Sony will be launching a line of toys that closely resemble Nintendo's own Amiibos.
When Nintendo first launched their Amiibo line in 2014, gamers and critics had all kinds of mixed feelings. The company is known for its quirky, what exactly am I supposed to make of this sort of decisions (see the recently-announced Nintendo Labo), and the industry needed a little time to see which side of the hot-or-not divide Amiibos would land on.
The little figures proved to be super popular, and the line has since expanded exponentially. Collectors are both charging and paying outrageous amounts for some of the harder-to-find Amiibo, and they’ve proven to be quite a little goldmine. In short, it wasn’t going to be long before somebody else got wind of the whole thing. Let’s check out Sony’s newly-announced ‘Totaku’ toy line.
Earlier today, Kotaku (no relation) reported that ThinkGeek, creators of gaming merchandise owned by GameStop, are releasing a new line of figures licensed by Sony. They’re a few inches tall, as per Amiibo, and each depict a popular character from one of PlayStation’s big titles and franchises.
As of right now, seven different Totaku have been shown off: Tekken’s Heihachi, Crash Bandicoot, a Wipeout ship (the iconic Feisar FX 350), Parappa the Rapper from the beloved rhythm game of the same name, God of War’s Kratos, LittleBigPlanet’s Sackboy and the hunter from Bloodborne. As you can see, they look to be nicely detailed collectibles.
Right about now, there’s bound to be a lot of "Sony is ripping off Nintendo’s Amiibos" snark going around. At first glance, true enough, the format seems similar, but it’s important to remember that Nintendo don’t own a monopoly on little figures of this sort. Heck, it’s still unknown just how much involvement Sony have had with these, beyond the licensing.
There’s more to it than that, too. According to Polygon, the Totaku figures don’t appear to utilise the Amiibos’ trademark NFC functionality (which allows the figures to be wirelessly scanned and interact with compatible games). As of the time of writing, it seems that they are intended as nothing more than collectibles, with no interactivity with games. Nor will they have any articulation.
The line will launch on March 23, at GameStop exclusively, apparently, and will be priced at $9.99 each.
What do you think of the Totaku announcement? Are you a more open-minded gamer, already imagining them living side-by-side with your Amiibo collection? Are you already imagining future additions to the line? Sony might not have quite the huge, star-studded roster that Nintendo do (as PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale proves), but for collectors, these are certainly worth keeping an eye on.