Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

41 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

That's strange, because that is to me an obvious snide schoolyard taunt. But that's just me.

It isn't just you.  You are right...it is MOST DEFINITELY a snide remark made by them.  It is absolutely not "fair and reasonable" criticism at all.  That comment is an obvious shot at people who are willing to spend money on the Amico and it's games.  It's like they are saying all it has is a Shark Shark update and nothing else, which is totally inaccurate.  They can't be fair and reasonable if they aren't willing to do some basic research and fact checking first.  

The thing is, I never had Shark! Shark! as a kid. I remember having Feeding Frenzy on Xbox 360, which I assume is a lot like it. Not a bad game, but it's no RType. Now, if they turned Dragonfire into a Ori style Metroidvania, I'd be slobbering on those red carbon controllers.

Pat knew to pick a game he could mock based on numerous clones of the same type of game.

17 minutes ago, IntyFanMatt said:

It isn't just you.  You are right...it is MOST DEFINITELY a snide remark made by them.  It is absolutely not "fair and reasonable" criticism at all.  That comment is an obvious shot at people who are willing to spend money on the Amico and it's games.  It's like they are saying all it has is a Shark Shark update and nothing else, which is totally inaccurate.  They can't be fair and reasonable if they aren't willing to do some basic research and fact checking first.  

It's a shot at the brains behind the Amico that think the mass populace gives a crap about, let alone knows about Shark Shark. They are in no way attacking the people that are already gung ho for the Amico. I don't know Pat, but I'd bet money that neither he, nor most of the rest of the world gives a crap about how you spend your entertainment dollar. It'd be no different if Nintendo announced a new console with a Clu Clu Land remake as one of its lead games. A few fans would rejoice, most of the world would say "Wha-?"

They're just stating that outside of that core group of fans- no one cares. That you take it as a personal attack says more about you than it does them. 

9 minutes ago, jesusc said:

It's a shot at the brains behind the Amico that think the mass populace gives a crap about, let alone knows about Shark Shark. They are in no way attacking the people that are already gung ho for the Amico. I don't know Pat, but I'd bet money that neither he, nor most of the rest of the world gives a crap about how you spend your entertainment dollar.

They're just stating that outside of that core group of fans- no one cares. That you take it as a personal attack says more about you than it does them. 

Completely disagree, and for you to say it "says more about me" is totally ridiculous and silly.  If they are saying "have fun spending $200 on a Shark Shark update", how is that not a shot at people that plan to buy the Amico?  The "brains behind the Amico" aren't the ones spending $200, the CUSTOMERS are!!  That's pretty obvious.  If you disagree with me, that is fine, and I think you can say that in a more respectful way.  There is no reason for you to try to say there is something wrong with me for stating what I think is an obvious biased comment.

9 minutes ago, jesusc said:

It's a shot at the brains behind the Amico that think the mass populace gives a crap about, let alone knows about Shark Shark. They are in no way attacking the people that are already gung ho for the Amico. I don't know Pat, but I'd bet money that neither he, nor most of the rest of the world gives a crap about how you spend your entertainment dollar.

It wasn't what he said. It was the obnoxious and dismissive way he said it. It was also in the context of the people wanting to buy the console, which definitely makes it not a "shot at the brains behind...". 

A console that Pat says "only has cell phone type games on it". 

To be fair, right now it has no games on it. 

Also, to be fair- every comment based on opinion is going to have a bias. It's sorta how that works...

I don’t think Pat looked at the webpage until he was told he had made errors. It says right on the webpage the price is under $200 and he was saying one reason it wouldn’t sell is it was $250 to $300. So, I find this kind of amusing. Some of the other stuff they got wrong was not on there, like the likelihood of physical media. I do think the webpage could use a link to a more exhaustive information page. BTW, people keep saying “might have physical media”. Is it “might” or “will”?

4 minutes ago, jesusc said:

To be fair, right now it has no games on it. 

Also, to be fair- every comment based on opinion is going to have a bias. It's sorta how that works...

To be fair...you were just unfair toward me for no reason.  Of course there is bias in opinion, I know that.  But their statement was a direct shot at all consumers buying the console, which is not "fair and reasonable" at all.

Hey cool! I got a Vectron pic now!

6 minutes ago, IntyFanMatt said:

To be fair...you were just unfair toward me for no reason.  Of course there is bias in opinion, I know that.  But their statement was a direct shot at all consumers buying the console, which is not "fair and reasonable" at all.

I rewatched it, and yes he was not attacking Intellivision with the Shark, Shark comment. I remembered it differently. I was incorrect. 

But I don't think it was a direct attack on everyone interested in the Amico, but just the people here specifically that are so incredibly upset over what he's said about it (since the entire video is basically a response to the people in this thread). 

The Amico isn't going to live or die based on Pat's potential quarter million viewership. 

2 minutes ago, jesusc said:

The Amico isn't going to live or die based on Pat's potential quarter million viewership. 

Tell that to the folks at Xbox One, where this kind of FUD costed millions of potential sales in 2013.

15 minutes ago, jesusc said:

I rewatched it, and yes he was not attacking Intellivision with the Shark, Shark comment. I remembered it differently. I was incorrect. 

But I don't think it was a direct attack on everyone interested in the Amico, but just the people here specifically that are so incredibly upset over what he's said about it (since the entire video is basically a response to the people in this thread). 

The Amico isn't going to live or die based on Pat's potential quarter million viewership. 

Yup, we know he wasn't attacking Intellivision with that comment, and thank you for acknowledging that you were incorrect.  I agree with you that the Amico isn't going to live or die based on what Pat says, but the one thing Pat should do is get the facts right by doing some simple research, and steer clear of making biased, uneducated assumptions on the project AND snide remarks toward potential customers.  I would expect MUCH better from someone like him that has a public show.

If you expect much better, then you don't watch Pat.

I'm not up to date on the lingo, what is a FUD?

What I recall of Xbox One in 2013 is Microsoft costed(?) itself millions of potential sales by saying they were going to force the digital age, force a stupid camera gimmick, and generally telling the public to go eff itself. I can tell you anecdotally that it was their arrogance that costed them the sale I was going to give them. Instead, my money went to Sony. And again, whether the console is $100, $150, or $200- I doubt anyone listening to Pat's misinformation walked away from his videos thinking "Well if it were under $200 I'd buy it- but no way at $250-$300!" Ouya was only $100 and that didn't work either (I bought one of those at launch as well. I feel I got my money's worth out of it). 

Anyway, I hope it does as well as you all hope. I just don't see it happening. 

(Hilarious that most of the people crying about physical games have ended up going digital anyway...)

11 minutes ago, jesusc said:

If you expect much better, then you don't watch Pat.

I don't watch Pat...EVER.  LOL.  First time I ever saw or even heard of him was through this thread.  And I don't ever plan to watch him again.  What really hit me is that's it's surprising that there are people out there like him spreading misinformation and making snide comments without doing basic research.  Sad.

18 minutes ago, jesusc said:

I'm not up to date on the lingo, what is a FUD?

FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

It's used by people as a disinformation tactic to cast a shadow on someone's product.

1 hour ago, Blarneo said:

The thing is, I never had Shark! Shark! as a kid. I remember having Feeding Frenzy on Xbox 360, which I assume is a lot like it. Not a bad game, but it's no RType. Now, if they turned Dragonfire into a Ori style Metroidvania, I'd be slobbering on those red carbon controllers.

Pat knew to pick a game he could mock based on numerous clones of the same type of game.

RType is being remade on Amico and so is Dragonfire, but you'd have to read the press release to know this.  According to that podcast nobody reads press releases, even though they are linked on the IE web site.  The biggest retro video game licence has yet to be revealed.

24 minutes ago, jesusc said:

What I recall of Xbox One in 2013 is Microsoft costed(?) itself millions of potential sales by saying they were going to force the digital age, force a stupid camera gimmick, and generally telling the public to go eff itself. I can tell you anecdotally that it was their arrogance that costed them the sale I was going to give them.

OK, there was a lot of misinformation that you absorbed through the magic of toxic internet folklore. While Don Matrick didn't do himself any favors by being so glib about it, or explain what "always on" really meant, much of it was blown way out of proportion as it wen't viral (and Sony kind of egged it on too... good marketing for them) to cast Microsoft's ideas for the console as a complete fascist takeover and draconian forced labor camp of gaming. It was a bizarre fear and misinformation fest that only rivaled the "tea party" movement about birth certificates after Obama was elected. 

But, since you remember it as you described, serves to make my point about how misinformation and viral FUD can affect opinions. Oh' yeah... And Al Gore never said he invented the Internet. Ever.

8 minutes ago, mr_me said:

RType is being remade on Amico and so is Dragonfire, but you'd have to read the press release to know this.  According to that podcast nobody reads press releases, even though they are linked on the IE web site.  The biggest retro video game licence has yet to be revealed.

Yeah, I know. I had a post about it and other IREM games they planned on making. 

Looking forward for both games.

 Dragonfire though, begs for an adventure platforming expansion way beyond the 2 screen arcade type game it originally was. I hope it's designers agree.

But everything I mentioned, they (Microsoft) did say...They were going to kill consumer rights by killing the used market. They did force the Kinect into every box whether you wanted it or not. I remember it I described because I was there, and being a retailer, their choices were going to directly affect me. 

I'm not saying they were awful for what they wanted to do. Here we are in 2019 and digital is killing physical and people can't wait for Apple and Google to listen to everything they say. Microsoft was wrong in trying to force it instead of letting people gradually embrace it over time. 

I actually remember that Xbox one launch pretty well. I'm a student of good and bad marketing and advertising, and they botched it top to bottom. There was definitely a draconian approach to it, and the IT industry folks were the first to raise red flags. That was just a dumb move in which Microsoft really thought they were going to drive the market themselves. Sony did their fair share of that at the time as well.

It's the same story every generation except the PS2 era. Whoever wins last gen think that success will carry them over into the next one automatically. 

Nintendo got arrogant with NES, Sega took over with Genesis. Sega got arrogant during that gen, and both Nintendo and Sega lost to Sony in the following gen (Sony entering the scene solely BECAUSE of Nintendo's arrogance). Sony got arrogant with the PS3 (people will get a second job in order to buy our system!), Microsoft took that gen (yes nintendo might have sold more wiis, but the attach rate sucked, and PS3 definitely made up lost ground at the end of the gen but in the US 360 won overall). Microsoft got arrogant thanks to 360's success, made it so all Sony had to do was say, "yeah, all that stuff Microsoft is doing? We're not doing any of that." Second best mic drop since Steve Race's "Two Ninety Nine" 1995 E3 Presentation. 

Wii/360/PS3 US sales source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/06/analysis-xbox-360-poised-to-pass-wii-in-us-sales-by-years-end/

1 hour ago, JBerel said:

I actually remember that Xbox one launch pretty well. I'm a student of good and bad marketing and advertising, and they botched it top to bottom. There was definitely a draconian approach to it, and the IT industry folks were the first to raise red flags. That was just a dumb move in which Microsoft really thought they were going to drive the market themselves. Sony did their fair share of that at the time as well.

They were trying to woo developers to make more kinect games by forcing everyone to buy a kinect and buy games new, thereby increasing developer royalties and what have you (as well as their own profits). When people went bananas, they were kind of between a rock and a hard place with developers and the death rattle of the  kinect was heard. Although, it was apparently on its way, anyway. Desperate measures. 

Don't forget the most powerful system never ends up winning since the console wars started

7 hours ago, zander21510 said:

I don't see the appeal at the price point they have this at.

That argument makes no sense. The vast majority of people don't buy a product because it is at a good price point, they buy it because that product can fulfill one of their needs and they can afford it. I certainly agree a product has to adapt to competition too, but the reality is Amico doesn't have any real competition. Amico will be mainly about pleasure through oxytocin, not mainly about pleasure through dopamine, serotonin and endorphins like other consoles.

In my mind, the closest competition to Amico is not the Switch as many people believe, but board games, as both are about social gaming.

The need is socialization (and the oxytocin that it produces). Would people be willing to pay $200 for their dose of oxytocin? Oh, yes!

Anyway, the main difficulty Intellivision will have to face will not be competition from other consoles, but people's past experiences. Intellivision will have to pretty much reeducate people about what video games can be.

When I was a kid, there was a store near where I lived called Compucentre (in a big mall called Les Galleries d'Anjou). This store was like a kiosk in the middle of one of the mall's alley. The owner always had several consoles on display, so anyone walking in the mall could see them. I remember there was an Intellivision, an Atari, an Odyssey 2, and a Bally Astrocade.

Instead of just having a static display, the owner allowed kids like me to stay there and play with the consoles all day long (the Intellivision was the most played by far, and Sea Battle was the most popular game). The only rule was that we had to immediately give up our place to any potential customer, even if we were in the middle of a game. So not only people could see kids actually having fun playing those consoles, but they could try them for themselves... and we would even encourage them!

It was a time when very few people knew what video games were, so being able to see kids having fun and even trying the games for themselves helped a lot more than some ads on TV or in a newspaper.

People now know what video games are, but they won't be able to understand in what way Amico games are different. They will have to see them and try them for that. They will have to experience the release of oxytocin when playing the games.

I don't know if it's possible, but I believe Intellivision should try everything they can to convince Wal-Mart and other big chains all around the world to have prominent kiosks in their stores, each with a good animator allowing people in and out of multiplayer games (the animator is crucial). If they can do that, then the success of the console will be enormous.

8 hours ago, Swami said:

They were trying to woo developers to make more kinect games by forcing everyone to buy a kinect and buy games new, thereby increasing developer royalties and what have you (as well as their own profits). When people went bananas, they were kind of between a rock and a hard place with developers and the death rattle of the  kinect was heard. Although, it was apparently on its way, anyway. Desperate measures. 

As is often the case, Microsoft was just a little early to the game. There's nothing necessarily wrong with digital-only, always-on, or common shared hardware so it gets more support. But WOW the blowback was strong and swift. I agree it was mostly FUD, but it's ironic that Microsoft was hit with it so hard since they were the ones that started the FUD strategy many years prior. 

This Amico thing, which a few of you cheerleaders are disproportionately bunched over, is just Doubt (without the Fear and Uncertainty). I think that's perfectly appropriate. Amico is a newcomer with an oddball approach, and it has to prove itself. 

Nothing any talking head on YouTube says, right or wrong, really matters. If Amico is awesome, they'll correct themselves. Til it launches, fussing about "bias" is just whining. I too have a "bias" against overhyping an unreleased piece of tech.