Future demand for new Intellivision games

[+cmadruga]

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

What if by 2021, Amico has an install base of 500k.  And Intellivision homebrews get on the Amico store for $2.99 each, for use with its intellivision emulator.  How many might it sell?

Well, many homebrews have not been developed with the “couch multiplayer” philosophy in mind. Therefore if Amico’s value proposition holds, most of its user base would not be interested.

[mr_me]

29 minutes ago, cmadruga said:

Well, many homebrews have not been developed with the “couch multiplayer” philosophy in mind. Therefore if Amico’s value proposition holds, most of its user base would not be interested.

Every Amico game will have a single player mode.  But I'm thinking of the retro gamer segment of the customer base.  One third of one percent of a 500k install base would bring $5000.

[+JasonlikesINTV]

If a Homebrew developer can sell $2.99 download copies of a new game to 1% of a 100,000 person user base, that's almost $3,000 (of which IE will keep a percentage).  Not retirement money, but I see potential for high quality homebrews to earn enough to cover programming costs and a few cups of coffee... Maybe even Starbucks coffee ?

[+cmadruga]

1% of 100,000 still means a LOT of people buying it...

Meanwhile, what would motivate a non-collector to appreciate an old hardware homebrew release?
It’s like having a PS4 user wanting to buy a PS1 homebrew... hard to see the appeal.   Buying the classics, sure, but a homebrew?

[+Lathe26]

21 hours ago, Ignorama said:

Well, in fact its pretty true. If 10 SNES collectors pass away nothing changes, of 10 Intellivision collectors do so, you will notice the shrinking market.

...

10 Intellivision collectors "passing away".... hmmm... <strokes beard>

[Sinjinhawke]

5 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

10 Intellivision collectors "passing away".... hmmm... <strokes beard>

That would be 10 wives putting 10 copies of Spiker out in a yard sale for a nickel each. ?     Assuming Intellivision collectors have wives of course. ?

[wolfy62]

2 hours ago, Sinjinhawke said:

That would be 10 wives putting 10 copies of Spiker out in a yard sale for a nickel each. ?     Assuming Intellivision collectors have wives of course. ?

My wife is always talking about maybe,maybe not jokingly putting my stuff out on the lawn for a yard sale if I pass away before her.

Obviously it wont matter to me at that point! ?

Spiker however will most likely wind up on Ebay.

[mdoerty]

My wife just threatens to throw away everything in "Messville."  

Most of the time though, she just shakes her head and says I have an addiction.

 

I must say, she may be right as how much I fret and track shipping when I make an order.

3 hours ago, wolfy62 said:

My wife is always talking about maybe,maybe not jokingly putting my stuff out on the lawn for a yard sale if I pass away before her.

Obviously it wont matter to me at that point! ?

Spiker however will most likely wind up on Ebay.

 

[atarifan88]

On 2/3/2020 at 3:44 PM, cmadruga said:

1% of 100,000 still means a LOT of people buying it...

Meanwhile, what would motivate a non-collector to appreciate an old hardware homebrew release?
It’s like having a PS4 user wanting to buy a PS1 homebrew... hard to see the appeal.   Buying the classics, sure, but a homebrew?

If the homebrew is considered an upgrade to an existing game, there would be an interest I'm sure.

[aerol]

I'm always impressed with what developers can do with the original machines with today's development tools and less restrictions on RAM/ROM size. I think the demand for retro-homebrew games will continue on just fine.

[Jeffrey Bouchard]

Hopefully, we’ll be able to use them with the Amico one day....since the hardware can be funky.

[Swami]

On 2/4/2020 at 5:59 AM, Sinjinhawke said:

That would be 10 wives putting 10 copies of Spiker out in a yard sale for a nickel each. ?     Assuming Intellivision collectors have wives of course. ?

Or they’ll show up here and ask us what they’re worth and we’ll say $35 each. 

[+cmadruga]

6 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

If the homebrew is considered an upgrade to an existing game, there would be an interest I'm sure.

Ok, I can see that in some cases, but there could be exceptions.
 

For instance, Night Stalker...

Given the Amico version already incorporates significant upgrades, would people be as interested in a homebrew upgrade? Sure, hardcore Night Stalker fans might, but not everyone I think. 

 

[atarifan88]

7 minutes ago, cmadruga said:

Ok, I can see that in some cases, but there could be exceptions.
 

For instance, Night Stalker...

Given the Amico version already incorporates significant upgrades, would people be as interested in a homebrew upgrade? Sure, hardcore Night Stalker fans might, but not everyone I think. 

 

I'm talking about games that IP do not upgrade.  Otherwise no.

[+Black_Tiger]

6 minutes ago, cmadruga said:

Ok, I can see that in some cases, but there could be exceptions.
 

For instance, Night Stalker...

Given the Amico version already incorporates significant upgrades, would people be as interested in a homebrew upgrade? Sure, hardcore Night Stalker fans might, but not everyone I think. 

 

Intellivision homebrew isn't limited by the planned focus of Amico software. So you could do an oroginal single player game with most of the gameplay elements of Night Stalker, but have several rooms per stage like Venture, add in boss battles and a free roaming overworld... all still complimenting the core Night Stalker gameplay, while appealing to a wider audience as well as classic game fans.

[+cmadruga]

1 minute ago, Black_Tiger said:

free roaming overworld

 You had me at that! 
please make it happen ?

[mr_me]

On 2/3/2020 at 3:44 PM, cmadruga said:

1% of 100,000 still means a LOT of people buying it...

Meanwhile, what would motivate a non-collector to appreciate an old hardware homebrew release?
It’s like having a PS4 user wanting to buy a PS1 homebrew... hard to see the appeal.   Buying the classics, sure, but a homebrew?

For a number of reasons some people do like playing new Intellivision games, as opposed to modern games which is what Amico games are.  People do ask to buy homebrew rom files.  And if the gameplay is high quality and unique like some of the Kai Magazine games for example, that's even more motivation.

[1980gamer]

Hard to compare these...

But I have noticed huge price increases for Commodore 64 hardware since the C64 mini was released.

I actually expected the prices to drop.

 

Two problem with this "analysis" right out of the gate....

1. Commodores user base was massive compared to Intellivision.

2. I did ZERO pricing research... Just my observation searching ebay from time to time.  But prices have gone WAY up for systems that should be in every garage/basement/attic!

 

 

 

[mr_me]

Bamse wrote the same thing on the previous page.  But I'm not sure how an increase in demand for the vintage intellivision hardware and cartridges might translate to demand for intellivision homebrews. 

[tanuki]

Interesting topic and interesting answers!

 

As you perhaps know, we published Maria. If we publish games on Colecovision, Intellivision, etc, it's not for the money. I think a lot of people do better business than US with for example SNES games. If I say that, it's because from this consideration you can understand some people don't write/make/publish things for money, but to follow a goal. For example, Côté Gamers want to keep these old hardwares alive. Even if it's only for 20 players ^^. Our first goal is to pay tribute to these hardwares. Of course, our 2nd goal is to please the community and it's why we try to publish quality editions.

 

This in mind, I think we'll always find collectors and nostalgics and as long as they will exist games will be published. The real question is how many buyers do we need to publish a game? The answer is not obvious! For example, when we publish things, we sometimes have a deficit. To balance our budget we use the incomes generated by other publications.

 

As long as some people or companies will act by passion, we can hope to see new games on the market. In the end, the heart of the problem is to find people motivated enough (from example programmers) to work for something else than pure profit. Of course, it can be more and more difficult to find if people interested in what you try to do are fewer. In that sense, the amico can be a danger.

 

[Zendocon]

I should have chimed in at the beginning, because I've been wondering the same thing.

 

I can only speak for myself, but I grew up with the Intellivision and I'm going to keep making games for it, no matter what happens with the Amico.  I do think some lay people are going to snatch up an old Intellivision like they used to have, and look for games - and then discover there's a thriving indie scene and want the new games as well as the ones they used to play.

 

I recall maintaining a website on my university's webspace with a list of 8-bit/16-bit games whose passwords I had cracked.  One of them was for the original Metal Gear.  Suddenly Metal Gear Solid was released for Playstation, and I started getting emails from people who didn't understand the archaic way that I described how the password system worked.  Something similar is going to happen here, but I doubt the impact will be huge.