The Intellivision Amico has been delayed. Again. The console was supposed to launch this October. Now, it’s been delayed, with the company behind the console promising that folks who preordered it will get the machine “by the end of the year.” This is the third delay the Amico has experienced.
In an email sent out to people who had pre-ordered the console, Intellivision Entertainment explained how disappointed it was that it wasn’t able to keep its original schedule.
Here’s an excerpt from the email that went out late last night.
“We originally planned to launch Amico in the Fall of 2020 but had to adapt during the midst of the global pandemic disrupting our production. Despite our best efforts, and now facing new unprecedented international component supply and logistics challenges beyond our control, we want to apologize as we are forced to push our desired launch date yet again.
In spite of these supply hurdles hampering our ability to fill all orders, we are focused and determined to deliver pre-ordered units by the end of the year. This will also allow us more time to optimize our operating system for future game development. We want to ensure that those who have anticipated the Amico for so long, get a chance to enjoy it as soon as possible. Of course, we will keep all of our customers and interested parties informed and updated on our continued progress.”
It should be noted this email was sent out at 12 am on Friday night, almost like they didn’t want people to report on it until Monday. Hmmm…
First revealed in October 2018, the Amico is a family-friendly console focused on smaller, cheaper games. The newly revived Intellivision Entertainment is led by famous video game composer Tommy Tallarico. The company began taking pre-orders for the system in 2019, with promises of an October 10 2020 release.
However, it was delayed a few months before that first release date and given a new launch date of April 2021. That date didn’t happen and the console was delayed again until October 2021, a year after it was first planned to release.
Now that date is no longer happening either. Instead, Intellivision is only vaguely saying people who pre-ordered will get their systems before the end of the year. (Probably.)
Making a video game is hard. Making a video game console is even harder. Creating a brand new video game console during a global pandemic is… well really, really hard. So it’s not shocking to hear that the already delayed Intellivision Amico has been delayed once more.
But, hopefully, the third time is the charm for folks excited to get their hands on the device. If not, keep your eyes peeled for some more late-night emails from Intellivision. Though based on some leak specs and other information I’d suggest waiting to see what this thing actually ends up being before plopping down $250 on it.
