Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[MrBeefy]

7 hours ago, livingonwheels said:

Random, somewhat amusing, Amico Discord quotes:

 

I understand that we all wanna see the amico come out in some way I think amico home is a good step in that direction. 

 

People in here arguing like it's 2020... ie couldn't manufacture a console with over 12 million and 30+ employees.  It's extreme delusion to think they can still manufacture a console with the few thousand dollars they collected from selling the games on the app store  and  employees. Regardless of how bad they want to and how well intended they are. That's not dealing in hypotheticals. That's dealing In facts.

 

As an early investor I am happy to see a pulse still exists.Just hope they develop traction and get things working.

 

Phil Adam doesn't hide that the goal of Amico Home is to attract investors. What I wondered is how come Atari could attract investors despite having no visible path to become profitable, while Intellivision could not despite having a solid business plan. The first thing that comes to my mind is a lack of credibility. So, in my mind, if Intellivision can make itself look like a credible company, if Intellivision can come to the point where it can say, "We have a product, now we just need to be able to market it in order to become profitable", the chances that the company could attract investors are there. At least that's my point of view.

 

Amico Home was released so people can enjoy and experience Amico games and have a taste of what's to come.
The plan is to attract and gain traction with Amico Home so there can be an actual console mass production.
The next step would be to possibly release the Amico controller to help the ultimate goal of releasing the Amico console.

 

Hey everyone ! Loving Amico Home. Me and my GF love playing  Shark Shark and Side Swipers on our Vontar Android box. The games don't load threw the Amico Home App yet . But once I sync our phones with it and run the games separate after that it works. She loves using her phone as a controller. Well done on releasing it  

 

Good work on this one so far i have a good feeling for this platform with astrosmash and shark shark and hopefully finnigan fox soon.

 

amico home+money= produce consoles and controllers 

 

hi mike, i used to watch you on the amico forever show back when i was following the project more closer. it seems a lot has changed from the original vision and what tommy tallarico had talked about. i know covid through a wrench in the gears. are you still in touch with tommy these days? 

 

Welcome to the server!   He's doing ok.  I do talk to him.

 

is he ever gonna come back to amico or is he moved on and focusing on VideoGamesLive stuff now? 

 

Lets keep this a positive group for people who are interested in trying the Amico home or have legitimate questions. There are plenty of other platforms to be haters on lol

 

The console is still the goal that we're all working towards. Totally understandable if amico home isn't for everyone, but its the best path right now towards the endgame!

 

so is there a timeline of events that can make this happen? i mean if there are X amount of amico home games sold will that be enough to fund hardware? or can we do a kickstarter or somethjing to help

 

John Alvarado is the main active team member here who could answer questions with authority.

 

No matter how Intellivision pitch the crowdfunding, the small group of YouTubers who constantly try to attack Intellivision by any means necessary will spin this pitch into something bad. The only way to have a successful crowdfunding would be to have more people making honest videos in order to give more balanced view. It's sad, but that's the way it is.

 

Some of the testers have consoles to help with that, I don't know if its been announced that it is 100% ready or not.

 

Yeah that does add to the difficulty. The sad thing is they just do it because it gets views. Hate is very clickable. They don't even need a real reason to dislike Amico but its in their interest to lie/slander/whatever just to get clicks.

 

I've got a plan to help. Ive ordered some parts to help livestream Amico Home. And me and my GF will play some games each day. If we get enough people streaming how fun Amico Home is we will drown out any of the negativity. No need to try and silence them.

 

To help, I am still doing family gaming streams with our pilot console.

 

thats really cool that you get the full couch co op experience with your kiddos. thats really what its been all about since the beginning.

 

but if the company is still surviving then its not over til the fat lady sings

 

Playing Amico home on my new s23 all day on my day off

 

john, is tommy tallarico still a part of the company? i saw on the site he was moved down the staff page quite a bit. does he still have a say in what goes on with amico? involved at all?

 

It has become clear to me today that Intellivision has big plans for Amico Home to be successful on a broad range of devices and if that can include Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox then you really can reach a far and wide broader audience customer base and give Intellivision a very bright potential future in the industry. WIthout the access on Nintendo, Playstation or Xbox, I fear Intellivision will continue to struggle unnecessarily.  Get those games out there to the masses on as many platforms and consoles as you can. Great plan Mr Alvarado! You have regained my support today good sir. This is a great Christmas Eve after all. I will continue drunking and enjoy the evening. Cheers!

 

this is exactly what motivated me in the first place to get behind this console. the fact that it IS'NT meant for the big three (sony, xbox, nintendo) as a journalist yourself im sure u are well aware of those three having practically a stranglehold over the gamings industry for quite some time now(as far as consoles go). and yes, there was the sega dreamcast but that is practically ancient history at this point. the amico games are no longer exclisive, yes. theyre on mobile phones now yes which is kindof ironic because thats what the detractors claimed. but its actually unique because of how the app pairs multiple devices, so i dont think they were entirely correct at the time. basically what im trying to say is that they are still trying to get this thing out against all odds. no one expected the pandemic. i think it is commendable that they are still trying. its been nice to see it still have momentum albeit a slight shift in tragectory

 

I think the Amico console will retain its own appeal to families for ease of use and not exposing kids to other types of not family-friendly content.

 

hello! with all the misinformation out there about the amico it is good to see an official community like this and i thank intellivision for sticking with the project. i would like to bring the joy of family gaming to my loved ones this christmas and i wonder if anyone has tips about setting things up - i have an ios device and my family has androids can we play together? if i had to pick one game that is the most impressive and fun for a group of at least 4 what should i choose?

 

We have never announced a basketball game . We did announce a baseball game , which was in development but is currently paused until we get more funding.

 

Cornhole is a prime candidate for porting to Amico Home. It would have been one of the first few except we are very concerned about people accidentally throwing their phones at their TV. We are still concerned because people don’t usually have lanyards on their phones. I think it would be safer to wait for the physical controllers to come out because they come with lanyards.

I love the comment about it not being 2020, but people acting like it is. We are working on 4 years since it should have been out. I think in addition to the console, some people's brains are lagging.

 

7 hours ago, rayik said:

Pat & Ian's coverage of the Amico really shows the lack of development of anything - games, console - over the years.  Cats & Swords screenshot was show in 2019!

 

Below is link to all the Amico videos put out on CPU podcast:

 

 

Cats and Swords funnily enough was just a failed mobile game.

 

4 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

As a parent, I love this one the most. Ignoring the fact that every platform has some type of parental controls (should you even care about such a thing) for a moment, it's amazing this would be any type of a selling point to a potential audience that actually exists. It's like this is trying to target the parents who care enough about what their kids get exposed to, yet want to be completely hands-off post-purchase of a game console. I don't see how the two ideas can possibly co-exist in one person. (Of course, that's also ignoring the fact that this hypothetical parent would even know about something like the Amico even existing.) Either you are so actively involved in your kid's activities that there wouldn't be any danger of "spill over" or you're so hands-off that having a supposedly family-friendly console wouldn't even matter to you (or, I don't know, some combination thereof, including putting some trust in your child into the mix). And obviously, there's considerable debate about what makes a platform family-friendly in the first place. Clearly, violence and destruction are and always have been on the table for Amico, so I guess this is for wholesome American families only? 

I've beat this drum before. Their literal customer target as stated were idiots. Parents too dumb to parent, and out of touch. Too dumb to know how to operate parental controls, but somehow able to find an obscure console, whose last successor to the original console was the failed Hyperscan console.

 

Him talking about a hardcore Christian base interested in a console with zero chance of mature content isn't accurate or viable either. Those bases, if that hardcore, would have issues with Night Stalker, Astrosmash, Missile Command, Armor Battle, and Cloudy Mountain. Not only do all of those promote violence (shooting others with war vehicles, guns, bows and arrows, etc), but also could be seen as promoting things considered occult (dragons, aliens, monsters, etc).

 

To put that in perspective there is a card game I'm interested in called Redemption TCG. It came out as a response to Magic the Gathering TCG and its promotion of "problematic things". It has a strong base that has been going for a long time and I've been around that group. While there are some people like me who like games like MtG or Pokémon TCG, many of that base will not watch videos about Pokémon cards, due to them being seen as problematic and not Christian.

They never had a solid plan or direction, and obviously had no clue what they were talking about. I think a majority of their focus testing was just inner office opinions or anecdotal stuff from his wife, mom, or cult members who liked the name of old Intellivision, but were idiots to all the available products/options on the market.

 

I mean Tommy said he couldn't easily navigate Clubhouse Games on Switch. My toddler has been able to manage that for a while now. He can also navigate his way through getting Mario Odyssey up and running on his own. If Tommy didn't come up with a scam idea as a deliberate ruse to avoid having kids with his wife , he might know he's operating at a 4 year olds level. 

26 minutes ago, Shawn said:

 

Oh the The RetroVGS\Coleco Chameleon wanted money they just didn't have the bare minimum for kickstarter to even let them take it. Then Indigogo went bye bye cause the fake proto, caputure card in a jag shell got called for what it was and outed as BS right here on AA. Mike wanted peoples money but he wasn't able to get it or he would have.

I guess the Amico was AA's way of proving the law of averages? I remember the day you (and I think also CPUWiz) wanted to see boards and caused a kerfuffle. 🤣

 

I really do wish it was possible to see all comments that were removed, and reason for some of the bans. Even if people look at https://amicoage.neocities.org/ it doesn't paint a full picture of the Amico debacle and all the silliness that ensued. You kind of had to be there. 🤪

[roots.genoa]

10 hours ago, SteveTheColecoDude said:

Harlem Globetrotters. The players were personally helping Tommy design the game!

I would pay to know what "game ideas" they bounced with Tommy... I mean, basketball already have rules. 🤔

[Biff Burgertime]

12 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Yes, it has always been, despite the strong German input. Actually working in Germany was a good idea since they are very strict about censorship there, but I always said Amico games cater too much to the US crowd: cornhole, baseball, Evel Knievel... And the weird basketball franchise (don't remember the name). We don't care about them in Europe. Tallarico wanted a bocce game but of course it never materialized.

12 hours ago, SteveTheColecoDude said:

Harlem Globetrotters. The players were personally helping Tommy design the game!

Beyond the appeal being limited to the US, as someone from the US... I haven't heard either mentioned since the 90s at latest. Even Knievel's relevance was long over by then, but his lesser son Robbie Knievel kept his legacy going a bit plus daredevils were still in style (slightly) before internet speeds got fast enough for video streaming. We had to get our fix of crazy video footage on TV.

 

The Harlem Globetrotters are still around and doing their thing of course, but I'd be amazed if anyone younger than me (mid-30s) knows who they are. Hell, even people my own age!

 

Those IPs are both dated as fuck. Maybe they were meant to attract grandparents. Or were just cheap.

[Matt_B]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

I would pay to know what "game ideas" they bounced with Tommy... I mean, basketball already have rules. 🤔

About the only way I could see Tommy interested in their ideas is if some of them write stock music in their spare time.

[MrBeefy]

3 hours ago, Matt_B said:

About the only way I could see Tommy interested in their ideas is if some of them write stock music in their spare time.

You joke, but they did do contests. They were going to give winners $500 to use their music in games. Some of those people won the contest, but never got their money.

 

Maybe when his NDA is up, @nurmix can discuss what was going on there, as he was one sending out emails to the winners.

 

[+frankodragon]

5 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

You joke, but they did do contests. They were going to give winners $500 to use their music in games. Some of those people won the contest, but never got their money.

 

M

 

Why does that remind me of something else?

 

[Flojomojo]

On 12/23/2023 at 1:08 PM, MrBeefy said:

I didn't follow Chameleon, but I though some did lose some money. Not to the scope of Amico of course.

Mike Kennedy once said something to the effect of, "In the end, I am the only one who lost friends, money, and reputation in this." Some of his friends said they were investors in his company. Mike also said that some family money went into his business expenses as well, like travel from California to NYC Toy Fair. 

On 12/23/2023 at 3:08 PM, jerseystyle said:

My memory might be off, but I’m fairly sure they never took money. I think they were gonna do a kickstarter but it was shut down before it started.  But it’s been years, so y’all feel free to correct me

There was supposed to be a Kickstarter. The Facebook posts about it are lost to the sands of time but Mike wrote "it was delayed to make it even better!" Then the truth came out and the whole house of cards came crashing down. 

 

On 12/23/2023 at 3:41 PM, MrBeefy said:

I guess I should have been more specific. I don't think there were any consumers who lost out or weird crowdfunding investors. I'm sure someone lost money on getting the molds or whatever. I might be wrong.

Mike explained himself here: 

 

On 12/26/2023 at 10:00 PM, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

Does anyone remember how many pages long the happy thoughts thread was by the time the Amico subforum was closed down and hidden away from scrutiny? 

Someone (not me) reconstructed it from web archives and captured most of 1422 pages. This is why I think AtariAge should just un-hide the forum posts and be a definitive source, since it's already out there anyway and is a frequent source of funny Reddit posts. https://amicoage.neocities.org/

On 12/27/2023 at 2:52 PM, Bill Loguidice said:

As a parent, I love this one the most. Ignoring the fact that every platform has some type of parental controls (should you even care about such a thing) for a moment, it's amazing this would be any type of a selling point to a potential audience that actually exists. It's like this is trying to target the parents who care enough about what their kids get exposed to, yet want to be completely hands-off post-purchase of a game console. I don't see how the two ideas can possibly co-exist in one person. (Of course, that's also ignoring the fact that this hypothetical parent would even know about something like the Amico even existing.) Either you are so actively involved in your kid's activities that there wouldn't be any danger of "spill over" or you're so hands-off that having a supposedly family-friendly console wouldn't even matter to you (or, I don't know, some combination thereof, including putting some trust in your child into the mix). And obviously, there's considerable debate about what makes a platform family-friendly in the first place. Clearly, violence and destruction are and always have been on the table for Amico, so I guess this is for wholesome American families only? 

It smacks of 1990s grandstanding scare tactics as made famous by disgraced activist and former lawyer Jack Thompson. As it happens, this is about the time when Tommy Tallarico's career was at its peak, working on B-grade Sega Genesis and Sega CD games at Virgin Interactive. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)

 

I guess we all had a lot of potential back then. Simpler times! Poor Tom couldn't help but fly too close to the sun. 

 

[Hydro Thunder]

2 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

 

 

I guess we all had a lot of potential back then. Simpler times! Poor Tom couldn't help but fly too close to the sun. 

 

 

[Wayler]

18 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

Maybe when his NDA is up, @nurmix can discuss what was going on there, as he was one sending out emails to the winners.

What the hell? That's a Finnish last name if there ever was one. This trash fire sure spreads to interesting places.

[roots.genoa]

11 minutes ago, Wayler said:

That's a Finnish last name if there ever was one.

And yet he couldn't finnish what he started. 😔

[livingonwheels]

Discord 12/28/2023:

John Alvarado: Similar to the console, manufacturing controllers requires a significant chunk of cash.  Our plan is to attract investment capital by demonstrating that we can sell games, and that people want the controller (which requires market research).  That is the part we can plan.  We can't know when we will secure investment or if we can sell enough software to fund the manufacturing (or show enough profit to get a loan, etc.).  But we feel good about our chances.  The better Amico Home does the better our chances.  So yes, there is a plan, but no, we don't yet know when we will begin manufacturing.

Edited December 29, 2023 by livingonwheels

[Bill Loguidice]

8 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

Discord 12/28/2023:

John Alvarado: Similar to the console, manufacturing controllers requires a significant chunk of cash.  Our plan is to attract investment capital by demonstrating that we can sell games, and that people want the controller (which requires market research).  That is the part we can plan.  We can't know when we will secure investment or if we can sell enough software to fund the manufacturing (or show enough profit to get a loan, etc.).  But we feel good about our chances.  The better Amico Home does the better our chances.  So yes, there is a plan, but no, we don't yet know when we will begin manufacturing.

Without the proverbial Kool-Aid, no one thinks Amico Home will do well, so I guess they're closing in on acknowledging it's not getting manufactured?

[SteveTheColecoDude]

If only they had already received a "significant chunk of cash"...

 

 

"Hey so we received over 11 million dollars and produced absolutely nothing, please give us some more!"

[MrBeefy]

11 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

Discord 12/28/2023:

John Alvarado: Similar to the console, manufacturing controllers requires a significant chunk of cash.  Our plan is to attract investment capital by demonstrating that we can sell games, and that people want the controller (which requires market research).  That is the part we can plan.  We can't know when we will secure investment or if we can sell enough software to fund the manufacturing (or show enough profit to get a loan, etc.).  But we feel good about our chances.  The better Amico Home does the better our chances.  So yes, there is a plan, but no, we don't yet know when we will begin manufacturing.

Controllers also need to pass FCC certs. Last time I checked they haven't. Which also requires money. Which also needs to be done before manufacturing. I'm pretty sure the market said it didn't want those crappy controllers since Intellivision. If you need a more recent example see the WiiU. Better software and more competently made hardware and people still didn't want that.

1 minute ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Without the proverbial Kool-Aid, no one thinks Amico Home will do well, so I guess they're closing in on acknowledging it's not getting manufactured?

No. They "like their chances". They ain't admitting anything until they reduce the amount of refunds they said they were giving back, and/or reducing likelihood of lawsuit.

 

Remember they need to release the other pack ins so they can take the rest of those funds and give them to Sudesh as repayment.

[MrBeefy]

2 minutes ago, SteveTheColecoDude said:

If only they had already received a "significant chunk of cash"...

 

 

"Hey so we received over 11 million dollars and produced absolutely nothing, please give us some more!"

I know right! I think @Tommy Tallarico was right when he said to not underestimate him. I totally underestimated his level of incompetence. I wonder if his mom is still proud, or if Sharon is pestering him to have kids now that his 100% failure is over?

[jerseystyle]

24 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

Discord 12/28/2023:

John Alvarado: Similar to the console, manufacturing controllers requires a significant chunk of cash.  Our plan is to attract investment capital by demonstrating that we can sell games, and that people want the controller (which requires market research).  That is the part we can plan.  We can't know when we will secure investment or if we can sell enough software to fund the manufacturing (or show enough profit to get a loan, etc.).  But we feel good about our chances.  The better Amico Home does the better our chances.  So yes, there is a plan, but no, we don't yet know when we will begin manufacturing.

Oh Christ “market research” rears its head again. Can’t wait to have the shills back on here to lecture us about what market research means.

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, livingonwheels said:

that people want the controller (which requires market research)

Wait, does that mean they didn't already have the DATA™️ to prove there was a market for Amico?? I'm pretty sure Tommy said they had, and Tommy would never lie to us, right? 🥺

[livingonwheels]

Random Amico Discord quotes:

 

Thank you John I appreciate it. it's been a nice distraction catching up with amico. glad you are still working hard.

I agree that $15 is overpriced for these types of games.  Some of the youngins got Switch Lites for Christmas this year but we won't be buying them Astrosmash or Shark Shark unitl it goes 50% off on their eshop.
I think if Intellivision wants to get more people to try Amico Home they should make the games more affordable as was the original Amico plan to be $2.99 to $9.99
Seeing as how the games are not on actual Amico console they should be even cheaper in my opinion.  There is much less value there having to use this app thingy with cell phones. 

John Alvarado: It is easier to lower the price than raise the price.  But are the prices high?  Are they high relative to other mulitplayer, couch-play,  family-friendly,  no-ads, no-IAP, no-lootboxes, console games?   "High" is relative to the value you get out of the game.  Amico games provide an opportunity for families with different skill levels and ages levels to have fun playing together.  For them, I think the value is high compared to the price.

 

Astrosmash is so much fun I was literally shaking with excitement when it started playing I didn’t survive very long just shortly into level 2 before I died but it’s so fun.

[SteveTheColecoDude]

"High value"... even forgetting the stuff like Shark Shark etc which are all ridiculously overpriced they're literally charging five bucks for a demo containing one level that you can't play by yourself!

 

John is completely shameless.

Edited December 29, 2023 by SteveTheColecoDude

[jhd]

4 hours ago, livingonwheels said:

Our plan is to attract investment capital by demonstrating that we can sell games, and that people want the controller (which requires market research).  That is the part we can plan.  We can't know when we will secure investment or if we can sell enough software to fund the manufacturing (or show enough profit to get a loan, etc.).  But we feel good about our chances.  The better Amico Home does the better our chances.  So yes, there is a plan, but no, we don't yet know when we will begin manufacturing.

Does anyone know approximately how much money is required to get the manufacturing process underway? (Ignoring certification and other outstanding requirements for a moment.)

 

Is it a viable solution to, scrape up enough money to produce, say, 500 units, use the revenue from those sales to next produce 1,000 units, rinse and repeat with increasingly larger production runs each time, rather than jump immediately into mass production?  

[Razzie.P]

25 minutes ago, jhd said:

Does anyone know approximately how much money is required to get the manufacturing process underway? (Ignoring certification and other outstanding requirements for a moment.)

 

Is it a viable solution to, scrape up enough money to produce, say, 500 units, use the revenue from those sales to next produce 1,000 units, rinse and repeat with increasingly larger production runs each time, rather than jump immediately into mass production?  

It's complicated.  With any amount of $$$ raised, you need to factor in those high priority expenses like salary to selves, vacations, refunds, etc

 

... K, maybe not refunds.  

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

Wait, does that mean they didn't already have the DATA™️ to prove there was a market for Amico?? I'm pretty sure Tommy said they had, and Tommy would never lie to us, right? 🥺

I love your joke, but it does suggest they had zero research when doing this. Remember Tommy's talks about how others picked their controller over all others?

 

I remember. The only legit research they are doing is testing to see how much tripe these idiots swallow before they find out they've done choked on it.

58 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

Random Amico Discord quotes:

 

Thank you John I appreciate it. it's been a nice distraction catching up with amico. glad you are still working hard.

I agree that $15 is overpriced for these types of games.  Some of the youngins got Switch Lites for Christmas this year but we won't be buying them Astrosmash or Shark Shark unitl it goes 50% off on their eshop.
I think if Intellivision wants to get more people to try Amico Home they should make the games more affordable as was the original Amico plan to be $2.99 to $9.99
Seeing as how the games are not on actual Amico console they should be even cheaper in my opinion.  There is much less value there having to use this app thingy with cell phones. 

John Alvarado: It is easier to lower the price than raise the price.  But are the prices high?  Are they high relative to other mulitplayer, couch-play,  family-friendly,  no-ads, no-IAP, no-lootboxes, console games?   "High" is relative to the value you get out of the game.  Amico games provide an opportunity for families with different skill levels and ages levels to have fun playing together.  For them, I think the value is high compared to the price.

 

Astrosmash is so much fun I was literally shaking with excitement when it started playing I didn’t survive very long just shortly into level 2 before I died but it’s so fun.

Clubhouse Games at double the price has more games and replayability than the entire Amico library. Wife and I enjoyed some Backgammon last night on it. I even sat on two stacked chairs so I could feel like a big shot when I played.

 

They either know its not going to work and are obviously going to lie about it. If they do believe their prices aren't high, then they do really suffer from delusions. So the options are, 1) lying sacks of crap, or 2) delusional. It is also entirely possible that both are accurate.

 

37 minutes ago, jhd said:

Does anyone know approximately how much money is required to get the manufacturing process underway? (Ignoring certification and other outstanding requirements for a moment.)

 

Is it a viable solution to, scrape up enough money to produce, say, 500 units, use the revenue from those sales to next produce 1,000 units, rinse and repeat with increasingly larger production runs each time, rather than jump immediately into mass production?  

The controllers were supposedly going to be $70-$80 when they were floating around their false pre and purchase orders. If you look at how Amico Home has only 1k+ downloads that's only really around 2k controllers really needed if you go with 2 per app download.

 

If you are feeling generous and go with their preorders of 6000 and multiply by 2 that is still only 12k controllers. To keep them low they need to bulk produce these and I don't think 12k would be enough to keep the price "reasonable" they were already at $70 with 100k+ is "pre and purchase orders".

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the low number of users would mean the controllers are even closer to $100 by the time they manufactured low numbers.

 

@kevtris would probably be able to give a more concrete guess since he knows how the sausage is made.

[Bill Loguidice]

1 hour ago, jhd said:

Does anyone know approximately how much money is required to get the manufacturing process underway? (Ignoring certification and other outstanding requirements for a moment.)

 

Is it a viable solution to, scrape up enough money to produce, say, 500 units, use the revenue from those sales to next produce 1,000 units, rinse and repeat with increasingly larger production runs each time, rather than jump immediately into mass production?  

It's probably cost ineffective to produce so few units, and in fact may cost more than producing more. Of course, I don't see a scenario where they can do either at this point. I think most of that insane amount of money raised from various sources is somehow completely gone by now and there's no scenario where any of what they're able to do now software-wise will produce any appreciable revenue. 

[kevtris]

3 hours ago, jhd said:

Does anyone know approximately how much money is required to get the manufacturing process underway? (Ignoring certification and other outstanding requirements for a moment.)

 

Is it a viable solution to, scrape up enough money to produce, say, 500 units, use the revenue from those sales to next produce 1,000 units, rinse and repeat with increasingly larger production runs each time, rather than jump immediately into mass production?  

unfortunately since it's been so long, they would have to retool the design quite a bit now I think.  it's been 5 years since the initial design, and so a lot of parts are most likely no longer available.  There are most likely replacements available, but it means redoing some of the PCB work and that means engineering costs. 

 

Let's say they can get every part, and there's zero changes.  It's going to be pretty expensive to manufacture just a few units.  the cost to make 1000 vs. 100 is probably marginally more, since economies of scale start to kick in pretty good at the 1000-10K piece level (electronic parts).  After that, there isn't much between 10K and 100K and even less between 100K and 1M.  Be that as it may, the system itself is pretty expensive to manufacture, since they basically need to make three things.  (two controllers, 1 base unit).  I am guessing their total cost is in somewhere in the $150-200 range without including profit or shipping.  This is manufacturing in china, and not in the US (where the total cost would probably be 3-5x this).

 

Going by how popular (or unpopular as the case may be) for the games they have already released, there's no way they can sell more than a hundred or two systems at the rate they wanted, north of $300.  Only 1 or 2 of the games have 100+ downloads, the others are stuck at 50+ or less.  No one's going to bankroll a loser like this when the games are basically unsellable.  So if they want to make 1000 units at $150 each, they will need $150000 to do it, which they more than that.

 

They definitely had PLENTY of money to manufacture a run of 10K units (say, $2M) but tommy and friends just pissed it away on a non-stop office party and schmoozing around.

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, kevtris said:

unfortunately since it's been so long, they would have to retool the design quite a bit now I think.  it's been 5 years since the initial design, and so a lot of parts are most likely no longer available.  There are most likely replacements available, but it means redoing some of the PCB work and that means engineering costs. 

 

Let's say they can get every part, and there's zero changes.  It's going to be pretty expensive to manufacture just a few units.  the cost to make 1000 vs. 100 is probably marginally more, since economies of scale start to kick in pretty good at the 1000-10K piece level (electronic parts).  After that, there isn't much between 10K and 100K and even less between 100K and 1M.  Be that as it may, the system itself is pretty expensive to manufacture, since they basically need to make three things.  (two controllers, 1 base unit).  I am guessing their total cost is in somewhere in the $150-200 range without including profit or shipping.  This is manufacturing in china, and not in the US (where the total cost would probably be 3-5x this).

 

Going by how popular (or unpopular as the case may be) for the games they have already released, there's no way they can sell more than a hundred or two systems at the rate they wanted, north of $300.  Only 1 or 2 of the games have 100+ downloads, the others are stuck at 50+ or less.  No one's going to bankroll a loser like this when the games are basically unsellable.  So if they want to make 1000 units at $150 each, they will need $150000 to do it, which they more than that.

 

They definitely had PLENTY of money to manufacture a run of 10K units (say, $2M) but tommy and friends just pissed it away on a non-stop office party and schmoozing around.