SerialCeler wrote:Not wanting to dampen Jawa’s enthusiasm in any way, but one of (the many) things I don’t understand about the strategy of this, is how to they expect to reach the casual audience they’re aiming for?
Part of Nintendo’s success with reaching the non-gaming audience with the Wii was they had a 30-year brand synonymous with quality gaming. So even if you weren’t a gamer, you probably know the brand Nintendo, and knew that even if gaming wasn’t for you, there was a certain quality in the product you were buying.
Nintendo also had historic relationships with retailers that guarantee shelf space, actually getting their product in front of people. Plus a marketing budget and name recognition.
Intellivision, AFAIK, has none of this, so I just can’t see — even if the tech is amazing and the games are astonishing — how they are actually going to sell it to people who aren’t gamers
Intellivision started out as the electronics division of Mattel, the giant American toy company. The original Intellivision games console was released in the early 80s and was pretty popular in North America. It was a distant second to Atari - the goliath, of course - but it captured around 20% of the console market. Subsequently the brand was sold off and today it is owned by Tommy Tallarico. The brand is not particularly well known outside of the US but it does have a historical standing in videogames.
As I've posted before, Intellivision has done the market research and spoken to retailers. The inclusion of two controllers came about from that audience research; as did the idea of having some games provided with the console purchase. They've been talking to groups such as parent associations in the US and other childrens' groups - they've done the groundwork. The Amico is up for pre-order at retailers across the US and Europe; places lke Amazon and Best Buy in the US and retailers like GAME, Argos and Amazon here in the UK. Intellivision has held discussion with these retailers about pushing the product and the launch; a key factor in the chosen October launch time was those discussions with UK and European retailers who said they'd prefer the autumn launch rather than the (quieter for console sales) summer period. Physically the console should be reliable - hopefully more so than other major console releases
- as Intellivision has posted vids of things like the controllers being tested for 1000s of button presses and being dropped.
I get your point about Nintendo's history although it may be worth considering that the vast bulk of Wii's mass market sales were built upon people who had probably never heard of Nintendo; they weren't big gamers. They saw people waving the Remotes around and playing bowling and wanted to try it for themselves. Intellivision has scheduled roadshows at shopping centres across the UK albeit these plans will be subject to COVID restrictions. Sure, it helps to have a "big" name as a manufacturer, but how does any new company start off?
I get why a lot of questions have been posed in the thread so far; many folk haven't heard about Intellivision before and there hasn't yet been any marketing for the system. It's totally understandable that questions would be asked. From my perspective, it's better to have questions than nothing
. Hopefully the above details have shed a bit more light on things.
Of course, it may also be worth spinning the perspective a little; imagine the potential! Is there a current console that has really taken on the mantle as a successor to the Wii? Videogaming has becoming even more popular since those days and, yes, I think the other consoles are amazing. But they're pretty hardcore; do families play games on them together on the living room TV? Is there a range of simple, pick-up-and-play games that a family can play? In the case of the Switch... well, maybe. Some would argue it does, others perhaps not so much.
I think there is room in the market for the Amico. The launch and first six months will be critical in how successful it will be; it has to get attention and be clear on what it offers. That offering - understandably - may not appeal to the more core gamers but I feel there is a bigger market to aim for.