Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

23 minutes ago, IntellivisionDude said:

How long after the Amico launches will we see online muiltiplayer? I know the focus is bringing families together but i am not going to have family to play with. And my only gaming friend is an hour away so that doesn't happen too often. So i have to reply on playing online to play with friends or just play single player. It won't be a deterrent to my decision to purchase an Amico. As long as i got the funds. lol

But it would get me more excited. I don't think there has been much talk on it. It was briefly mentioned on Reviewtechusa's video. but haven't heard anything since. 

Online multiplayer was planned but got shelved because of time and cost. It may be something that gets added after launch. It will be through the friends list, no lobbies or public games as to stick with the social gaming persona. It will probably happen because I know the demand will be there.

Quote

The console will not have online multiplayer on launch. There are a number of reasons for this decision.

 

1. It's very expensive and complicated and takes a long time to get it right. Just ask Nintendo.  Doing what we're doing already takes a lot of time and resources. We felt we would be trying to do too much by incorporation online multiplayer on launch. Consoles in the past (Nintendo for example) have added multiplayer after launch. If there is enough want/need for it... we can address it after launch.

 

2. It takes away from our message of "people in a room playing together".

 

We will have Leaderboards, Achievements, etc. on launch... but designing games for online multiplayer is an extremely daunting and expensive task (literally almost doubles the budgets of some games). We could easily fall into the trap of trying to do too much... and we don't want that.

 

We also don't like the "openess" and "bullying" that happens via online gaming. Online gaming in general is not very family friendly. Think about all those casual and non-gamer folks who purchased a Wii... none of them cared about online gaming. When we do online multiplayer, it will be set up more like a Facebook account... meaning... you will need to ACCEPT a friend request in order to play that person. It won't just be an open system where a bunch of strangers play together (unless it's a tournament situation which we will control).

 

Hope that all makes sense. Thanks for the question.

Well Walmart isn't doing too bad in consumer electronics - according to this article the top 10 Consumer Electronics Retailers for 2018 are:

1. Best Buy $32.47 billion
2. Amazon $30.11 billion
3. Walmart $20.87 billion
4. Apple Stores $13.82 billion
5. Costco $5.76 billion
6. Target $5.47 billion
7. Game Stop $3.53 billion
8. NewEgg $2.69 billion
9. Dell $2.63 billion
10. Micro Center $2.57 billion

I am guessing the low foot traffic seen in stores is made up for by high dollar purchases by the smaller number of buyers. And of course Christmas - where you have to grease yourself to get through the crowds. I also have noticed that my local Walmarts have much improved their PC section with much better laptops and some decent (for a change) gamer keyboards and mice available. Maybe just my area and of course I am hyper sensitive to PC stuff so I notice that and maybe didn't something else. But assuming that it a general trend it seems like they may be trying to put more focus on that department recently which may actually play into their interest in systems like the Amico. With the Xbox One & Two Thirds (what are they going to name that thing?) & PS5 going more digital that is going to mostly wipe out those lucrative wall of software shelves in every store. Got to put some dollar makers back in it's spot somewhere, somehow.

Also just another fun fact - almost every single American spent money at Walmart in 2016 (95%) - only 89% at McDonalds - those slackers ;).

23 minutes ago, ColdCoffee said:

Online multiplayer was planned but got shelved because of time and cost. It may be something that gets added after launch. It will be through the friends list, no lobbies or public games as to stick with the social gaming persona. It will probably happen because I know the demand will be there.

 

 

Where at in Michigan are you located gaming friend. Thumb area here. 

9 minutes ago, IntellivisionDude said:

Where at in Michigan are you located gaming friend. Thumb area here. 

Far south, near the border. 

3 minutes ago, ColdCoffee said:

Far south, near the border. 

Aww oh well lol

54 minutes ago, GrudgeQ said:

Also just another fun fact - almost every single American spent money at Walmart in 2016 (95%) - only 89% at McDonalds - those slackers ;).

Interesting that my wife and I are among the 5% (and 11%)...

1 minute ago, Lathe26 said:

Interesting that my wife and I are among the 5% (and 11%)...

He is a witch, burn him! Is it because you just are sick of Walmart and McDonalds or they just aren't in your area? I must admit I bounce between Walmart & Target just to get some variety of shopping experiences for my in person purchases. I try to stay away from McDonalds and do most of the time - but damn those tasty Egg McMuffins.

I wonder who comes up with those percentages and how do they do they know who shopped and ate where. If i pay with cash they have no idea if i been in their store. Is it just credit/debit card purchases? There are still people who pay with cash believe it or not. lol 

36 minutes ago, IntellivisionDude said:

I wonder who comes up with those percentages and how do they do they know who shopped and ate where. If i pay with cash they have no idea if i been in their store. Is it just credit/debit card purchases? There are still people who pay with cash believe it or not. lol 

It may be for those numbers they may just be skipping the small percentage of people who would only pay cash every time - that has to be tiny. However store analytics are extremely sophisticated now. One technique is to track people's cell phones so they can see traffic patterns in the store. Hang around too long in the shoe department and get a coupon for shoes in their promotional email list. Another is of course to track purchases, in fact Target's ability to identify pregnant women from purchases was so accurate that the basically informed a dad that his daughter was pregnant when he didn't know. If you find that frightening then welcome to the all seeing and knowing eye which is Google. They use Google Analytics on this site - shhh they are listening (no really - not for sound but for text - really).

EDIT: Should be said AtariAge has very minimal number of trackers - really only Google Analytics that I can see offhand. Most web sites are far, far worse so don't be writing angry emails to the mods about privacy.

This is the first year i ever owned a cellphone. I turned off most apps from knowing my location. But they probably still know. lol

27 minutes ago, IntellivisionDude said:

This is the first year i ever owned a cellphone. I turned off most apps from knowing my location. But they probably still know. lol

Yes your phone is eternally trying to connect to WIFI, bluetooth and cell towers so it basically yelling "I am here!" all the time. Airplane mode would probably be effective but powering it off or leaving it behind is 100%. As you can see privacy is extremely difficult to maintain so most people don't bother, not a good thing but reality.

And also wow - first year of owning a cell phone I am assuming from your many, many well written posts that you aren't 10, so that is amazing in this day & age. So basically we have one person who doesn't go to Walmart and McDonalds and one who just got a cell phone - you people are weird ;). Don't worry I am weird too 😜 - everybody is in some way.

Just thinking: for a certain contingent of the family market, particularly involving young children, cute mascots were a draw: Mario or Pokémon appealed to young children as if they were virtual dolls/action figures. Does Amico have something to draw that submarket's attention? 

27 minutes ago, JeffVav said:

Just thinking: for a certain contingent of the family market, particularly involving young children, cute mascots were a draw: Mario or Pokémon appealed to young children as if they were virtual dolls/action figures. Does Amico have something to draw that submarket's attention? 

Hmmmm...I was under the impression that Nurmix was the mascot? 🤔I could be wrong here so don’t quote me. Maybe Tommy could clarify? 

15 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

He is a witch, burn him! Is it because you just are sick of Walmart and McDonalds or they just aren't in your area? I must admit I bounce between Walmart & Target just to get some variety of shopping experiences for my in person purchases. I try to stay away from McDonalds and do most of the time - but damn those tasty Egg McMuffins.

This is a little off topic so I'll keep it brief.  Walmart I avoid mostly because they get more political than I feel uncomfortable with and in ways I don't like.  Also, I saw them somewhat gut mom-n-pop stores throughout parts of rural Midwest America.  I don't hate Walmart but simply lean towards going elsewhere if I can.  It probably doesn't help that other stores are simply closer to where I live.

As for McDonald's, I simply rarely eat fast food burgers anymore.  If I'm going to have a burger, it's going to be high quality paired with a great beer.  Also, my father used to be a distributor for RC Cola so growing up I could have all the soda/pop I could want... until I had all the soda/pop that I would ever want... ever.  However, I dearly miss their deep-fried cherry pies that they don't make anymore.  Seriously, looks at that bubbly, crunchy crust of evil goodness!

Please keep fast food out of this thread, thank you.

Just kidding! My advice about burgers is: try organic ground beef! Eat lots of it and you will have the true power from Popeye (don' try what he did with spinach).

I should say something about the Amico, so here it comes: since all the games will feature offline multiplayer modes, I hope every single genre is well represented in the system. This includes FPS where you "kill" robots and infiltration "Metal Gear" style games with split screen action.

Sorry if this is turning into “the business news hour”, but I just wanted to focus a second on Bed Bath & Beyond which Tommy keeps dropping mentions on.

The people that shop there are pretty diverse but are strong in the mid and young demographic, which makes sense for their product line & furnishing new households. They do about $8 billion in sales and are profitable but aren’t growing and stock prices are down which means corporate managers are running around with their hair on fire trying to find a way to change that. 

Their CEO announced a 2 year plan through 2020 last year to try fix this. It is full of corporate BS speak but the “merchandising” section basically means they want more products that appear unique to them. They are also big into demoing and explaining to help separate their say, blenders, from other blenders.

So what does this have to do with the Amico? Well they are mostly a young family store under pressure to find unique products not saturated in the public’s purchase mindset. Plus they are open to in store demos and/or giving up some floor space for a demo unit or kiosk information displays (ie. explainer marketing). Much like the QVC example this is a very good fit for the Amico. Always good when you fit into the corporate plan of a motivated retailer.

10 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

Interesting that my wife and I are among the 5% (and 11%)...

I'm also in that 5%. I have a Target just around the corner from me, so it's just easy to pop in there. WM's major crowded anyway.

McDonald's? Well... I'm part of that 89%. Those french fries! 😋

9 hours ago, cmart604 said:

Hmmmm...I was under the impression that Nurmix was the mascot? 🤔I could be wrong here so don’t quote me. Maybe Tommy could clarify? 

What's a Nurmix? Sounds like a smoothie machine.

19 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

What's a Nurmix? Sounds like a smoothie machine.

NEVER ask what a Nurmix is. Fear the Nurmix! He is always watching!

1 hour ago, Blarneo said:

What's a Nurmix? Sounds like a smoothie machine.

Host of the Intellivisionaries podcast (check that out immediately if you haven’t) and he is also on Tommy’s team helping with Amico.

13 hours ago, ColdCoffee said:

Online multiplayer was planned but got shelved because of time and cost. It may be something that gets added after launch. It will be through the friends list, no lobbies or public games as to stick with the social gaming persona. It will probably happen because I know the demand will be there.

 

 

Yeah... we'll need to see what the demand is like going into 2021.  We don't want to take away from our family & friends playing in a room together message.  But may make sense to do certain games a little farther down the road after we've been established as to what our core is.

13 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Well Walmart isn't doing too bad in consumer electronics - according to this article the top 10 Consumer Electronics Retailers for 2018 are:

1. Best Buy $32.47 billion
2. Amazon $30.11 billion
3. Walmart $20.87 billion
4. Apple Stores $13.82 billion
5. Costco $5.76 billion
6. Target $5.47 billion
7. Game Stop $3.53 billion
8. NewEgg $2.69 billion
9. Dell $2.63 billion
10. Micro Center $2.57 billion

I am guessing the low foot traffic seen in stores is made up for by high dollar purchases by the smaller number of buyers. And of course Christmas - where you have to grease yourself to get through the crowds. I also have noticed that my local Walmarts have much improved their PC section with much better laptops and some decent (for a change) gamer keyboards and mice available. Maybe just my area and of course I am hyper sensitive to PC stuff so I notice that and maybe didn't something else. But assuming that it a general trend it seems like they may be trying to put more focus on that department recently which may actually play into their interest in systems like the Amico. With the Xbox One & Two Thirds (what are they going to name that thing?) & PS5 going more digital that is going to mostly wipe out those lucrative wall of software shelves in every store. Got to put some dollar makers back in it's spot somewhere, somehow.

 

Also just another fun fact - almost every single American spent money at Walmart in 2016 (95%) - only 89% at McDonalds - those slackers ;).

We may or may not already be confirmed in 6 of those 10 stores. 

And would be the top 7 if not for Apple. 

11 hours ago, JeffVav said:

Just thinking: for a certain contingent of the family market, particularly involving young children, cute mascots were a draw: Mario or Pokémon appealed to young children as if they were virtual dolls/action figures. Does Amico have something to draw that submarket's attention? 

Yes.  Absolutely 100%.  Won't be revealed until 10/10 2020.

Here's a little hint. 

Lets just say there is a REASON why I never say "The" Amico.

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Sorry if this is turning into “the business news hour”, but I just wanted to focus a second on Bed Bath & Beyond which Tommy keeps dropping mentions on.

 

The people that shop there are pretty diverse but are strong in the mid and young demographic, which makes sense for their product line & furnishing new households. They do about $8 billion in sales and are profitable but aren’t growing and stock prices are down which means corporate managers are running around with their hair on fire trying to find a way to change that. 

 

Their CEO announced a 2 year plan through 2020 last year to try fix this. It is full of corporate BS speak but the “merchandising” section basically means they want more products that appear unique to them. They are also big into demoing and explaining to help separate their say, blenders, from other blenders.

 

So what does this have to do with the Amico? Well they are mostly a young family store under pressure to find unique products not saturated in the public’s purchase mindset. Plus they are open to in store demos and/or giving up some floor space for a demo unit or kiosk information displays (ie. explainer marketing). Much like the QVC example this is a very good fit for the Amico. Always good when you fit into the corporate plan of a motivated retailer.

BINGO!


 

1 hour ago, ColecoJoe said:

NEVER ask what a Nurmix is. Fear the Nurmix! He is always watching!

 

 

This pic is going to haunt my dreams.