Nintendo has confirmed amiibo will be available in card format later this year. During the company’s financial results briefing, CEO Satoru Iwata has highlighted recent 3DS sales data, including five double-million selling 3DS games in Japan, as well as strong sales for the New Nintendo 3DS in US and Europe. But in among the focus on 3DS sales, Iwata briefly touched upon the Wii U and the hot commodity figure-shaped amiibo.

Since the NFC figures’ launch, Nintendo has sold 5.7 million units worldwide. The most popular, according to Nintendo’s data, is Link for Japan, Europe and the US. But as has been the case since the very beginning, some amiibo such as Rosalina are notoriously difficult to find. In order to handle the demand, Satoru Iwata confirmed today that amiibo cards will launch at some point this year.

In contrast to the current figure-shaped amiibo available, we will make amiibo in the form of cards this year as one of our future plans as Mr. Miyamoto mentioned at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in October.

Earlier today, we reported that amiibo will be able to unlock Virtual Console trials for various NES and SNES games. Below you’ll find a brief explanation from Satoru Iwata on how the trials will unlock with your amiibo collection.