Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[Pink]

On 2/4/2023 at 5:54 AM, mr_me said:

This misrepresentation about another forum user is a form of harassment.

This too is a form of harassment (And just flat out unprofessional for what was supposed to be a CEO, of a family friendly company too no less...) and just one of many examples from the then CEO at the time when it was said. To my knowledge, i've never once seen you call Tommy out on it or say anything about it 🤷‍♂️

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Pink

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, rayik said:

And the ECCO the Dolphin gang was being brought back together, but nothing could be confirmed.

Actually that game was confirmed, and is supposed to be crowdfunded at some point (even though it should have already been by now). It was NEVER an Amico exclusive, though (surprise!) but the Amico version was supposed to get an exclusive 4-player mode.

[+Biff Burgertime]

6 hours ago, Rev said:

How many non Mattel Intellivision fans got suckered into this?  

I didn't know the A in ASMR stood for Amico.

[jerseystyle]

3 hours ago, Pink said:

This too is a form of harassment (And just flat out unprofessional for what was supposed to be a CEO, of a family friendly company too no less...) and just one of many examples from the then CEO at the time when it was said. To my knowledge, i've never once seen you call Tommy out on it or say anything about it 🤷‍♂️

 

 

Yes nothing is more funny then 50 year old men, as a group,  making fun of people in terms of sexual activity and choices.

 

I’ve seen an uptick lately in the Amico “cult” community in the usage of harassment- accusing people of it, saying it’s against forum/YouTube rules, etc… it makes me wonder if TT/Phil Adam is feeding people verbiage ahead of the next update. Preemptively getting excuses ready, maybe.

[MrBeefy]

7 hours ago, Matt_B said:

Ah, come on. She's under fifty and not posing in front of a wall of boxed cartridges. That looks far too well lit to be a basement as well. 😀

No idea what you are talking about. 🧓

 

7 hours ago, MattPilz said:

I found it to be incredibly reckless behavior by the CEO to continue guaranteeing the safety of everyone's pre-order deposit through his February 2022 on-camera interviews, in order to convince even more people to place purportedly risk-free money down and lock in a price.

 

On that subject again, I was just skimming some old comments and found this from you in the original Q&A thread:

 

"The pre-order deposit money is refundable so they can't really use that until the product ships." -mr_me (Nov. 19, 2020)

 

Yes, that was the expected logical behavior. The $100 deposits should never had been part of their operating expenditures at all. Those funds should had sat in a separate bank or escrow on reserve "until the product ships" so anyone requesting refunds could get them at any time, whether or not the company dismantled. Instead they let the company finances run down to nothing and rather than calling it there and refunding any outstanding pre-orders with the separate balance, they dipped into those funds as well and used them up.

 

None of this is defensible.

Wow even when he said something reasonable he's wrong too. 🤣

56 minutes ago, jerseystyle said:

Yes nothing is more funny then 50 year old men, as a group,  making fun of people in terms of sexual activity and choices.

 

I’ve seen an uptick lately in the Amico “cult” community in the usage of harassment- accusing people of it, saying it’s against forum/YouTube rules, etc… it makes me wonder if TT/Phil Adam is feeding people verbiage ahead of the next update. Preemptively getting excuses ready, maybe.

Oh they are totally a crybully company. That has been the MO of the company since the beginning. I mean Tommy used AA as a recruitment center to get people to attack Pat, Ian, and others. They have an issue with being honest about their mismanagement. And have always prepped to blame haters for the console not releasing.

[Tommy2D]

7 hours ago, MattPilz said:

I found it to be incredibly reckless behavior by the CEO to continue guaranteeing the safety of everyone's pre-order deposit through his February 2022 on-camera interviews, in order to convince even more people to place purportedly risk-free money down and lock in a price.

 

On that subject again, I was just skimming some old comments and found this from you in the original Q&A thread:

 

"The pre-order deposit money is refundable so they can't really use that until the product ships." -mr_me (Nov. 19, 2020)

 

Yes, that was the expected logical behavior. The $100 deposits should never had been part of their operating expenditures at all. Those funds should had sat in a separate bank or escrow on reserve "until the product ships" so anyone requesting refunds could get them at any time, whether or not the company dismantled. Instead they let the company finances run down to nothing and rather than calling it there and refunding any outstanding pre-orders with the separate balance, they dipped into those funds as well and used them up.

 

None of this is defensible.

Here's a question.  Do you think people would be less upset if INTV had just gone with a typical crowdfunding project? 

 

Obviously, people are not thrilled when a crowdfunding project fails but I think that the sites are transparent, if you check the terms and conditions.  You're basically paying someone to "try" because you accept that the project is fairly niche and likely won't happen without seed money.  

 

I haven't followed that many crowdfunding projects that fizzled out, so I'm curious if any of them manage to have some kind of semi-graceful exit. 

 

If they had gone with crowdfunding, instead of pre-orders, they probably could have just sent out whatever games they had finished, in PC format, and closed up shop. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Tommy2D

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, Tommy2D said:

Here's a question.  Do you think people would be less upset if INTV had just gone with a typical crowdfunding project? 

 

Obviously, people are not thrilled when a crowdfunding project fails but I think that the sites are transparent, if you check the terms and conditions.  You're basically paying someone to "try" because you accept that the project is fairly niche and likely won't happen without seed money.  

 

I haven't followed that many crowdfunding projects that fizzled out, so I'm curious if any of them manage to have some kind of semi-graceful exit. 

 

If they had gone with crowdfunding, instead of pre-orders, they probably could have just sent out whatever games they had finished, in PC format, and closed up shop. 

Truth is people went easy on them until they asked for money. They opened up themselves when they took money and continued to not make anything.

 

Any other reasonable company would have folded after the big investor pulled out. They didn't have a viable product for the market and they knew it. Normal investors knew it too.

 

It is also why they wouldn't want to release the console. If they had released the console, as they had multiple opportunities to, the gig would have been up 100%. There would be no more hiding behind hater wars, "it's not for you", covid, or "just wait to judge until you play" talk. Their pants would be flying in the wind even more than it has been since the former CEO opened his mouth and removed all doubt that he was an idiot about everything he talked about.

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by MrBeefy

[+madman]

1 hour ago, Tommy2D said:

Here's a question.  Do you think people would be less upset if INTV had just gone with a typical crowdfunding project? 

I don't think it would've hit whatever goal they set. Look at the Chameleon, they never came close to their funding goal IIRC. And Tommy/INTV knows they couldn't touch any of that money (because it doesn't exist) until their goal is met, so that's probably one reason they didn't go that route. "Pre-orders" were a way to get cash coming in that they could immediately use and worry about the refunds later. I don't see how this project ever would've succeeded. Just because a guy made some video game music in the 90's doesn't means he knows how to build a console, deal with manufacturing, run a business, etc. 

[MrBeefy]

24 minutes ago, madman said:

I don't think it would've hit whatever goal they set. Look at the Chameleon, they never came close to their funding goal IIRC. And Tommy/INTV knows they couldn't touch any of that money (because it doesn't exist) until their goal is met, so that's probably one reason they didn't go that route. "Pre-orders" were a way to get cash coming in that they could immediately use and worry about the refunds later. I don't see how this project ever would've succeeded. Just because a guy made some video game music in the 90's doesn't means he knows how to build a console, deal with manufacturing, run a business, etc. 

Yeah making bleeps and bloops does not make one qualified to make hardware. Nor does burning mp3s to a CD. Man he sure got mad when @SegaSnatcher called him a music guy. Poor little guy just wanted to be a big boy. Tommy loved Willy Wonka but never realized he was the equivalent to Grandpa Joe in that movie.

 

They were going to go the KS route to ask people to pay to make and ship their consoles. Then it was RetroBro who told them that would be a bad idea. So they went with StartEngine and showed all of us through those SEC docs how they lied about the status of how they were.

 

So RetroBro gave them some bad advice and they tool it. That led them to exposing those SEC docs that they wouldn't have had to for KS. Hence why they needed a secret meeting to tell everyone how to spin the bad financial news!

 

Speaking of those SEC docs... for a company that "Hasn't started marketing yet," where do you think that $200,000+ dollars in marketing was spent?

 

Maybe Tommy charged the company by the post on AtariAge here? That would break down to roughly $27.50 per post.

 

It is probably more likely that money went to the company astroturfers that were here at AA and elsewhere on the internet. Yet another lie from the company to add to the list.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1yoy8wozJm8_j6_6sXpcf5HLoXe3jNWceKlQyaQ918Io/htmlview#gid=0

[Parker77]

In other news, Switch now passes Game Boy and PS4 lifetime sales totals....

You sure called that one right Tommy!

[mr_me]

On 2/6/2023 at 12:37 AM, MattPilz said:

I found it to be incredibly reckless behavior by the CEO to continue guaranteeing the safety of everyone's pre-order deposit through his February 2022 on-camera interviews, in order to convince even more people to place purportedly risk-free money down and lock in a price.

 

On that subject again, I was just skimming some old comments and found this from you in the original Q&A thread:

 

"The pre-order deposit money is refundable so they can't really use that until the product ships." -mr_me (Nov. 19, 2020)

 

Yes, that was the expected logical behavior. The $100 deposits should never had been part of their operating expenditures at all. Those funds should had sat in a separate bank or escrow on reserve "until the product ships" so anyone requesting refunds could get them at any time, whether or not the company dismantled. Instead they let the company finances run down to nothing and rather than calling it there and refunding any outstanding pre-orders with the separate balance, they dipped into those funds as well and used them up.

 

None of this is defensible.

It's not a defense, he shouldn't have said it, because in desperate times a company is going to use all it's resources to survive.  I don't know what deal they thought they might have had at that time but they probably weren't planning for things to fall apart. I wouldn't expect deposit money to be put in escrow anymore than any other company that takes deposits or prepayments on consumer products.

 

Back in 2020, they supposedly had plenty of manufacturing financing in place, so they wouldn't have needed to use preorder money for that. Things were different in 2022, they didn't have that manufacturing financing, it wouldn't be surprising for a company to use deposit money to help fulfil the customer's order.  Many people with preorders refer to themselves as "backers", some even call the deposit an investment, so that's the reality of what they're thinking. Still, more than two years after the first preorders, the risk disclosure they shared in 2022 showed that they had about $1.9M in cash and components.  Subtract the $1.35M in components leaves about $550k cash.  That's more than the $539k the disclosure says they had in preorder deposits, cash was there in early 2022.  

 

On 2/6/2023 at 2:51 AM, Pink said:

This too is a form of harassment (And just flat out unprofessional for what was supposed to be a CEO, of a family friendly company too no less...) and just one of many examples from the then CEO at the time when it was said. To my knowledge, i've never once seen you call Tommy out on it or say anything about it

I was talking specifically about saying someone said something they didn't, if you don't point it out people wouldn't know.  Ridicule can be harassment too, you'd have to ask Mike Mullis how he feels about the joke. It already reflects poorly on people who ridicule others.  They are making themselves look bad without having to point it out

 

23 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

...

Speaking of those SEC docs... for a company that "Hasn't started marketing yet," where do you think that $200,000+ dollars in marketing was spent?

 

Maybe Tommy charged the company by the post on AtariAge here? That would break down to roughly $27.50 per post.

 

It is probably more likely that money went to the company astroturfers that were here at AA and elsewhere on the internet. Yet another lie from the company to add to the list.

...

When they started, they hired a marketing consulting firm to establish a marketing plan for the product.  So there are those fees.  They started some of that marketing activity, prematurely in 2020 in anticipation of a release but obviously postponed everything else.  They hired a marketing exec, someone to do promotional videos, their compensation could be included in that number, plus the cost of producing videos, participating in conferences, etc.  They did give a youtuber, John Riggs, a boxed rfid card set, in exchange for promoting the boxed set.  I think youtuber Slopes got a set as well.

Edited February 7, 2023 by mr_me

[roots.genoa]

7 hours ago, Parker77 said:

In other news, Switch now passes Game Boy and PS4 lifetime sales totals....

You sure called that one right Tommy!

Well, now imagine what Amico was going to achieve, since it was supposed to crush the Switch! 3 billion gamers!! 🤯

[Tommy2D]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

Well, now imagine what Amico was going to achieve, since it was supposed to crush the Switch! 3 billion gamers!! 🤯

That's being conservative.  The sublime greatness of the Amico would clearly attract the attention of aliens and create an intergalactic market. 3 billion...more like 3 quadrillion!  

[MrBeefy]

13 hours ago, Parker77 said:

In other news, Switch now passes Game Boy and PS4 lifetime sales totals....

You sure called that one right Tommy!

You know, it is almost like all his talk of having data was just made up BS. That couldn't be right? I mean, Tommy has never lied about anything in his life. It's why his mom is very proud.

[MrBeefy]

4 hours ago, Tommy2D said:

That's being conservative.  The sublime greatness of the Amico would clearly attract the attention of aliens and create an intergalactic market. 3 billion...more like 3 quadrillion!  

Oh you NAILED IT! Amico got its own episode on the Next Generation. 

[Rev]

Incredible Fiasco!

 

 

[MrBeefy]

8 hours ago, Rev said:

Incredible Fiasco!

IMG_8226.MOV 13.38 MB · 8 downloads  

 

Mark Thompson has officially created as much as Intellivision has in regards to Amico.

 

Just throw in an incredible fiasco mug.

[atarifan88]

I used to be anti-Nintendo. At the beginning of all this, I was cheering for the Amico because of the classic games and reimagining of the classics along with motion controlled games. My interest had peaked and I was all in. Fortunately I held to my standards and didn't put any money down on something that didn't exist even though I was going to buy one when it came out. Fast forward years later and all the drama and non-delivery of a product that was supposed to crush Nintendo, I was disappointed to say the least. It was then that I realized the Nintendo Switch was something I was supposed to have all along, instead of a poser, wanna-be product that slapped a name on it from one of my favorite systems from the 80's. If there is anything I can give the Amico credit to, it's showing me what a great company Nintendo is and what great products they put out. Even for someone like me who prefers classic gaming, there is plenty of games to be had on the Switch. So I am man enough to admit that I made a mistake about Nintendo and am thankful that they emerged after the video game crash of 1983. If it wasn't for them, I don't know if any of us would be here talking about video games. The switch is the first new system I have owned since the PS1 and it's one I hope to have for many years. Thanks Amico for showing your true colors! 😎

[SteveTheColecoDude]

 

Source.

[Shawn]

10 minutes ago, SteveTheColecoDude said:

 

Source.

 

This was inevitable and about damn time.

[jhd]

 

I love how people threaten lawsuits against nearly bankrupt entities without any assets. Sure, it is not terribly difficult to get a default judgement, but someone still has to pay for the legal counsel. It may be possible to find a lawyer to take the matter on a contingency basis (though I highly doubt it), but some expenditures like filing fees will still need to be paid upfront. 

[Rev]

15 minutes ago, SteveTheColecoDude said:

 

Source.

Launch pad! 

[Flojomojo]

On 2/3/2023 at 9:10 PM, MrBeefy said:

His Yankee HoF status suggests he is of sound mind. They don't hand those out to anyone of unsound mind. 

I'm surprised Tom hasn't come out to say he was only kidding, he left that in as an easter egg, to troll the haters, and to see if people were really paying attention. In every job I've held, this is the kind of dishonesty that would get a person fired. Yankees stuff (putting it in twice since embedding seems broken)

 

On 2/6/2023 at 7:57 AM, MrBeefy said:

No idea what you are talking about. 🧓

 

Wow even when he said something reasonable he's wrong too. 🤣

Oh they are totally a crybully company. That has been the MO of the company since the beginning. I mean Tommy used AA as a recruitment center to get people to attack Pat, Ian, and others. They have an issue with being honest about their mismanagement. And have always prepped to blame haters for the console not releasing.

Tommy used AtariAge as a recruitment center, and some of the staff was brainwashed into acting as enforcers for him. Haven't seen most of those people around lately, I wonder why?

 

On 2/6/2023 at 8:27 AM, Tommy2D said:

Here's a question.  Do you think people would be less upset if INTV had just gone with a typical crowdfunding project? 

 

Obviously, people are not thrilled when a crowdfunding project fails but I think that the sites are transparent, if you check the terms and conditions.  You're basically paying someone to "try" because you accept that the project is fairly niche and likely won't happen without seed money.  

 

I haven't followed that many crowdfunding projects that fizzled out, so I'm curious if any of them manage to have some kind of semi-graceful exit. 

 

If they had gone with crowdfunding, instead of pre-orders, they probably could have just sent out whatever games they had finished, in PC format, and closed up shop. 

That's one of the more disturbing aspects of this scam. The appearance of success brought on more investments. If it were just a crowdfunded e-begging stint, everyone could see exactly how much it made (or failed to make) and it could fail and go away, like the Intellivision and Colecovision kickstarters did. Even when Amico first went on Fig Publishing, they set a $1 goal and dumped their preorder numbers in there, so there was no way they'd fail. Tommy wins again!

 

On 2/7/2023 at 10:28 AM, mr_me said:

It's not a defense, he shouldn't have said it, because in desperate times a company is going to use all it's resources to survive.  I don't know what deal they thought they might have had at that time but they probably weren't planning for things to fall apart. I wouldn't expect deposit money to be put in escrow anymore than any other company that takes deposits or prepayments on consumer products.

It was presented as proof of faith, so Tommy could show investors he was serious and so were the fans. We agree that he should not have said "100% refundable," but it also begs the question: if they were doing so well, why would they have to ask for pre-orders in the first place? Especially since they were not anywhere near going into production? They didn't even have their final price with shipping, the earlybirds were going in blind. 

 

This fiasco was even more "fire, ready, aim" than Coleco Chameleon, which might have been some middle schooler's art project. 

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, Flojomojo said:

...It was presented as proof of faith, so Tommy could show investors he was serious and so were the fans. We agree that he should not have said "100% refundable," but it also begs the question: if they were doing so well, why would they have to ask for pre-orders in the first place? Especially since they were not anywhere near going into production? They didn't even have their final price with shipping, the earlybirds were going in blind.

...

We were talking about what the new CEO said in Feb 2022 about preorder deposits being safe.  The 100% refundable is the correct way to to describe preorders, as it just means they owe all of the deposit not, for example, 85% as might be the case with other organisations.

 

Back in Jan 2020, when they started taking preorders, they might not have been doing as well as you might have thought.  In an interview, the cfo mentions he had venture capital firms lined up prior to covid but it fell through.  The ceo at the time was personally pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars in the company to keep it alive, as the Fig/Republic campaign would have taken some time to close.  In the end the preorder deposits were a small fraction of money raised.

 

Edit:  I think the founders edition price was set at the time of those preorders.  The price of the standard editions and special editions may not yet have been set.

 

5 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

I used to be anti-Nintendo. At the beginning of all this, I was cheering for the Amico because of the classic games and reimagining of the classics along with motion controlled games. My interest had peaked and I was all in. Fortunately I held to my standards and didn't put any money down on something that didn't exist even though I was going to buy one when it came out. Fast forward years later and all the drama and non-delivery of a product that was supposed to crush Nintendo...

Where's all this talk about crushing Nintendo coming from?  The company talked of modest sales expectations.

Edited February 8, 2023 by mr_me

[atarifan88]

22 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Where's all this talk about crushing Nintendo coming from?  The company talked of modest sales expectations.

That's what you took away from reading my entire post?! Why am I surprised?! 🙄🤡🤓