Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[MrTrust]

7 hours ago, mr_me said:

Can I ask who are you comparing them to?

 

EVERY.  SUCCESSFUL.  VIDEO.  GAME.  MAKER.  FOR.  THE.  LAST.  40.  YEARS.

[mr_me]

If that's Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, you can't compare their marketing budgets with Intellivision Entertainment, obviously they have to do it differently.

Edited August 17, 2022 by mr_me

[Flojomojo]

Amico is competing with all those, plus board games and outdoor cornhole. But if you want to compare Intellivision to other small companies, Blaze, Valve, Panic, Analogue, and (the zombie corpse wearing the skin of) Atari all managed to bring out the hardware they said they’d finish. 

 

Being a small company doesn’t necessarily have to end with incompetence and failure. 

[digdugnate]

I see that 'You can't compare Intellivision with the "Big Three"" argument all the time and I think it's a ridiculous point to argue, much like I think it's ridiculous to argue that the pandemic is still affecting their capacity to produce.  I argued this last year, too, where folks were all like 'Oh, the pandemic is going away soon and then it's off to the launchpad for the Amico!'; I got swatted down for daring to have an opinion that... turned out to be a fact instead.  But no sour grapes or anything!

OBVIOUSLY Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have larger budgets.  OBVIOUSLY they're more well-established.  The difference I see is that Amico is still competing in their space whether Intellivision claims it or not.  The Amico is a niche product (IT'S NOT FOR ME, my detractors would say), and is competing not only with major consoles, but board games, outdoor games, and family games.  

 

Intellivision should've picked a lane and stuck with it for the Amico.  Why is the project a failure so far?  It doesn't take rocket appliances to figure that one out.

[MrTrust]

27 minutes ago, mr_me said:

If that's Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, you can't compare their marketing budgets with Intellivision Entertainment, obviously they have to do it differently.

 

Oh, they're doing it differently all right.  How's that working out for them?  How are you enjoying your Amico?

 

[mr_me]

Hey we're talking specifically about marketing budgets and marketing strategies.  Their inability to get them manufactured has nothing to do with marketing.

[digdugnate]

You can't have one without the other, no?

 

To market a product, you have to have one.  To have a product, you have to market it.

Edited August 17, 2022 by digdugnate

[mr_me]

Sure you can.  You can have hundreds of thousands of units in inventory not moving because of a lack of marketing.  And the biggest marketing budget and grandest marketing strategy in the world won't help get product manufactured.

[MrTrust]

12 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Hey we're talking specifically about marketing budgets and marketing strategies.  Their inability to get them manufactured has nothing to do with marketing.

 

Yeah, and the point is their marketing strategy is just like their everything else strategy.  In the business world, they call it the Made-Up Bullshit Strategy.

 

These clowns were telling people they were going to be endorsed by Ellen DeGeneres and Jessica Alba, sold in every major retailer in the country and get over one percent of the entire, global electronic gaming market, so if ya' got the money to do that, ya' got the money to advertise well in advance of launch.  Unless, of course, they were just blowing a bunch of hot air, which they were.

 

The Amico is not magic.  Known consumer behavior doesn't just cease to apply because they aren't Nintendo.  It still takes more than two weeks to build awareness of and excitement for a product like this, and to figure out which advertising channels work and which don't, etc.  THAT'S WHY ALL THE OTHER COMPANIES DO IT.  It's not just gratuitous because they have a bunch of money; it's what it takes to launch a product like this.

[rayik]

4 minutes ago, MrTrust said:

 

Yeah, and the point is their marketing strategy is just like their everything else strategy.  In the business world, they call it the Made-Up Bullshit Strategy.

 

These clowns were telling people they were going to be endorsed by Ellen DeGeneres and Jessica Alba, sold in every major retailer in the country and get over one percent of the entire, global electronic gaming market, so if ya' got the money to do that, ya' got the money to advertise well in advance of launch.  Unless, of course, they were just blowing a bunch of hot air, which they were.

 

The Amico is not magic.  Known consumer behavior doesn't just cease to apply because they aren't Nintendo.  It still takes more than two weeks to build awareness of and excitement for a product like this, and to figure out which advertising channels work and which don't, etc.  THAT'S WHY ALL THE OTHER COMPANIES DO IT.  It's not just gratuitous because they have a bunch of money; it's what it takes to launch a product like this.

 

Well said! 

[MrBeefy]

7 hours ago, mr_me said:

What's wrong?  I already said it's not correct to describe purchase orders as presold. 

 

I was talking about the 10000 preorders.  I said 6000 preorders direct with IE plus preorders made by customers through retailers like Gamestop and others could very well have been around 10000 units at one time.  But usually we only see the 6000 number of direct preorders.

 

Edit:

And in that video he describes the 100k with retailers as "purchase orders" unlike the mistake in the Republic web page.  He does describe the 10k customer preorders as presold.

 

"Revenue in the bank" was not said by the CEO.  It was text overlayed in the video by the video creator.  It's not an IE video.

 

 

The numbers were presented to potential investors is what you were wrong about. It is an Intellivision video. IE partnered with Neil Patel silly.

 

It doesn't matter if the Republic page was "a mistake" it was false and misleading. As is the statement of Allard doing great things.

 

IMO if they don't have these POs locked down like they claimed then that could very well be possible fraudulent statements on a SEC regulated investment. This isn't a "We hope to have them" statement.

The fact that Gamestop has backed out suggests any POs were not "locked in" or a "sure thing". If they aren't locked in, then Tommy's statements on the Neil Patel video as well as those above on Republic could be seen as providing false information to court investors. Which last I checked was not a good thing (i.e. see SEC asking about Allard to clarify he did nothing of importance despite them pimping him out).

 

I really wonder if this is related to Ark in some way.

 

[Matt_B]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

If that's Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, you can't compare their marketing budgets with Intellivision Entertainment, obviously they have to do it differently.

Compare them to RGL, Blaze, Analogue and Panic then.

They've all managed to make and sell at least one new games console in the past couple of years, at least.

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, MrTrust said:

 

Yeah, and the point is their marketing strategy is just like their everything else strategy.  In the business world, they call it the Made-Up Bullshit Strategy.

 

These clowns were telling people they were going to be endorsed by Ellen DeGeneres and Jessica Alba, sold in every major retailer in the country and get over one percent of the entire, global electronic gaming market, so if ya' got the money to do that, ya' got the money to advertise well in advance of launch.  Unless, of course, they were just blowing a bunch of hot air, which they were.

 

The Amico is not magic.  Known consumer behavior doesn't just cease to apply because they aren't Nintendo.  It still takes more than two weeks to build awareness of and excitement for a product like this, and to figure out which advertising channels work and which don't, etc.  THAT'S WHY ALL THE OTHER COMPANIES DO IT.  It's not just gratuitous because they have a bunch of money; it's what it takes to launch a product like this.

Their marketing consulting firm Zebra Partners, who came up with the strategy, would probably disagree with your assessment.  And nobody said it would take two weeks.  The fact is, regardless of what you think of it, they didn't have a huge marketing budget in their plans.

 

51 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

The numbers were presented to potential investors is what you were wrong about. It is an Intellivision video. IE partnered with Neil Patel silly.

 

It doesn't matter if the Republic page was "a mistake" it was false and misleading. As is the statement of Allard doing great things.

 

IMO if they don't have these POs locked down like they claimed then that could very well be possible fraudulent statements on a SEC regulated investment. This isn't a "We hope to have them" statement.

The fact that Gamestop has backed out suggests any POs were not "locked in" or a "sure thing". If they aren't locked in, then Tommy's statements on the Neil Patel video as well as those above on Republic could be seen as providing false information to court investors. Which last I checked was not a good thing (i.e. see SEC asking about Allard to clarify he did nothing of importance despite them pimping him out).

 

I really wonder if this is related to Ark in some way.

 

What numbers were wrong?  They claimed about 100k retailer purchase orders.  The 10k preorders could be the sum of 6000 direct preorders plus a few thousand through retailers like gamestop and others.  People can doubt the numbers, that's fine.

 

The 100k presold is false, that's why it was a mistake to write it like that. Other times they say purchase orders or purchase orders and preorders.

 

I don't know what you mean by locked in.  The retailers don't take on the risk with purchase orders, the risk is on the manufacturer.  It's up to the manufacturer to get those units sold, that's why it's important for investors to hear about marketing. Retailers could have cancelled purchase orders, that's very possible.

 

If you don't like the "revenue in the bank" text, take it up with the person that created the video. That text overlay is not from Intellivision Entertainment.

 

SEC didn't ask if Allard did anything important.  They asked how his leaving would affect product development.

 

30 minutes ago, Matt_B said:

Compare them to RGL, Blaze, Analogue and Panic then.

They've all managed to make and sell at least one new games console in the past couple of years, at least.

Go ahead, compare marketing strategies, that's what we're talking about.  We're not talking about the ability to get them manufactured.

 

I know in the case of Playdate they used preorders paid in full to fund manufacturing.  So their marketing activity, whatever it was, had to be ahead of manufacturing.  If we're talking retro markets, the Amico was introduced to that market about two years prior to initial target release date.

Edited August 17, 2022 by mr_me

[Razzie.P]

Have any video game companies (big or small budget) had success by starting their marketing 2 weeks before launch?   Seems odd, but it's a big world with a lot of stuff sold, so gotta be something that worked, right?

[MrTrust]

2 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Their marketing consulting firm Zebra Partners, who came up with the strategy, would probably disagree with your assessment.

 

Yeah, I'll bet the Amico campaign is right at the top of their sizzle reel.  Show me where IE is on their website along with all the other successful brands they've worked with.  I can't seem to find it.

 

6 minutes ago, mr_me said:

And nobody said it would take two weeks.

Guess that depends on what your definition of "said" is, right?  That "we haven't even started marketing yet" refrain was given over and over again in response to people noticing and pointing out that they did not appear to be anywhere near ready to launch on any of the various timetables they gave.  For example, someone says to TT "Hey, if you're launching in a month, why do none of the employees at my local Gamestop seem to know the Amico even exists?  Why don't I see any in-store displays?  This doesn't look like it's about to come out."  Response:  We haven't even started marketing yet, you're not The Demo, we can't talk about everything right now...

 

I can't quote it because the entire sub where it happened got nuked from orbit, but you were there and you know it was said.

 

11 minutes ago, mr_me said:

The fact is, regardless of what you think of it, they didn't have a huge marketing budget in their plans.

 

Right, so where were the Ellen and Jessica Alba endorsements supposed to come from?  How were they supposed to get into all these retailers, get on QVC, have this big social media presence, do .75 billion in sales within 3 years, and all the other made-up things they were saying they were going to do?  They weren't.  None of that was ever going to happen; they did not have the resources nor the competence to make any of it happen.  It was all just bluster.
 

[ColecoJoe]

6 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

eally? Don't you remember when you forged an accessory to avoid paying thousands of dollars for a complete Star Wars figure? 🙄

ENOUGH!

[SegaMasterSystemPunk]

I found this really interesting.
 

There's been so much talk about Tommy's fake acclaims lately, that the GwG crew went through his stuff to see what they could find evidence of. Not much, it turned out...

[mr_me]

22 minutes ago, MrTrust said:

 

Yeah, I'll bet the Amico campaign is right at the top of their sizzle reel.  Show me where IE is on their website along with all the other successful brands they've worked with.  I can't seem to find it.

 

Guess that depends on what your definition of "said" is, right?  That "we haven't even started marketing yet" refrain was given over and over again in response to people noticing and pointing out that they did not appear to be anywhere near ready to launch on any of the various timetables they gave.  For example, someone says to TT "Hey, if you're launching in a month, why do none of the employees at my local Gamestop seem to know the Amico even exists?  Why don't I see any in-store displays?  This doesn't look like it's about to come out."  Response:  We haven't even started marketing yet, you're not The Demo, we can't talk about everything right now...

 

I can't quote it because the entire sub where it happened got nuked from orbit, but you were there and you know it was said.

 

 

Right, so where were the Ellen and Jessica Alba endorsements supposed to come from?  How were they supposed to get into all these retailers, get on QVC, have this big social media presence, do .75 billion in sales within 3 years, and all the other made-up things they were saying they were going to do?  They weren't.  None of that was ever going to happen; they did not have the resources nor the competence to make any of it happen.  It was all just bluster.
 

Intellivision Entertainment is not successful, not every one of your clients will be successful.

 

From what I remember, it was at least a month prior to release maybe more.  It wasn't two weeks.

 

They were talking at least a five million dollar marketing budget.  That should do for some celebrity endorsements.  Relatively speaking it's not much for an extended advertising campaign.  And all their plans have changed, from manufacturing to marketing.

Edited August 17, 2022 by mr_me

[MrTrust]

46 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Intellivision Entertainment is not successful...

 

Yeah, you can say that again.  That's not an accident, though.  They're not successful because they did a bunch of boneheaded things and refused to change course despite the overwhelmingly negative results they were getting every step of the way.

 

50 minutes ago, mr_me said:

From what I remember, it was at least a month prior to release maybe more.  It wasn't two weeks.

 

Month.  Two weeks.  Who cares?  I can't go back and confirm it and nor can you; point is they were well passed the point between their proposed launch and when we should have started seeing actual marketing for it beyond Tommy doing his Ron Popeil act on all these greybeard Youtube channels.  And the response was, as it always was "Just you wait."  Wait until you play it.  Wait until it comes out.  Wait until we really start promoting it.  You'll see.

My girlfriend lives two towns away, and she's a foreign exchange student.  You wouldn't know her.  I can't show you a picture because she's Amish and her religion forbids it, but she's going to be on Rumspringa for Prom and you'll see.  She's totally hot.

 

55 minutes ago, mr_me said:

And all their plans have changed, from manufacturing to marketing.

 

Have they changed, or have they been revealed for the baloney that they were all along?  Survey says...

[Mik's Arcade]

17 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

I hope you get your refund, but unfortunately this is what I think is currently happening with your $100.

probably, but at least it was only 100 bucks.

 

I'm finally tired of the complete lack of communication, and when they do communication its all fluff and no real plan of action or timeline.  Done with it. The rabid defenders are getting just as bad as the trolls and it's time to move on from the drama.

[MattPilz]

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

regardless of what you think of it, they didn't have a huge marketing budget in their plans.

$10,000,000 seems like a substantial marketing budget for a start-up, in my opinion.

 

 

4 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

The fact that Gamestop has backed out suggests any POs were not "locked in" or a "sure thing".

No PO would ever be locked in and especially with terms that are now around 2 years obsolete. Most purchase order agreements have wording that mentions they can back out at any time, and in the event they do take 'x' amount but they don't sell they would be able to return the overstock back to the company for full reimbursement. I'd say planned purchase orders are the least accurate measurement for revenue reasons of it all, it yields $0 for Intellivision until the retailers have them in stock and they start selling. And even then the profit margins will be less given the retailer cut.

 

Also the general public who put $100 down for pre-orders is still not nearly the same as actual pre-order revenue. Those were simply 40% deposits toward the final amount and refundable at any time (well until they weren't) so it just wasn't accurate calling them pre-order purchases.

[MrBeefy]

4 hours ago, mr_me said:

Their marketing consulting firm Zebra Partners, who came up with the strategy, would probably disagree with your assessment.  And nobody said it would take two weeks.  The fact is, regardless of what you think of it, they didn't have a huge marketing budget in their plans.

 

What numbers were wrong?  They claimed about 100k retailer purchase orders.  The 10k preorders could be the sum of 6000 direct preorders plus a few thousand through retailers like gamestop and others.  People can doubt the numbers, that's fine.

 

The 100k presold is false, that's why it was a mistake to write it like that. Other times they say purchase orders or purchase orders and preorders.

 

I don't know what you mean by locked in.  The retailers don't take on the risk with purchase orders, the risk is on the manufacturer.  It's up to the manufacturer to get those units sold, that's why it's important for investors to hear about marketing. Retailers could have cancelled purchase orders, that's very possible.

 

If you don't like the "revenue in the bank" text, take it up with the person that created the video. That text overlay is not from Intellivision Entertainment.

 

SEC didn't ask if Allard did anything important.  They asked how his leaving would affect product development.

 

Go ahead, compare marketing strategies, that's what we're talking about.  We're not talking about the ability to get them manufactured.

 

I know in the case of Playdate they used preorders paid in full to fund manufacturing.  So their marketing activity, whatever it was, had to be ahead of manufacturing.  If we're talking retro markets, the Amico was introduced to that market about two years prior to initial target release date.

The numbers weren't wrong. It was your claim that those numbers weren't shown to investors is what was wrong. As shown by the Neil Patel video and this.

Sorry you were wrong.

 

 

[mr_me]

That's fine.  I said I didn't think they showed the 10k number because I wasn't sure, the $25M and 100k were shown lots of times in writing, I've seen them.  I depend on the research group for some of this information.  Didn't know posts were about me, I thought we were talking about Amico.

 

Whether their marketing budget was $5M or $10M, it's a decent amount but small relatively speaking.  It's why I asked what it's being comparer to.  They still would have had to be strategic with its use. The amount also depended on investments, which came short.

Edited August 17, 2022 by mr_me

[PlaysWithWolves]

6 hours ago, digdugnate said:

I see that 'You can't compare Intellivision with the "Big Three"" argument all the time and I think it's a ridiculous point to argue, much like I think it's ridiculous to argue that the pandemic is still affecting their capacity to produce.  I argued this last year, too, where folks were all like 'Oh, the pandemic is going away soon and then it's off to the launchpad for the Amico!'; I got swatted down for daring to have an opinion that... turned out to be a fact instead.  But no sour grapes or anything!

 

IE was short-sighted and it still amazes me there are defenders even after all that's happened.
Also, money is a finite resource--meaning that all of those companies are competing for that money.  I didn't understand the argument either. 

[PlaysWithWolves]

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

Sure you can.  You can have hundreds of thousands of units in inventory not moving because of a lack of marketing.  And the biggest marketing budget and grandest marketing strategy in the world won't help get product manufactured.

And it turns out neither will a "the real marketing hasn't begun" strategy either!