Dan

In a way, this kind of retro consolidation makes sense.


Edit: fixed as I misunderstood the last line.
at them splitting off the toxic Amico brand to “continue distribution of the Amico console” which I’m guessing is some sort of contractual obligation due to the shady people like Tommy Talarico running the fundraising campaigns for that vaporware.
Atari surely wants NOTHING to do with that trash fire.

fujishig

This is like Nintendo buying Sega... in like 20 years

Mike86

Might be the only way the Amico ever sees the light of day. I’m sure if it does happen it’ll be a shell of what was promised but maybe at least for the people who really wanted it something will come out.

fujishig

I mean the Atari of today is not the same Atari as we remember. They had their own crowdfunded console (Atari VCS) that barely made it out and when it did come out, made no waves, so I'm not sure how likely it is that they will do a successful hardware launch for Amico.

Oh look it's even discounted (and comes with a hat)
https://atari.com/products/atari-vcs-speakerhat-bundle

Mike86

Yeah, I realize that but Atari seems to have it slightly more together than Intellivision did. If anything I’d expect something much like the VCS.

Essentially something similar to the VCS but maybe with a different shell and with the Amico games pre-loaded. So not the actual Amico that was promised but at least something put out. Maybe not. I don’t care either way really but it was interesting to follow the Amico drama.

Dan

to be clear, Atari is absolutely NOT releasing the Amico. Their press release is clearer on this, but they basically said the company that is/was “Intellivision Entertainment LLC” sold all of the IP and Intellivision branding to Atari, and that “Intellivision Entertainment LLC” will rebrand to something entirely different, keeping only the Amico project/name, and re-licensing some Intellivision games from Atari, if the Amico folks ever actually release a console (note: 99% sure they won’t.)

In other words: Atari wants nothing to do with the Amico disaster, and this deal ensures that Amico is not part of the Intellivision fire sale, and Atari will not retain any obligation to the Amico crowdfunders.

Atari will be free to release Intellivision collections (something like Atari 50 would be awesome) or even their own console, and there is zero chance of Atari branding any device as an Amico.

Jay G.

Yeah, this deal looks to be specifically arranged so that Atari gets everything but the Amico, and it's liabilities. It looks like Atari didn't want to touch that with a 10 foot pole.

A slight silver lining for the Amico is that the renamed company that still owns it will probably get a decent infusion of cash from this deal, which my be enough for them to actually release the console.