Nintendo have today announced the Nintendo Figurine Platform (NFC) for the Wii U and 3DS.
Currently, the Wii U is the only platform with built-in NFC support, but Nintendo have revealed that it will be introduced to the 3DS next year.
A number of NFC compatible titles will be revealed at E3, and they also plan to release character figurines with built in NFC support this Christmas. Speaking about the new platform, president Satoru Iwata stated:
To establish new and growing areas through the active utilization of character IP, it is important for Nintendo to take risks ourselves and come up with interesting ways to use our character IP. In other words, other than using character IP in Nintendo’s video game software, we need to start a new business that will someday become one of our core activities.
What is especially unique about NFP is that it is not classed as an accessory product of a certain software title but as a platform itself, NFP has a writer function as well as a reader function, so it can not only tell what character figurine is on the Wii U GamePad, but also a compact amount of data unique to each game can be written into it and read from it. That is to say, you will be able to customize your NFP to raise or train your own Nintendo characters, for example.
With the launch of this new product genre, NFP is going to serve as the first example of actively utilizing our own character IP. At the same time, there are not only going to be decorative boxes for video game hardware and packages for software, but also Nintendo character figurines displayed on store shelves. This will provide exposure for Nintendo, play a great role in raising our brand awareness and create more opportunities for consumers to play video games
Be sure to let us know your thoughts via the comment section below.
Source: CVG
