A number of Amico games have just been released on Nintendo Switch and Steam, with the company behind the troubled console, Amico Entertainment, still insisting that Amico hardware is the goal (thanks VGC for the spot!).
Finnigan Fox and Evel Knievel are now available to purchase now on the Nintendo Switch eShop and Steam, priced at $14.99 / £10.99 each, while the Amico version of Cornhole is also available for the Nintendo Switch at the same price.
Happy Home Games is the publisher of these releases, with the company as "a new sister company" to Amico that will "adapt Amico games for other consoles and PCs".
This news follows the release of Atari and Choice Provisions' Breakout Beyond earlier this year across Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Atari VCS, and PC earlier this year — another game which was initially planned as an Amico title.
Originally announced back in 2018, as the Intellivision Amico, the Amico was revealed as part of a plan by the Video Games Live founder Tommy Tallarico to relaunch the Intellivision brand with a new family-friendly home console, which would serve as an alternative to the other major systems on the market.
Initially made available for pre-order back in 2020, it subsequently went through various rounds of additional funding, with the company making the unusual decision to start selling games for the console in 2021, despite the hardware struggling with various complications behind the scenes that resulted in delay after delay.
In 2022, Tallarico stood down as CEO of the company, with the former Spectrum Holobyte co-founder and Interplay president Phil Adam eventually being announced as his successor.
However, this executive level change did little to get the console out the door any quicker, with the company acknowledging in 2023 that it still required "additional investment" before it could manufacture consoles, leading them to launch the Amico Home App as part of a plan to raise the necessary funds.
In 2024, to add a further twist to the tale, Atari purchased the Intellivision brand along with "certain games" from the company, causing Intellivision Entertainment LLC to have to rebrand as Amico Entertainment and retitle the console as the Amico.
As part of the Amico Entertainment's recent Spring update, which is also where the company announced the release of the aforementioned games across Switch and Steam, it restated its intention to eventually release Amico hardware, stating: "We are actively progressing with our phased plan to eventually manufacture Amico hardware, and we have some good news to share about the current phase of the plan: building financial stability."