Let's ignore that the UI has big "plug and play console from @games" energy and focus on some of the other issues. The biggest surprise/nightmare is that the system's game library is completely integrated with the store. There is a section that shows just the games you own, but the games are also divided into categories, with each game being potentially represented in multiple categories. These categories include, from what I can tell based on this video, every game available on the system whether you own it or not. The ones you own are in bright colorful icons and the others are faded out.
That's right, the home page for the system is literally the web store. Your library is totally integrated into the web store itself and there is no distinction between them, though it does helpfully point out what games you own, which is nice.
The obvious problem with this is, of course, that if the Amico ever amasses a large library it will be utterly unusable as an interface. Imagine if the Nintendo Switch, with literally thousands of games, used a system like this. Heck, imagine if the N64, with just a few hundred titles, did. The Amico may not aspire to have a 4 figure library but if it is at all successful it will presumably have hundreds of games, and if you want to look at games by genre this will be a completely unusable mess. It's just a bizarre design choice.
But that's not the biggest issue.
The biggest issue is that this is a console aimed at families, and the Amico will constantly be advertising every title in its library at all times on its home screen. Imagine how annoying it will be when Little Timmy sees a game he wants to play but can't because you don't own it. The whining will be unbearable. This is obviously set up to inspire impulse purchases but it's going to be way over the top for little kids who will see their favorite characters in licensed games (if the Amico does well) and will immediately start begging their parents to let them play. This is like if you bought your child a Lego set and not only did it come with ads for every other Lego set but he was required to look at those ads every time he wanted to play.
There are other weird decisions for this UI (Tommy says he wanted to make sure that there was constant motion on the screen so games play little preview videos when selected which seems really annoying and a waste of time and UI space) and it all looks incredibly bare bones (one of the major features they show off is the ability to change the console's language, which, I hope so, it's 2021.) But integrating the store and the library just seems so hostile and manipulative and gross.
I know that modern console UIs are full of ads but every other console lets you just go to your library and look at the games you have and pick what you want to play. It doesn't force you to navigate the web store to play something. Honestly I'm kind of shocked and I didn't think I could be. I expected the UI to be weird and kind of bad looking, I expected bare bones, and it is, but I didn't expect it to be so...crass for lack of a better word. Even Microsoft, kings and innovators in console advertising and using space to try to sell you stuff doesn't do this. Sony has the gross thing where it installs a single game you don't own as an ad in your hot bar but you can go to your library and get away from it.
This is gross.
As a side note the system also assigns a collectors number and virtual card and token to 'physical' games, which seems kind of shitty on its own, making you feel like the digital version is inferior, but it's such a laughably dumb benefit that I can't really care about that.
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