Episode 212 is alright, not as good as last week's, Dick had Tommy Tallarico on as a guest, famous for composing the soundtrack to Color a Dinosaur:
and apparently he's working on the new Earthworm Jim game, so Dick really wanted him to discuss it. Problem is, Tallarico clearly only agreed to come on to promote his new video game system he's making, the Intellivision Amico, and he's terrible at it. At 1:03:18, Tallarico says "
The problem with mobile, of course, is that, it's solitary! It's you with your head buried in your phone, and-" (Dick interjects) "
And it hurts! It sucks to play! Like it hurts your fingers after a while, it's, I think it's limiting". Tallarico ignores that, and launches into his marketing pitch which clumsily includes (at 1:04:52) a mention of his
FREE APP where others can connect their phones to use as controllers.
Man, that's a painfully clumsy marketing pitch. You just trashed the entire notion of mobile gaming, but then you go on to promote an app as one of your console's selling points? And didn't even consider adjusting your pitch promoting phones as controllers right after Dick trashed the notion? Dude, come on.
Tallarico goes on to say, at 1:05:15:
"My two biggest things is I wanna provide value, and trust. That's it. I'm not, you know, w- w- Money isn't the most important thing. You know, my grandfather would always tell me, if you provide trust and value to someone, then the success and the money, that-that comes later. But should never be your focus, and I think most video game companies have gotten away from that. It's all about the bottom line, all about the dollar, and so we're just coming at it in a different way. Let's build value and trust."
The Intellivision Amico is a whopping $250. Does, uh... does Tommy Tallarico know that's $50
more than a Nintendo Switch Lite? Or $150 more than an Ouya? Even the
Wikipedia article makes it sound like crap. Hell, before the pandemic, you could get a used PS4 or an Xbox One for cheaper than an Amico, too. It's kinda hard to sell your system under the notions of trust and value when you're asking serious console prices for the Ouya 2.0.
Dick does try to take it back around to talking about games in general not being so simple anymore, how politicized they can be, eventually talking about how long it takes for systems to update, and at 1:08:29, Tallarico goes on to mention how much he loves the Red Dead franchise, but managed to forget all the controls 3-4 days after not playing it. Dick goes on to say how he just can't get along with bumpers on game controllers.
All I can think of are these kind of infomercial gifs:
View attachment 1402131'
You are the worst salesman, Tommy Hussein Tallarico.
Aaaaaaaaaand that's where I'm pausing for now. Lord almighty, for someone whose been in the industry since the early days, Tallarico sure seems tone deaf on how to sell his machine. Watch Game Center CX and Gaming Historian sometime, Tallarico, and you'll hear all about how Nintendo got their start and managed to become as big as they did. The vision behind how the NES was designed was simply as a way to play Donkey Kong at home. That's it. The modular catridges and extra face button allowed the system to be future-proofed for later games, and they soon had a hit on their hands. Strong games can ensure a healthy console. I don't see a single strong game you're selling the Amico with yet, Tallarico. So get on that. Give us a reason to drop a fat stack of cash on your machine aside from a vague "muh simplicity".
also I typed all of that without even listening to Tallarico's entire segment so if he says anything later on that invalidates something I said, then, uh, oops.
