Cloanto should be doing more
Update2: Some of the information and suggestion in this Blog Post actually apply to Amiga Corp and not Cloanto, so to call it “Cloanto should be doing more” might of been a mistake. I was lucky enough to discussion some of these point with CEO of both companies, Mike Battilan at Kickstart 1 Uk Amiga show on 1st July 2023, and he explained a fair bit of why some thing have’nt happened yet. I decided not to alter my original little rant/suggestion blog and the good thing he took note and suggestions, so I hope he/the two companies take my ideas. Just bear in mind that when Im asking Cloanto to do more it, they may not be able to, it might be Amiga Corp that would have to do it. But also the legal issues, quality control, resources etc are all reasons why some of these thing may not be possible.
——Original Blog
Update: this topic was discussed at length on AmigaWorld https://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=44420&forum=2 some of the issues with Cloanto not being able to do more could be due to the legal battle over the rights to AmigaOS between Hyperion & Cloanto so giving them the benefit of doubt I guess some of the below cant be done, but hope they take some of these ideas forward to keep the Amiga brand out their.
So Cloanto has secured the rights to the Amiga brand for nearly three years now, since 2019, so far the biggest project I see them involved with (well simply licensing the Roms) to Retro Games LTD to allow them to make The A500 Mini.
But what else are they doing, are they simply going to become a simple licensing business. Yes they do fund WinUAE development and keep providing Amiga Forever updates, but I feel they should and could be doing much more.
Perfect example is the website, Amiga.com, the official home of Amiga Inc, the place where you meant to maybe find out what Amiga inc is up to and what products are out. But it has nothing on there, not even a link to their own Amiga Forever product, just a link to their Twitter Account.
The A500 mini might be the biggest exposure for the Amiga community for a long while and the official site does nothing to inform new customers about the platform.
Also if Cloanto main business is going to be Amiga Forever, Licensing Amiga Roms and licensing Amiga branding, then they should be doing a lot more even in this market.
Having the Amiga forever product on their own site hidden away does not give the product exposure to the wider audience, let’s face it people don’t shop by going to individual websites anyone, they go to the mega sites like Amazon and digital apps stores like Steam/Epic.
Here what I do if i was Cloanto / in charged / had the money,
- Secure rights to as many Amiga classic games and titles as possible.
- Build an App store integrated to Amiga Forever selling above titles for maybe a pound / dollar each?
- Open up the store to allow third parties to submit Amiga titles and software. 20% commission to cover hosting, managing and running of said app store, with any profit going into securing more apps
- Get and sell Amiga Forever on other digital stores and website, Amazon, GOG, Steam, Epic and Microsoft store etc (if the above doesn’t conflict with their policies)
- You could even sell Amiga games individual with Amiga emulator launcher (just like Wings does it now on GOG) on these platforms
- Make Amiga Forever for Android / Linux, launch on that platform (not just the Roms, a full emulator system would be nice)
- Make a Amiga Gaming Collection pack for Console Platforms ( Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo )
(also you could make this pack for all the online stores listed in part 4.) (This is just like Sega’s Mega Drive Collection game pack that’s come out on every console since ps2 and made Sega a good amount of money and awareness of the Mega Drive / Genesis system, that kids today didn’t grow up with.) - Work with the community to have competitions to make new games and apps with maybe mini prizes. try working with other developers to get more apps and new apps on the Amiga platform.
- Buy Amikit and rebrand, make it say Amiga Forever OS for Pi, Windows, Linux to be sold with the app store integrated thanks to Rabbit Hole.
- Work with Pi or Retro Games and make a better Mini Amiga system that has internet abilities and can run Amiga Forever Os (like the Pi4 runs Amikit now) that can connect to the net and run the apps store and have it a dual boot system that takes you into either the games or OS for easy of use for the customers who may just want Amiga games.
- Hopefully make money from the above to pay for new apps and advertising
- If enough money is made, make AmigaOS5 on the best hardware ever and we all live happily ever after..
It is just a thought and don’t mean to attack Cloanto, maybe they do have bigger plans and some are held back until the whole Hyperion Vs Cloanto ownership of AmigaOS3.1 source is sorted out.
It’s just a feeling that more should and could be done with the Brand. The above wouldn’t cost that much to do, even if we took away the app store idea. Amiga Forever should at the very least be on one of the leading app store if for no other reason than exposure to a wider audience, as most of these apps store automatically promote programs on the store so someone or a user who look or buys a lot of retro games may get suggested to try out the Amiga forever package, we then get a new fan into the world of Amiga.
Steam would be the platform I would put it on and maybe work with devs to support the new steam deck all this would help raise the Amiga platform awareness.
I just feel we’re currently missing an easy opportunity to maybe expand/expose the Amiga market and get the Amiga back out there. just one fans feelings