I backed the Ouya. I have no regrets about it. They wanted $99 for an Android box and they shipped an Android box. I used it for emulation mostly. The overly optimistic library of games never happened. I wasn't surprised by that, it didn't feel like a realistic goal. In the end I got my $99 worth out of it. Eventually I would find that the Raspberry Pi was a better, and cheaper, way to achieve the dream of the Ouya.
I have not backed another system since. There are a few reasons. Some projects are simply too expensive. I'm not gambling on someone's idea for the cost of a current-gen console. There's also what I would call necessity. I could back a system promising to play [console x] but often I have a perfectly good way to play [console x]. And last, sometimes the project leaders don't seem to have any clue what they are doing. They have an idea, we all do, but no experience or ability to implement it.
The Intellivision Amico nailed this trifecta.
I didn't feel this way at first. When I learned the Intellivision intellectual property was sold to an enthusiast with some industry connections I was cautiously optimistic. There were far worse options out there. That feeling died when the Intellivision Amico was announced.
The Intellivision Amico was far too expensive and it was unclear what exactly it would play. Was it meant to play Intellivision games? Was it meant to play mobile phone games? Was it meant to play Wii shovelware? It was billed as all those things.
Most importantly though, it didn't seem to have anyone with the required experience behind it. Enthusiasm and money can only go so far. At some point you need people to build the product you are selling, otherwise your idea is simply a fundraising grift.
I signed up for the mailing list though. I wanted to see where this went. I also hoped that maybe they'd pull it off and one day I could own (another) Intellivision collection. I have many perfectly good ways to play Intellivision games but I will always buy more. I have the same problem with the TurboGrafx-16. There's a case study behind this runner-up console compulsion I have for sure.
Through the mailing list I learned they sold some Intellivision properties to small developers and the rest to Atari.
From there the updates never changed. They still planned to build a console. Despite two (that I'm aware of) crowdfunding campaigns, and selling off their only intellectual property of value, they didn't have the money to do that. So they needed to sell their games on other stores to raise more money.
After their first update of 2026, which was the same as the last 10 or so, I unsubscribed. Or at least I tried to:
What else did I expect?
It made me wonder how their latest money raising strategy is going. I hopped over to the Google Play store and looked at their selection:
$14.99 is their price point. As of the time I'm writing this, all of the top 10 paid games on Google Play are under $10. This includes things like Minecraft, Balatro, Stardew Valley, and multiple Five Nights at Freddy's games. The folks at Microsoft, who I hear like money, decided that $10 was too much to charge for the most popular video game of all time.
Based on what I know about these six games, they are not going to sell for $14.99. Some of them may be fun, three are based on second generation games that were good and that's promising I guess. $14.99 though?
Over on the Switch store, they're willing to settle for $10 if you're willing to buy a bundle.
$10 is maybe a little closer, assuming you want all three of these games. I assume Evel Knievel is some kind of stunt racing game. At this exact moment there is a Need for Speed and Burnout game each on sale for under $7 on the Switch. I assume Finnegan Fox is a platformer. At this exact moment there are multiple Shantae games priced at $9.99, that's not even a sale price. And cornhole is I assume a cornhole game. I recall there being a better looking cornhole game on WiiWare that was under $10, inflation I guess.
I think my assumption that no one will buy these is correct. On the Google Play store none of these have significant downloads, for example:
There aren't numbers on the iTunes store, but none have cracked this threshold:
In a different article I predicted that the Amico would never be released. I am sticking with that. I know prototypes exist. Prototypes exist of many things that never became real products.
I didn't think the Amico was a scam and still don't. I think it was a bad idea, a console that had no clear vision or market. To avoid being called a scam they are currently going through the motions of being a real company. They are attempting to sell games or at least pretending to attempt to sell games. If they don't sell, and by all indications they aren't, then it's a failed business idea and not a scam.
The crowdfunding money went to wherever, probably funding something labelled "R&D" or "operations" which means it's paying salaries of whoever works there. Maybe it's servicing debt? I don't care because I never gave them anything. It's not paying someone to update their Google Play account with the current company name, that much I know.
Eventually the money will run out, the company will be liquidated, and whatever intellectual property they own will be auctioned off for a trivial amount (likely to someone currently working there). If they still have cash from crowdfunding and previous intellectual property sales then it's unlikely they will be acquired because the acquirer needs to purchase that cash. The actual value of the company is around $0 without it. So it's possible that after the cash runs out they are bought by another small company (for an undisclosed amount near my $0 estimate). That company will break even after they discount all the games to $1 and sell roughly a dozen copies.
I've reached my limit for how much I am willing to speculate on the Amico. The next, and last, time I mention it will be when I update Closing Time: A Tribute to the Last Calls of Gaming after it is quietly cancelled.
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