Tommy Tallarico - Fun Amico Conversations

2 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

Review units are the best way of giving an impartial analysis of the Amico... short of being able to try it ourselves, of course.  Despite the Amico being delayed past its October 10 date, there is still high hope that some units will be released in 2021.  This indicates that the Amico team considers it plausible that units could be shipped in the next 127 days.  If so, that places them in a range where review units should be available.

 

To focus on videos and ignore review hardware, I simply find odd.  

We have review units now that we could send to people. 

But if we don't know when we'll have tens of thousands of units available for SALE... then there is no reason to send out review units at this point.  We will do that closer to our actual launch.  Not a soft launch when we have nothing to sell.  Everyone who has actually played it has loved it.  We're not worried about getting a good or bad review.  We're focused on timing and hitting the best time to get the most coverage when people will be able to purchase (not pre-order).

8 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

Hey Tommy!  Hope you're having a great day.  Keep up the awesome work!

Having a great day so far!  Same to you as well!

Some very cool things happening.  Looking forward to sharing more info soon.

Thanks!

❤️

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

We have review units now that we could send to people. 

But if we don't know when we'll have tens of thousands of units available for SALE... then there is no reason to send out review units at this point.  We will do that closer to our actual launch.  Not a soft launch when we have nothing to sell.  Everyone who has actually played it has loved it.  We're not worried about getting a good or bad review.  We're focused on timing and hitting the best time to get the most coverage when people will be able to purchase (not pre-order).

I strongly disagree that this would be a poor time to send review units.  I don't need to list the doubts that have been cast on the project (I mean, I will if you want me to). I would suggest that being able to show a solid hardware unit with complete games would do wonders toward building confidence in the Amico project.

4 minutes ago, 1stplayertokens said:

if that is the case then i apologize, i remember seeing what i said as being the case. 

No worries.  There is a ton of misinformation out there so I totally understand.

2 hours ago, godslabrat said:

Does this need come at the expense of keeping paying customers informed?

For the record, I’m a paying customer and I feel informed. I’ve gotten emails on delays, commitment of effort of trying to get some units out this year, reason for the delay and even a few for a consolation gift for the latest delay.  I’m very confident when IE has something firm, we’ll find out rather quickly. Respectfully, what is it specifically you are looking to receive?  

Hey Tommy 🙂

Do you have any plans for Scandinavia? Or can I get an Amico from Amazon.de and use in my country?

Thank you and the rest of the team so much for working on giving the industry a much needed breath of fresh air!

4 minutes ago, Starpaddler said:

For the record, I’m a paying customer and I feel informed. I’ve gotten emails on delays, commitment of effort of trying to get some units out this year, reason for the delay and even a few for a consolation gift for the latest delay.  I’m very confident when IE has something firm, we’ll find out rather quickly. Respectfully, what is it specifically you are looking to receive?  

Questions were raised about the completeness of the hardware as well as certain games.  Tommy's response was that he needs to withhold that information so that websites and youtubers can get the "scoop".  My question came from a spot of asking why paying customers should be more in the dark about the status of the project compared to websites and youtubers.

1 minute ago, godslabrat said:

I strongly disagree that this would be a poor time to send review units.  I don't need to list the doubts that have been cast on the project (I mean, I will if you want me to). I would suggest that being able to show a solid hardware unit with complete games would do wonders toward building confidence in the Amico project.

That's okay.  You can disagree and think our strategy is a bad one.  Totally fine.  One of us will be correct I suppose.  

You said it yourself... getting into peoples hands is the MOST important thing we can do.  And that is exactly what we're doing.

And we've done that with many many people and they all loved it.  Some people who were fans, some people who were critical, some people who never heard of us before.

In case you haven't seen it, here is one of our recent trailers where hundreds of people (who are our target audience) tried Amico for the first time and loved it.

Pretty cool huh? 

Isn't that the most important thing?  Actual people who we are targeting saying they love it and they want to buy one? 

Way more important than getting it into the hands of a hardcore gaming website that isn't our initial target audience... wouldn't you agree?

We also look forward to getting review units into people who our target audience is based around.  Not to the audience who isn't the main focus of who and what we are appealing to.

11 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

13 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

I will do that, thanks.

 

I did have two other quesitons, though.

If I am understanding based upon your response to my question, let me try to restate your questions to help Tommy understand:

Can you Telegraph the new release date to me since you don’t have a new official announcement? And can I take the marketing strategy with which I disagree and add a dramatic insinuation that it is a horrible move against paying customers?

Hope this helps. 

How much patience you have Tommy. Mamma mia! 

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Pretty cool huh? 

 

Isn't that the most important thing?  Actual people who we are targeting saying they love it and they want to buy one? 

Way more important than getting it into the hands of a hardcore gaming website that isn't our initial target audience... wouldn't you agree?

We also look forward to getting review units into people who our target audience is based around.  Not to the audience who isn't the main focus of who and what we are appealing to.

Tommy, to be very honest, I don't find your videos impressive or "cool".
 

I also don't think it's particularly important, either.  Why?  My time in sales taught me that it's incredibly easy to get people to say they like something when you aren't asking them to buy it.  Actually getting them to exchange money for it after they say it, however, is a whole other issue.  
 

I also don't see the point in deliberately omitting reviewers which specialize in video games.  You might say you aren't targeting them, but there's no harm (and a lot to be gained) by having the console vetted by people who know what they're talking about.

In short, if the Amico is as strong as you make it out to be, these "hardcore" (a word I hate as it's not very descriptive) reviewers should be able to recognize that.  And then you could strengthen the crossover appeal you believe the Amico has.

To summarize, by not having professionals review it, you're limiting the reach of your console, and underestimating people's ability to appreciate it.

38 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

For the record, I can confirm that you are indeed wrong.

if this is the case and that would be great, why wouldnt you update the funding page or us? this is the stuff that confuses some of us. If the OS and backend is 100% done thats great news, why not tell us? the simple fact that it is done is not some secret you need to keep for a you tuber.  

@Tommy Tallarico

Could you clarify on the NFT thing? Was that a misnomer for NFC, or are you actually planning on associating Amico with NFTs? As a fan, that would sound morally dubious and in contrast with Amico philosophy. I hope this is just some misunderstanding, as I want to be excited about this project.  

1 minute ago, godslabrat said:

Tommy, to be very honest, I don't find your videos impressive or "cool".

 

Thankfully for us and the success of the project... you are in the minority!

1 minute ago, godslabrat said:

I also don't think it's particularly important, either. 

Thankfully you are not in our marketing department.

1 minute ago, godslabrat said:

I also don't see the point in deliberately omitting reviewers which specialize in video games.  

We would much rather target reviewers who the console is intended for.  Families, seniors, faith-based communities, etc.

That is our initial target market and go-to-market strategy.  Very simple.

1 minute ago, godslabrat said:

To summarize, by not having professionals review it, you're limiting the reach of your console, and underestimating people's ability to appreciate it.

We'll have the RIGHT people review it and they will have a much greater reach than video game professionals to which our target audience knows nothing about.

How many middle America mom's do you think check out places like IGN on a daily basis?

You have a different opinion about how we should market our product.  That's fine.  Not going to argue with you about our strategy. 

We have a lot of data and research that helps to guide us.  We also know who are best audience is and will be catering to them first.


 

I wonder how many people who give Tommy "tips" have degrees in computer engineering or marketing.  I mean graduates from real universities not from Facebook or You Tube.

5 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

if this is the case and that would be great, why wouldnt you update the funding page or us? this is the stuff that confuses some of us. If the OS and backend is 100% done thats great news, why not tell us? the simple fact that it is done is not some secret you need to keep for a you tuber.  

I have gone into great detail about all of this stuff and continue to just be called a liar. 

As an example, people at the AmicoFest gathering and many others have stated many times in multiple videos that the UI they saw looked complete and was shippable.  But if we now have more time and want to add more things (making things incomplete again) all of the sudden that isn't allowed and everyone was lying?  If we decided to take the extra time and spend extra money on improving games that could have easily shipped previously... we are now being told we're not being honest?

Literally dozens and dozens of people have played Amico and said there is no lag.  Yet all of those people are called liars and harassed. 

This is getting ridiculous.

I'm not going to continue to go into great detail about every aspect of what we're doing because the information is just being twisted and used in hopes of destroying the company. 

At this point we're going to let the console do the talking for us.  We will continue to get it into as many peoples hands as possible and create extended gameplay videos while showing first timer reactions as well.

That's all we can do at this point.  I'm not going to subject myself to questions which I know are only being asked so they can create more drama.

This is an AMICO FUN DISCUSSIONS thread. 

I hope folks will continue to respect that.

Thanks.

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

faith based magazines

As an atheist do I need to worry about hidden (or not so hidden) messages in Amico games?

4 minutes ago, Crusader71 said:

I wonder how many people who give Tommy "tips" have degrees in computer engineering or marketing. I mean graduates from real universities not Facebook ones.

I do, why do you ask?

3 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

At this point we're going to let the console do the talking for us.  We will continue to get it into as many peoples hands as possible 

 

Unless those hands belong to people who make their living reviewing video games, because they aren't your target market?

4 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

Lo faccio, perché me lo chiedi?

For my personal statistic.  You know, I'm a curious person.  Thank you for your answer.

4 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

I strongly disagree that this would be a poor time to send review units.  I don't need to list the doubts that have been cast on the project (I mean, I will if you want me to). I would suggest that being able to show a solid hardware unit with complete games would do wonders toward building confidence in the Amico project.

I can kind of see your point, if the people dogging they system were not heavily slanted toward a particular opinion (this is my attempt at being political correct). As Tommy said, it really doesn’t matter what they put out, it will be leveraged, twisted and just provide new content creation for their click bait. From a purely information purpose I’d agree with you despite those looking for the next knock, but agree with Tommy that with what’s left to reveal is better kept until it can garner interest at a time that can benefit sales. 

Just now, Starpaddler said:

I can kind of see your point, if the people dogging they system were not heavily slanted toward a particular opinion (this is my attempt at being political correct). As Tommy said, it really doesn’t matter what they put out, it will be leveraged, twisted and just provide new content creation for their click bait. From a purely information purpose I’d agree with you despite those looking for the next knock, but agree with Tommy that with what’s left to reveal is better kept until it can garner interest at a time that can benefit sales. 

Oh, I would never want someone to review it who already had a strong opinion.  I firmly believe the first big reviewers should have no ties to the Amico project or to the most vocal critics.

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I have gone into great detail about all of this stuff and continue to just be called a liar.

I never called nor meant to imply you are a liar. or push too far, Im just been here as a gamer/businessman who is interested in the Intellivision and I enjoyed the conversation. As a car enthusiast ( 750hp custom vette, mercedes, picking up a Lotus emira in 22)  being in the software game 30 years, being around the same age, we have a lot of common hobbies and likes and I have enjoyed the grownup conversation.  Again, as a current product manager I guess I get too nosey sometimes, anyway, best of luck. I'll continue to check back now and again. 

51 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

Tommy, to be very honest, I don't find your videos impressive or "cool".
 

Here's the problem with those videos:

You're at a family friendly event, and you ask people if they want to try your product.   

Sure.  Why not.  

After they play it a bit, you ask them if they like it, and wouldn't mind saying it for a video.

Most people are polite and aren't going to tell strangers to their face if they don't like their product.   Even if they did, it's not hard to just not show those videos, is it?

I mean, the Crayola event videos are basically advertisements.  And unless YouTubers are willing to ask hard questions, their opinions are meaningless.  I mean, the first time I heard about the Polymega was a well known YouTuber singing its praise.  And how did that turn out?