GRcade

Guys, you broke Jawa again. I'm not angry, just disappointed.

I wonder what the real catalyst for the masses taking the Wii to heart was, as i doubt anyone casual wanted it for the library of.upcoming games. I.think just seeing someone swing a controller like a tennis racket on tv probably did more than knowing that a new Mario or Zelda was around the corner. In fact didn't most only buy it and never got another game beyond Wii sports? If there's a pack in of that quality, and you could show someone swinging the controller around, then you might get some casuals on board for amiico. Maybe.

twitter.com/totalamico/status/1362122454215327748

The launch date for the Amico was announced yesterday!

10 October! .

Which is a Sunday . It does seem a little odd but, hey, I guess it's something different . Eight months feels like quite a long time right now and I think we may well have a few "quiet times" in the coming months but I do think that October is a great time to launch a console. The coming weeks and months will be all about getting the required tech components, construction, game dev and raising awareness. It's gonna be challenging but it's a positive goal to aim for.

Welcome back Jawa!

The Amico will still have more new games than the Switch this year

I'm willing to pay full price. Let's see the hardware.

Victor Mildew wrote:Welcome back Jawa!

Ta, man. It was good to take a little break and have a breather.

Hypes wrote:The Amico will still have more new games than the Switch this year

The Amico game schedule is currently looking like:

> Around 35 games at launch (including six that come with the console)
> Roughly another 15 to follow in the run-up to Christmas
> "10 to 12" games to be available in a physical format for those that like that option

All digital games to be priced at up to about £12 at launch; with the physical versions being around £20.

JCDenton wrote:I'm willing to pay full price. Let's see the hardware.

. "I'm excited!" to hear that even people in the Deus Ex universe are interested in the Amico!

10/10 has got to be a marketing thing. Plaster 10/10 everywhere so people mistake a date for rave reviews?

It might just work!

Zilnad wrote:10/10 has got to be a marketing thing. Plaster 10/10 everywhere so people mistake a date for rave reviews?

It might just work!

They can only afford to make one set of marketing assets so went with a date that works both in and out of the US.

Zilnad wrote:10/10 has got to be a marketing thing. Plaster 10/10 everywhere so people mistake a date for rave reviews?

It might just work!

That's not a growth wrote:They can only afford to make one set of marketing assets so went with a date that works both in and out of the US.

I made that design, not Intellivision . I did think that the 10/10 thing came across as a positive thing... and maybe this proves it does .

jawa2 wrote:

Zilnad wrote:10/10 has got to be a marketing thing. Plaster 10/10 everywhere so people mistake a date for rave reviews?

It might just work!

That's not a growth wrote:They can only afford to make one set of marketing assets so went with a date that works both in and out of the US.

I made that design, not Intellivision . I did think that the 10/10 thing came across as a positive thing... and maybe this proves it does .

The numerical equivalent of YouTube face

I've looked forward to this for a long time.

That's not a growth wrote:

Zilnad wrote:10/10 has got to be a marketing thing. Plaster 10/10 everywhere so people mistake a date for rave reviews?

It might just work!

They can only afford to make one set of marketing assets so went with a date that works both in and out of the US.

So many layers to this date choice

Genius

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

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.

Thank you for such a thoughtful response Jawa. As you say, the post-launch will reveal what happens.

jawa2 wrote: 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.

I do agree with this bit. I think that's a big part of why the Wii ended up with a bit of an identity crisis.

Lots of people, like me, went in excited for a new console by Nintendo but that's because we were fans, and would have bought a new thing anyway from the company regardless, expecting it to come through.

But the vast majority who bought it had little idea, and didn't buy it to play the fifth or sixth version of their favourite game series. I rarely heard that group referring to Nintendo at all - it was just the Wii. Hence it taking off in places like old folks homes to play bowling just as much as with young kids and families.

So really, who did a developer on the Wii pitch it's games at? Hence you end up with Carnival games, Wii Fit etc. Regardless of the merits of those, they didn't really please many core gamers. For the core gamer, e.g. adding aiming controls to an FPS kept a lot of us happy, but wasn't enough for many others. And those would have bewildered a 5 year old or a gran, so even those 'core' games sold far less than you'd normally expect for a machine with that success.

Anyhow, I suppose the long and the short of it is that at least Amiico has it's demographic decided and targeted.

One other positive thing I'd say is that October is a good time to release that kind of thing. Families are just contemplating long nights indoors together. Even more so if there's another lockdown of whatever severity.

Late spring and summer would be a fairly disastrous time to release something like this. If things go to plan, I'm out of the house myself then and not coming back inside until my mam calls me in for tea.

Abacus wrote:Anyhow, I suppose the long and the short of it is that at least Amiico has it's demographic decided and targeted.

Yes, the casual family market has been crying out for Earthworm Jim 4.

OrangeRKN wrote:

Abacus wrote:Anyhow, I suppose the long and the short of it is that at least Amiico has it's demographic decided and targeted.

Yes, the casual family market has been crying out for Earthworm Jim 4.

I didn't say they'd hit their target with any degree of accuracy.

Amiico - "the Scud missile of games", is a logo Tommy T should consider.

jawa2 wrote: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.

Yeaaaaah I'm going to call bullshit on this one. Nintendo is a brand that has (and has had for ~40 years) GLOBAL recognition, it's up there with Nike, Coca Cola and Aunt Bessie's. Old people in 2006 knew about Nintendo - they were in their 30s and 40s when their kids wanted Gameboys and SNESes. Just because people weren't gamers doesn't mean they didn't know about Nintendo.

Intellivision by comparison has zero brand recognition - zero. Gamers, perhaps (but even then only the older crowd and even that's a stretch), but younger families with kids - no chance. It's going to be a £250+ console with weird-looking controllers and games that look like they were made for mobiles or Sky Vegas, a brand name that people aren't familiar with, competing (whether you choose to accept it or not) with established mega-brands like Playstation, Xbox and, yes, Nintendo.

This idea that people bought the Wii just on a whim having seen someone swing a Wiimote about with no knowledge of Nintendo like they were thawed out of a glacier and given Wii Sports is just revisionist nonsense. The established Nintendo brand (including Mario, the most iconic and recognisable character in the history of videogames), the price, vast marketing campaigns and word of mouth were why the Wii succeeded. Intellivision has none of those things.

That's not to say it won't make a go of it, and I'm sure you'll love your founders version, jawa, but the odds are ridiculously stacked against it succeeding.