Intellivision reveals "significant reduction in staff", as Amico console woes continue

Intellivision, maker of the beleagured and delayed Amico console, has informed pre-order customers of fresh issues holding up delivery of their systems.

A "significant number" of staff have now been laid off in order to meet "dramatically reined in operating costs", Intellivision boss Phil Adam wrote in an email to customers, which has in turn led to further issues.

However, Intellivision appears to be adamant it will still release the Amico at some point.

"We are slowly processing refund requests," Adam wrote in the email, seen by VGC. "The public's uncertainty of our status in the last few months have understandably led to an influx of pre-order refund requests. Because of reduced staff and financing requirements for continued operation, our responses to and processing of these requests has been delayed.

"Rest assured that our intention is to honor all refund requests. We will allocate a portion of all new funding and staff time to winding down the refund queue, while our primary focus is funding and completing a quality product ready for manufacturing."

Intellivision's Amico was originally announced in 2018, and was intended to launch in October 2020 as a low-spec family-friendly device with touchcreen controllers to encourage couch co-op gameplay.

Uncertainty around the project's status and likelihood of success has surrounded the project pretty much ever since, and through numerous delays it has struggled to drum up much interest.

By October 2021, boxed games for the console were available to buy at an eye-opening $150 for eight fairly lacklustre titles - even though the console itself still lacked a release date.

Former Intellivision boss Tommy Tallarico - a key figure in the project - stepped down in February this year to be replaced by Adam. Alarm bells were raised again in March when Intellivision cut a fundraising campaign short, as it became clear it would not meet a $5m drive to get the Amico released (it instead raised $58k after 21 days).

Five years on from the project's announcement, there's still no word on a firm release date. The latest from Adam was simply: "Our hope is that we start shipping production units this year."

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