Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[SegaSnatcher]

On 1/7/2023 at 2:38 AM, MrBeefy said:

He was right when he said he should have hired @SegaSnatcher. The only thing he proved he knew how to do was run his mouth as much as he ran his product into the dirt.

Maybe if he had listened to Kevtris he could have also released a console and get it featured in a Netflix TV series.
 

 

[mr_me]

10 hours ago, MattPilz said:

Tommy made it clear these physical boxes would be for "everyone" and "will be able to buy everywhere." He even emphasized that they were in biodegradable packaging, something I never heard anyone else mention in the scope of selling a collectable. The collector indicator on the cover was for the first 50,000 run, but he announced plans for many subsequent runs that'd omit that label while still offering digital enhancements in the Amico UI for all who bought it, and the same physical package.

 

> The  phyical games will be duplicated and reprinted... but not with the "Collector's Edition" markings.  We wanted to make the first print runs a little special by including the "Limited Collector's Edition" on the front covers.

 

So this quote from Tommy clearly hasn't aged well...

 

“If we sell 100,000 we're high-fiving like crazy. To be frank, if we sell 35,000 or 50,000 units we're totally fine. Our break-even point for the entire project is about 180,000 units, over the lifetime of the thing, to be able to continue doing this for many years. We're going to blow that out of the water. We are very confident,” he remarked."

 

But they chose not to even while catering 99% to the retro gamer communities exclusively. I get the hypothetical "in the future" casual gaming talk, but fact is the Amico has barely ever been mentioned anywhere outside of the retro communities. Renewing trademarks specifically to capitalize off of 1980s Intellivision name brand nostalgia and calling it a retro reimagined system but then claiming it isn't a retro console is just shooting its own demographic. I do not personally believe there is any other demographic for this. I don't think any casual audience that already has phones or a television set would gravitate toward this versus any plug-n-play or a Switch. I do think it appeals to the retro crowd, or at least did until other indie consoles and platforms like Evercade came around to fill that intrigue.

Everyone would include families, collectors of all ages.  What's the date on the quote from the break-even number?  The numbers have changed since then.  And investors didn't get into this thing to break-even.

 

To some extent they do hope the Intellivision name rings a bell with casual gamers, even though it's not the reason they named the company after the old console.  The Intellivision retro gaming community is quite small.  But in the early 1980s Intellivision had extensive nationwide advertising, millions of Intellivision systems were sold and millions more knew about it.  So it's expected that the name will ring a bell with many people of a certain age, even if they've moved on from playing video games long ago.  The same goes for licensing other retro titles.  And that's not the only reason.  Hollywood remakes old movies and TV shows because it's easier to use something proven updated to a modern audience than come up with something completely new and original.  I'm sure they'd like to have more original new games on the system but developing them isn't easy.

 

You might be right that this product won't find an audience among families and casual gamers.  But that doesn't mean they don't think otherwise. The go to market strategy they talked about with mall tours and parent influencers is dependent on having significant inventory.  Changing from volume mass production to a soft launch also means that go to market strategy won't be implemented any time soon.  The retro gaming audience is much smaller and concentrated.  It's far easier to reach by one person singlehandedly, but without the product in manufacturing that effort was all premature as well.

 

Where did they call it a retro reimagined system.  Usually they call it a family console, I've also heard party machine.  Even the term retro-reimagined distinguishes from retro video games.  The Evercade is a retro video game system, with actual emulated classic video games, and catering to the collector market.  It's hardware is too weak for modernised retro-reimagined games and without digital distribution it's not suited for the wider family and casual audience.  So it's very different than what the Amico is meant to do.

[MattPilz]

2 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

The CEO speaks.

It was not kind of Phil to promise a year ago that we'd have an announced release day by the end of February 2022. Only to effectively disappear for the rest of the year beyond repeating the same "on track to finish the pilot run in the next few weeks" every quarter through last September.
 

I found it...confusing...why Tommy would claim there were over 300 people on the backlist waiting to get a spot on the canceled FE orders, yet when I inquired about getting my place in it they were able to accommodate me and accept my $100 deposit immediately.

 

"Hope . . . Once we have . . ." These are not words of commitment.

Edited January 8, 2023 by MattPilz

[atarifan88]

2 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

It's a great little device. Have you found porn on it yet? I sure haven't.

I don't go out of my way looking for that garbage and can't understand why TT was so obsessed with finding it on the Switch.

[Rev]

Amico was targeted toward old retro gamers to get preorder money and initial buzz.  
 

 Then they wanted to target toward young hip families with kids under 8 but never got off the ground and launched. 
 

Look at the last shill holdouts propping it up with fake enthusiasm. 
 

Amico, prove me wrong!

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

It's a great little device. Have you found porn on it yet? I sure haven't.

You didn't look hard enough, surely there's food porn:

Look how Kirby is happy to get creamed!!

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

Maybe if he had listened to Kevtris he could have also released a console and get it featured in a Netflix TV series.

I witnessed a super weird bug. The Dolphin Quest video was showing up instead of yours, but when I "quoted" it to tell you, it was the right video. And refreshing the page corrected it as well. 🤔

[Matt_B]

I played a lot of Bayonetta 3 last year on Switch. Does that count? 😜

 

 

[Rowsdower70]

2 hours ago, Rev said:

Amico was targeted toward old retro gamers to get preorder money and initial buzz.  
 

 Then they wanted to target toward young hip families with kids under 8 but never got off the ground and launched. 
 

Look at the last shill holdouts propping it up with fake enthusiasm. 
 

Amico, prove me wrong!

It was a total bait and switch.  When you announce your project at PRGE (Portland RETRO GAMES Expo) with the big list of titles that would appeal to exclusively retro gamers, then try to switch over and call it a "family console for everyone" once you have preorder money in hand you've pulled a classic, textbook bait and switch (wait for it Mr Me) SCAM. 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bait_and_switch

Added link for legal definition. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Rowsdower70

[MrBeefy]

4 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

Maybe if he had listened to Kevtris he could have also released a console and get it featured in a Netflix TV series.
 

Ha ha. Maybe if Tommy would have listened period he wouldn't be in hiding like a coward playing backgammon while working on his nomination for this fine institution. https://museumoffailure.com/

3 hours ago, MattPilz said:

It was not kind of Phil to promise a year ago that we'd have an announced release day by the end of February 2022. Only to effectively disappear for the rest of the year beyond repeating the same "on track to finish the pilot run in the next few weeks" every quarter through last September.
 

I found it...confusing...why Tommy would claim there were over 300 people on the backlist waiting to get a spot on the canceled FE orders, yet when I inquired about getting my place in it they were able to accommodate me and accept my $100 deposit immediately.

 

"Hope . . . Once we have . . ." These are not words of commitment.

Tommy did that to be a fluffer for his flailing company and instill FOMO in old men who don't know any better to see that Amico was a sinking ship. Phil Adam belongs in the vortex of suck and is right there with Tommy, Kennedy, and Cardillo. I can't believe these guys have made Cardillo almost seem normal.

2 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

I don't go out of my way looking for that garbage and can't understand why TT was so obsessed with finding it on the Switch.

Because he likes it?

2 hours ago, Rev said:

Amico was targeted toward old retro gamers to get preorder money and initial buzz.  
 

 Then they wanted to target toward young hip families with kids under 8 but never got off the ground and launched. 
 

Look at the last shill holdouts propping it up with fake enthusiasm. 
 

Amico, prove me wrong!

Exactly. It is why he came to AA. It made him seem more legit that the retro community "loved it". Plus time and time again the retro community showed it will throw money simply at a name without care of looking into a product or care about quality. Him losing AA as his stomping ground took that legitimacy away from him. Its why je was adamant about trying to not allow us to express our opinions here. He would also focus of superficial things like thread size, views, and such. He used AA to try and court investors.

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

You didn't look hard enough, surely there's food porn:

Look how Kirby is happy to get creamed!!

How dare you show such smut!

2 minutes ago, Matt_B said:

I played a lot of Bayonetta 3 last year on Switch. Does that count? 😜

How is it? I need to play the 2nd one on my WiiU.

1 hour ago, Rowsdower70 said:

It was a total bait and switch.  When you announce your project at PRGE (Portland RETRO GAMES Expo) with the big list of titles that would appeal to exclusively retro gamers, then try to switch over and call it a "family console for everyone" once you have preorder money in hand you've pulled a classic, textbook bait and switch (wait for it Mr Me) SCAM. 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bait_and_switch

Added link for legal definition. 

[MattPilz]

1 hour ago, Rowsdower70 said:

When you announce your project at PRGE (Portland RETRO GAMES Expo) with the big list of titles that would appeal to exclusively retro gamers

It was over an hour of pure retro-based selling points. Even emphasizing how the system itself is a nod to the original in how the controllers look and dock into the console etc.

 

That's why it is strange to see some arguing so strongly now that it was never meant to be a retro machine for retro gamers. They obviously hoped to expand it into other sectors for financial reasons and proclaiming there to be a 3 billion untapped market of non-gamers that they'd seize sounded good, but their initial influx of fundraising and promotion was entirely catered to the retro community including the "2600" presales.

 

[MrBeefy]

48 minutes ago, MattPilz said:

It was over an hour of pure retro-based selling points. Even emphasizing how the system itself is a nod to the original in how the controllers look and dock into the console etc.

 

That's why it is strange to see some arguing so strongly now that it was never meant to be a retro machine for retro gamers. They obviously hoped to expand it into other sectors for financial reasons and proclaiming there to be a 3 billion untapped market of non-gamers that they'd seize sounded good, but their initial influx of fundraising and promotion was entirely catered to the retro community including the "2600" presales.

 

Yup selling to a niche retro market doesn't sound as nice of a selling point as targeting a huge market of 3.1 billion.

 

Reality is their market is around 7000. It's probably less than that because I'm sure some have more than one console ordered to get those sweet variants. 

[SegaSnatcher]

10 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

I don't go out of my way looking for that garbage and can't understand why TT was so obsessed with finding it on the Switch.

I mean we are talking about the same guy who randomly told Rich from RTU that he would love a lap dance from The Little Mermaid.....  
 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by SegaSnatcher

[MrBeefy]

20 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

I mean we are talking about the same guy who randomly told Rich from RTU that he would love a lap dance from The Little Mermaid.....  

Do you think he meant in her mermaid form? How would that even work? It would go along with his natural human curiosity though if she stayed part fish...

[SegaSnatcher]

3 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Do you think he meant in her mermaid form? How would that even work? It would go along with his natural human curiosity though if she stayed part fish...

 

I think he meant whatever was depicted in the animated movie, but there is a slight problem with that.....

[Wayler]

But fish and dolphins reach maturity much more earlier than at 16-years-old, so it's all good right?

 

Jesus, the places this family friendly console has been...

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Wayler

[roots.genoa]

While we all agree they should have chosen a clearer path between:

1. a retro-flavored console, catering to a niche of retrogamers
2. a modern successor to the Wii, which would have required a lot more marketing power imho

the logic behind why they claimed the Amico was both is that according to "them", old consoles were more convivial. After all, the Wii remote was almost a NES one turned on its side, and the Wii had the Virtual Console and that kind of retro content. But it worked for the Wii because Nintendo had the marketing power, its catalogue of popular IPs, and bowling or tennis are much more popular than cornhole. So they should have stuck to 1 instead of claiming it's not a retro console...

[Pink]

9 hours ago, MattPilz said:

It was over an hour of pure retro-based selling points. Even emphasizing how the system itself is a nod to the original in how the controllers look and dock into the console etc.

 

That's why it is strange to see some arguing so strongly now that it was never meant to be a retro machine for retro gamers. They obviously hoped to expand it into other sectors for financial reasons and proclaiming there to be a 3 billion untapped market of non-gamers that they'd seize sounded good, but their initial influx of fundraising and promotion was entirely catered to the retro community including the "2600" presales.

 

Don't forget too Earthworm Jim (definitely a a game that will appeal a lot more to hardcore gamers rather than religious soccer mom's and their elementary/preschool age children) was announced very early on and was one of their initial big heavy hitters to generate hype & initial buzz (And to probably help entice potential investors to invest as well)

 

I want to say that's how I actually first heard of the Amico was when I stumbled upon this IGN post on Facebook. The Earthworm Jim announcement at the time actually generated a decent amount of buzz on social media.

https://tinyurl.com/EWJAmicoIGN 

The comments are hilarious, just imagine if Tommy was in the comment section at the time arguing with them all! 😂 Reading comments from the general public rather than those on AtariAge or anyone that's been following this fiasco for any length of the time has always been fun & interesting, especially since their reactions & comments aren't any more positive then the "haters". It's incredible and will never stop being mind boggling how they thought they could compete with the Switch and could sell millions of Amico.

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Pink

[SegaSnatcher]

56 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

While we all agree they should have chosen a clearer path between:

1. a retro-flavored console, catering to a niche of retrogamers
2. a modern successor to the Wii, which would have required a lot more marketing power imho

the logic behind why they claimed the Amico was both is that according to "them", old consoles were more convivial. After all, the Wii remote was almost a NES one turned on its side, and the Wii had the Virtual Console and that kind of retro content. But it worked for the Wii because Nintendo had the marketing power, its catalogue of popular IPs, and bowling or tennis are much more popular than cornhole. So they should have stuck to 1 instead of claiming it's not a retro console...

#1 Would have been a more realistic approach.  

It's baffling why they simply didn't just start by releasing a sub $100 INTV HD plug n play.  Make some profit there and then try for something bigger.   It seems like the most logical thing to do as their first project. 

Even if IE managed to release the Amico back in 2020 in volume it wouldn't have sold all that well.  It'd honesly probably sell worse than the Atari console, because less people have an attachment to the INTV brand than Atari. 

Edited January 9, 2023 by SegaSnatcher

[SegaSnatcher]

On 1/8/2023 at 12:26 AM, MattPilz said:

So this quote from Tommy clearly hasn't aged well...

 

“If we sell 100,000 we're high-fiving like crazy. To be frank, if we sell 35,000 or 50,000 units we're totally fine. Our break-even point for the entire project is about 180,000 units, over the lifetime of the thing, to be able to continue doing this for many years. We're going to blow that out of the water. We are very confident,” he remarked."

At a price of $289.99 - $339.99 they won't come close to even 35K units, but its moot since they will never even produce that many if any at all. 

[MrBeefy]

3 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

I think he meant whatever was depicted in the animated movie, but there is a slight problem with that.....

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

While we all agree they should have chosen a clearer path between:

1. a retro-flavored console, catering to a niche of retrogamers
2. a modern successor to the Wii, which would have required a lot more marketing power imho

the logic behind why they claimed the Amico was both is that according to "them", old consoles were more convivial. After all, the Wii remote was almost a NES one turned on its side, and the Wii had the Virtual Console and that kind of retro content. But it worked for the Wii because Nintendo had the marketing power, its catalogue of popular IPs, and bowling or tennis are much more popular than cornhole. So they should have stuck to 1 instead of claiming it's not a retro console...

They should have been less worried about making stuff up, and instead been more focused on making stuff.

27 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

#1 Would have been a more realistic approach.  

It's baffling why they simply didn't just start by releasing a sub $100 INTV HD plug n play.  Make some profit there and then try for something bigger.   It seems like the most logical thing to do as their first project. 

Even if IE managed to release the Amico back in 2020 in volume it wouldn't have sold all that well.  It'd honesly probably sell worse than the Atari console, because less people have an attachment to the INTV brand than Atari. 

This is unfortunately the case. The VCS got more orders than they did and it wasn't even claiming to be targeting 3.1 billion people.

2 hours ago, Wayler said:

But fish and dolphins reach maturity much more earlier than at 16-years-old, so it's all good right?

 

Jesus, the places this family friendly console has been...

You trying to say the optics of the company are pretty bad?

[Wayler]

1 hour ago, SegaSnatcher said:

It's baffling why they simply didn't just start by releasing a sub $100 INTV HD plug n play.  Make some profit there and then try for something bigger.   It seems like the most logical thing to do as their first project. 

I think we are forgetting that the subject sphere of an ego vanity project doesn't involve needless buzz words like small scale, simply and logical.

It's rocketships, launchpads and 3 billion.

[mr_me]

14 hours ago, Rowsdower70 said:

It was a total bait and switch.  When you announce your project at PRGE (Portland RETRO GAMES Expo) with the big list of titles that would appeal to exclusively retro gamers, then try to switch over and call it a "family console for everyone" once you have preorder money in hand you've pulled a classic, textbook bait and switch (wait for it Mr Me) SCAM. 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bait_and_switch

Added link for legal definition. 

So the prge reveal was october 2018, preorders started in 2020, financial trouble and problems refunding deposits in 2022.  When did you realise the game library wasn't what you expected.  The prge reveal video mentions there would be other games, only saying 20 new games without any details.

 

Their website in 2019 went into more detail, motion control games, card games, board games, puzzle games, brain games, childrens learning, as well as retro-reimagined.  I remember discussions on atariage about the libary being too heavy on retro-reimagined and not enough balance with other game types.  When we looked at their videos showing games it was about half, or a little less than half retro-reimagined.  The list they have now is smaller but it's still about half or a little less than half with retro video game themes.

 

4 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

At a price of $289.99 - $339.99 they won't come close to even 35K units, but its moot since they will never even produce that many if any at all. 

Those are prices for the special editions.  They never changed the price of the cheaper standard editions from $250.  They probably shouldn't release the product if they can't be at $250 or less.

 

4 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

#1 Would have been a more realistic approach.  

It's baffling why they simply didn't just start by releasing a sub $100 INTV HD plug n play.  Make some profit there and then try for something bigger.   It seems like the most logical thing to do as their first project. 

Even if IE managed to release the Amico back in 2020 in volume it wouldn't have sold all that well.  It'd honesly probably sell worse than the Atari console, because less people have an attachment to the INTV brand than Atari. 

An Intellivision mini console would have been a great idea for their first product.  It's far more straightforward, no need to develop games or servers.  There might not be much profit there but they gain some experience in manufacturing and distribution.  And it clearly separates the two markets, one product is classic retro video games, the other is family and casual gaming.

 

[Flojomojo]

5 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

It's baffling why they simply didn't just start by releasing a sub $100 INTV HD plug n play.  Make some profit there and then try for something bigger.   It seems like the most logical thing to do as their first project. 

They knew from the Intellivision Flashback sales that a purely retro project wouldn’t make much money, and could even have trouble breaking even. Amico’s go-big-or-go-home approach suggests they knew they only had one shot at this. 

3 hours ago, Wayler said:

I think we are forgetting that the subject sphere of an ego vanity project doesn't involve needless buzz words like small scale, simply and logical.

It's rocketships, launchpads and 3 billion.

“NAILED IT! Which will make the victory even sweeter. Wouldn’t that be something.” —on behalf of @Tommy Tallarico who chooses not to come around here anymore 

[MrBeefy]

3 hours ago, Wayler said:

I think we are forgetting that the subject sphere of an ego vanity project doesn't involve needless buzz words like small scale, simply and logical.

It's rocketships, launchpads and 3 billion.

They are big dogs with over 600 years of experience!

 

With all the firings how many years do we think they are down to now? 60?

 

Either way a $289.99 - $339.99 priced console with only 15 low end games is a sure fire failure. Even if you go by the abandoned $250 price tag they were already there. Switch was only slightly highers with both quality, quantity, and value and trust built in. IE never did show value and sure didn't earn trust.

3 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

Amico’s go-big-or-go-home approach suggests they knew they only had one shot at this. 

“NAILED IT! Which will make the victory even sweeter. Wouldn’t that be something.” —on behalf of @Tommy Tallarico who chooses not to come around here anymore 

Oh yeah and they totally screwed the pooch. You forgot to add don't underestimate me, and look forward to proving you wrong.

 

Poor lil Tommy's rocketship had a premature launch and exploded on the pad I think.