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The "consultant" CEO of Amico (which, as you'll know, can no longer use the name Intellivision) has admitted he's working for no pay and that the firm has basically six months to determine its future.
Speaking to Scene World Magazine (thanks, Completely Unnecessary Podcast), Amico CEO Phil Adam says he and "a few other consultants" are working on the project without pay, with the ultimate goal of securing "back pay" if they can pull off some kind of unlikely resurrection.
As you might be aware, the Amico was revealed around 2018 and would be crowdfunded shortly after, but it hit production issues due to the COVID pandemic, forcing the revived Intellivision to lay off staff. Tommy Tallarico, the driving force behind both the 'new' Intellivision and the Amico, stepped down as CEO in early 2022.
"I've stayed involved and tried to continue Tommy's dream," says Adam, before adding:
"And because I'm committed to a lot of people, not just the people that put up a deposit, but the I've got investors who put in hundreds of thousands of dollars that I communicate with all the time. I was a paid CEO at one time. I haven't been paid in a while. We haven't had the funding. So, I'm more of a consultant CEO now than anything... There are a couple of other consultants. I'll use the term 'paid' loosely. We accumulate some back pay if we pull this off."
And by that, he means actually getting something tangible into the hands of those people who pre-ordered the Amico all those years ago and still don't have anything to show for it. In Adam's eyes, the controller – which features a touchscreen and scroll wheel – is the main draw, and he reveals plans to secure investment to produce these in small quantities, which (he hopes) would then give the company a platform on which it could secure more revenue and potentially sign licences for software.
"It's what made us unique: our technology piece wasn't the console; it was the technology piece. It's the gameplay that those controllers provided," he says. He also insists that Tallarico is "still very active raising that capital to at least focus on the first controller," despite his newfound career in the world of backgammon.
Adam says the plan is to produce around 10,000 controllers for use with the Amico Home service, but the main Amico console would need an overhaul. "We need money to bring out the console [and] we have to update the processor," he says. "There are a few things that we have to do in a redesign," before adding that releasing the console is the "goal, not a guarantee."
Adam says the plan would be to manufacture "5,000 to 8,000 consoles just to get it out there... Once I've proven that and proven to an investor that we can do this, get the financing to fund 100,000, and then I can go reinstitute licenses."
Adam also repeats the claims previously made by Tallarico in relation to the impact of COVID, citing the rising cost of parts and materials since the pandemic hit. However, as the hosts of the Completely Unnecessary Podcast point out, other companies (such as Blaze, Analogue, Playmaji and Panic) have also had to deal with launching hardware during a global pandemic, yet they still managed to get their systems into the hands of customers.
"Believe me, at 72, I would rather just retire," Adam continues. "I just don't have the funds. I probably could retire. Not very well. But I'm kind of committed to the investors, and I would like to see this happen because it's really a good dream of families playing together. It really is a unique concept, and it's not going to make Tommy or me or anybody rich, but I'd love to be part of one legacy: I sold the Intellivision brand to Atari after they'd been competitors for 40 years. I'm the guy who did that, but I would really like to save the Amico console and all the people that have believed in us and believed in the concept of family play."
Ominously, Adam adds that Amico has around half a year to get things moving before time is called on what has to rank as one of the sorriest ventures in video game history:
"I think we have to make something happen moving forward in the next six months. I don't think we survive beyond that. We're not dead if we keep working for no pay. But I think at the end of the day, we should know in the next six months where we're going and what we can do. And you know, John [Alvarado] and other people, I just they have families. They can't keep working for nothing."