Amiibo toys face the chop as Nintendo focuses on its big sellers

Nintendo today confirmed that certain Amiibo figurines from the company's first roll out of the NFC-powered figurines are to be discontinued.

"We will aim for certain amiibo to always be available. These will be for our most popular characters like Mario and Link," offered a spokesperson in a statement sent to Wired. "Due to shelf space constraints, other figures likely will not return to the market once they have sold through their initial shipment."

Nintendo did not talk about which figures would be discontinued but it's clear that demand for the likes of Wii Fit Trainer, Marth from Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing Villager are going to be less popular than big hitters like Link, Mario and Pikachu.

In turn, this will drive up the prices of discontinued Amiibo, through channels like eBay, that cater to collectors. Likely, the short-run strategy will also stimulate sales of toys for more obscure figures as they become available. A new rack of toys are coming out in the next few weeks, including Little Mac from Punch-Out, Pit from Kid Icarus, Diddy Kong and Zelda.