Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

On 3/9/2020 at 10:26 AM, 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.

 

 

I've got a Cumberland Farms just a couple miles down the road from me!

22 hours ago, Tavi said:

If E3 pulls the plug this year, this might just be the end of them. Which would be a pity. I have never attended, but I do enjoy watching the various streams of the event and reading the industry announcements coming from E3.

It is also 4 months from now, in June. I would be hoping the hysteria about Corona/COVID-19 would be well settled down by then and people would realize despite the non-stop media fearmongering, it is essentially just a type of cold and about as deadly. The CDC has stated a .2 to .4% mortality rate for those between the ages of 10 to 50. I would think the majority of those are from countries with poor heathcare and people with pre-existing heath conditions. So we are not exactly into Bubonic plague numbers here.

On average the regular strains of flu are responsible for 12-30K deaths globally a year, and for hundreds of thousands of cases of hospitalizations of those seriously ill with it, and one does not see this level of panic over those statistics. Or mass toilet paper buying *eyeroll* Seriously, that is the thing here right now; people panic buying a decades worth of toilet paper. Why? No one knows. There are no announced (or even rumored) shortages, and unlike electronics China is certainly not the main source of it.

I do believe Tommy has said he has plans in place if E3 was cancelled, but it is still unfortunate that he might have to fall back on his 'Plan B' as I am thinking the Amico would have been a hit at E3. Announcements, videos, system specs are all great for promoting the system but I suspect that some actual hands-on time really would help sell the console and get it some serious media attention and chatter. E3 would have been the perfect place for letting regular people, influencers, and the various article writers all try the system out for themselves.

I guess we will have to wait and see what E3 themselves has to say on this, but 'E3 to be cancelled' is now being reported by multiple sources so I suspect it is under serious consideration, if not actual fact.

You are very wrong about CoronaVirus.  It is much deadlier than the flu is. Have you seen the latest numbers in Italy? And the WHO has now labeled it a pandemic. Speaking as someone who has  a girlfriend with a compromised immune system due to a chronic illness, I get very frustrated when I hear people not taking this seriously. She is put at higher risk because some like you aren't taking it seriously. Sorry to sound harsh but this is serious stuff. Spreading misinformation about this is not cool.

Also, people are being told to self-quarantine if they discover they have been in contact with anyone infected. It's the best way to contain it from spreading. That means at any given moment you could find out somebody you work with, met yesterday for lunch, etc is infected, and the only morally-and-socially-correct thing to do is immediately go home and quarantine yourself - regardless of how you feel. You could be a carrier for days and infect others before discovering you have it. Which means it's prudent to keep some backup supplies handy in case you need to lock yourself down. So people are doing exactly what they have been told to do - prepare.

Of course if some people aren't going to take it seriously, and put the rest of us at risk, then that's where things are going to get worse.

Almost 1,000 dead in Italy.

My company is discussing cutting all airfreight from Europe. 

This doesn't look good for anyone. 

16 hours ago, Papy said:

The main reason is that your view of the 20% retro games looks like you're OK with compartmentalizing people and making games targeted to specific groups.

 

Sorry, but I have to give a lot of explanation...

 

When I fist started to play board games with my family, I had only a few Eurogames and they were more or less similar. Everyone loved playing those games, so I bought more games and sought games that were different. I thought more originality would keep the fun.

 

Different games had different results. For example, when we first play Pandemic, it immediately became the favorite game of my sister, but my mother didn't like that game at all.

 

Personally, I use games as a way to socialize, so any game will do. That's why I don't mind playing Monopoly with my niece, even if I find the game really dumb (I'm the kind of guy who played ASL in college).

 

However, I'm an exception. When I added more board games to my collection, everyone wanted to play different games. So no matter what game we ended up playing, there was always someone who was not satisfied, who felt frustrated, who didn't have fun, and this clearly killed the mood.

 

The result is we barely play board games altogether anymore.

 

If with Amico you make games specifically tailored to different audiences, I'm guessing the same thing will happen. People will have their own kind of game they want to play on Amico and they will view other games are inferior. In my mind, if the goal is to unite people, it's not enough to have some games for everyone, it's also important that people do not view the games that are meant for everyone as less fun than other kind of games. Playing those family games should not feel like some kind of chore or an unwanted compromise.

 

-

 

I remember an interview when you said to a woman that she will play Moon Patrol with her mother and they both will have fun together during next Christmas. In my mind, I imagined those remakes would be like the game Overcooked, that is games that are built from the ground up to be multiplayer and with strong interactions between people.

 

After seeing the demos of Night Stalker and Astrosmash, it seems obvious to me this is not the case. Those remakes look like the originals, only with better graphics and more bells and whistles, and the multiplayer aspect of those games seems tacked on. I'm sure some retro gamers will love those games, but without a solid multiplayer experience, I don't see how a teenager, a soccer mom or an elderly could love playing those games for more than a few times.

 

At first, I was saying to myself the lack of a solid multiplayer experience was because those demos were alpha versions, but it looks to me anytime someone raises an objection to retro games, your answer is that it's OK because those remakes will be only 20% of the library.

 

That's what depresses me. It's this 20% justification. Instead of saying those games will focus on the multiplayer experience for everyone (instead of trying to be faithful to the original games), you seem to say that it's OK if they are not for everyone because they are only 20% of the library.

 

I know I won't play board games on Amico. I already have my own board games. So that's 20% gone. I know there's very little chance adults will want to play edutainment games. Another 20% gone. Motion controlled games are great as occasional party games, but apart from exceptions like Beat Saber, they are generally too light to be played regularly. Also, many women tend to not like serious sports games. So do I remove another 10%? Your 20% justification (and the demos of Night Stalker and Astrosmash that I saw) makes me think retro games won't interest many people. So another 20% gone.

 

It looks like the main tool for reuniting the whole family is mainly within the 20% original IP, but original IP doesn't say anything about the gameplay. How many of those original IP will be targeted at kids? How many targeted at elderly people? How many at women? How many at teenagers?

 

I talked about Overcooked. It's far from perfect, but it's still a game that was built from the ground up to be multiplayer. How many games like that will be on Amico? Because if the goal is to unite family and friends, I believe those games should be the majority.

Really good point here, but... it can't be done! There is nothing like "the perfect game for everyone". Some games really come close (Overcooked is a well chosen example), but there will always be people who just dislike it, no matter what the majority of gamers say or how well that particular game is rated everywhere. You can't please them all. Not even Tommy can, but he might as well come close with some games on the Amico.

Being happy it's important to keep the defenses high, so here are some songs that can help my fellow intellivisioners deal with potential quarantines:

Basement Jaxx - Red Alert

Ween - Mononucleosis

Weird Al Jankovic - Virus Alert

Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation

46 minutes ago, N0mi said:

Really good point here, but... it can't be done! There is nothing like "the perfect game for everyone". Some games really come close (Overcooked is a well chosen example), but there will always be people who just dislike it, no matter what the majority of gamers say or how well that particular game is rated everywhere. You can't please them all. Not even Tommy can, but he might as well come close with some games on the Amico.

Also, there is also a good chance that if you start trying to use some formula to create the “perfect game” that tries to be all things you’ll end up with a platypus instead of a swan. 

1 hour ago, N0mi said:

Really good point here, but... it can't be done! There is nothing like "the perfect game for everyone". Some games really come close (Overcooked is a well chosen example), but there will always be people who just dislike it, no matter what the majority of gamers say or how well that particular game is rated everywhere. You can't please them all. Not even Tommy can, but he might as well come close with some games on the Amico.

I don't know how many people will like 100% of the games, maybe none, but it's not like everyone falls into one 20% bucket.  Maybe I like 50% of the games, or maybe 75%, or maybe something else, but that's true with everything in life.  And I disagree with Papy that retro remakes will be sort of limited to retro gamers and maybe not that popular to young people today, or grandmothers, and so on.  If games are fun, they'll have an audience.  Maybe young people today will love those old school games that many of us love...that's a good way to bring people together, sharing the games we used to play years ago.  I am psyched to show people games I played growing up and I'd bet they will enjoy them.  The games were very fun then and I think they'll be fun now to a lot of people...my mother is 91 years old and plays lots of games on her iPad, as so many casual gamers do....so I definitely feel like there is a market for many of these games out there...

25 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

Being happy it's important to keep the defenses high, so here are some songs that can help my fellow intellivisioners deal with potential quarantines:

 

Basement Jaxx - Red Alert

 

Ween - Mononucleosis

 

Weird Al Jankovic - Virus Alert

 

Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation

heh- i'll add one.

On 3/9/2020 at 7:54 PM, Atari_Master said:

Tommy,

 

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

Yep!

On 3/9/2020 at 8:00 PM, bigdaddygamestudio said:

One thing I havent mentioned but I hope we see down the line from Intellivision is a trivia game line sort of in the You Dont Know Jack line. You know with a really witty and funny announcer etc.  

 

 

...or maybe just ALL of the Jackbox games... but Family Friendly versions

On 3/9/2020 at 8:53 PM, ColdCoffee said:

Is the website coming this month for the Golden Tickets from the Intellvision shop? There was suppose to be monthly contests that we've missed out. Will there be some kind of catch up contest for those past 3 months of down time? 

Yes.

Dealing with other stuff right now though as I'm sure you can imagine. 

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yep!

 

That's awesome.  🙂

On 3/10/2020 at 2:21 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

This might have been asked before, but about purchasing digital games: how is the system going to be set up? I mean like will there be separate stores for each country or just like a master storefront with language/currency display options? What about region locking?

 

Each country has its own Switch eshop and each eshop only accepts cards from that specific country. I don't use my US bank or card anymore since I get paid in my Japanese bank and don't want to bother with international transfer fees every month, so it's annoying to buy stuff on the US eshop since I have to go to Amazon and buy one of those prepaid card things to put the money into my account. I am very glad they email you the code now instead of having to get it in the mail. I'd rather pay more money to import physical games from the US than buy digital games, but in some cases there is no physical release like with Sonic Mania (before it actually got one, anyway) and I have no choice.

 

I think the PlayStation store actually lets me use my Japanese card, but it's been so long since I bought anything there that I completely forgot. No idea what Xbox does. Steam doesn't seem to care as long as it gets your money.

 

By the way, Steam is actually region locked and that is one of the biggest reasons that I hate Steam. Want to buy Metal Gear Rising, a Japanese game made by a Japanese company, when you are living in Japan? Too bad because you can't. Same with Sonic CD and many other Japanese games. Can't get Shogun 2, either. Please don't do this, but since you are publishing everything yourself, I don't think this should be a problem.

Still working this out.

On 3/10/2020 at 6:00 AM, 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.

I wouldn't go that far... we'd be losing money with all the other stuff we need to pay on a $10 purchase. 

10% - 20% sometimes though.  Something HUGE I haven't announced yet. 

On 3/10/2020 at 6:21 AM, 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?

Yep!

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I wouldn't go that far... we'd be losing money with all the other stuff we need to pay on a $10 purchase. 

 

10% - 20% sometimes though.  Something HUGE I haven't announced yet. 

 

 

 

 

No, I understand.  I was just giving an example.

On 3/10/2020 at 7:56 AM, RxScram said:

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.

 

Everyone will have exclusives... including Intellivision!  

On 3/10/2020 at 9:39 AM, BiffMan said:

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.

We have a VERY SPECIAL and unique way to "earn" discounts.  More info coming this summer!

On 3/10/2020 at 10:05 AM, LePionnier said:

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. 😉

 

Recording it tomorrow at 4pm pacific.  Not sure if it's LIVE or not.  I didn't ask.

Next trailer has epic music playing in the background. 

Yes... he will be getting some exclusives for sure!

On 3/10/2020 at 10:33 AM, 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..

There is talk about it... but not for 2020.

On 3/10/2020 at 11:28 AM, mr_me said:

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.

Yes.  Correct.  Very tricky business models when everyone has different royalty structures.

On 3/10/2020 at 2:20 PM, Cranker said:

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. 

Correct.  Potential drawing board stuff... something for the future. 

On 3/10/2020 at 2:23 PM, haplo13 said:

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.

Yeah... that is one of our concerns.  Trying to break away from the "Subscription" model that everyone is trying to get people on.  We want to be different.  Amazing value and amazing prices.  Sounds good to me!

On 3/10/2020 at 3:56 PM, Nolagamer said:

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

 

For months.

On 3/10/2020 at 4:22 PM, BiffMan said:

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. 

Correct.  Lots of negatives for doing a subscription model.  But after the first year or so... if people want it... maybe there is something we can figure out that makes sense for everyone.  Just not sure at this point.