Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

8 hours ago, The Wren said:

Ooh Ooh...is it Cranium????

I'm so excited to see some of the more casual games. I would be cool if one was an updated Anticipation game.

17 hours ago, Cranker said:

I feel the same way. I was looking forward to you answering All of the questions that people asked over the weekend this morning and you always do a damn good job. I think the majority of us hardcore fans appreciate the time you take to interact with us !! Obviously things can change at any time. It’s ridiculous to hold you to every word you say. That’s why most companies share very little information until a product is completely ready. Following  the progress of this project on a regular basis makes me feel like part of the Intellivision family !! It’s a very unusual and unique experience to share information and progress  about this very special project that you obviously have an incredible passion for.  I appreciate it very much -:)

Cranker, I couldn't have said it any better! This is a unique situation seeing a CEO interacting and trying to please and satisfy anybody (which, of course, can't be done). Honestly, when I first heard about Tommy's project I thought "Nah, this is never gonna work" - in the meantime, after realizing how passionate and enthusiastic he is and seeing his every word absorbed in the best possible way by the folks gathering round here, I definitely believe the AMICO is going thru the roof as soon as it hits the stores.

9 hours ago, Atari_Master said:

Tommy,

 

Are the digital games going to have discounts during certain times of the year?  

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Amico will be out in 7 months, games will not cost more than $10, and you are already concerned about discounts? 😕

He must have finally run through his list of games that he wondered would be on the Amico.  With that in mind, this was the next logical question... 😄😆😂🤣

38 minutes ago, N0mi said:

Cranker, I couldn't have said it any better! This is a unique situation seeing a CEO interacting and trying to please and satisfy anybody (which, of course, can't be done). Honestly, when I first heard about Tommy's project I thought "Nah, this is never gonna work" - in the meantime, after realizing how passionate and enthusiastic he is and seeing his every word absorbed in the best possible way by the folks gathering round here, I definitely believe the AMICO is going thru the roof as soon as it hits the stores.

🤣 Hehehe, the Founder's Edition went through the roof already.

22 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Cumberland Farms!  Now that's some east coast shit right there!  Do they still exist???  Anyone here from the east coast remember Dairy Mart?  They were the big competitor of Cumberland Farms back in the day.

 

 

Definitely remember Dairy Mart and Cumberland Farms certainly does still exist today.  You're gonna lose your Masshole accreditation if you don't keep up on this stuff, Tommy!  I grew up in Northeastern CT, the tri-state area, if you will, right on the MA & RI borders, but have lived in MA for the past twenty something years.  So I am at least an honorary Masshole for sure, and I grew up just a couple miles from the border and spent so much time there anyway...I was always very MA oriented from the beginning...used to buy video games at Spags.  Do you know that one?  I'd bet that Cumberland Farms from my hometown in me story is still there and running...haven't been there in quite a while, but it was still there last time I was...

4 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Amico will be out in 7 months, games will not cost more than $10, and you are already concerned about discounts? 😕

It's not that I'm concerned.  I just wanted to ask him if there might be a discount.  All the other online stores have discounts, like PlayStation, Xbox & Nintendo.  Why not Amico?  I know the Amico games aren't expensive to begin with.  Tommy could do a discount on the games that are $10.  For example the $10 games could have a one day sale where they're 50% off or something.

56 minutes ago, JasperAK said:

🤣 Hehehe, the Founder's Edition went through the roof already.

Yeah, it did for sure! 😉

Great to see it sold out really fast.

Tommy,

With the physical games, will they be sold on the IE website as well?  Also will some of the physical games be exclusive to the IE website?

27 minutes ago, Atari_Master said:

All the other online stores have discounts

Indeed.

25 minutes ago, Atari_Master said:

It's not that I'm concerned.  I just wanted to ask him if there might be a discount.  All the other online stores have discounts, like PlayStation, Xbox & Nintendo.  Why not Amico?  I know the Amico games aren't expensive to begin with.  Tommy could do a discount on the games that are $10.  For example the $10 games could have a one day sale where they're 50% off or something.

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have huge mark-ups on their games.  There's still a healthy profit margin with a discount.  Pricing on Amico digital games are already discounted compared to their physical versions.

1 minute ago, mr_me said:

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have huge mark-ups on their games.  There's still a healthy profit margin with a discount.  Pricing on Amico digital games are already discounted compared to their physical versions.

I agree and I don’t expect or even want  sales, especially in the first year. They need to make some money. If they don’t, we won’t be getting good quality games . To me, the software is  already very cheap and I do have some concerns That the developers won’t make enough money. Remember we are not dealing with the same user base and the big 3 and they can not absorb losses in the same way. The last thing I’m concerned about is sales . I want quality games.  

1 hour ago, Atari_Master said:

Tommy,

 

With the physical games, will they be sold on the IE website as well?  Also will some of the physical games be exclusive to the IE website?

It seems to me that they will want to avoid this. A big part of the physical games is probably to give retailers an additional reason to carry the console in the store... think "store exclusives".  Yeah, the retailers are making decent money on the console sales (especially compared to the big 3), but IE is, for now, an unknown player. If IE can say to the retailer "Hey, look. I've got this $30 physical media game you can sell, and it only costs you $10", suddenly the retailer is a lot more interested in the console and all of its associated merchandise. If IE also says to them "This physical game is exclusive to your store, no other retailer has access to it", then the store executive is going to be begging for the system.

The real danger with periodic sales is people start expecting them and waiting for them.  If a game has gone on sale for 50% in the past, I'll just wait for the next sale rather than buy it now. 

As cheap as Amico games plan to be, I would think Tommy is more concerned about protecting the value than making a few extra sales. He's mentioned they're going pretty low margin to keep the price down, so even a 25% sale might mean selling at a loss.

Hi Tommy. Two quick questions.

When will the interview with ReviewTechUSA take place ?

Will the next trailer will have game sounds or will it be "music playing in background" ?

By the way, it could be great to have an exclusivity during the interview (a few seconds of the next trailer !?) to attract viewers for his video with a catchy title. 😉

I wonder if they expect to release 2 or 3 games a month ( 3 x 7= $21 month x 12 = $252)  if they would allow a subscription for the year of say $150?  You pay 150 you get all the releases that year?   Just spit balling, either way I'll likely buy 90% of the games released.  I just know reoccurring revenue from a subscription model is the holy grail, its the whole reason I got into business/govt software. Reoccurring revenue baby..

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have huge mark-ups on their games.  There's still a healthy profit margin with a discount.  Pricing on Amico digital games are already discounted compared to their physical versions.

I don't think Amico's margins are razor-thin. If they sold 250,000 copies of a game, they'd make 1000% profit. Yeah, I know, it's simplistic, but you see my point. I think Amico has an interesting safety buffer at those prices. They can go as low as 25k copies sold and still break even. 

Also, Tommy said that there is some psychology, a very low price will make people perceive the games as crap.

24 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I wonder if they expect to release 2 or 3 games a month ( 3 x 7= $21 month x 12 = $252)  if they would allow a subscription for the year of say $150?  You pay 150 you get all the releases that year?   Just spit balling, either way I'll likely buy 90% of the games released.  I just know reoccurring revenue from a subscription model is the holy grail, its the whole reason I got into business/govt software. Reoccurring revenue baby..

If you're willing to give up money ($100 a year ffs!) you could take $100 off the launch price. That wider user base could make up for the games at full prices (assuming that full prices drive some people away).

37 minutes ago, Guy said:

I don't think Amico's margins are razor-thin. If they sold 250,000 copies of a game, they'd make 1000% profit. Yeah, I know, it's simplistic, but you see my point. I think Amico has an interesting safety buffer at those prices. They can go as low as 25k copies sold and still break even. 

Also, Tommy said that there is some psychology, a very low price will make people perceive the games as crap.

 

 

Nobody is saying their margins are razor-thin.  It's just that Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo are selling digital copies of games for the same price as physical.  Takeaway the cost of packaging, shipping, and the retailers share, their margins are ridiculously high.  Amico game margins are low only in comparison to others but otherwise healthy.

57 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I wonder if they expect to release 2 or 3 games a month ( 3 x 7= $21 month x 12 = $252)  if they would allow a subscription for the year of say $150?  You pay 150 you get all the releases that year?   Just spit balling, either way I'll likely buy 90% of the games released.  I just know reoccurring revenue from a subscription model is the holy grail, its the whole reason I got into business/govt software. Reoccurring revenue baby..

Usually with subscriptions you don't give away perpetual licenses.  You get access to the software as long as you have a subscription but lose the right to use the software if you cancel the subscription.

2 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I wonder if they expect to release 2 or 3 games a month ( 3 x 7= $21 month x 12 = $252)  if they would allow a subscription for the year of say $150?  You pay 150 you get all the releases that year?   Just spit balling, either way I'll likely buy 90% of the games released.  I just know reoccurring revenue from a subscription model is the holy grail, its the whole reason I got into business/govt software. Reoccurring revenue baby..

I'm envisioning more of something like a Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime subscription. (With Kindle Unlimited, you can download 10 ebooks at a time, but once you hit 10 you have to return one to check out another.)

A prime subscription could let people try out any single game for a month, but then if they wanted to play it after the month was up they would  have to purchase it. Maybe with a discount, maybe not.

An Amico Unlimited subscription ($10/month?) might let people have 5-10 games on their machine (in addition to anything actually purchased). This wouldn't be as critical early on, but after 6 months or a year when there are 60+ games in the Amico store it would appear to be a killer deal for the consumer.

1 hour ago, RxScram said:

I'm envisioning more of something like a Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime subscription. (With Kindle Unlimited, you can download 10 ebooks at a time, but once you hit 10 you have to return one to check out another.)

 

A prime subscription could let people try out any single game for a month, but then if they wanted to play it after the month was up they would  have to purchase it. Maybe with a discount, maybe not.

 

An Amico Unlimited subscription ($10/month?) might let people have 5-10 games on their machine (in addition to anything actually purchased). This wouldn't be as critical early on, but after 6 months or a year when there are 60+ games in the Amico store it would appear to be a killer deal for the consumer.

Interesting but with all they have on their plate with launching a new system, this sounds way to complicated to even consider At the moment. 

3 hours ago, Guy said:

If you're willing to give up money ($100 a year ffs!)

You actually arn't giving up anything, How many Amico owners are going to buy every single release.  1 to 2 % at most. 

3 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I wonder if they expect to release 2 or 3 games a month ( 3 x 7= $21 month x 12 = $252)  if they would allow a subscription for the year of say $150?  You pay 150 you get all the releases that year?   Just spit balling, either way I'll likely buy 90% of the games released.  I just know reoccurring revenue from a subscription model is the holy grail, its the whole reason I got into business/govt software. Reoccurring revenue baby..

Tommy has mentioned wanting to get away from the money-grab that seems to plague other gaming platforms.  I wonder if a subscription model would be viewed as a money-grab or a consumer value-add...

I kind of like the idea of game bundles with a small discount.  For example the Casual Bundle is maybe 4 games and you save a buck or the Reimagined Bundle maybe has 3 pricier games and you save 2 bucks.

Subs are far from a money grab, they are actually really good deal for both consumers and supplier.  Its just a suggestion but it is a way to lock in some profits and raise cash earlier rather than later. To me it just makes sense you only have to sell and pitch the subscription once, with individual games you have to do it over and over every single release.  Tough business model.  Again its why I got into bus/govt software. We sell the same software to the same clients year after year via their annual license renewal. Reoccurring revenue. The same piece of software keeps on generating revenue for over a decade in many cases.

Tommy monroe you guys are on the phone now with the NFL. Looks like exclusivity is no more.  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2020/3/10/21172310/nfl-2k-sports-football-video-games-deal-ea-madden

A subscription model right out the gate would really kneecap the retailers, and Tommy's indicated they're key to their strategy. I could see subscription being a thing in 2021 and beyond, but seems unlikely up front.