Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

4 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

I wonder the same thing.  You'd think that most people would be enthusiastic about the idea.  Even if they believe it's hopeless, you'd think they'd simply refrain from buying it and let it fail on its own in the marketplace.  But for whatever reason, there are some who seem to be so troubled by the whole idea of the Amico that they're rooting for it to fail, have already decided how and why it's going to fail, and have taken to trolling to remind us every day, here and elsewhere.

 

All these deranged reactions remind me a lot of the ugly reactions years ago to Brenda Laurel, a video game designer and researcher who founded a startup in the 90s called Purple Moon.  Its mission was to produce video games specifically for girls; like the Amico, it was as positive and as well-intentioned a venture as you could imagine, and exactly the kind of innovation that everyone in the industry claimed to want.  But, when she actually did it, she came under all kinds of criticism: that it was sexist, that it was exclusionary, that it perpetuated gender stereotypes, that it was just a marketing scam, etc.  Unsurprisingly, most of the people who ganged up on her had a vested interest in the status quo and felt threatened by what she was doing, though they would never admit it.  I first learned about the incident from Chris Crawford, and I think his remarks about her critics can be applied to the critics of the Amico as well:

 

 

(Simply replace "Brenda Laurel", "girls", and "Purple Moon" with "Tommy Tallarico", "families", and "Intellivision Entertainment", respectively.  I think the observation fits perfectly.)

Great points.  I just don't get the negative reactions to a new video game system that hasn't even been released yet.   Give it a shot and see if you like it...maybe you do or maybe you don't.  People can't seem to think that way.

I saw the question asked but did not see the answer. With  the founders edition , will the extras come separately from the console ? I’m asking in case I want to keep my console unopened for my collection since I bought 2 FE ? 

the Amico is ALREADY a financial success and the real promo hasn't started yet! just wait until we see Tommy & the Amico on TV 

i wonder how many consoles have to be sold to break even or be profitable ? As a small company, I assume they don’t  need to sell millions of units to keep going and be profitable although I hope they sell many, many millions !! And how many copies on average each game has to sell to be considered a success ? I know it will vary depending on the game but on average .....just thinking 🤔 

17 minutes ago, Cranker said:

i wonder how many consoles have to be sold to break even or be profitable ? As a small company, I assume they don’t  need to sell millions of units to keep going and be profitable although I hope they sell many, many millions !! And how many copies on average each game has to sell to be considered a success ? I know it will vary depending on the game but on average .....just thinking 🤔 

Not sure but I would say 100 000.  But they don't want to stop there, me neither.:)

Interesting to hear the quote in the VB article about 100'000 Amico being reserved by retailers.  With everything going on in the world it looks like a VIP pre-order really is the best way to secure yourself a system this year.

October can't come soon enough!

27 minutes ago, Cranker said:

i wonder how many consoles have to be sold to break even or be profitable ? As a small company, I assume they don’t  need to sell millions of units to keep going and be profitable although I hope they sell many, many millions !! And how many copies on average each game has to sell to be considered a success ? I know it will vary depending on the game but on average .....just thinking 🤔 

I think it's over 113k to break even  its over 200 ir 300k to be profitable.   I forgot  but to.my dropped numbers a few months back in this  forum. 

6 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

Not sure but I would say 100 000.  But they don't want to stop there, me neither.:)

I agree !! I’m hoping they sell millions !! I highly doubt there will ever be a console of this type made again. This it it 😀

16 minutes ago, Cranker said:

I agree !! I’m hoping they sell millions !! I highly doubt there will ever be a console of this type made again. This it it 😀

very true!

13 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

How about a bumper sticker?  A refrigerator magnet?  I even suggested to Tommy about a Running Man statue that lights up.

Those are good merch ideas.  What about Intellivision/Amico branded memory sticks and SD cards?  How about something really useful like a beer koozie?!!

6 minutes ago, Saldo said:

Those are good merch ideas.  What about Intellivision/Amico branded memory sticks and SD cards?  How about something really useful like a beer koozie?!!

Or the actual beer!

I'm so bored with this interview.

I wish there were actually hard questions and not this long boring back and forth. 

This whole Streisand effect.

If I hated a console I wouldn't talk about it.

How do you put out a fire...starve it of air.

I tuned out early, was only there for maybe 30 mins at most. Hard to listen to the interviewer just act like a pompous ass. I did stick around the chat trying to mess with the trolls but that got boring after a while

1 hour ago, Cranker said:

I saw the question asked but did not see the answer. With  the founders edition , will the extras come separately from the console ? I’m asking in case I want to keep my console unopened for my collection since I bought 2 FE ? 

Yeah, that was me back on Tuesday.  It probably got lost in all the VIP posts going on that day. There are so many posts here that Tommy needs to read I just figured I wouldn’t push for an answer, no big deal.  I bought 2 VIPs and would like to keep the Wood Grain one sealed, which is why I asked the question.  I do remember seeing Tommy mentioned that the FE editions would be sent to his office in CA and that he would need to open them to sign them.  I imagine they will be sealed back up someway when shipped off to buyers.

13 minutes ago, IntellivisionDude said:

I tuned out early was only there for maybe 30 mins at most. Hard to listen to the interviewer just act like a pompous ass. I did stick around the chat trying to mess with the trolls but that got boring after a while

It was without a doubt one of the worst interviews I have ever heard.  Tony has no clue how to ask good questions and cover interesting topics.  I am amazed at how awful it was, and I can't believe Tommy went through with it.  I can't get that time back unfortunately.

I am Assuming a sealed FE could be worth a lot in years to come for a collector. This depends  on the level of success the console achieves and many other factors. You never know. 
 

That’s a good question. Will the FE be resealed after they are signed ? 

That was painful and I will never get that time back.

5 hours ago, NTV said:

 

Speaking of Space Armada, I haven't heard anything about it. Did I miss something? This was my second favorite non-sport game on the Intellivision.

On our "to do" list... but not started yet.  Think we'll do Demon Attack first.  Space Armada is too close to Space Invaders I think.

3 hours ago, Nolagamer said:

Just about to beat the atari vcs preorder numbers . 

 

And Atari spent money promoting that  

Actually we SURPASSED THEM!!   They only had around 11,000 backers on Indiegogo and I am familiar with their pre-orders.  So yes... we are currently in the lead... and will stay that way. 

3 hours ago, GrumpyOl'Guy said:

So, just wanted to say hi to everyone. Been a 13 day work streak for me. Looking forward to a day off.

 

Got the PS2 compilation in yesterday. It was amazing going back and playing Thunder Castle again for the first time in ages!

Shark! Shark! is sooo much fun with my son. Looking forward to the Amico version more now!

 

Also, is it wierd that 14 people are on youtube waiting for tonight's interview, and it's still 25 mins out? My guess is it's all folks from on here.

 

Amazing news on the VIP! 10K + FE are strong numbers, doubly so when you consider it's basically been word-of-mouth (or, it's digital equivalent).

 

Additionally, I wanted to thank Michael Garvey for a random thought that popped in my head at work a few days ago.

It was a particularly rough morning, and my crew was looking a little down. I was in the middle of a 13 day stretch (thankfully over today), and thought, 'what's a good morale-boosting line for this situation?'

Then it hit:

'Gents, let's make John Alvarado proud!'

 

They had no clue what I was talking about. I'm still chuckling to myself about it, a little.

Incidentally, when explaining it to my assistant later in the day, I showed him a few of the Meet Amico! videos. He pre-ordered a glacier white VIP package.

I'd like to think I sold him on it, but in truth, it was Missle Command!

Wow!  Sorry to hear that you had that long a stretch! 

Great John Alvarado story... and thank-you so much for helping to spread the word and getting us on more sale!

Imagine that times a million at some point... and that's where certain folks just can't understand or grasp how this is going to sell and be popular.  Word of mouth baby!!  Just like the Wii.

3 hours ago, Swami said:

That’s awesome. Great to hear. I’m confused about a couple things.  Great to hear about all the retail pre-order interest as well. 

 

Does 10,000 orders mean 10,000 units or 10,000 orders that may include multiple units? Nit-picky question, but could mean it’s more like 13,000 plus the 2600 FEs. 

 

What does retro brand mean? If you google it, all you get is a T-shirt company. 

 

10K units.

6 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

On our "to do" list... but not started yet.  Think we'll do Demon Attack first.  Space Armada is too close to Space Invaders I think.

 

 

How do you manage to let an interview like that just slide off you and then drop back here like nothing happened?  You rock, sir!  Thanks for keeping the positivity flowing here while others elsewhere wallow in negativity, we need and appreciate it!! 

3 hours ago, vongruetz said:

So it's an conversation with a guy who is of the mindset "Nobody plays the Wii anymore. Kids only want mobile games. I don't get it." ??

What was surprising to me is that he never owned a Switch or a Wii.

2 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

I wonder the same thing.  You'd think that most people would be enthusiastic about the idea.  Even if they believe it's hopeless, you'd think they'd simply refrain from buying it, let the marketplace do its job, and see it fail on its own.  But for whatever reason, there are some who seem to be so troubled by the very idea of the Amico that they're rooting for it to fail, have already decided how and why it's going to fail, and have taken to trolling, here and elsewhere, to remind us every day.

 

All these deranged reactions remind me a lot of the ugly reactions years ago to Brenda Laurel, a video game designer and researcher who founded a startup in the 90s called Purple Moon.  Its mission was to produce software specifically for girls; like the Amico, it was as positive and as well-intentioned a venture as you could imagine, and exactly the kind of innovation that everyone in the industry claimed to want.  But, when she actually did it, she came under all kinds of criticism: that it was sexist, that it was exclusionary, that it perpetuated gender stereotypes, that it was just a marketing scam, etc.  Unsurprisingly, most of the people who ganged up on her had a vested interest in the status quo and felt threatened by what she was doing, though they would never admit it.  I first learned about the incident from Chris Crawford, and his remarks about her critics can be applied to the critics of the Amico as well:

 

 

(Simply replace "Brenda Laurel", "girls", and "Purple Moon" with "Tommy Tallarico", "families", and "Intellivision Entertainment", respectively.  I think the observation fits perfectly.)

LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!