Intellivision Entertainment
Intellivision Entertainment, LLC. was founded by Tommy Tallarico in May 29th, 2018 after acquiring the rights of the Intellivision brand from Intellivision Productions, Inc. In 2018 they announced the crowdfunding campaign of their console Intellivision Amico, it was originally slated to be released in October 2020, but repeated delays followed, leaving the console without a release date. The console's wireless controllers would have a touchscreen on them, and would allow smartphones to be used as controllers for games. Games would be required to have a maximum rating of E10+ on the ESRB ratings scale, meaning that games would be completely focused on targeting families. The console would have an RFID system in it that allows for payments from credit cards to be easily processed for new game purchases and would allow easy sharing of games between consoles and friends. Tallarico announced that the company would be licensing Atari games for the console. An exclusive new Earthworm Jim game was also revealed to be in development for the console, and Intellivision Entertainment was paying a number of studios for exclusive games for the console. At this point in the development process, the console was expected to be priced between $149 and $179. At a conference in Dubai in 2019, Tallarico revealed that the company was launching a Dubai office and was planning on releasing the console at the same time in the Middle East as it was going to in the rest of the world. Pre-orders were opened in April 2020, and Intellivision Entertainment revealed that it had sold over 10,000 pre-orders of its "VIP edition" of the console; it was priced at $249 for black and white versions and $279 for a woodgrain version. The console received a further $5.5 million from a campaign on crowdfunding site. An October 10, 2020 release date was announced. Tallarico noted that the company had to stop taking retail purchase orders because of supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and had to make development kits by hand in California instead of the planned manufacture in China. Customers were required to place a refundable $100 deposit in order to reserve the consoles. In May 2020, it was announced former Microsoft executive and Xbox co-founder J Allard had joined Intellivision Entertainment to serve as the company's global managing director, assisting the company in launching the Amico. He left months later and said the role was "not a good fit." Despite this, Tallarico noted the hiring of Allard during an investment call in March 2021 even though Allard had already left. This led to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to send a letter for clarification to Intellivision Entertainment to clarify when Allard had left the company. In February 2022, Tallarico stepped down from his role as CEO of Intellivision, remaining on board as the company's president and largest shareholder. He was replaced by the company's former chief revenue officer Phil Adam. In a statement provided to IGN, the company said the management shift was to better align its resources to face the new challenges of commencing production of the Amico. In April 2022, some pre-orders of the Amico were cancelled, including some ordered via GameStop.[29] In June, Intellivision cut staff and licensed IP, both aimed at keeping the project viable, with the company stating that it still aims to launch the console. On July 4, 2022, publications reported that the Intellivision Amico trademark had been abandoned. On July 7, 2022, an update by Nintendo Life to its July 4 article stated that the Intellivision Amico trademark was renewed, "rather than request a further extension on the existing trademark, Intellivision has instead opted to file for a brand new one as of June 30th, 2022." In November 2023, Intellivision said that it had insufficient funds needed to finance the production of the console units. To secure finances, a mobile application titled Amico Home was launched, allowing for gameplay of select Amico titles on Android and, eventually, iOS. In May 2024 Atari SA announced their purchase of the Intellivision brand and its assets. The Amico was not included in the sale and would be renamed, although Atari would allow to license the Intellivision library for it.
