Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites

[DuggerVideoGames]

Sigh...

 

 

[Flojomojo]

But theirs has that red border on the top? Or is that not present in the thing you'd actually receive.

 

Their item description is pretty rich. It goes on and on about their "family values," but they really seem all-in on the cyber bullying idea:

 

"Coleco is focused on family values in both their product and how they operate daily. Cyber bullying is close to the heart of the company as many individuals that make Coleco thrive have been victims of cyber bullying at some point in their lives. Considering Colecos unique position as a technology company, and their experience with cyber bullying, it is natural for the company partner with anti cyber bullying organizations and speak out against the cyber threat we all could face without warning.

 

Cyber bullying is dangerous, there is no escape from it when you are the victim. Couple the engulfing nature of Internet access in your pocket and it is easy to see how cyber bullying can become very dangerous. It is tougher than ever before to be a young person growing up, from social media to online gaming, cyber bullying can easily become a life engulfing situation that many people never find an escape from."

 

Sure sounds like Cardillo-speak. "A life engulfing situation that many people never find an escape from."

[DuggerVideoGames]

Cardillo is somewhat right... in that he will never escape his role as the bully, the aggressor, the instigator, the shady so-called businessman, etc...

[DuggerVideoGames]

But theirs has that red border on the top? Or is that not present in the thing you'd actually receive.

 

Their item description is pretty rich. It goes on and on about their "family values," but they really seem all-in on the cyber bullying idea:

 

"Coleco is focused on family values in both their product and how they operate daily. Cyber bullying is close to the heart of the company as many individuals that make Coleco thrive have been victims of cyber bullying at some point in their lives. Considering Colecos unique position as a technology company, and their experience with cyber bullying, it is natural for the company partner with anti cyber bullying organizations and speak out against the cyber threat we all could face without warning.

 

Cyber bullying is dangerous, there is no escape from it when you are the victim. Couple the engulfing nature of Internet access in your pocket and it is easy to see how cyber bullying can become very dangerous. It is tougher than ever before to be a young person growing up, from social media to online gaming, cyber bullying can easily become a life engulfing situation that many people never find an escape from."

 

Sure sounds like Cardillo-speak. "A life engulfing situation that many people never find an escape from."

 

[Great Hierophant]

So here's another example of how stupid and shady Chris Cardillo is...

 

It would appear that he is selling his "Coleco Expo Exclusive" copies of Sydney Hunter on eBay!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sydney-Hunter-ColecoVision-Retro-Gaming-Expo-Exclusive-Sealed-MISB-Coleco-/292196012189

Screen Shot 2017-08-02 at 01.05.00.png

 

Dear Chris Cardillo - Your "Coleco Expo Exclusive" copy of the game is no longer "exclusive" to the Expo if you are selling it on eBay!!! So now that's false advertising to those people whom you have sold copies to that think the only way to get them is at the Expo.

 

Remember folks, don't buy from shady people like Chris Cardillo. Buy your copy directly from CollectorVision instead. Here is their listing on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sydney-Hunter-Colecovision-Limited-Edition-NEW/332325824459

 

OR you can buy from http://www.collectorvision.com

 

This strikes me as rather odd. I recall reading that Coleco bought 150 cartridges with the intent on reselling them at the Expo. On their ebay page they are selling them for $65.00 + $7.60 for shipping (from New Jersey). Collectorvision is selling the cartridges for $60.00 + $12.00 for shipping (from Quebec). So if the cartridge, manual and box cost $20.00 to make, Collectorvision can expect to earn $40.00 per cartridge sold. Not an unreasonable rate of return given the time it took to program the game and the number of copies it will likely sell.

 

Now Coleco has stated that 30% of all sales of the game made during the Expo and now from ebay are going to this anti-bullying organization. $65.00 x 30% = $19.50. So for Coleco to make a penny off the sale of this game, they would have had to purchase it for less than $45.50. I know that even smaller vendors will often give a discount on volume sales, but 30% is quite the discount. So unless it acquired the cartridges at substantially less than $45.50 per unit, then either Coleco has written off the prospect of profiting off the sale (at least until the end of the Expo) or believes there is a greater benefit to donating to this charity than earning profits off the game. Good publicity and charitable contribution deductions would be two benefits to the charitable approach.

[mr_me]

I'm pretty sure RWB never expected to make any money selling coleco vision cartridges.

[Omega-TI]

 

Actually the best part about this is that you have to *HOPE* that the shells they are going to use for their minis are of decent quality and cheap enough when the go on clearance (you can pretty much pick up a CV Flashback for next to nothing now) so that you can gut them and put a Raspberry Pi filled with GOOD games in them!

 

I'm also not holding my breath that they will end up being good quality shells. But if they are, it will be great to see stuff like this made out of them...

 

 

I really like the way you think!

[TPR]

This strikes me as rather odd. I recall reading that Coleco bought 150 cartridges with the intent on reselling them at the Expo. On their ebay page they are selling them for $65.00 + $7.60 for shipping (from New Jersey). Collectorvision is selling the cartridges for $60.00 + $12.00 for shipping (from Quebec). So if the cartridge, manual and box cost $20.00 to make, Collectorvision can expect to earn $40.00 per cartridge sold. Not an unreasonable rate of return given the time it took to program the game and the number of copies it will likely sell.

 

You're also forgetting to factor in the COST of programming, which I'm pretty sure several people were involved with.

 

 

 

Now Coleco has stated that 30% of all sales of the game made during the Expo and now from ebay are going to this anti-bullying organization. $65.00 x 30% = $19.50. So for Coleco to make a penny off the sale of this game, they would have had to purchase it for less than $45.50. I know that even smaller vendors will often give a discount on volume sales, but 30% is quite the discount. So unless it acquired the cartridges at substantially less than $45.50 per unit, then either Coleco has written off the prospect of profiting off the sale (at least until the end of the Expo) or believes there is a greater benefit to donating to this charity than earning profits off the game. Good publicity and charitable contribution deductions would be two benefits to the charitable approach.

 

While the donation to the charity is an honorable action, you have to remember that quite often a company will do something like this as a "last ditch effort" to try to sell off inventory they might otherwise be stuck with. Yes, it's great for the charity involved, but if I had to guess, the motives behind this are more about not wanting to be stuck with 150 copies of a game they weren't able to sell.

[TPR]

I'm pretty sure RWB never expected to make any money selling coleco vision cartridges.

 

Of course they did! Why do you think they went through the trouble to erroneously flag 63 homebrew games that we posted about? Why do you think they bought 150 copies of a game to sell? Why do you think they tried (and failed) to get the homebrew publishers to adhere to their "approval process" for ColecoVision games?

 

They thought that the ColecoVision community was GIGANTIC and could sell hundreds maybe even thousands of copies of ColecoVision games. This is what they don't understand. Yes, the homebrew community is VERY active, but it's a small niche group of people and maybe the BEST SELLING homebrew game could sell a couple of hundred copies at best. They thought that ColecoVision was more mainstream and could become another household name like "Nintendo." I'm telling you, they SERIOUSLY BELIEVE this!

 

And it's because they thought they could make money from selling ColecoVision games is why this whole mess happened. They mistakenly saw greed in this community but what they don't realize is that the people making games don't do it for money, they do it for passion. And that's not a concept that Chris Cardillo has the ability to understand.

[DuggerVideoGames]

 

Of course they did! Why do you think they went through the trouble to erroneously flag 63 homebrew games that we posted about? Why do you think they bought 150 copies of a game to sell? Why do you think they tried (and failed) to get the homebrew publishers to adhere to their "approval process" for ColecoVision games?

 

They thought that the ColecoVision community was GIGANTIC and could sell hundreds maybe even thousands of copies of ColecoVision games. This is what they don't understand. Yes, the homebrew community is VERY active, but it's a small niche group of people and maybe the BEST SELLING homebrew game could sell a couple of hundred copies at best. They thought that ColecoVision was more mainstream and could become another household name like "Nintendo." I'm telling you, they SERIOUSLY BELIEVE this!

 

And it's because they thought they could make money from selling ColecoVision games is why this whole mess happened. They mistakenly saw greed in this community but what they don't realize is that the people making games don't do it for money, they do it for passion. And that's not a concept that Chris Cardillo has the ability to understand.

 

Bingo. And in addition to trying to get rid of copies they don't want to be stuck with, they're hoping to repair their shitty image by doing something "noble" so they can be viewed as the good guys. The reality is that they were the bad guys and the bullies all along; there isn't an altruistic bone in any of their bodies.

[enoofu]

Just remember guys their was a reason that Hasbro abandoned the Trademark, as their was no major appeal for Coleco products in the 1990's;

Jeff Birns, really was the only one of this new Coleco that attempted to make Coleco into a game development studio, sounded like he was trying to buy the company so he could rename N-Fusion to Coleco at one point. Can really see a difference on how Coleco was promoted professionally including their websites.

 

Chris Cardillo was the plan B, who promoted his music and movies even on interviews on Colecovision and basically used the real Coleco company tombstone to endorse blah blah since he doesn't understand intellectual property management/Hardware/Software/Game Development/promoting nationality/international

 

Mark Thomann clearly doesn't care when he went plan B;

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff Birns

CEO / Creative Director at N-Fusion Interactive

• CEO / Creative Director N-Fusion Interactive Entertainment Inc.
  January 1997 – Present (19 years 10 months)
• CEO COLECO
  February 2010 – January 2013 (3 years)

[CPUWIZ]

This is all so confusing, you can now buy exclusive titles, before the exclusive happened?

[phoenixdownita]

This is all so confusing, you can now buy exclusive titles, before the exclusive happened?

As already stated by DuggerVideoGames

[Schizophretard]

This is all so confusing, you can now buy exclusive titles, before the exclusive happened?

Yes, it is like a pre-order for those that it is exclusive too. Everyone that buys it on eBay will obviously also buy an expo ticket because Coleco is just that awesome. Duh!

[mr_me]

 

Of course they did! Why do you think they went through the trouble to erroneously flag 63 homebrew games that we posted about? Why do you think they bought 150 copies of a game to sell? Why do you think they tried (and failed) to get the homebrew publishers to adhere to their "approval process" for ColecoVision games?

 

They thought that the ColecoVision community was GIGANTIC and could sell hundreds maybe even thousands of copies of ColecoVision games. This is what they don't understand. Yes, the homebrew community is VERY active, but it's a small niche group of people and maybe the BEST SELLING homebrew game could sell a couple of hundred copies at best. They thought that ColecoVision was more mainstream and could become another household name like "Nintendo." I'm telling you, they SERIOUSLY BELIEVE this!

 

And it's because they thought they could make money from selling ColecoVision games is why this whole mess happened. They mistakenly saw greed in this community but what they don't realize is that the people making games don't do it for money, they do it for passion. And that's not a concept that Chris Cardillo has the ability to understand.

Could be but I'm not going to guess what RWB is thinking. The homebrew licensing helps establish ownership of the trademark. You can't have a trademark if other people are freely using it. What were they charging; $1 per copy. If the homebrewers stop using the trademark it also helps RWB establish ownership. The flagging of the facebook pages partially reduces the risk of lawsuits from companies whose trademarks and copyrights were violated. They were not going to make much money selling 150 units, but it is something to promote their show. The other videogame projects they are developing are standalone units with expectations in the tens of thousands of units or more, like the flashbacks. The Rainbow Brite branding is just as important as the Coleco branding. RWB are experts in dead brands, Nintendo is not a dead brand yet. Not everything works out, they just move on to the next brand.

[PlaysWithWolves]

QFE:

 

If the homebrewers stop using the trademark it also helps RWB establish ownership.

[TPR]

Could be but I'm not going to guess what RWB is thinking.

 

I'm not guessing. I'm going off of *actual conversations* I've had in the past with Cardillo, and hearing about conversations other people have had with him as well which all reach the same conclusions.

[Tempest]

 

I'm not guessing. I'm going off of *actual conversations* I've had in the past with Cardillo, and hearing about conversations other people have had with him as well which all reach the same conclusions.

 

Well hopefully he'll get bored and move on. Since he's obviously not in it because he's a fan, I doubt he'll stick with it if there's no money to be made.

[Shawn]

So who is or does anyone know someone that is going to the coleco shitshow over the weekend? I'm curious to see pics and video from the event be it good or bad.

[PlaysWithWolves]

Cardillo video talking about collecting, more collecting, new copies of old COLECO things, the expo, and how he doesn't watch anime but the Robotech stuff will be cool.

 

Also, fake $20s were so last month:

 

[enoofu]

Kinda funny he claims to be such a Toy collector of GI Joe and Robotech but he doesn't show 12 inch GI Joe's or Professional Grade type model kits of the Mecha's that Robotech/Macross used

[Shawn]

Holy fuck this is sad:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFac2n-teTY

 

 

 

3 talking heads with a silent\sleeping "audience".

Edited August 5, 2017 by Shawn

[+Cafeman]

Who are those 3? I can only hear the center guy. is that Mr. Cardillo in center is it?

[+5-11under]

"2 watching now"!

[TPR]

I really really hope this video was taken before the show opened:

https://instagram.com/p/BXa7Dn3Bd4Z/