Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

On 1/28/2020 at 12:32 PM, IntelliMission said:

Hey Tommy, I have  a couple of interesting questions:

 

- Do you think any of your investors will ever read the AtariAge forums? 🤓

 

- What percentage of your target market know the meaning of the word "amico"? Do you think this could be a problem or do you believe that this potentially mysterious word sounds good enough and can help boost sales?

1.  Doubtful. 

2.  Probably very few.  Fun for folks to know there is a story behind it though.  And one that I've never revealed publicly... and probably won't for a few more years. 

Just a little convo with my 45 yo sister about Astrosmash. 

And one much earlier after the original announcement... 

On 1/28/2020 at 4:01 PM, RREDDWARFF said:

Hey, I received my "Welcome to the Intellivision family" email as well.

 

You know what this means...

 

We are all brothers and sisters now. See you soon Tommy! I'll should be to your house by Wednesday afternoon with all my belongings. Can't wait to move in brother... I mean, seeing as we're family now. 😉

 

 

(Yes, I am just kidding - you never know these days)

The key is under the doormat.

oh... I should probably mention...  my wife has her gun license and she's an epic shot.

21 hours ago, BydoEmpire said:

This is the most encouraging thing I've heard any game company exec say.  Spot on.  We'll see if it pans out, but at least the intent is there and the focus is on the right thing (fun games, not subscriptions and microtransactions).

Thanks for the kind words and support.  I appreciate it.  We're really trying to come at this thing from an entirely new and unique standpoint.

20 hours ago, woobman said:

I cannot believe that I missed the entire preorder fun!!! Life got in the way of the Amico! Very long story.  I haven't been here in weeks. Haven't posted anything for longer. I just haven't had many moments. DANG!!!!  I'm so far behind on posts! If anyone cancels.. I want to get one of those.. Put me on a list!  If not, whenever the next round of pre-orders starts up, I'll order one then.  Thank you Tommy for keeping up with all of this and answering all the crazy posts!!!!

Thanks for following and contributing!  There will be other opportunities to get in on the Vintage Woodgrain so no worries there!  The Founders Edition stuff is gone... but you'll get an opportunity to get a Vintage Woodgrain before they go on sale to the general public.  Thanks again for being interested in what we're doing.

14 hours ago, Alpha82 said:

I’m guessing since they said they were keeping the game play that made these fun the first levels will have slower asteroids like the original game and they will pick up speed as it goes along 

Correct.

14 hours ago, LePionnier said:

For those interested there will be an interview with Mike Mika (Night Stalker Reimagined) this Thursday by "The ORIGINAL Next Level Gaming".

Maybe he will talk a bit about his current projects?

 

Please post the interview!  And let me know where he talks about Amico.  I'm sure it will come up at some point (I hope!).

42 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

First time I think I ever read someone typing "Rabble Rowser" on the internet! 

Hahhaha!  Epic!

We gotta bring that phrase back!

keen! 

14 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

I just found a couple of interesting comments in the Vara Dark interview. The first one is plain hilarious:

 

 

The second one seems a bit more serious but it appears to be lacking key information about how the financial success of the project:

 

 

Tommy (and everyone), what do you have to say? Answering the first one can probably be fun since his suggestion is so crazy, and clarifying the second with real data would also be great.

 
Without getting too deep into specifics... lets just say... investors wouldn't be giving us millions of dollars if they didn't see an absolute CLEAR path to profit!

Unlike the big 3... we do make money on the hardware and because we fund and own the software (for the most part) our "cut" is much higher than the typical 30% that the big 3 make off 3rd party.  We don't really have 3rd party... every game is treated as 1st party.  Except for the unique ports in which case the developer owns the product and makes a much higher royalty. 

I'll just say that we have a MUCH greater chance of making profit on a smaller number of machines sold than people are giving us credit for.

Cloud gaming??  The system is supposed to be SIMPLE.  Turn it on and it works.  Imagine your mom trying to start a cloud gaming account.  But the biggest problem in that idea is that it would literally take hundreds of millions of dollars to set up the structure to do cloud gaming.  Just ask Google!!!!!!!!!!  or Microsoft!!!!!!!!!  Or Sony (who bought Gaikai for $380M+ from one of our Intellivision Entertainment co-founders David Perry).  Having a physical "device" that can just be turned on and played... is a MUCH safer, easier, stable and less expensive way to launch a new video game console.  Again...  Google has ALL the money, mailing lists and advertising power on the planet Earth.  How's that working out for them? 

7 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Thanks for following and contributing!  There will be other opportunities to get in on the Vintage Woodgrain so no worries there!  The Founders Edition stuff is gone... but you'll get an opportunity to get a Vintage Woodgrain before they go on sale to the general public.  Thanks again for being interested in what we're doing.

 

 

The unfortunate reality is that a few people may be in a position close to October where its not fiscally possible to pay off the rest of their pre-order.  I am pretty sure there will be some dropped orders that could be scooped up to those who missed the original chance...

not me though, if push came to shove I'd sell a kidney to keep mine 😛

13 hours ago, mr_me said:

In the interview he said 5M units, not $5M.  That would be at least $1B in revenue (assuming lifetime sales not annual).  Regarding game development, consider small teams of four or five people working for six months, and a little bit of math, will show you that a game can be profitable after selling only 25k copies.

Yes!  Thanks for bringing that up.  I forgot to mention that as well.  

4 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Game designer Mike Mika discovers proof that the designer of an 1980's book cover foresaw the future - believe it or not!*

*Reference to the old Ripley's Believe It or Not! TV show for those too young to remember

 

 

is Mike Mika doing any other Amico games right now? i think he's going to be one of my fav game designers after looking at his work on Night Stalker

12 hours ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

 

No worries.  When there's need of a long reply to a YouTube comment involving any sort of numbers or analysis, I'm there.  It's like my bat symbol.  ::cue the Mighty Mouse theme song::

 

reply as follows:

 

He didn't say $5m in sales. He said 5 million units. $5,000,000 in sales is not going to cover operating costs. 5 million units sold (as he was talking about PS4 at 100+ million, Switch at 50 million, Xbox at 30 million units).. equates to approximately $1.2 billion in sales revenue. If the average console purchase price is about $240 (considering a base model of $230 and a special edition of $280, with more base units than special editions sold) average recorded sales for every 1 million units is $240,000,000. Or $1.2 billion when the 5 millionth Amico is sold.

 

That is before you ever factor in 1) software sales, 2) additional controller sales, 3) merchandise sales, or any other licensing agreements or sponsorships secured. Software sales in the current pricing model is usually 7-10 times the number of units. The Switch has sold ~45-50 million units right now, software sales are going to be about 300 million units. And that's software at $50-60 per unit sold for many of those physical sales.

 

If they're reporting $1.2 billion (with a B) in sales, and Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us et al are getting good margins, they're going to go out of their way to support sales moving forward as it's a high return product for them for one. Where's the recouped development cost? In-house developed games are going to run Intellivision $100k or less, per game, in overall cost - they're likely produced in 5-8 months by a team of 5 employees concurrently working on 3-5 games, so you're talking about overall game development cost around $100k on average if the devs are paid close to $100k salaries and their yearly output is 4 games that they had a hand in producing with the average 5 man dev team. Certain games will be less intensive card games, translations of licensed board game properties, recreational sports.. others will take more time/resources. Games developed externally in partnership with developers working on Amico exclusives are going to be closer to $150k-$350k in development costs. That's a bit more up front cost. But still, if you think about 20 in-house games released per year, that's no more than $2-3 million in development costs. And if you think about another 30 games produced annually by third party developers, that still assumes annual production costs of $6-$10 million per year.

 

But Tommy just said $1.2 billion worth of console unit sales at that theoretical 5 million units sold worldwide. If they're spending $12 million per year on software development, and retailers are getting a guaranteed 25% margin per hardware unit sold on that $1.2 billion ($300 million), and they're spending $12 million per year on marketing and another $4 million in new game licensing each year ($16m per year), over four years that's $64m for marketing/licensing, $48m for software development.. EVEN if the production and distribution costs of manufacturing and moving 5 million Amico consoles was $750 million in cost, you're looking at a remaining profit of around $42 million over four years after the major costs (licensing, development, marketing, manufacturing, retailer cut) is taken into account. And in that figure, we haven't even added ONE single dollar from software sales. On a primarily digital access platform. Or additional controllers/accessories. Or merchandising. Or other important revenue like sponsorships, Intellivision's own licensing deals and exclusive contracts..

 

And we both know if the system can sell 5 million units, it can easily sell 60 million individual games (12 games lifetime purchases per buyer at $8 average expense per game, $96 in games sales per owner.. or the equivalent of the average Switch or PS4 owner buying exactly one full price game and one clearance price game over a four year lifetime of games purchases for that system). If that's an $8 average per-game expenditure on a paltry 60 million games, that's $480 million dollars in revenue. With zero retailer cut for most of those games (and even for the physical games for collectors appearing exclusively in stores, let's just knock that number down to $350 million dollars in digital-only revenue. That's still about $400 million dollars in profit Intellivision has pulled from selling 5 million systems with an average consumer expenditure of under $100 in lifetime games purchases.

 

I was VERY conservative with these numbers. And I didn't account for taxes Intellivision will have to pay and more than enough ancillary costs to chip away at that $400 million - but I think when we're talking about revenues north of $1.5 billion and remaining profits after major costs, venture funders have been handsomely rewarded with a good return on investment, there's a strong Intellivision brand with a successful product and healthy assets and revenue stream at the end of the day. The other big three can't operate like that because their game development on average for the AAA titles is 50 to 500 times the cost. Those dev teams are 50-100 man teams on giant Bethesda open world explorers. Their marketing isn't $12 million annually, it's $80 million. Their systems are not cost-efficient, production/distribution costs are above 75% of their MSRP. Retailers may make $40 per Switch sold, and if Nintendo spends $240 to manufacture and distribute each Switch, you can see the modest profit margin that both Nintendo and retailers have to work with. But they're all raking in several billions, even at that scale.

 

I think the plan is sound, the funding is there, the costs are exceptionally lean and they'll be successful. Before ever considering what the Plan B or any follow-up system would need to be.

 

HOLY CRAP YOU'RE GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like seriously.... I need to hire you to do PR or be in charge of the Amico Community.  You, Grudge & Alpha82 knock it out of the park every time.

p.s.  Retailers want 20%... not 25%. Even better news for us when plugging in your numbers. 

11 hours ago, LePionnier said:

Here is a recent reply from the Night Stalker Video on You Tube.

ModeSeven Il y a 16 heures

That fire song is Star Eater by Daniel Deluxe

 

 

 

So here one of the things I found on youtube about Daniel Deluxe - Star Eater. (2015)

Sure we like it, so you can listen without all the other sounds. (But it's better with Tommy's touch ! lol )

 

Tommy, is it exactly the same music or something inspired by it (him) ?

Thank you.

Yes.  I'm producing the music and album and I've hired Daniel Deluxe and Speed Machine (2nd level track) to take part in the project.  They will be writing some original tunes with me well.  I have a total of 5 folks so far on that project.  It's going to be AMAZING!!  Going to release the album before the game comes out.  People are gonna freak!  Really excited about it.

Tommy,

I bought some merchandise before the Amico order and they came with the Golden Tickets. How will those work? Also, since the Amico well founders edition comes with an RFID golden ticket can that be reloaded with funds for the console? Thank you very much for all the answers you can give and for recreating my favorite console.

11 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Nick Bruty (Rogue Rocket Games) on Twitter: Making AstroSmash for @Intellivision. Having a lot of fun making an old school shooter again.

 

 

Yep!  Nick's been commenting on the Astrosmash video as well if you go through the comments. 

As I mentioned in the Astrosmash YouTube description (which I thought more people would be talking about) is that there are at least half of the entire Earthworm Jim team working on Astrosmash right now!  We just wanted a short fun project to get acclimated to the hardware and what it's capable of from a graphic standpoint.  We're doing EWJ design and graphics as well... but won't really start to get into it full time til after Astrosmash is completed (March or April).

11 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

I will keep it short in order to hopefully avoid the (well deserved) wrath of Blarneo - but Intellivision is likely going 1) going to have the highest margins in the business on their consoles, 2) provide the highest margin to retailers (and it is all about margin per foot of shelf space for Walmart/Target/BestBuy etc) 3) the highest percentage of estore sales revenue (better than 70%/30% instead of 30%/70%) and all on a ultra low cost basis with critical costs like staff, base marketing and base game development running cost under $30 mill a year (of course they will spend more if they get more). It would take an astoundingly low number of sales for a console (basically hundreds of thousands of units - rounding error for any of the majors) for Intellivision to become profitable and any million unit sort of sales would produce skyrocketing returns on investment. This is why Intellivision can manage to attract VC funding even after the huge ($50 mill) Ouya investor burn & Atari VCS giving the alternate console industry another, on-going black eye.

1.  FACT!

2.  FACT!

3.  Lets hope so!

55 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Please post the interview!  And let me know where he talks about Amico.  I'm sure it will come up at some point (I hope!).

Count on one of us. 😉

P.S. Let him know that he can give us one or two scoop like you like to do yourself ! lol

Thank you again for taking the time to come and read what we write and to respond to it !

And yes, it will be crazy after E3. I will not have enough time to look at everything on the web ! lol

Love the Intellivision

Love Astrosmash, Love the new version

11 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

Thanks, RetroAdvisoryWall...

 

Just kidding, that was really informative. 🤓

 

By the way I have more news for you all, courtesy of Robert Shmigelsky: 1) Board games are better in Facebook, 2) The Amico is not powerful enough for 3D motion controlled sports and 3) Intellivision Entertainment's only chance is to be bought by Google. Source: his *ss.

 

 

 

(Thanks, 1001lives, for pointing that out!)

Ignorant comment considering he could easily see the 3D that Moon Patrol can handle.  Doing a Bowling, Cornhole, Shuffleboard, Darts, Pool, etc. with motion controls is extremely easy to pull off.  Again... anyone that knew what they were talking about from a tech standpoint can PLAY Moon Patrol and realize what the system is capable of.  He sounds like the type of person who wants people to think he knows a lot... but really... at the end of the day... he doesn't.  Having an opinion about not liking the machine or software style is one thing.  Totally fine... it's not going to be for everyone.  Stating something as ignorant as the hardware isn't capable of 3D motion controlled sports is just plain dumb.

Totally okay that he would rather play a board game on a Facebook instead of in person.  Nothing wrong with that opinion at all.  But to assume that everyone else in the world thinks just like he does... is once again... ignorant and short-sighted IMO.

9 hours ago, 1001lives said:

Where the heck do these people come up with this stuff?

Clearly from their bums.

But just remember... if you dare reply with facts and information... you're labeled a fanboy and part of the cult.

8 hours ago, AtariSociety said:

OK, how about the rest of you lot... you coming down yet from the Getting HIGH of the purchasing of the Founders Edition Amico?

 

It has finally set in I am now part of the Intellivision Family... and officially purchased my 1st Intellivision!

 

Now to just figure out who here is the Drunk Uncle of my new Intellivision Family... LOL.

 

Hell.. it may be ME!!!  WTH.

 

haha

 

Nice to be aboard this new trippy ship of my life.

 

TJ

 

 

 

It's TOTALLY YOU!!  You are the Drunk Uncle for sure!  Did you actually watch the beginning of your last video?? 



Seriously though... thanks so much for your enthusiasm and support!  You will forever be known within our company as the SANTA GUY!!

Everyone gets excited whenever you post a new video! 

8 hours ago, Swami said:

The paywall is the idea that Intellivision could sell the games for another system or mobile or PC/Steam/AppleArcade without needing to pay for a new console and that no one is going to pay $230 to buy a console for games they could play on their phones or switch. As Tommy once said, some have said they hope the Amico fails so the games will get ported to other consoles. Of course, all of this has all the basis of typical misinformation and rumors mix free of actual investigation that is typical of the internet and has been countered several times. 

 

For instance, the red haired woman who interviewed Tommy in a video a few days ago suggested he could put the games on Apple Arcade and people could use their Apple iPhones as controllers ... but what if you have Android phones...SOL. 

Yeah... the whole concept of "Amico will be the only place to play these games" is gonna hit hard for certain folks come 2021.  And that is EXACTLY the point! 

Would the system do well if all we did was port over Steam, Mobile & Switch games??  And then take the re-imagined Intellivision games and ported those to all the other systems? 

The more great and unique and exclusive stuff that hits the machine (that you won't be able to get ANYWHERE else!) will have a HUGE impact on hardware sales. 

But just remember and keep in mind...  A lot of folks said I was absolutely crazy and that the thing was going to fail miserably because I have exclusives and don't allow direct ports.

Will be interesting to see what happens. 

Pulling off motion control is fairly easy with the cheap tech that's been available for years, but does modern/current software really distinguish in real time, the difference between a soft, medium and hard motion - with everything (expecting a certain digital limitation, but should still be hi-res today) in between - in most of its analog glory? 
 

This is the main reason I ditched the Wii early on... the motion control gimmick (that was so wildly popular at first) was so two dimensional, could always predict where, when and how hard (for instance) the bowling ball would roll. Got old REAL quick. Yes, had "motion control"... but its actual range was quite limited. So much so, that it felt digital. Like playing a so-called "virtual pinball" machine. Ball only travels a certain way. Always on certain paths, momentum and spinner speed hits ignored, etc.