Facing a global semiconductor chip shortage, Intellivision has delayed the launch of its Amico retro console for a third time.
Intellivision had most recently scheduled the Amico to debut in October, and now it won’t release until the end of the year. But it doesn’t have an exact launch date, based on the company’s announcement on late Friday.
In a message to GamesBeat, CEO Tommy Tallarico said that the company will try to ship its preorders by the end of the year, but he acknowledged that the “component crisis and shipping is extremely challenging.”
The global semiconductor shortage has affected all electronics companies, and the car industry is expected to lose $100 billion in sales in 2021 because of the chip shortage, according to professional services firm KPMG.
“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,” Tallarico said in an announcement.
He said this will give the company more time to optimize its operating system for future game development. He said the company will keep all parties informed on its progress.
Tallarico had originally planned to launch the console in October 2020, before both Sony and Microsoft were due to ship their next-generation consoles. But the pandemic disrupted those plans, Intellivision had to postpone its launch date until April. Then Tallarico further delayed it to October, and now it has been rescheduled again.
In the meantime, Tallarico said the company has grown to more than 60 employees and he said the games are turning out to be fun.
The Amico plan
The original Intellivision is a game console from Mattel that gave Atari a run for its money in the early 1980s. It was more advanced than the Atari 2600, with better graphics, and it even had simple voices in some games.
Tallarico has been in the video game industry for 32 years, and he created the “oof” sound that became the signature sound for Roblox games. Tallarico, who created the Video Games Live concert series, announced in 2018 that he had acquired the rights to the console and its original games and planned to relaunch Intellivision as a retro brand.
He has rounded up many of the original Intellivision’s game creators. They’re remaking some of the original games for the old Intellivision, such as Breakout, but with modern designs.