Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

2 minutes ago, Juice said:

I would agree with you when Amico was under 200 but as a non gamer myself I wouldn't pay $250 unless it's a Founder's. I would buy a fishing rod, jump rope, ext. This should be taken into consideration, the price might be too high for non gamers considering all the non gamer stuff you can buy for $250

Thats a good point.  I will add the friends I see weekly lol on zoom covid19 restrictions.  Many are gamers but with families now many stopped playing or limit the time because games are typically a single person experience plus for several years they are just more busy in life. And seek to do things together.  So I  think once these friends of mine see the Amico they will no doubt buy it. Ive got alot of friends in California and Washington state and hanging out together is a big thing.  Winter time up here in Washington makes that harder to do that. So when I have discussed this console with them 3 things perk their interest #1 8 player #2 no mature content #3 price. Also we spend alot of time with elderly friends and have alot of families with children under 10 so the idea that these 2 age groups can play together is hugh.

27 minutes ago, Juice said:

I would agree with you when Amico was under 200 but as a non gamer myself I wouldn't pay $250 unless it's a Founder's. I would buy a fishing rod, jump rope, ext. This should be taken into consideration, the price might be too high for non gamers considering all the non gamer stuff you can buy for $250

What about Wii?  Tens of million of people paid $249 over 14 years ago ($317 adjusted for inflation) just to play Wii Bowling. System came with 1 controller and a motion control demo.

What about mobile?  Hundreds of millions of people spend an average of almost $100 a year to play on mobile and put up with game design intended to suck money out of you or show you ads, loot boxing and to sell your data.

And although I agree that $199 is our magic price point (and respect that it could be your price-point as well) there is massive amounts of pre-existing data that proves that a price point of $249 for non-gamers is not too high.  Also important to note... we would have NEVER went up to that price-point if we didn't do our own massive amounts of research.  No offensive to you (just a general point), but it's always a little strange to me when folks may just assume that we do things and just pick things out of the air... especially considering how many super talented and experienced and successful people we have on the team.  None of those highly successful things were "luck"... and neither will be Amico. 

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

But again... even if it is true.  I'm not worried at all. Our audience and proposal to them is completely different.  No matter what Sony or Microsoft do... they'll always have a complicated controller (to the average person) with the majority of games being long, complex and expensive that are mainly single player or solitary online experiences.  If one of them decided to make a brand new Wii Sports type device for $200... then I'd be a little worried.  But none of them are and the Series S is definitely not that... no matter what the price.

some people just dont get or even seem to want to understand the Amico concept I guess.  If some one asks me what this is, i say "think Intellivision Wii"   They seem to sort of get it then. 

8 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

And although I agree that $199 is our magic price point

I would tend to agree that is a sweet spot 199 or lower and with virus making life much less mobile, there is a opening to grab a lot of these mobile users.

17 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

What about Wii?  Tens of million of people paid $249 over 14 years ago ($317 adjusted for inflation) just to play Wii Bowling. System came with 1 controller and a motion control demo.

 

What about mobile?  Hundreds of millions of people spend an average of almost $100 a year to play on mobile and put up with game design intended to suck money out of you or show you ads, loot boxing and to sell your data.

 

And although I agree that $199 is our magic price point (and respect that it could be your price-point as well) there is massive amounts of pre-existing data that proves that a price point of $249 for non-gamers is not too high.  Also important to note... we would have NEVER went up to that price-point if we didn't do our own massive amounts of research.  No offensive to you (just a general point), but it's always a little strange to me when folks may just assume that we do things and just pick things out of the air... especially considering how many super talented and experienced and successful people we have on the team.  None of those highly successful things were "luck"... and neither will be Amico. 

 

Well I didn't buy a Wii I was just going by my own personal opinion I don't speak for anyone but myself.

4 hours ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

Check these guys out.  Adam Koralik was their guest arbitrator/judge (pretty connected retro/modern gaming YouTube reviewer/commentator.

 

I appreciated the format, plus both Chris and Will saw some interesting things with what Intellivision is doing, as did Adam.  Just less tuned into the general marketing strategy or what appeal to non-gamers (and waning-interest gamers) a system like this is shooting for.  Be courteous, ignore the familiar crew in the comments, I engaged the guys on Twitter and they’re amicable guys.  
 

 

here was my 7-part Tweet manifesto

 

‪@chrillcast @chrillcast_will @chrillcastchris @AdamKoralik @Intellivision Fun take on the Amico guys. I think Chris has grounds for a mistrial! Answering Adam’s Q regarding success: here’s a GameDaily.biz article https://gamedaily.biz/article/1680/intellivision-amico-receives-10000-preorders-only-needs-180000-sold-to-hit-break-even-point. That’s to reach profitability. They haven’t marketed to anybody yet (retro community is free to engage +Tommy’s already in it) Assuming few buy it on Intellivision name (about 25,000 pre-orders from this community to date), but they plan to market on mobile phone games w/those pesky freemium ads, in more family spaces since PS5/Series X/Switch consumerbase are mostly going to be disinterested.  Audience: younger families (my kids are Chris’ kids ages, I feel the same), people who have friends over (it’s the most simplistic controller & screen encourages party games), & people who don’t have time for the epic action adventure games they see promoted and on the Target/Walmart aisle - the wall of games we love as gamers but ask us to immerse in a lengthy story to play. These are simple pick-up-&-play style games you can play an hour or 4 mins. Think differently from games made for gamers. These are for people who play games, board games, card games, assume modern consoles don’t have things of interest. You sell this to churches (youth groups), to convention organizers (easy to wngage w/strangers), even to bars (Jackbox-type party games and patrons whip out their phones), and to the nursing home/group living facilities still after Wiis- you have an int’l presence & some marketing- it can reach that modest goal before word of mouth. Will accept the judge’s ruling, but this may surpriseyou, your honor. :-)‬

They asked for me to go on their show, they seem like nice guys

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Good point, maybe a 'captive game service' might be a better term. In other words the console is $200 and plays games locally but games are selected from a service library and a limited number are downloaded at a time. Basically you are required to keep Game Pass in order for it to work. Not really sure how that would work, but for a $200 next gen, there would have to be some form of monthly fee to make back their money.

I’d hate to have to some arrangement where I had to repeatedly download a game, especially with them being many gigabytes. Maybe with the story games where you stick with the same game for a couple of weeks it’s okay, but if you have several of the older style games you want to pick up and play every few months, ugh. 

Hey, has there been any discussion or any announcements around Amico releases using the amazing, original art for the Intellivision games?
Atari wasn't the only one with awesome box-art. 

1 hour ago, Juice said:

Well I didn't buy a Wii I was just going by my own personal opinion I don't speak for anyone but myself.

Yes.  I totally respect that and understand. 

You mentioned that "the price might be too high for non gamers" so I was giving the counterpoint to that.

47 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

Hey, has there been any discussion or any announcements around Amico releases using the amazing, original art for the Intellivision games?
Atari wasn't the only one with awesome box-art. 

Wouldn't That Be Something?™

😇

Tommy,

Any update on when we can use our tickets?  You said it would be this month.

4 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

A disc-less next gen Xbox system of some kind is bound to happen, especially considering that they already have the Xbox One S AD edition and Sony is releasing a PS5 AD edition too.  However, I believe that a $199 next gen Xbox console could potentially sell quite well.  Granted, it won't appeal to casual and non-gamers at the beginning.  Still, if they can tap into their extensive back catalog with the previous generation consoles and start cultivating titles that focus beyond regular and/or hard-core gamers, then perhaps they can have substantially growth.  But, that is a lot of 'what-ifs' and we will just have to wait and see what exactly they do.

A $200 version of the new Xbox makes a lot of sense, and also fills in a lot of holes that I had concerning MS's strategy for the upcoming generation.

It has long been rumored that there would be multiple versions of the next XBOX, as the name "Series" would suggest. Microsoft is going to be pushing their cloud gaming service, and a weaker console could potentially fall in line with that push. They're already selling the Xbox One X for $300, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to think they would launch something similar, without a disc drive, and charge $200 for it.

It also makes their push for "Smart Delivery" make sense. I could never figure out why they were pushing that idea so hard since Sony had already been doing that for years with Cross-buy.  You buy the game once, and get the version for whatever console you're playing on. But if you're now going to have a line of consoles, then it makes sense that the idea of getting the best version for the console you're playing on a bit more enticing. 

While Sony is pushing for a distinction between console generations, MS is taking the approach of blurring those lines. Xbox Series X will be the top of the line and you'll have a variety of consoles that will offer less performance but also cost much less.  The downside is that the more powerful console will be held back by the limitations of the weaker one. The same games will be playable across all consoles, but that means the games can not take advantage of unique features of the faster one.  Sony did a great job with the new Ratchet and Clank game by showing something that can not be made for current consoles. Xbox isn't going to be able to have that. They're just going to have PC's with different settings for frame rate or graphic fidelity. Not necessarily a bad approach, but a different one than Sony.

In the end, for me anyway, I'm going for the console that has an Amico controller and one that I can play Night Stalker on. If MS or Sony can't give me that, then I'm in no rush to buy anything.

9 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Wouldn't That Be Something?™

 

😇

 

 

That would be something! Can’t wait to see artwork, box Amico comes in, and anything else this talent laden team has in store for sound and artwork 😃

14 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yes.  I totally respect that and understand. 

 

You mentioned that "the price might be too high for non gamers" so I was giving the counterpoint to that.

 

 

My $0.03 (inflation). Will some that would purchase at $199 not buy at $249? Undoubtedly.  
 

Will this be anywhere near a majority response?  Undoubtedly not.  

Those that are pushed out solely by the $50 price difference will likely “buy in” in the future as the price drops.

So, looking at this another way is that there will be some that will not pay an extra $50 to be an earlier adopter. 
 

Why has this become a thing for Amico?  This exists for literally every technology related consumer product ever made.  

1 minute ago, Intellivision Master said:

Tommy,

 

Any update on when we can use our tickets?  You said it would be this month.

Been a while I can’t find mine now 😭 
 

On a more positive note the shirt fits better since quarantine started!

This question is for all. What other game demos would you want to have on the Amico Club app?  

Its amazing to me how I can hear a song and be so clearly brought back to a specific event back in time. 

For those that grew up playing Intellivision, curious to know if any of you associate any bands or songs with playing it?

For me, one of them is Men without Hats’ Antarctica & Burgertime.  

29 minutes ago, Starpaddler said:

Its amazing to me how I can hear a song and be so clearly brought back to a specific event back in time. 

One of the magic properties of music, but what is wilder is smell. Sometimes a smell can be a freakin time machine.

As far as music, well this is obvious, but it does take me right back to the glory golden days of gaming..

1 hour ago, Starpaddler said:

Its amazing to me how I can hear a song and be so clearly brought back to a specific event back in time. 

 

For those that grew up playing Intellivision, curious to know if any of you associate any bands or songs with playing it?

 

For me, one of them is Men without Hats’ Antarctica & Burgertime.  

I have mentioned it before but my college roommate & I picked up Atlantis for the Intellivision & an Olivia Newton John album (mostly because I thought she was hot and it was on sale) during a mall run. That album and defending those Atlantis bases (especially during the dreaded night attacks) are an indelible memory together. I decided to include the album's centerfold picture just in case someone want's to make fun of me for listening to bubble gum pop.

I keep laughing when people act like $250 is too much.  And that $200 is going to be  better for this. Well  hell I think anything is better when its more affordable.  But how is will a console at $200 vs $250 going to really make or break it ? Its $50 bucks people.  When the majority of people spend that at a restaurant or shoes. Ohhhh I dont know $50 is going be a deal breaker 😮😮😮.  

10 minutes ago, Relicgamer said:

I keep laughing when people act like $250 is too much.  And that $200 is going to be  better for this. Well  hell I think anything is better when its more affordable.  But how is will a console at $200 vs $250 going to really make or break it ? Its $50 bucks people.  When the majority of people spend that at a restaurant or shoes. Ohhhh I dont know $50 is going be a deal breaker 😮😮😮.  

I think it will slow some people down because $249 is perceived as a lot more money than $199 (just human nature). I come from a pretty humble background back in the hill country of Missouri so I am speaking from that standpoint. However there are lots of things that I am interested in and am just waiting for it to go on sale. So as long as people want it and are just waiting for a better deal, that is still plenty good news for the Amico. Hopefully IE will be in a position to do a $229 or maybe even $199 for a Black Friday 2021 and that will flip a lot of the side-liners. Even before Covid I thought that 2021 might be the real year for the Amico because of it's word-of-mouth potential.

45 minutes ago, GrudgeQ said:

I think it will slow some people down because $249 is perceived as a lot more money than $199 (just human nature). I come from a pretty humble background back in the hill country of Missouri so I am speaking from that standpoint. However there are lots of things that I am interested in and am just waiting for it to go on sale. So as long as people want it and are just waiting for a better deal, that is still plenty good news for the Amico. Hopefully IE will be in a position to do a $229 or maybe even $199 for a Black Friday 2021 and that will flip a lot of the side-liners. Even before Covid I thought that 2021 might be the real year for the Amico because of it's word-of-mouth potential.

Agreed as I think $199 is a better sell than $249, especially when you take into account the SKUs MS, Sony, and Nintendo have and/or are offering on their current consoles.  However, if the Amico sells well and/or great at $249, nothing wrong with that and great for Tommy and IE.  Still, a $249 price tag could possibly put off some, but that is just imo.

2 hours ago, vongruetz said:

A $200 version of the new Xbox makes a lot of sense, and also fills in a lot of holes that I had concerning MS's strategy for the upcoming generation.

 

It has long been rumored that there would be multiple versions of the next XBOX, as the name "Series" would suggest. Microsoft is going to be pushing their cloud gaming service, and a weaker console could potentially fall in line with that push. They're already selling the Xbox One X for $300, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to think they would launch something similar, without a disc drive, and charge $200 for it.

 

It also makes their push for "Smart Delivery" make sense. I could never figure out why they were pushing that idea so hard since Sony had already been doing that for years with Cross-buy.  You buy the game once, and get the version for whatever console you're playing on. But if you're now going to have a line of consoles, then it makes sense that the idea of getting the best version for the console you're playing on a bit more enticing. 

 

While Sony is pushing for a distinction between console generations, MS is taking the approach of blurring those lines. Xbox Series X will be the top of the line and you'll have a variety of consoles that will offer less performance but also cost much less.  The downside is that the more powerful console will be held back by the limitations of the weaker one. The same games will be playable across all consoles, but that means the games can not take advantage of unique features of the faster one.  Sony did a great job with the new Ratchet and Clank game by showing something that can not be made for current consoles. Xbox isn't going to be able to have that. They're just going to have PC's with different settings for frame rate or graphic fidelity. Not necessarily a bad approach, but a different one than Sony.

 

In the end, for me anyway, I'm going for the console that has an Amico controller and one that I can play Night Stalker on. If MS or Sony can't give me that, then I'm in no rush to buy anything.

Yeah, it is very interesting to see the approaches that MS and Sony are taking this time around.  We will see how it all plays out, especially if MS can drop a 'next gen' Xbox console for $199.  Still, we can only wait and see at this point as we still have a lot of unanswered questions such as launch titles, price, etc. 

4 hours ago, OEB_Pete said:

They asked for me to go on their show, they seem like nice guys

You can't be the judge if you are talking about Amico !!! 😲   lol   🤣

1 hour ago, Relicgamer said:

I keep laughing when people act like $250 is too much.  And that $200 is going to be  better for this. Well  hell I think anything is better when its more affordable.  But how is will a console at $200 vs $250 going to really make or break it ? Its $50 bucks people.  When the majority of people spend that at a restaurant or shoes. Ohhhh I dont know $50 is going be a deal breaker 😮😮😮.  

Lol have you ever worked in customer service? People got nuts if something is a dollar more than they thought it would be. $50 isn't nothing, have you ever lost a 50 dollar bill? I bet you'd be upset. You think of all the things you could have done with that 50 bucks. I do that when I lose a 20 🤣