Amico games use NFTs and are on sale now, ahead of console

The Friend of Intellivision is a retro-inspired Android-based console slated for release on October 20, 2020 but has suffered numerous delays since then. And now, before the console even ships to backers or customers, the company is selling “physical” games for it in limited-time packages ranging from $ 80 to $ 150. All games come with a coin and are NFT for some reason.

If you don’t know what the Amico is, don’t worry, you are not alone. We recently covered the machine which was not yet released in September. To sum up: the console is a overpriced android console, like Ouya, which will offer many games ported to mobile phones and even some flash games. It will cost $ 250-300 and has a bunch of LED lights, when it finally comes out … one day.

While the console missed its last exit window, it seems that Intellivision is still interested in offering people the option of buying games for the console. Announced in a video today, Intellivision now sells physical game collections for the Amico.

Well, sort of. You see, while it is true that the games come in nice physical packaging and even with nifty little coins and cards, the actual game is not in the box. Instead, the box contains an RFID card that can be used with your Amico (someday) to unlock access to any game connected to that card. You’ll still need an internet connection to download the game, but CEO Tommy Tallarico explained that this is only a single sign-on. After that you can play whatever you want offline which is good! Yet it seems to defeat one of the main purposes of physical media., which is the ability to have access to the games even after closing servers or closing digital stores.

In a press release, Tallarico said he was convinced “collectors would really appreciate this,” but I’m not so sure.

But the most worrying issue is that each of those games that you buy and download through the RFID card are tied to a TVN which is itself part of a blockchain. We have already written a lot about how NFTs are a giant scam, horrible for the environment, and full of ethically dubious assholes and crooks. So, seeing Amico aligning so closely with TVN is far from ideal. This makes what was already a really tough console to sell and adds another layer of “oh, no …” on top.

If you are interested in owning a DTV of a mobile game released a few years ago for a console that has not yet been released, you can head to the Intellivision store page. There you will find three packages. One that contains all eight games for $ 150 and two other collections that each contain four games for $ 80.