Intellivision Amico Console Officially Announced, Release Date Revealed

Back in May, Intellivision teased that it was working on a brand-new home console that it would soon bring to market. Fast-forward to today during the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and it revealed said console, and has provided the first slew of details on it.

Dubbed the Intellivision Amico, the new system will notably be launching two years from now, on October 10, 2020.

Here’s an early concept of what the system will look like:

A concrete price has yet to be nailed down for the system, but Intellivision has said it is aiming to come in anywhere from $149 to $179.

As you can see from the picture, the controllers actually fit into the console, and use wireless charging. Each controller will also have a 3 1/2 inch 3X2 touch screen to enable touch controls. Further, the system will be able to support up to eight controllers at one time, including mobile phones, which can act as stand-in controllers.

Meanwhile, the console has optional interactive lighting and comes packing “21st century 2D chip and architecture.” What this will mean is that the system will focus strictly on 2D tech and games, and making 2D development easy, especially compared to 2D development on PS4 and Xbox One, which because they are 3D focused machines, can provide a lot of challenge in 2D development. This will also allow, according to Intellivision, better 2D work than can be achieved on the aforementioned consoles.

Speaking of games though, every single one will cost no more than $7.99 USD and no less than $2.99. Further, there will only be E-rated or E10-rated games permitted on the console, with absolutely no violent games allowed. This is being done because the console wants to pitch itself as a something “parents want to buy.”

There will also be no ports allowed on the console, as quality will be more important than quantity. Additionally, there will be remade Atari and iMagic games that will be exclusive to the system. Any game that is remade will come with updated graphics, audio, added levels, and multiplayer.

The console will allow each game to create hundreds of millions of sprites, as well as have the occasional retail release, though the latter will come at a special and premium price. In other words, the system will mostly be a digital gaming platform.

The Amico will also come packing leaderboard support, as well as some type of Achievements system that will be completely unique to it.

Devs kits of the console are currently scheduled to release sometime next summer, and Intellivision will notably be paying developers to make games for the system, or in other words, provide a platform for game development with no financial risks.

And that’s about all we know about the modern retro console. Intellivision has said an official press release with more details will arrive on Monday, so if you’re interested in knowing more, be sure to check back then.

Thanks, ResetEra.