These guys are going to have an uphill battle. I can't imagine it selling more than a few million units. $250 for some nifty controllers just to play phone quality games...
The $250 price tag is the big obstacle, as far as I'm concerned. I do understand what type of market they're trying to serve, but they really should have aimed at $150 or less.
There was another recent article on the same site, which I think is worth reading:
CEO Tommy Tallarico on the upcoming console’s family-friendly principles and why it’ll take a while for ‘core’ players to take…
www.videogameschronicle.com
This is an interview with Tommy Tallarico of Intellivision Entertainment. It's a good read, since it delves into the company's motivation for making the system. He has a lot to say about the competition (positive and negative).
One thing that really struck me in this interview is how many times Mr. Tallarico recalls the Nintendo Wii and its wide appeal to casual gamers. He clearly has a fondness for the Wii, and feels that the Switch isn't properly filling the Wii's role. He is obviously trying to position the Amico as the "new Wii". Here's a quote from that aricle:
Tommy Tallarico said:
“Our target audience are moms, and families, and seniors, and casuals, and hyper-casuals and even non-gamers, similar to that big audience that propelled the Wii. Those are the folks we’re going for, we’re going for the 3.1 billion people that play mobile games every day, not the 200 million people that are considered ‘hardcore gamers’.
I wish Mr. Tallarico luck, but this is an uphill battle--which he acknowledges. As cool as the Wii was, I don't think he needs to copy
every aspect of that system. I mean, the Wii also launched at $250, but it had significantly more going for it at the outset.
On that note,
I still think he should've initially relaunched the Intellivision name as a publishing brand to produce similarly-styled games for existing platforms. By doing this, they could establish their name and reputation, before attempting to create their own distinct console with a focus on those types of games. In the article, he also states that the Amico might make a great "second console" for hardcore gamers, as a companion to their primary console, again pointing to how the Wii often served in that role. The hard part will be convincing the mass market why the Amico ought to be that system, and not a Switch or even some smart TV streaming service.
