Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[Cebus Capucinis]

28 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

David Jaffe the creator of Twisted Metal and the original God of War talking about Amico.   TLDW: He has an overall fair take on the project. He also actually played the Amico
 

 

I think this is a fair take regarding the "scam" element, but I think one has to disconnect the "laughter at Amico for failing" from "laughing at the former CEO for the trainwreck." Doing otherwise, to me, seems to fall prey to the old "you just want it to fail, hAtErZ" trope. I think those who are laughing/deriding are more seeing what they think is just desserts for the pork pie dinner.

 

 

Also in before a billion responses of "well, *I* didn't want it to fail, BUT...."

[wolfy62]

1 hour ago, Rev said:

Making a hater list, and checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty or nice.

I think I'm probably both on the naughty AND nice list.?

[Rev]

5 minutes ago, wolfy62 said:

I think I'm probably both on the naughty AND nice list.?

Yeah, no way in the world you will ever be riding shotgun in a Ferrari. 

[SegaSnatcher]

6 minutes ago, mr_me said:

And Back Talk Party 

 

The controllers, curated game library, graphics and audio do distinguish the system.  Some people think those are negatives some think they are positives.  Obviously there will be some people on both sides, that's not surprising.  What is surprising is that some people feel the need to constantly and passionately express it.  And they aren't expecting to take market share away from the three videogame systems or even retro videogame systems.

To be fair this is not exactly a 50/50 split on how people view the Amico though.  Most people who have looked into it clearly have not been impressed enough to put in a preorder.  I'm pretty sure a lot more than 6000 people know about the Amico. I would say overwhelmingly the Amico is not looked favorably.  Now one could say that not a lot of non gamers know about the Amico, and I would agree, but without an insane level of marketing they never will, so it's moot because I.E. will likely never raise the kind of money to truly market this console to the mainstream. I think most of us assume they mentioned "Casuals and Non-Gamers" mainly to get investors interested. 

Also, I still would appreciate if you would consider answering the question I posed in my previous reply.  Do you think a $250 Amico launched in 2020 with those games would have been a hit?  And by a hit I mean to where I.E. actually makes a profit off the project. 

"What is surprising is that some people feel the need to constantly and passionately express it."

Does this also hold true for those who constantly and passionately expressed their love for the system?  Just looking for some consistency here.  
 

[wolfy62]

24 minutes ago, Rev said:

Yeah, no way in the world you will ever be riding shotgun in a Ferrari. 

Maybe I can still armor all his tires.

[CMR]

I think covid and the chip shortage probably delayed things just enough for Tommy to run out of money to play with, and when he couldn't get people to give him more, ship dates started getting missed.  I think it's important to remember the system was real.  He demoed it and showed it off enough to prove he had a working product.  The only thing he couldn't seem to do was get them on store shelves, and that suggests to me that he ran out of other people's money to spend.

[mr_me]

18 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

To be fair this is not exactly a 50/50 split on how people view the Amico though.  Most people who have looked into it clearly have not been impressed enough to put in a preorder.  I'm pretty sure a lot more than 6000 people know about the Amico. I would say overwhelmingly the Amico is not looked favorably.  Now one could say that not a lot of non gamers know about the Amico, and I would agree, but without an insane level of marketing they never will, so it's moot because I.E. will likely never raise the kind of money to truly market this console to the mainstream. I think most of us assume they mentioned "Casuals and Non-Gamers" mainly to get investors interested. 

Also, I still would appreciate if you would consider answering the question I posed in my previous reply.  Do you think a $250 Amico launched in 2020 with those games would have been a hit?  And by a hit I mean to where I.E. actually makes a profit off the project. 

"What is surprising is that some people feel the need to constantly and passionately express it."

Does this also hold true for those who constantly and passionately expressed their love for the system?  Just looking for some consistency here.  
 

It's not unusual that people looking forward to the system, talk about it.  That's expected.   It doesn't matter if 200k people don't like the Amico if 100k people who do, buy one.  They aren't making it for the people that don't like it.

[MrBeefy]

22 minutes ago, CMR said:

I think covid and the chip shortage probably delayed things just enough for Tommy to run out of money to play with, and when he couldn't get people to give him more, ship dates started getting missed.  I think it's important to remember the system was real.  He demoed it and showed it off enough to prove he had a working product.  The only thing he couldn't seem to do was get them on store shelves, and that suggests to me that he ran out of other people's money to spend.

I don't think anyone denies there being prototypes. However, I do think there is a difference between prototype and manufacture ready. Even if you remove Covid the console was yet to be manufacture ready in 2020.

 

33 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

Also, I still would appreciate if you would consider answering the question I posed in my previous reply.  Do you think a $250 Amico launched in 2020 with those games would have been a hit?  And by a hit I mean to where I.E. actually makes a profit off the project. 

$200 was pushing it IMO. They jumped the Shark Shark once it went above $200.

 

People who don't play games or play free games are not going to drop $200 on a whim. You will notice nothing big came out of Mom 2.0. No great mom bloggers started to talk about it or anything. If they tried they probably would have been ran off by rabbit fans. ?

 

Peoe don't want to admit that there is a difference between what they say their market is and the actions. More time and money went into the retro crowd. That was their marketing. Things like Mom 2.0 was for show and a desperate attempt to make something stick. 

 

Where was a majority of the CEO's time spent? AtariAge and YouTube talking to older men who were interested in retro gaming. That is your target and your market. If you disagree with that you are admitting that they are a super innept company because they talked to no one basically in their target demographic.

 

Full of crap saying things to make them sound big, or complete and total innept failures. It is one of those options.

[SegaSnatcher]

 

2 minutes ago, mr_me said:

It's not unusual that people looking forward to the system, talk about it.  That's expected.   It doesn't matter if 200k people don't like the Amico if 100k people who do, buy one.  They aren't making it for the people that don't like it.

My point is it shouldn't be unusual for people to be passionately critical either.  I mean enthusiaist gamers tend to express passionate feelings one way or another. Most people talking about Amico are passionate gamers, not casuals. 

"They aren't making it for the people that don't like it."

That goes without saying.  With me it's different, I'm actually interested in some of the games, but the games don't justify being behind a $280+ paywall.  I think there are a lot of people who have similar feelings.  We'd like to play those games, but we want them on consoles we already own because they are more than adequate to handle these games.  The Amico controller is not used in a way that would make it impossible to port to other consoles. You just replace touch screen with actual face buttons which would make the experience better if anything. 

[Rev]

A popular Youtuber said this today. Apparently insider info? If all the offices are closed, the engineers must be working from home. Which is why offices were needed to get production done faster in an office.  Makes sense to me!  
 

 

 

quote:

 

(2022-07-20): I did reach out to Intellivision and they are still working and I'm sure you guys are going to hear something very soon. They are working very hard, they still have a team of engineers. Yes, we all know, even though some of these bigger Youtubers like to grasp at straws and go "hey let's talk about these empty offices" well we talked about that about four months ago. We all knew about that. They got rid of the big offices because they don't need them anymore because the system is done. So right now they're working on testing and polishing and getting stuff ready. They're working hard. There is a team of engineers working hard on Amico and we're going to see as they mentioned before Phil's also working on licensing deals, they're working on getting these production units out, so that's the next thing we're going to hear. So I want to let you guys know officially that is happening and it's going forward. So, yay! But for all of the people that want to keep talking about empty offices, yeah, remember we were talking about that because it costs a ton of money to have a gigantic office. They do not need that anymore. Down the road when everything's up and going and they're selling and making new games and stuff like that, yeah, then maybe get a big office again. But for now, they don't need it... They are doing well and working hard and I'm sure you guys will see something soon. That's all I can say I don't have a date I'm just saying soon.

All the haters "grasping at straws." 
 

(paraclaw)

[MrBeefy]

2 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

That goes without saying.  With me it's different, I'm actually interested in some of the games, but the games don't justify being behind a $280+ paywall.  I think there are a lot of people who have similar feelings.  We'd like to play those games, but we want them on consoles we already own because they are more than adequate to handle these games.  The Amico controller is not used in a way that would make it impossible to port to other consoles. You just replace touch screen with actual face buttons which would make the experience better if anything. 

Yup pretty much this. I have no issue with how many of the games. It's just those games have too high of a buy-in. The value isn't there.

 

Plus going back to the craparketing of this you can already get those types of games cheaper than Amico is offering them, on hardware that is more capable and similarly priced.

 

I currently have 128 games on my Switch. 13 of those are $30 or higher (games like Mario Odyssey, Kirby, Smash, Animal Crossing, CG51, Switch Sports, etc) 7 of them are $10-$20 (Bloodstained, Crusin Blast, FFX & FFX-2, etc) The rest 108 games are $10 and lower. 94 of those I got less than $5. Of those a majority of them I actually got for less than $3. I would say an overwhelming majority are on par to better quality than any game Intellivision has sold. Maybe 5 of them look worse than an Amico game.

 

Similar types of games will actually be cheaper on other consoles than they will be on Amico. Their games will be above $10 after launch, as they went back on their no game above $10.

 

[Razzie.P]

2 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

they probably would have been ran off by rabbit fans. 

 

Disagree, respectfully.  Fans of rabbits are usually pretty laid back, chill types.  They likely wouldn't run anyone off.   Rabbits seem to have that nice, soothing effect on people.

 

 

... Animal fandom racists ?

 

[MrBeefy]

22 minutes ago, Rev said:

A popular Youtuber said this today. Apparently insider info? If all the offices are closed, the engineers must be working from home. Which is why offices were needed to get production done faster in an office.  Makes sense to me!  

 

quote:

 

(2022-07-20): I did reach out to Intellivision and they are still working and I'm sure you guys are going to hear something very soon. They are working very hard, they still have a team of engineers. Yes, we all know, even though some of these bigger Youtubers like to grasp at straws and go "hey let's talk about these empty offices" well we talked about that about four months ago. We all knew about that. They got rid of the big offices because they don't need them anymore because the system is done. So right now they're working on testing and polishing and getting stuff ready. They're working hard. There is a team of engineers working hard on Amico and we're going to see as they mentioned before Phil's also working on licensing deals, they're working on getting these production units out, so that's the next thing we're going to hear. So I want to let you guys know officially that is happening and it's going forward. So, yay! But for all of the people that want to keep talking about empty offices, yeah, remember we were talking about that because it costs a ton of money to have a gigantic office. They do not need that anymore. Down the road when everything's up and going and they're selling and making new games and stuff like that, yeah, then maybe get a big office again. But for now, they don't need it... They are doing well and working hard and I'm sure you guys will see something soon. That's all I can say I don't have a date I'm just saying soon.

All the haters "grasping at straws." 
 

(paraclaw)

Didn't like a month ago Phil say they are still testing hardware? There is a lot of hoping and copium in that.

 

If that comes from where I think it does that YTer was promised one of those production units as did everyone else who goes on those streams. The units if they come out will go to them and not be an actual launch. So if you invested, pre-ordered, and wasn't a YT fluffer then you are still out of luck. They aren't going to due a huge run.

 

He failed to mention they got rid of their customer service staff which you might want for when you do have a product you are supposedly going to release. They had customer service reps when there was no product. I don't expect them to be honest about the situation because they just want their promised Founder consoles for being good little PR boys for the company.

 

 

[MrBeefy]

2 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Disagree, respectfully.  Fans of rabbits are usually pretty laid back, chill types.  They likely wouldn't run anyone off.   Rabbits seem to have that nice, soothing effect on people.

I made that misspelling to troll you. You are caught in web. Geeze learn to take a joke. It was an innuendo. You are just a big phony gaming communist. ?

 

On a serious not I do have some young rabbits running around here. If I catch them eating anything in the garden they better hope they aren't around when rabbit season opens up.

[SegaSnatcher]

45 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

I made that misspelling to troll you. You are caught in web. Geeze learn to take a joke. It was an innuendo. You are just a big phony gaming communist. ?

 

On a serious not I do have some young rabbits running around here. If I catch them eating anything in the garden they better hope they aren't around when rabbit season opens up.

Speaking of "Elmer Fudd", it reminds me of the time a certain CEO made fun of a guy's voice, who clearly had a speech impediment mind you, just because the guy made a critical video about Amico.  

Really told me a lot about that person's character.  

That youtuber had the last laugh, that is for sure.   Whoopsie!  

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by SegaSnatcher

[digdugnate]

2 hours ago, Rev said:

A popular Youtuber said this today. Apparently insider info? If all the offices are closed, the engineers must be working from home. Which is why offices were needed to get production done faster in an office.  Makes sense to me!  
 

 

 

quote:

 

(2022-07-20): I did reach out to Intellivision and they are still working and I'm sure you guys are going to hear something very soon. They are working very hard, they still have a team of engineers. Yes, we all know, even though some of these bigger Youtubers like to grasp at straws and go "hey let's talk about these empty offices" well we talked about that about four months ago. We all knew about that. They got rid of the big offices because they don't need them anymore because the system is done. So right now they're working on testing and polishing and getting stuff ready. They're working hard. There is a team of engineers working hard on Amico and we're going to see as they mentioned before Phil's also working on licensing deals, they're working on getting these production units out, so that's the next thing we're going to hear. So I want to let you guys know officially that is happening and it's going forward. So, yay! But for all of the people that want to keep talking about empty offices, yeah, remember we were talking about that because it costs a ton of money to have a gigantic office. They do not need that anymore. Down the road when everything's up and going and they're selling and making new games and stuff like that, yeah, then maybe get a big office again. But for now, they don't need it... They are doing well and working hard and I'm sure you guys will see something soon. That's all I can say I don't have a date I'm just saying soon.

All the haters "grasping at straws." 
 

(paraclaw)

Gee, it's like we've heard this before. 

 

Also, this was posted on Reddit by Paraclaw, who got this from DJCs stream yesterday. 

 

DJC is an investor. 

Edited July 21, 2022 by digdugnate

[roots.genoa]

 

9 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

For example, I'm obviously a huge Sega fan, but if Sega came out with a new console that was similar to the Amico I would be extremely disappointed.  I would love a retro console focused on modern 2D games, but the games need to still be high quality.  Think Shredder's Revenge level quality.

I just realized it would be both hilarious and sad if the Amico was repackaged as the Dreamcast 2. ?

 

6 hours ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

I think this is a fair take regarding the "scam" element

What bothers me in Jaffe's take is the part about Tommy being a dreamer, that he had incredible ideas that would have been revolutionary if they managed to pull them off.

 

I consider myself a dreamer too, and I have very ambitious ideas (trust me), but I can't count the number of times I've seen western developers in particular (Molyneux and Co) announcing incredible things that sounded quite impossible to pull off... And what always happened in the end? The idea was either dropped or simplified a lot, rendering it possible but not as impressive as it was supposed to be. I don't know; maybe I have a special talent to detect what's feasible or not, but I would need to take a long time to find one occasion I was proven wrong, especially in the video games realm (now I admit it's easy to dismiss a success to prove I was right, and I'm probably guilty of that sometimes). As an example, as I explained earlier in the thread, I always thought a screen on each controller was a great idea in terms of gameplay, but I always knew it would make the controller far too expensive, because we've already seen that in the past. Guess what happened? The controller is the main reason for the price hike.

[Pink]

13 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

I think it’s safe to say that without the Intellivision mark, the AtariAge demographic would have found it a lot less interesting, regardless of what was inside or who was running it. The extent to which some people ascribe feelings to names and symbols can be mind-boggling. 

I agree 100% And the people that willing to buy overpriced junk and random trinkets and doohickeys if they slap an Atari or Nintendo logo or whatever on it too.

[number6]

7 hours ago, Rev said:

A popular Youtuber said this today. Apparently insider info? If all the offices are closed, the engineers must be working from home. Which is why offices were needed to get production done faster in an office.  Makes sense to me!  
 

 

 

quote:

 

(2022-07-20): I did reach out to Intellivision and they are still working and I'm sure you guys are going to hear something very soon. They are working very hard, they still have a team of engineers. Yes, we all know, even though some of these bigger Youtubers like to grasp at straws and go "hey let's talk about these empty offices" well we talked about that about four months ago. We all knew about that. They got rid of the big offices because they don't need them anymore because the system is done. So right now they're working on testing and polishing and getting stuff ready. They're working hard. There is a team of engineers working hard on Amico and we're going to see as they mentioned before Phil's also working on licensing deals, they're working on getting these production units out, so that's the next thing we're going to hear. So I want to let you guys know officially that is happening and it's going forward. So, yay! But for all of the people that want to keep talking about empty offices, yeah, remember we were talking about that because it costs a ton of money to have a gigantic office. They do not need that anymore. Down the road when everything's up and going and they're selling and making new games and stuff like that, yeah, then maybe get a big office again. But for now, they don't need it... They are doing well and working hard and I'm sure you guys will see something soon. That's all I can say I don't have a date I'm just saying soon.

All the haters "grasping at straws." 
 

(paraclaw)

Quote

There is a team of engineers working hard on Amico

and

Quote

the system is done

I believe that no one saw that as somewhat conflicting statements.

Is the reference meant to apply to s/w engineer, since the system (h/w) is done?

 

#6

[mr_me]

There's no conflict, even if the firmware is ready, and they hand a final prototype to a manufacturer, there's still lots of work in manufacturing, test preproduction units, and then test units.

[MrBeefy]

25 minutes ago, number6 said:

and

I believe that no one saw that as somewhat conflicting statements.

Is the reference meant to apply to s/w engineer, since the system (h/w) is done?

 

#6

Hi I'm DJC, an investor in Amico. If I continue to spin anything and everything as positive I will still get the production test run console they promised me. Don't worry it will be soon. So don't cancel those preorders.

 

Also please ignore how due to not being able to go into offices during covid meant they couldn't work, and swallow this tripe that now not having an office is great and means people are working hard.

 

Please don't listen to these bigger YT channels who aren't promised things for being a spin doctor for a company I invested in. Have an Amico day!

[number6]

3 minutes ago, mr_me said:

There's no conflict, even if the firmware is ready, and they hand a final prototype to a manufacturer, there's still lots of work in manufacturing, test preproduction units, and then test units.

No kidding. I'm talking about how the reader waiting for news understands this. There's a comment further on about "it really doesn't matter how long they kick the can down the road". Since this is a group of people expressing opinions only that's fine to hear the idea of "soon" and "doesn't matter" in the same discussion.

However, if this was -meant- to be a relaying of information from the company, the company could have explained this as you have and it would have made more sense and been more consistent.

 

#6

[MrBeefy]

2 minutes ago, number6 said:

No kidding. I'm talking about how the reader waiting for news understands this. There's a comment further on about "it really doesn't matter how long they kick the can down the road". Since this is a group of people expressing opinions only that's fine to hear the idea of "soon" and "doesn't matter" in the same discussion.

However, if this was -meant- to be a relaying of information from the company, the company could have explained this as you have and it would have made more sense and been more consistent.

 

#6

I think the more important question is why is Intellivision not posting their plans themselves? 

 

It seems to me that if it doesn't happen (which as digdug said they've said it's coming soon before) using DJC and company is a way to deny they said it.

 

I don't think they want consistency or clarity. That might lead to more refunds.

 

Who thinks that when a small production run is given to these YouTubers they shout how the haters were wrong?

[mr_me]

25 minutes ago, number6 said:

No kidding. I'm talking about how the reader waiting for news understands this. There's a comment further on about "it really doesn't matter how long they kick the can down the road". Since this is a group of people expressing opinions only that's fine to hear the idea of "soon" and "doesn't matter" in the same discussion.

However, if this was -meant- to be a relaying of information from the company, the company could have explained this as you have and it would have made more sense and been more consistent.

 

#6

The kick the can comment was spoken by a different person, in response to the question, how long can they kick the can...", and not an attempt to relay information from the company.

[number6]

19 minutes ago, mr_me said:

The kick the can comment was spoken by a different person, in response to the question, how long can they kick the can...", and not an attempt to relay information from the company.

No kidding.

But my "-meant- to be a relaying of information from the company" referred to the broadcast in general. I'm sorry that wasn't obvious to your reading.

 

#6

Edited July 21, 2022 by number6
inserted direct quote