, and I hope it is not, then let us hope that Nintendo will at the very least also sell the dungeon separately, for those who do not, or can not, get the Amiibo in question.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD will launch exclusively on the Wii U in March.

Nintendo’s US based Nintendo Software Technology studio was once a cutting edge hotbed of Nintendo’s US based development talent- among other games, it has been responsible in the past for Wave Race: Blue Storm and Metroid Prime Hunters. But it’s had a troubled time of it of late, with the biggest game coming from it in recent times being the eShop only Mario vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars on the Wii U and 3DS.

Things may be changing for the studio even more in the future- according to Nintendo Life, the studio is currently making a new free to play title. The new game will be based entirely around Amiibos, with the game supposedly using Nintendo’s NFC enabled toys to unlock content and progression through the game.

The game is slated to launch at the start of 2016 in North America and Europe, though it seems as though Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe differ on how to handle the title- the game is going to be free to download for any player with a compatible Amiibo to begin with, but Nintendo of America is keen to start charging for the title later on, while Nintendo of Europe seems to want to keep the game free.

The Amiibo based title from NST may yet be the last traditional game made from them for Nintendo hardware- according to Nintendo Life, a recent job ad suggested that the studio was looking into developing smartphone games. Nintendo Life points out that no mobile game development has actually begun at the studio yet, so as of right now, it seems as though NST is just getting ready for what it is anticipating to be a future, inevitable shift in its development priorities.

Are you interested in a new game from Nintendo that focuses entirely on Amiibo? Let us know in the comments section below.