are we really sure the Intellivision only sold 3 million

[ASalvaro]

This has always bothered me because i really think the Intellivision sold much more than the 3 million units that have always been stated

i mean i had 4 of them myself from 82 to 84 and 40 years after release there is still lots of consoles on ebay

[+JasonlikesINTV]

I believe I have 4 as well, so that's at least 8 ?

[+fdr4prez]

I had 4 - and still have 2 or 3 of them

add in 3 for other friends and family.

 

Soon enough we will know if we can tally up past the 3 million mark

[+cmart604]

I have....errrr...lots. ?

[+Lathe26]

9 minutes ago, cmart604 said:

I have....errrr...lots. ?

I can confirm this fact.

[spacecadet]

Well, if they did sell significantly more than that, you'd think they'd have corrected the article that number comes from, in which they're otherwise heavily quoted: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/04/business/mattel-is-counting-on-its-toys.html

 

Now, granted that number is up to the 1983 crash, and the system was technically on sale until 1990. But I think you can probably assume it was a niche product from then on; it didn't sell millions more after that.

[mr_me]

Anyone who quotes the nytimes article should say more than 3M intellivisions sold through 1983.  So I don't think that included the remaining inventory of intellivision ii that went to intellivision inc and sold in 1984.  I estimate that INTV Corp made and sold at least half a million INTV System III and Super Pro Intellivisions between 1985 and 1990.  And then there's an unknown number of digiplay intellivisions, many of which sold after 1983.  The total could be more than 4M.

[Rev]

Examine the intv serial number database. 

[Rev]

http://intellivisionrevolution.com/Intellivision-serial-number-database

[+cvga]

I think 3-4 million sounds reasonable. This is just one point in time but look at the following stats...

 

                            Units Sold             eBay

Atari 2600              30m (88%)        1,579 (87%)

Atari 5200                1m (  3%)             58 (  3%)

Intellivision                3m (  9%)           171 (  9%)

 

There are a bunch of factors that could cause the eBay distribution to be different than the overall number produced but it certainly looks like the estimates for total units sold appear reasonable.

[+Black_Tiger]

My family bought a Master Component and an INTV System III bitd.

[mr_me]

53 minutes ago, Rev said:

Examine the intv serial number database. 

If you look at the serial number database you get over 3.5 million units.  But there's problems with the database.  The canadian serial numbers aren't separated out so that could add another 200k.  It's also incomplete lacking good serial number data from many parts of the world.  Have a look and see if you come up with different numbers.

 

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

Anyone who quotes the nytimes article should say more than 3M intellivisions sold through 1983.  So I don't think that included the remaining inventory of intellivision ii that went to intellivision inc and sold in 1984.  I estimate that INTV Corp made and sold at least half a million INTV System III and Super Pro Intellivisions between 1985 and 1990.  And then there's an unknown number of digiplay intellivisions, many of which sold after 1983.  The total could be more than 4M.

No, 500k INTV systems is high.  It's over 200k for north america and who knows for the rest of the world.

Edited April 21, 2020 by mr_me

[Sinjinhawke]

10 hours ago, cmart604 said:

I have....errrr...lots. ?

Based on what I can see through your basement window about 8 to 10 (hundred). 
 

I have only 3.   A non working v1, a working v1 and a working v2.  

[+cmadruga]

Some markets abroad did not experience a crash, or it was milder than in the US.
Plus the Inty continued to be sold post-Mattel in the US.

So relying on figures through 1983 will for sure understate  total sales over the “lifetime” of the console.

[Blarneo]

@Tommy Tallarico would know the answer to this.

[mr_me]

3 hours ago, Blarneo said:

@Tommy Tallarico would know the answer to this.

It's already been asked and answered in the Q&A thread.

[+cvga]

3 hours ago, Blarneo said:

@Tommy Tallarico would know the answer to this.

 

26 minutes ago, mr_me said:

It's already been asked and answered in the Q&A thread.

Well that's only 572 pages long!

[+fdr4prez]

It has been discussed in other threads here, too, but now if you try and search this forum for "million", you get about a million amico thread hits.

[mr_me]

29 minutes ago, cvga said:

 

Well that's only 572 pages long!

Found it using the handy search tool.

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/288558-intellivision-amico-tommy-tallarico-introduction-qa/?do=findComment&comment=4436189

 

[+cvga]

31 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Found it using the handy search tool.

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/288558-intellivision-amico-tommy-tallarico-introduction-qa/?do=findComment&comment=4436189

 

Awesome. Thanks!

[spacecadet]

12 hours ago, mr_me said:

Anyone who quotes the nytimes article should say more than 3M intellivisions sold through 1983.  So I don't think that included the remaining inventory of intellivision ii that went to intellivision inc and sold in 1984.  I estimate that INTV Corp made and sold at least half a million INTV System III and Super Pro Intellivisions between 1985 and 1990.  And then there's an unknown number of digiplay intellivisions, many of which sold after 1983.  The total could be more than 4M.

 

Sure, it could be... but you're really splitting hairs here. Is this thread about the difference between 3 million and 4 million units? That's... not a huge difference. Those who quote that article usually say "more than 3 million", which is accurate because no reliable official numbers exist after that.

 

5 hours ago, cmadruga said:

Some markets abroad did not experience a crash, or it was milder than in the US.
Plus the Inty continued to be sold post-Mattel in the US.

So relying on figures through 1983 will for sure understate  total sales over the “lifetime” of the console.

 

The Intellivision was not a big seller in any other region that I know of. Pre-crash, most hardware was regional anyway. The Intellivision was released by Bandai in Japan but it's basically a unicorn - I was excited when I found mine there because I had *never* seen one before. In Europe, Mattel Electronics didn't even have an office until 1983, just before they stopped producing the system.

 

5 hours ago, Blarneo said:

@Tommy Tallarico would know the answer to this.

He says 4 million by 1990, possibly more but no way to verify, which I would believe. 3.5 million by the time Mattel stopped producing the system is probably about right, and 500,000 more units over the next 6 years seems possible.

 

I just don't know what significance that has. I guess someone could change the Wikipedia article to 4 million and link to the Tommy Tallarico post, but beyond that, I mean this is not a sea-change in the thinking of how popular the Intellivision was. It sold less than the Dreamcast, Saturn and Wii U, all systems considered failures, *way* less than the Atari 2600, which had a major head start, but probably more than the ColecoVision and definitely more than the Atari 5200, its two main competitors at the time.

[ASalvaro]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

Found it using the handy search tool.

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/288558-intellivision-amico-tommy-tallarico-introduction-qa/?do=findComment&comment=4436189

 

good find thanks! 

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

He says 4 million by 1990, possibly more but no way to verify, which I would believe. 3.5 million by the time Mattel stopped producing the system is probably about right, and 500,000 more units over the next 6 years seems possible.

 

I just don't know what significance that has. I guess someone could change the Wikipedia article to 4 million and link to the Tommy Tallarico post, but beyond that, I mean this is not a sea-change in the thinking of how popular the Intellivision was. It sold less than the Dreamcast, Saturn and Wii U, all systems considered failures, *way* less than the Atari 2600, which had a major head start, but probably more than the ColecoVision and definitely more than the Atari 5200, its two main competitors at the time.

You're not suppose to reference discussion group posts in wikipedia.  The researchers doing the intellivision book will probably cover this subject, so we might have a proper source there.

 

Not long after colecovision and atari 5200 came out, intellivision was discounted as a budget system.  So I wouldn't say they were competitors.  But as you know sales of previous generation game systems all count in the totals.  In fact more atari 2600 were sold after the release of it's replacement than before.

 

Mattel had distribution in Europe.  Intellivision was in the UK in 1981 and the rest of europe in 1982.  The european office mattel electronics opened in 1983 was to develop video game software.  Japan made it tough for foreign manufacturers. I'm assuming all those sales are included in the number reported by the nytimes article.

Edited April 22, 2020 by mr_me

[+fdr4prez]

25 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Mattel had distribution in Europe.  Intellivision was in the UK in 1981 and the rest of europe in 1982.  Japan made it tough for foreign manufacturers.  The european office mattel electronics opened in 1983 was to develop video game software.  I'm assuming those sales are included in the number reported by the nytimes article.

 

Don't forget we can add this one to the count:

 

Something tells me that we are not going to reach our 3M goal

 

I keep losing count

[Blarneo]

2 hours ago, mr_me said:

You're not suppose to reference discussion group posts in wikipedia.  The researchers doing the intellivision book will probably cover this subject, so we might have a proper source there.

 

Not long after colecovision and atari 5200 came out, intellivision was discounted as a budget system.  So I wouldn't say they were competitors.  But as you know sales of previous generation game systems all count in the totals.  In fact more atari 2600 were sold after the release of it's replacement than before.

 

Mattel had distribution in Europe.  Intellivision was in the UK in 1981 and the rest of europe in 1982.  The european office mattel electronics opened in 1983 was to develop video game software.  Japan made it tough for foreign manufacturers. I'm assuming all those sales are included in the number reported by the nytimes article.

When I was in the Army stationed in Germany in 1985, I saw a copy of "Drachenfahr" in an electronics/record store.