Intellivision turns to layoffs and licensing as it struggles to fund troubled Amico
James Batchelor
Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday 8th June 2022
The woes of the retro console Intellivision Amico continue as the company reveals it has laid of staff and is licencing out its intellectual property to continue funding development.
An email update written by CEO Phil Adams, who took over from Tommy Tallarico in February, was sent out to pre-order customers and shared online by The Nerf Report's Bryant Chappel.
In it, Adams thanks supporters for their continued patience and explains the current situation with the upcoming retro console.
"We have dramatically reined in operating costs, which unfortunately required a significant reduction in staff," he wrote. "Our resources are focused on engineering and testing to ensure we have a quality system, as we cannot succeed by producing anything less."
It is unclear how many employees have been affected by layoffs.
The company is also licensing Intellivision IP to development partners to produce games for other platforms. It is not yet known which properties have been licensed or which platforms Intellivision is targeting, but Adams said Intellivision will announce the first deals "soon."
"These licensing deals will help fund continued development of Amico. A broader distribution of Intellivision classic IP will also help raise awareness of Intellivision while not directly competing with Amico because of Amico's unique controllers and family-focused gaming adaptations."
He added that the company is "slowly processing" refund requests.
"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
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