Is the Amico dead?

[atarifan88]

I had hoped it would have been released by now.  I love the idea of gaming with the family and trying to get my wife back into gaming playing some more simple games that the Amico had to offer.  I am contemplating jumping ship and getting a Switch.  After looking at the Switches library of games, they have most things I'm interested in: motion controlled games like bowling & golf, party games from jackbox, and even arcade classics.  The only things missing are a good game of disc golf, and an Arcade Archives Vs Ice Hockey from the old NES.  I know there is the Nintendo Online membership, but I am still old school and would prefer to have a physical copy that I actually own.  Can anyone out there who owns a Switch tell me how the motion controlled games compare to the Wii?

[+5-11under]

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

Preorders were never required to buy an Amico nor were they required to manufacture Amicos.  Deposits were only a fraction of the purchase price of an Amico, totalling only about $600k.  That's a tiny fraction of what they've raised from investors.

From my 2 minute Google research, it sound like the deposit was $100 per pre-order, with 10K pre-orders taken. If that was a tiny fraction of the overall investor input, then a bit of corporate market research and a tiny bit more investor input would've saved a whole bunch of regular people $100 US each.

[bojay1997]

11 minutes ago, 5-11under said:

From my 2 minute Google research, it sound like the deposit was $100 per pre-order, with 10K pre-orders taken. If that was a tiny fraction of the overall investor input, then a bit of corporate market research and a tiny bit more investor input would've saved a whole bunch of regular people $100 US each.

Yeah, I wouldn't rely on what Mr. Me posts as gospel truth here.  He basically just takes whatever public statements the various individuals associated with Amico have made over the years and cherry picks the one that would be most favorable to the company.  The truth is that we don't have a clear idea of what the financial picture of the company was at various points.  It appears that money was raised from investors and the various founders, but how much was actually used on the designing and pre-funding manufacture of the product versus on general company operations is anyone's guess.  I suspect that they did need the reservations and also the sales of those games that they pre-sold to try and keep operations going a little longer.  Ultimately, I don't see how they recover from this, but I suppose anything is possible.

[jerseystyle]

They butchered Cornhole!  Just watched the footage again, and those bags are like bricks.  The motion controls look terrible, and unnecessary.  Great "improvements".  Disappointed.

 

[+5-11under]

2 minutes ago, bojay1997 said:

Yeah, I wouldn't rely on what Mr. Me posts as gospel truth here.  He basically just takes whatever public statements the various individuals associated with Amico have made over the years and cherry picks the one that would be most favorable to the company.  The truth is that we don't have a clear idea of what the financial picture of the company was at various points.  It appears that money was raised from investors and the various founders, but how much was actually used on the designing and pre-funding manufacture of the product versus on general company operations is anyone's guess.  I suspect that they did need the reservations and also the sales of those games that they pre-sold to try and keep operations going a little longer.  Ultimately, I don't see how they recover from this, but I suppose anything is possible.

It seems like the company at the moment is at a standstill? Not a good sign if it is.

If it all breaks down at some point, someone could buy it for pennies or dimes on the dollar. But even that might be a tough investment, given that there's $1M in pre-orders that either need to be affirmed (at a hard cost) or denied (at a soft but definite cost). New investors are likely better off looking elsewhere for cheap companies to buy.

 

[MrBeefy]

3 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

I had hoped it would have been released by now.  I love the idea of gaming with the family and trying to get my wife back into gaming playing some more simple games that the Amico had to offer.  I am contemplating jumping ship and getting a Switch.  After looking at the Switches library of games, they have most things I'm interested in: motion controlled games like bowling & golf, party games from jackbox, and even arcade classics.  The only things missing are a good game of disc golf, and an Arcade Archives Vs Ice Hockey from the old NES.  I know there is the Nintendo Online membership, but I am still old school and would prefer to have a physical copy that I actually own.  Can anyone out there who owns a Switch tell me how the motion controlled games compare to the Wii?

My wife loves the Switch. She has more play time on it than me. We just picked up Mario Kart again and played that with some Big Brain Academy. We are excited for Switch Sports which is coming out soon. You won't regret it. We haven't and I held off on getting one for the longest time.

[MrBeefy]

For those interested in if the software was done, it isn't, nor is the store final. Per their SEC paperwork.

 

Unless the SEC is a bunch of gaming racists out to destroy family fun through misinformation.

 

Also note this also admits to them not having sold any games since every game is an NFT and they haven't offered any NFTs.

 

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, bojay1997 said:

Yeah, I wouldn't rely on what Mr. Me posts as gospel truth here.  He basically just takes whatever public statements the various individuals associated with Amico have made over the years and cherry picks the one that would be most favorable to the company.  The truth is that we don't have a clear idea of what the financial picture of the company was at various points.  It appears that money was raised from investors and the various founders, but how much was actually used on the designing and pre-funding manufacture of the product versus on general company operations is anyone's guess.  I suspect that they did need the reservations and also the sales of those games that they pre-sold to try and keep operations going a little longer.  Ultimately, I don't see how they recover from this, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

2 hours ago, 5-11under said:

From my 2 minute Google research, it sound like the deposit was $100 per pre-order, with 10K pre-orders taken. If that was a tiny fraction of the overall investor input, then a bit of corporate market research and a tiny bit more investor input would've saved a whole bunch of regular people $100 US each.

Six thousand direct preorders is what the company had been telling investors in 2021, some say it's a little more, some say it's a little less.   Direct preorders doesn't include preorders customers placed at retailers like Gamestop or Amazon so total preorders would be higher.  Since deposit money at retailers stays with the retailers, 6000 direct preorders at $100 a preorder is $600k (make it $700k if you like). They raised $11.5M from Republic/Fig investments alone, plus a few million from equity investments and loans.  Customer preorder deposits is a small fraction of what they've raised.   And unlike a kickstarter people were not required to prepay or preorder at all to get an Amico, and many people who did have gone ahead and gotten their refundable deposit back.

 

I don't think any of that shows the company in a favourable way or not.  It's simply what it is.  The vast majority of their money is not from customer preorders.  And in no way does it say anything about the financial health of the company.  The recent SEC disclosure was pretty clear that they need to arrange credit to fund manufacturing, and investment funding to continue operations.

Edited March 31, 2022 by mr_me

[Rev]

For as long as i can recall, going on Youtube looking at Intellivision the Amico/Gamestop would be one of the top Ads. I could swipe down to refresh the ads. Amico/Gamestop ad would always cycle back.  Today no longer.   Try for yourself if you had previously seen these ads. 
 

Come to your own conclusions as to why this is happening starting today. 
 

Atari VCS and Mattel Intellivision are popular ads for me. 

[Rev]

Gamestop has listed Amico as Sold Out and is no longer accepting new pre orders. 
 

Also, searching for Intellivision Amico on “shopping” no longer pulls up the Gamestop page. 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Rev

[Rev]

Us Amazon has no search results for Intellivision Amico. 
 

Didnt US Amazon previously sell Amico items?  I dont know. Someone verify. 

 

No ordering on Canada Amazon.  Couldnt you before?

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Rev

[bojay1997]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

 

Six thousand direct preorders is what the company had been telling investors in 2021, some say it's a little more, some say it's a little less.   Direct preorders doesn't include preorders customers placed at retailers like Gamestop or Amazon so total preorders would be higher.  Since deposit money at retailers stays with the retailers, 6000 direct preorders at $100 a preorder is $600k (make it $700k if you like). They raised $11.5M from Republic/Fig investments alone, plus a few million from equity investments and loans.  Customer preorder deposits is a small fraction of what they've raised.   And unlike a kickstarter people were not required to prepay or preorder at all to get an Amico, and many people who did have gone ahead and gotten their refundable deposit back.

 

I don't think any of that shows the company in a favourable way or not.  It's simply what it is.  The vast majority of their money is not from customer preorders.  And in no way does it say anything about the financial health of the company.  The recent SEC disclosure was pretty clear that they need to arrange credit to fund manufacturing, and investment funding to continue operations.

Yes and given their current financial situation, it is very unlikely that they will be able to secure such investment or a further line of credit to commence manufacturing.  There really is no pathway forward here and delaying the inevitable is only going to result in additional dilution of whatever little cash and other assets may still be on hand.  

[Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, Rev said:

Come to your own conclusions as to why this is happening starting today. 
 

 

 

My conclusion -- It was meant to be an April Fool's joke, but they missed by a day.

 

 

1 hour ago, Rev said:

 

 

 

 

That Nintendo Switch for 36.99 (after coupon) seems like a pretty sweet deal.   

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Razzie.P

[SoloZolo]

Even if the Amico made it to retail, it's not like Intellivision has the money to make it successful (ignoring whether or not this product could ever be popular). If they're incapable of funding hardware production, they definitely lack the money required to promote the platform to a mainstream audience. At >$200, this is not the kind of thing that would take off through word of mouth, especially with the quality of software we've been shown. If the pack-in titles are still unfinished, I doubt they have other completed games waiting in the wings. It being a download-only platform means it's not even that alluring from an oddities perspective. Once the company keels over, unsold units lack the ability to play anything more than the pack-ins (assuming those are actually preloaded onto the device and don't require an internet activation) until the hobbyist community opens it up. They'd need a blank cheque from a very forgiving and wealthy investor. They've had years to find one and it's looking like one doesn't exist.

On 3/21/2022 at 12:22 PM, wolfy62 said:

Which brings to mind if the Amico has totally tanked and it disapears,where will Tommy T. be able to reappear in the video game world without it being known that he already lost most of his credibility?

He's already gone back to VGL and it's unlikely Amico would taint that. It would probably be a mistake for any developer to make his involvement a selling point for their new game, but it's not like Tommy has worked on any non-Amico games recently. Since the '00s, he's been better known for TV hosting appearances and VGL than his scores.

Edited March 31, 2022 by SoloZolo

[Noah98]

On 3/29/2022 at 5:11 AM, Keatah said:

I don't think anything happened to it. I'm kinda just sayin' what it's going to take to get a new system off the ground. Speaking in terms that others will understand and appreciate.

 

Everyone claims it's hard to see value in a drive full of bits. Well as long as I see it inside my own head it's good enough for me.

 

I've long ago permanently transcended the physical realm into emulation. Emulation provides a number things a physical collection cannot do. The pros of emulation continue to fit my needs & goals better than a wall of carts. Emulation is my own way of carrying the fun times of yore into the future. Further than a real physical collection could go. All the while maintaining fidelity and no degradation. Some may agree. Some may not. And that is ok.

 

So nothing really changed. A little devil's advocate is fun!

I think what Keatah is trying to say, is that if you are going to try and release a new retro style console, then you need to ditch the online, NFT's, digital media, motion controls, screens on the controllers, and all the bloat that makes it hard for your product to come to market, find an audience, be affordable, and gain the trust of the consumer.  If I want a nice digital retro console I have so many cheaper, better options.  I can get an old PC and tune the interface, tweak some amazing emulators, and create a great, curated experience of fun retro games with some modern quality of life improvements like save states, filters, mods, etc.  I can go the more expensive, fancy route with an FPGA console.  Or, I can go the affordable route (pre distribution shortage) and slap a raspberry pi in a nice case and put that together. 

 

All of those options make the Amico seem unnecessary.  I can even use an old wiimote on my pc with an emulated Wii game with 4k resolution, 60 fps, and motion controlled gameplay.  Why do I need an Amico?

 

If they go the cartridge collector route, like Evercade, then the market is different.  I want the box, nice manual, physical cart that doesn't need an update, install, or internet connection to work.  And you differentiate from the Evercade or other homebrew/emulation options by providing the Intellivision franchises like Night Stalker and Cloudy Mountain along with reimagined classics like Missile Command and Asteroids, or even enhanced Android ports like Evel Knieval in a nice collectable, and hopefully affordable, form.  That separates you from the big boys (affordability and exclusives) and even provides that curated experience with less releases where you are not competing with thousands of games say on the Nintendo eshop.  Just my two cents!

Edited March 31, 2022 by Noah98

[kevtris]

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

Six thousand direct preorders is what the company had been telling investors in 2021, some say it's a little more, some say it's a little less.   Direct preorders doesn't include preorders customers placed at retailers like Gamestop or Amazon so total preorders would be higher.  Since deposit money at retailers stays with the retailers, 6000 direct preorders at $100 a preorder is $600k (make it $700k if you like). They raised $11.5M from Republic/Fig investments alone, plus a few million from equity investments and loans.  Customer preorder deposits is a small fraction of what they've raised.   And unlike a kickstarter people were not required to prepay or preorder at all to get an Amico, and many people who did have gone ahead and gotten their refundable deposit back.

This doesn't mesh with what has been said on the record all along, though.  So someone's telling porkies.  There was the original 2600 preorders in january of 2020, and then Tommy claimed to gather another 10 thousand preorders in 4-5 days (depending on how you count) without any evidence or proof, other than telling someone in an email.  This is documented here:

 

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/04/intellivision-takes-more-than-10000-vip-edition-preorders-for-amico-console-in-a-few-days/

 

Quote

Intellivision has received more than 10,000 preorders for the VIP version of the Amico, which is available until Tuesday. CEO Tommy Tallarico said in an email that the company started presales of the VIP version on March 31 for $249 (for the black and the white versions) and $279 for a woodgrain version.

This article was posted on 4/4, so 10K orders between 3/31 and some time on 4/4.

 

The Fig page showed 13050 preorders as of Nov 7th, 2021, which I assume includes the 2600 original and these "10K" preorders, and any orders in the next year and a half.

 

 

So they lost 6000-7000 preorders but the fig page must've never gotten updated, or they never had that many preorders to begin with and the numbers were just made up.  It's impossible to tell at this point, but apparently going by twitter, people have asked for refunds and are either getting paper checks mailed to them, or just radio silence and no refunds at all.  That isn't the sign of a healthy company.  The SEC filing probably has the 'real' numbers in it, and any preorder numbers Intellivision cites are just puffery.  I suspect they've lost tons more preorders since the first of the year, and the Flounder's Edition waiting list is empty, going by the ability of people to get on it at will now.

 

Also, I am not sure what they were hoping to accomplish by posting that "unboxing" video, except to show how incompetent they are.  The box had tons of grammatical errors, misspellings (of their company URL no less), and it was beat up to boot and not manufacturing friendly.

 

 

[MrBeefy]

2 hours ago, Rev said:

No ordering on Canada Amazon.  Couldnt you before?

It's all been an illusion. ? Can they claim sold out if there's been nothing to sell?

1 hour ago, Razzie.P said:

That Nintendo Switch for 36.99 (after coupon) seems like a pretty sweet deal.   

I have this thing called a Nemeco to sell you. Invest now.

33 minutes ago, Noah98 said:

I think what Keatah is trying to say, is that if you are going to try and release a new retro style console, then you need to ditch the online, NFT's, digital media, motion controls, screens on the controllers, and all the bloat that makes it hard for your product to come to market, find an audience, be affordable, and gain the trust of the consumer.   

But he doesn't have the DATA showing everyone wants all of that! 

 

They should have added a crank to the Amico. I think the data shows that sells more than LEDs, RFID, NFT. While they are at it they could have painted it yellow and called it the banana pie edition.

 

1 hour ago, SoloZolo said:

Even if the Amico made it to retail, it's not like Intellivision has the money to make it successful (ignoring whether or not this product could ever be popular). If they're incapable of funding hardware production, they definitely lack the money required to promote the platform to a mainstream audience. At >$200, this is not the kind of thing that would take off through word of mouth, especially with the quality of software we've been shown. 

This is really the thing people are ignoring. It launching is just the start. They can't afford to make 2600 units and people think they will be around long enough to keep servers up and pay devs to make games?

 

The price is going to kill it especially at the $300+ range Phil Adam mentioned. From what has been shown the hardware never should have breached $200. $350 is just a ludicrous price.

[MrBeefy]

20 minutes ago, kevtris said:

This doesn't mesh with what has been said on the record all along, though.  So someone's telling porkies.  There was the original 2600 preorders in january of 2020, and then Tommy claimed to gather another 10 thousand preorders in 4-5 days (depending on how you count) without any evidence or proof, other than telling someone in an email.  This is documented here:

 

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/04/intellivision-takes-more-than-10000-vip-edition-preorders-for-amico-console-in-a-few-days/

 

This article was posted on 4/4, so 10K orders between 3/31 and some time on 4/4.

 

The Fig page showed 13050 preorders as of Nov 7th, 2021, which I assume includes the 2600 original and these "10K" preorders, and any orders in the next year and a half.

 

 

So they lost 6000-7000 preorders but the fig page must've never gotten updated, or they never had that many preorders to begin with and the numbers were just made up.  It's impossible to tell at this point, but apparently going by twitter, people have asked for refunds and are either getting paper checks mailed to them, or just radio silence and no refunds at all.  That isn't the sign of a healthy company.  The SEC filing probably has the 'real' numbers in it, and any preorder numbers Intellivision cites are just puffery.  I suspect they've lost tons more preorders since the first of the year, and the Flounder's Edition waiting list is empty, going by the ability of people to get on it at will now.

 

Also, I am not sure what they were hoping to accomplish by posting that "unboxing" video, except to show how incompetent they are.  The box had tons of grammatical errors, misspellings (of their company URL no less), and it was beat up to boot and not manufacturing friendly.

Well it's easy to puff up journalists and friend YouTubers. You don't want to be hyperbolic to the SEC. People kept believing the puffery even when fundable was saying console not complete and only 6000 preorders.

 

The point of the unboxing video is to "keep the faith" alive. If you would see how people reacted on the FB group that's what it did. GS taking money got some excited too. It IMO is an attempt to keep more people from pulling out their money and make it look like they are doing something in hopes someone buys them or gives them money. So in other words, more puffery.

Edited March 31, 2022 by MrBeefy
Intellevision mistake

[MrBeefy]

Also I know someone who just asked for a refund today. It will be interesting to see how long a refund takes.

[kevtris]

10 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

The point of the unboxing video is to "keep the faith" alive. If you would see how people reacted on the FB group that's what it did. GS taking money got some excited too. It IMO is an attempt to keep more people from pulling out their money and make it look like they are doing something in hopes someone buys them or gives them money. So in other words, more puffery.

Yeah I guess, it sure seems dishonest to post that like this thing's still going to happen soon.  Apparently the translations on the box were all machine-generated, too, and words with the wrong context were used.  The bootup was cut out so you couldn't see how long it took, and the Starfox text screen on Moon Patrol was cut out too, it goes from the title screen direct to the game.  The games don't appear to have progressed in a year and a half to two years other than in minor ways.  Cornhole looks terrible, like you're flinging couch cushions around, and the lag from moving the controller to when the screen updates is massive. 

 

The UI isn't that much different from the one shown off a year and 4 months ago.  I thought this UI was going to blow my balls off and be the bomb-diggity!  Same with the box, it was supposed to be so innovative and unique.  What is innovative OR unique, other than the different sized flap on the front, and that this thing would never make it from factory to customer without everything inside getting damaged from moving around so much?  I guess all the wasted space in the bottom was innovative, allowing the stuff inside to slide around.  A better design would've put the accessories on the left and/or right side, and made the box thinner (it's a huge chonker as it is), and gotten rid of the empty space at the bottom, and that entire bottom box to boot.

[MrBeefy]

3 minutes ago, kevtris said:

Yeah I guess, it sure seems dishonest to post that like this thing's still going to happen soon.  Apparently the translations on the box were all machine-generated, too, and words with the wrong context were used.  The bootup was cut out so you couldn't see how long it took, and the Starfox text screen on Moon Patrol was cut out too, it goes from the title screen direct to the game.  The games don't appear to have progressed in a year and a half to two years other than in minor ways.  Cornhole looks terrible, like you're flinging couch cushions around, and the lag from moving the controller to when the screen updates is massive. 

 

The UI isn't that much different from the one shown off a year and 4 months ago.  I thought this UI was going to blow my balls off and be the bomb-diggity!  Same with the box, it was supposed to be so innovative and unique.  What is innovative OR unique, other than the different sized flap on the front, and that this thing would never make it from factory to customer without everything inside getting damaged from moving around so much?  I guess all the wasted space in the bottom was innovative, allowing the stuff inside to slide around.  A better design would've put the accessories on the left and/or right side, and made the box thinner (it's a huge chonker as it is), and gotten rid of the empty space at the bottom, and that entire bottom box to boot.

Placeholder box man! That misspelling of their company was an innuendo to catch you in their web! ? Someone like @roots.genoa would need to inform me on how bad the French translation was. I heard it was bad and the localization team might be the same people in charge of proofing their writings.

 

Notice they've been quiet on correcting information suggesting that GameStop is shipping? On the FB group the IE employees haven't said anything but the other admin has. They don't have really any respect for their customers. Still no ship date in sight. 

 

They empty space in the box is for your hopes and dreams. I'm guessing it will hold warranty information and booklets.

[Steven Pendleton]

Last night I dreamed that when I woke up today the Amico had suddenly begun shipping, Al remade the Amico forum section, and Tommy came back and made several extremely cryptic single-word posts, as if his account had been hacked by a semi-functional AI that was picking random words from a dictionary. Then I woke up and discovered that that hasn't happened.

[Albert]

3 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Al remade the Amico forum section

LOL

[OCAT]

When they throw Hans under the bus for fraud against a forein government they will send him the 1-Amico they have so that he can keep busy in solitary confinement for the next 10 years. Since the backend does not exist he will have to play solo... I guess that makes him HANS-Solo yuk yuk :D

I still cannot believe these grifters are allowed to continue this dumpster project. Someone needs to send Mr. Avocado the link to Mr. Butterfield's C-64 Unboxing, not some charade that they did to grift more money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9WnHuGjZ38

Many years ago I bought a plug-&-Play (https://bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/InterAct) for $3 on Liquidation from Radioshack (The Source in Canada), It has a version of Shark Shark that looks like the AI version, you play it for all of 5 minutes then throw it down. These are all mobile games, & not very good ones at that.
If anything this Console & the sub-par games are going to BREAK UP Families!.

[masschamber]

8 hours ago, Rev said:

Gamestop has listed Amico as Sold Out and is no longer accepting new pre orders. 
 

Also, searching for Intellivision Amico on “shopping” no longer pulls up the Gamestop page. 

gamestop attempted to process payment  on my order and kept giving errors,  I think gamestop is done with it