Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[mr_me]

7 hours ago, MattPilz said:

I keep going back to this blurb from their August 6, 2021 update:By the way that was written, the delay was purely a chip shortage 

matter and they were going to use the extra time to enhance and optimize their otherwise completed product. They said the shortage would prevent them from getting all orders out in 2021 but were determined to at least ship the pre-order units during 2021. Months later Tommy told a Best Buy rep (blogged here) that he'd anticipate units would be available in retailers like Best Buy by Q1 2022. So even in Oct-Nov 2021 it was still being marketed as a fully completed product just awaiting some hardware for manufacturing for mass production.

 

This is why I'm not following how an entire year later it is now just being sent out for some pre-prod testing to very few select users. If I had one question to ask Intellivision it'd be what their progress and setbacks were between June 2021 and June 2022 that precluded them from getting any units out. In my opinion it was not nearly as far as long in 2021 as what was promoted in the media.

2 hours ago, mr_me said:

A couple of things that we know.  The CEO changed after that. The manufacturing loan they received late last year would have been enough for two or three thousand units, maybe more. They did not have financing in place to supply retailers, they were working on it.The former CEO may have been prepared to ship a small number of units without worrying about profit/loss. The new CEO talked about production costs being high.  Chip shortages were not just about supply, it had an impact on their costs. The new CEO also said they don't just want to get a few units out and not be able to address retail.

 

And looking at that Best Buy blog post linked above, it says that they "are aiming for a Q1 2022 release".  I think that's what the Amico web site said at the time.  It doesn't say that the CEO told them they'll be in retail.

 

Edit:  just saw there's a linked video interview within the linked best buy blog post.  That was October 2021, where he says they are trying to do founders by Christmas but it's only something they are considering.  He does say focused on retail in  2022q1, but also says that would be preorders and wouldn't be in stores for a while after that.

Edited October 25, 2022 by mr_me

[digdugnate]

Here's how I see this project summed up:

 

* AA members that rallied for the Amico will never acknowledge what happened to it.

* The media outlets that parroted the viewpoints will move on to the next clickbait.

* The FB groups will eventually fill with memes that have nothing to do with the Amico, then go dark completely.

 

You could use the Amico project as a cautionary tale, but I doubt the people who need to hear it would listen.

[Steven Pendleton]

13 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

* AA members that rallied for the Amico will never acknowledge what happened to it.

Except for me, so in that case, you could consider yourself wrong~

 

Up to you, though.

[jerseystyle]

15 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

Here's how I see this project summed up:

 

* AA members that rallied for the Amico will never acknowledge what happened to it.

* The media outlets that parroted the viewpoints will move on to the next clickbait.

* The FB groups will eventually fill with memes that have nothing to do with the Amico, then go dark completely.

 

You could use the Amico project as a cautionary tale, but I doubt the people who need to hear it would listen.

My favorite are the people who show up out of nowhere to either demand we stop talking/joking about it or imply we are unemployed because we are talking/joking about it. Then they disappear back into the murk.  

[digdugnate]

11 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Except for me, so in that case, you could consider yourself wrong~

 

Up to you, though.

A stopped clock is right twice a day!

[Steven Pendleton]

6 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

A stopped clock is right twice a day!

Not if it's a digital clock or a 24 hour clock.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[Wayler]

54 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

You could use the Amico project as a cautionary tale, but I doubt the people who need to hear it would listen.

There was already a cautionary tale for the Amico in Chameleon, so the Amico would be what? A double finger waggle no-no tale? 

[MattPilz]

  

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

That was October 2021, where he says they are trying to do founders by Christmas but it's only something they are considering.  He does say focused on retail in  2022q1, but also says that would be preorders and wouldn't be in stores for a while after that.

Well, he speaks specifically "to get it into retailers, like for example Best Buy, that's something that we're completely 100% focused on Q1 of 2022. That's where--and again we don't have the exact date right now. No one does. It's very, very difficult even if you had it manufactured you could be sitting on a boat in Long Beach waiting to get in." He encouraged everyone to get their pre-orders in because it'd be "like a unicorn" to find one on shelves once they come out in retail, comparing it to a PS5 at how quickly the in-stock items sell. Pier added that "even if it releases in Feb. 2022 it'll feel like Christmas anyway" and Tommy says "yeah, there you go" while agreeing that it'll be fun to go into the stores and look at these games and consoles.

 

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

The manufacturing loan they received late last year would have been enough for two or three thousand units, maybe more.

I wonder what the status is then of those several thousand units. Is this the loan from Sudesh and his company? In the SEC filing that indicates a $675,000 manufacturing loan in Aug. 2021 (with a steep $202,500 in added fees and costs due by Dec. 31 2021, plus $100 per console sold). They also indicated that if they raised the entire $5M they would invest a small amount, 13%, toward working capital for hardware manufacturing ($650k). If they raised the minimum, they'd pump that into software development almost exclusively. They didn't take any money from that campaign.

 

They also indicate in their SEC roadmap: Manufacturing capacity will begin at a moderate pace (2,000 to 5,000 per month) but will continue to expand throughout 2022 with a significant push during the 2022 holiday season.

[digdugnate]

35 minutes ago, Wayler said:

There was already a cautionary tale for the Amico in Chameleon, so the Amico would be what? A double finger waggle no-no tale? 

pretty much, lol.

[roots.genoa]

5 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Not if it's a digital clock or a 24 hour clock.

If you want to be pedantic, a digital clock sums it up. Have you ever seen an analog 24 hours clock? 🧐

[Matt_B]

14 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

If you want to be pedantic, a digital clock sums it up. Have you ever seen an analog 24 hours clock? 🧐

They do exist but they're certainly not something you'll see a lot of.

 

Anyway, that's enough educational content for the day. Back to watching the Intellivision corpse for signs of twitching.

[Rev]

5 hours ago, digdugnate said:

Here's how I see this project summed up:

 

* AA members that rallied for the Amico will never acknowledge what happened to it.

* The media outlets that parroted the viewpoints will move on to the next clickbait.

* The FB groups will eventually fill with memes that have nothing to do with the Amico, then go dark completely.

 

You could use the Amico project as a cautionary tale, but I doubt the people who need to hear it would listen.

Alot of the AA members in the QA thread were “outsiders” and not the Mattel Intellivision OG fans. They were alot of YouTubers …..Many have seen the light now as to what this project has become. 

I was super hyped for Amico. Even made a fan news site that is long deleted. After numerous delays and 4 crowdfunders and no more refunds happening its very difficult to even care about it. 
 

The Intellivision name will hopefully be remembered for its Mattel legacy, Keith Robinsons work and Flashback, and homebrew projects.  And not this Amico disaster. 

Will I be targeted again for this post? 

Edited October 25, 2022 by Rev

[roots.genoa]

1 minute ago, Matt_B said:

They do exist but they're certainly not something you'll see a lot of.

Damn, I already suck at reading the time on a 12-hour clock. 😔

[mr_me]

4 hours ago, MattPilz said:

  

Well, he speaks specifically "to get it into retailers, like for example Best Buy, that's something that we're completely 100% focused on Q1 of 2022. That's where--and again we don't have the exact date right now. No one does. It's very, very difficult even if you had it manufactured you could be sitting on a boat in Long Beach waiting to get in." He encouraged everyone to get their pre-orders in because it'd be "like a unicorn" to find one on shelves once they come out in retail, comparing it to a PS5 at how quickly the in-stock items sell. Pier added that "even if it releases in Feb. 2022 it'll feel like Christmas anyway" and Tommy says "yeah, there you go" while agreeing that it'll be fun to go into the stores and look at these games and consoles.

 

I wonder what the status is then of those several thousand units. Is this the loan from Sudesh and his company? In the SEC filing that indicates a $675,000 manufacturing loan in Aug. 2021 (with a steep $202,500 in added fees and costs due by Dec. 31 2021, plus $100 per console sold). They also indicated that if they raised the entire $5M they would invest a small amount, 13%, toward working capital for hardware manufacturing ($650k). If they raised the minimum, they'd pump that into software development almost exclusively. They didn't take any money from that campaign.

 

They also indicate in their SEC roadmap: Manufacturing capacity will begin at a moderate pace (2,000 to 5,000 per month) but will continue to expand throughout 2022 with a significant push during the 2022 holiday season.

There are pre-orders customers made through retailers, which would be a smaller fraction of any purchase orders they have from those retailers.  We don't know what that number is but say it's in the order similar to their direct pre-orders, a few thousand units.  And since last year, Gamestop, for example, cancelled all their customer pre-orders, so that number is even smaller.  As I said, he clearly makes the distinction of retail pre-orders in 2022q1, and remaining purchase orders (in stores or inventory) much later after that.  So they were  still talking about thousands of units not tens of thousands for 2022q1.

 

With the Aggarwal manufacturing loan, they paid $67.5k in fees and talked about the remaining fees being waved (Aggarwal is also a shareholder and board member).  That leaves an interest free loan with very generous repayment terms.  It's about $600k for manufacturing.  What they actually did with it is unknown, but it is enough to pay for pre-production and produce a few thousand units.

 

Yes their plan was to produce an initial batch of a few thousand units for founders pre-orders, then other direct pre-orders and retail pre-orders, and then finally retail purchase orders.  But that's going to cost tens of millions of dollars, well beyond their equity fund raising round and would have required financing through short term lending as they described in their risk disclosure.  Last we heard they were working on that financing.  We also heard that they aren't interested in producing only a few thousand units without the structure in place to address retail purchase orders, assuming they still have them.

[Rowsdower70]

33 minutes ago, Rev said:

 

The Intellivision name will hopefully be remembered for its Mattel legacy, Keith Robinsons work and Flashback, and homebrew projects.  And not this Amico disaster. 

 

Amen Rev.   Thanks for all you do to help to cause. 

[rayik]

19 minutes ago, mr_me said:

There are pre-orders customers made through retailers, which would be a smaller fraction of any purchase orders they have from those retailers.  We don't know what that number is but say it's in the order similar to their direct pre-orders, a few thousand units.  And since last year, Gamestop, for example, cancelled all their customer pre-orders, so that number is even smaller.  As I said, he clearly makes the distinction of retail pre-orders in 2022q1, and remaining purchase orders (in stores or inventory) much later after that.  So they were  still talking about thousands of units not tens of thousands for 2022q1.

 

With the Aggarwal manufacturing loan, they paid $67.5k in fees and talked about the remaining fees being waved (Aggarwal is also a shareholder and board member).  That leaves an interest free loan with very generous repayment terms.  It's about $600k for manufacturing.  What they actually did with it is unknown, but it is enough to pay for pre-production and produce a few thousand units.

 

Yes their plan was to produce an initial batch of a few thousand units for founders pre-orders, then other direct pre-orders and retail pre-orders, and then finally retail purchase orders.  But that's going to cost tens of millions of dollars, well beyond their equity fund raising round and would have required financing through short term lending as they described in their risk disclosure.  Last we heard they were working on that financing.  We also heard that they aren't interested in producing only a few thousand units without the structure in place to address retail purchase orders, assuming they still have them.

Your posts assume IE is being truthful. 
 

Still waiting for a post weighing whether one should believe the cited IE statement. 

[mr_me]

6 minutes ago, rayik said:

Your posts assume IE is being truthful. 
 

Still waiting for a post weighing whether one should believe the cited IE statement. 

You don't believe them when they say they don't have the financing to go to mass production?

[MrBeefy]

9 hours ago, Rev said:

The Intellivision name will hopefully be remembered for its Mattel legacy, Keith Robinsons work and Flashback, and homebrew projects.  And not this Amico disaster. 

Will I be targeted again for this post? 

I think around here it will be remembered that way for the most part. General public I doubt it. I think the Amico disaster will forever be tied to Intellivision. 🙃

8 hours ago, rayik said:

Your posts assume IE is being truthful. 
 

Still waiting for a post weighing whether one should believe the cited IE statement. 

They are on the launchpad!

8 hours ago, mr_me said:

You don't believe them when they say they don't have the financing to go to mass production?

Kind of like they don't have the money to get those FCC certs eh?

 

Manufacturing could be less about financing and more about they can't get certain parts anymore. 😝

 

Truth is other than to avoid possible legal recourse, there is zero reason for them to want to make anything. The platform has less than 6000 potential user base. It isn't worth the dev money to keep the backend up no make new games. Even if allowed direct ports, without crappy multi-player shoehorned in, there is no reason for a dev to port for such a small base.

 

So if you want to talk financing you are right. They'd rather spend everyone else's money and move on to licensing to make more money. Them making consoles is just going to cost them more and have no benefit long term.

 

Amico is not your friend.

[Matt_B]

About the only thing that they've clearly got the financing for is putting a single pre-production unit in the hands of an obscure YouTuber.

 

If you really want to set the bar low, you could perhaps discuss how long it'll be before they can manage to do that with a second.

 

I've a feeling that it'll be a long time before they're into double figures though, if ever.

[Steven Pendleton]

11 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

If you want to be pedantic, a digital clock sums it up. Have you ever seen an analog 24 hours clock? 🧐

My point is that a stopped digital clock likely means that it has no power and therefore displays nothing, meaning that it's always wrong. I have seen 24 hour analog clocks, though.

[digdugnate]

Cos clearly that's the point i was making.  🙄

 

Jesus Christ. 

[Wayler]

I think we have inadvertently zeroed in on a key problem the Amico has faced. Clearly the launchpad was ready and the rocketship was fueled, but as we can see from above, there were specification issues regarding the countdown clock.

[Cebus Capucinis]

4 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

My point is that a stopped digital clock likely means that it has no power and therefore displays nothing, meaning that it's always wrong. I have seen 24 hour analog clocks, though.

You're assuming a power failure as the source of the problem in a "likely" scenario. It's possible that the digital clock stopped due to a chip failure and the LCD still has power, thus displaying a single time.

 

I would think a digital clock without power would be called "not working" in common vernacular. The word "stopped" implies that the digital clock is continuing to display something, just not that the digits are moving. Admittedly, "stopped," even in the analog context, doesn't necessarily mean "broken" but instead just...not moving.

 

.....and I was trying to make a lengthy, incredibly pedantic missive as a joke, but two paragraphs is the most I can muster before completely losing all interest in the joke.

[MCHufnagel]

I think the really sad thing here is that the people who were deceived by IE just won't own it. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's what you do after that matters. Still hanging on with the hope you're going to get rewarded in this debacle is just not mentally healthy. Just admit that you're screwed, learn from it, and move on the best you can. This is something I told my kids when they were in elementary school. I would hope that adults would be able to do the same. 

[Steven Pendleton]

30 minutes ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

You're assuming a power failure as the source of the problem in a "likely" scenario. It's possible that the digital clock stopped due to a chip failure and the LCD still has power, thus displaying a single time.

 

I would think a digital clock without power would be called "not working" in common vernacular. The word "stopped" implies that the digital clock is continuing to display something, just not that the digits are moving. Admittedly, "stopped," even in the analog context, doesn't necessarily mean "broken" but instead just...not moving.

 

.....and I was trying to make a lengthy, incredibly pedantic missive as a joke, but two paragraphs is the most I can muster before completely losing all interest in the joke.

In that case, it's possible you could end up with 88:88, so you'd end up with a time that doesn't exist