Intellivision Amico Isn't Dead Yet, According to CEO Phil Adam

The story of the Intellivision Amico has been a rollercoaster, to say the least. From its initial announcement, the system has been through multiple delays, controversies and setbacks, with the latest being reports that the company had abandoned the trademark for good.

But it seems you can stop carving that headstone – at least for now — as Intellivision CEO, Phil Adam, has told IGN in an email that the company is "still working on the console" and that the United States Patent and Trademark Office just didn't act fast enough. IGN confirmed this, with the new filing date reading June 30th, 2022. But none of this exactly fills us with confidence about the system's future.

After all, Amico seems to have been treading water for years now, with Intellivision trying anything to keep the company going. In October 2021, one year after the system's original release date, Intellivision began selling games for the console before it had even launched. Then, in February 2022, it began the fourth round of pre-launch fundraising in four years. It was even announced earlier this year that the company had significantly cut its staff to get the console over the finish line. But that's continuing to look unlikely.

The Intellivision Amico was originally announced way back in 2018 as a successor to the original Intellivision system from the early '80s. The goal for the console was to feature family-friendly games that could be played together in a single room, using remote-like controllers with a touchscreen. And on the surface, that was a novel idea. But pretty much everything about its execution has come under scrutiny, including the company's restrictive 10 commandments of game design for its developers. This included rules like all Amico games needing to be exclusive, and titles having to be less than $10 to buy with no paid DLC or in-game purchasing.

With jobs on the line, we're certainly not wishing for the system to fail. And in fact, we wouldn't mind having one as a curiosity to sit alongside our other machines (should a consumer model even exist). But if you're an investor, we imagine this latest news doesn't exactly fill you with much confidence you will ever see fulfilment on your investment.