Tommy Tallarico - Fun Amico Conversations

5 hours ago, Papy said:

 

It depends on the agenda behind the award. It's common for cities (either directly or indirectly) or organization like chambers of commerce to give an award in order to help the commercialization of a product that is considered as having a high potential of being successful. These awards are generally given before commercialization.

Ok that’s a good answer. 

8 hours ago, Starpaddler said:

Why are you being so secretive?  What are you hiding? Why the lack of transparency?  
 

Any concerns those here may not be at all interested but make it their life’s mission to dog you at every turn?  

I just think it's hilariously ironic that he's worried about it being "off topic".

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah... we're trying to put out a few cool new things for 10/10.  Don't want to promise anything at this point as people will hound me every day before and/or after if it doesn't happen.

 

But just know that we are potentially working on a few cool things for 10/10.

This is good news.  Hopefully something happens on 10/10.  But if not that's okay.

8 hours ago, Starpaddler said:

Like the frog, EWJ and the running man; and is that TJ?   Sure I’ve missed others.
 

Any chance you hid the release date anywhere in this one? 😃

Wouldn't that be something?

54 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

10,000 total in Europe right now.  50,000 Limited Collectors Editions were made.

"Limited Collectors Editions"... Does this mean that once these 50,000 copies are sold there won't be any reprint?

Also, since I live in Québec, do these boxes have the French language printed on it?

13 hours ago, godslabrat said:

Yes, the youtubers are much more important to Amico than paying customers.

12 hours ago, godslabrat said:

I would say that once you've passed your first delay (much less your third as of Saturday), while holding other people's money, then you've lost the luxury of being coy and withholding information.  You owe it to your customers to be up front about every detail, especially when they're asking about it.  And I see a lot of people asking about the content of those physical products.

10 hours ago, Starpaddler said:

Do you recognize how people might perceive you when you continually try and bust Tommy’s balls, especially given the purpose of this thread and with consideration to the questions above?  

@Starpaddler, here is how I perceive his posts in a nutshell...

Honestly it sounds to me like some people are a control freaks.  If they don't get what they ask for, they continually post negative criticism to get noticed.  It's like they believe those who kick, scream, and cry the loudest will be heard and get what they want.  In retrospect, these people are just making things worse for themselves.  It's best that they keep their negative comments to themselves or at least take it to another thread where they can have their own pity party.

Back on topic to the Amico, I'm looking forward to new videos and information.  Until then, I will patiently wait...

12 hours ago, godslabrat said:

I would say that once you've passed your first delay (much less your third as of Saturday), while holding other people's money, then you've lost the luxury of being coy and withholding information.  You owe it to your customers to be up front about every detail, especially when they're asking about it.  And I see a lot of people asking about the content of those physical products.

I once heard of a kid who repeatedly and impatiently demanded to have all his christmas presents by July. That was you, right? 

20 minutes ago, Papy said:

"Limited Collectors Editions"... Does this mean that once these 50,000 copies are sold there won't be any reprint?

 

Also, since I live in Québec, do these boxes have the French language printed on it?

I’m in Quebec as well and I doubt they do. I hope they do and it can ship here ! 

Because it seems to be such a hot topic discussion, I wanted to give folks an update on some of the things we've been talking about internally.

People who love, hate or who are completely indifferent and/or on-the-fence about Amico seem to have a great interest in a number of different areas.  This includes people who have already pre-ordered, who have not pre-ordered, who are thinking of pre-ordering, who are waiting for it to be released or who will never buy one in a million years.

We are very aware that the folks currently following Amico (good, bad or indifferent) would like info on the following...

1.  Our menu/User Interface.

2.  Physical Boxed Collectors Game products (i.e. "What's in the box?").

3.  Seeing more in depth gameplay footage.

4.  Where's all this "family marketing" we keep hearing about?

All 100% totally fair and understandable questions.

One of my flaws in communicating with the public is that I like to share as much information as possible.  I want people who are interested to feel like they are a part of our family and can feel like they are a part of the process and following along (both the ups & downs) of the entire project.  We've already given away so much info and insight over the past 2 1/2 years that most of the negativity and drama surrounding Amico wouldn't be present if we kept everything a lot more secretive.  (It's easy to understand why all the big companies do it that way).  So yes, I'll take the blame for wanting to be so open and wanting to share in my excitement and passion for the project and our company.  Guilty as charged.  We are building something very unique and trying to accomplish something that not many have done successfully... or at least to the level of success we are shooting for.  I wanted to take folks along for that ride.

Our original plan was to hold back the four points above as much as possible and closer to launch as we have some really incredible partnerships that we've been working on with huge influencers/YouTubers (10M+), popular TV talk shows, and really big family websites.  Content is king these days and when you're a smaller company like ours, getting on those types of bigger platforms (when you don't have the kind of millions that other established companies can spend on marketing) is a LOT easier when you can provide "exclusive" content.  It's also the reason why we chose our licensing partners carefully.  Contrary to what some may think, our deals with our licensors aren't just a "pay to play" type situation.  Marketing and awareness partnerships to their massive family audiences is just as important to us as the license itself.  Especially when in essence we are a company just starting out and trying to raise awareness in the demographics and sectors we are initially targeting.

Since our latest delay announcement, we have been actively speaking to many of our media and influencer partners with whom we promised certain exclusives with.  They have all been super cool and understanding of our situation and we have decided together to give other types of exclusive content to them when the time is right and (even more importantly from a company perspective) when there are units on the shelf and ready to purchase.  This then allows us to share more information right now that people have been asking for... as opposed to later.  Hopefully folks can understand that there is no sense in pulling a marketing/PR/partnership lever that could potentially be seen by tens of millions of people, without the ability to have the product immediately available to purchase.  A potential big lost opportunity for us.  And as we continue to face the challenges of manufacturing/logistics/shipping with the rest of the world, we also want to ensure that the many people paying attention and supporting us, also feel like things are always progressing in a positive way (which for us... internally, they almost always are).

So in that spirit, I would like everyone to know that the 4 important points of information given above WILL be addressed and revealed shortly.  Please don't ask or hold me to any kind of date.  I think a lot of you know that October 10th is a very special date for me, so if we can do one or two by then, we will.  That being said, October/November will be a very busy time for us in regards to showing a lot more of the information that people have been asking for.  In regards to our live events, we've done Dallas, Philly, Orange County, CA & Salt Lake City areas so far.  Next up... BOSTON!  My original home state of Massachusetts!  More details will be available closer to the event so please make sure to sign up to our Mailing List at Intellivision.com to get all the details first.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest in what we're doing.  Here at Intellivision we are all so passionate about Amico and love to see/hear the excitement of others as well.  We can't wait for everyone to finally get the opportunity to play Amico (like a lot of people here have been doing at our events).  Appreciate you all!

 

30 minutes ago, Papy said:

"Limited Collectors Editions"... Does this mean that once these 50,000 copies are sold there won't be any reprint?

The  phyical games will be duplicated and reprinted... but not with the "Collector's Edition" markings.  We wanted to make the first print runs a little special by including the "Limited Collector's Edition" on the front covers.

Quote

 

Also, since I live in Québec, do these boxes have the French language printed on it?

Yep!  All of our North American boxes have English & French.

13 minutes ago, Cranker said:

I’m in Quebec as well and I doubt they do. I hope they do and it can ship here ! 

Yo Pete... once again, you doubted incorrectly.   

😇😋☺️

And yes... the plan is to ship to Canada for sure.

❤️

36 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Because it seems to be such a hot topic discussion, I wanted to give folks an update on some of the things we've been talking about internally.

People who love, hate or who are completely indifferent and/or on-the-fence about Amico seem to have a great interest in a number of different areas.  This includes people who have already pre-ordered, who have not pre-ordered, who are thinking of pre-ordering, who are waiting for it to be released or who will never buy one in a million years.

We are very aware that the folks currently following Amico (good, bad or indifferent) would like info on the following...

 

1.  Our menu/User Interface.

2.  Physical Boxed Collectors Game products (i.e. "What's in the box?").

3.  Seeing more in depth gameplay footage.

4.  Where's all this "family marketing" we keep hearing about?

All 100% totally fair and understandable questions.

One of my flaws in communicating with the public is that I like to share as much information as possible.  I want people who are interested to feel like they are a part of our family and can feel like they are a part of the process and following along (both the ups & downs) of the entire project.  We've already given away so much info and insight over the past 2 1/2 years that most of the negativity and drama surrounding Amico wouldn't be present if we kept everything a lot more secretive.  (It's easy to understand why all the big companies do it that way).  So yes, I'll take the blame for wanting to be so open and wanting to share in my excitement and passion for the project and our company.  Guilty as charged.  We are building something very unique and trying to accomplish something that not many have done successfully... or at least to the level of success we are shooting for.  I wanted to take folks along for that ride.

Our original plan was to hold back the four points above as much as possible and closer to launch as we have some really incredible partnerships that we've been working on with huge influencers/YouTubers (10M+), popular TV talk shows, and really big family websites.  Content is king these days and when you're a smaller company like ours, getting on those types of bigger platforms (when you don't have the kind of millions that other established companies can spend on marketing) is a LOT easier when you can provide "exclusive" content.  It's also the reason why we chose our licensing partners carefully.  Contrary to what some may think, our deals with our licensors aren't just a "pay to play" type situation.  Marketing and awareness partnerships to their massive family audiences is just as important to us as the license itself.  Especially when in essence we are a company just starting out and trying to raise awareness in the demographics and sectors we are initially targeting.

Since our latest delay announcement, we have been actively speaking to many of our media and influencer partners with whom we promised certain exclusives with.  They have all been super cool and understanding of our situation and we have decided together to give other types of exclusive content to them when the time is right and (even more importantly from a company perspective) when there are units on the shelf and ready to purchase.  This then allows us to share more information right now that people have been asking for... as opposed to later.  Hopefully folks can understand that there is no sense in pulling a marketing/PR/partnership lever that could potentially be seen by tens of millions of people, without the ability to have the product immediately available to purchase.  A potential big lost opportunity for us.  And as we continue to face the challenges of manufacturing/logistics/shipping with the rest of the world, we also want to ensure that the many people paying attention and supporting us, also feel like things are always progressing in a positive way (which for us... internally, they almost always are).

So in that spirit, I would like everyone to know that the 4 important points of information given above WILL be addressed and revealed shortly.  Please don't ask or hold me to any kind of date.  I think a lot of you know that October 10th is a very special date for me, so if we can do one or two by then, we will.  That being said, October/November will be a very busy time for us in regards to showing a lot more of the information that people have been asking for.  In regards to our live events, we've done Dallas, Philly, Orange County, CA & Salt Lake City areas so far.  Next up... BOSTON!  My original home state of Massachusetts!  More details will be available closer to the event so please make sure to sign up to our Mailing List at Intellivision.com to get all the details first.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest in what we're doing.  Here at Intellivision we are all so passionate about Amico and love to see/hear the excitement of others as well.  We can't wait for everyone to finally get the opportunity to play Amico (like a lot of people here have been doing at our events).  Appreciate you all!

 

You’ve articulated well the primary areas that you could clarify to increase confidence in the project.  Where I disagree, and disagree strongly, is the point that not being as open would have been an asset to your messaging.  You are in a situation now where you are holding other people’s money and not delivering.  In this scenario, less communication does not put you in a better spot.  The truly ideal scenario would be to have never taken pre-order money in the first place.  Obviously that ship has sailed and you can’t go back and undo that, but you do have it in your power to be as transparent as you can be with where the project is.

Quite simply, you haven’t been, no matter how much you insist otherwise.

We only have fuzzy photos of the UI and microclips of gameplay.  When you’re claiming that your games are finished and you have demo units circling the country, it should be trivial to have your influencers do longplays and streams of the games so your customers can get a deep-dive impression of what the Amico Experience is like.  I can agree that it might not be “the right time” for this, but only to the point that this should have been done last year, before the initial launch, to show that the system and games were truly ready.

It would be great for the project if the announcement you’re hinting at actually did prepare longplay videos and extensive coverage of the games.  Doing so would not only help out your customers, but also your influencer partners, who would really benefit from being able to show the games and system rather than just talk about them.

To repeat the point, being secretive in your marketing and messaging can only hurt the project at this point.

14 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

To repeat the point, being secretive in your marketing and messaging can only hurt the project at this point.

If only you had communicated this sooner….

I don’t think there is any confusion on your position on this subject, as you have posted about it ad nauseam. The confusion for many is your motives for actually doing it over and over. 
 

Your game, while somewhat effective at times, is actually now too simple for it to be entertaining. You no longer make me chuckle, I instead feel sad about you.