# The Pinball Show Episode 166 BONUS: Does Call Of Duty & Fallout Work For Pinball? Will They Sell? **Source:** Pinball Show Patreon Feed **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2024-12-17 **Duration:** 21m 59s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/pinball-show-166-118155814 --- ## Analysis In this Pinball Show bonus episode, hosts discuss rumors of Stern Pinball pursuing Microsoft-owned video game franchises—Call of Duty, Fallout, and Halo—as potential pinball themes. They analyze each IP's viability for pinball design, narrative potential, and appeal to home collectors versus location operators, concluding that Fallout offers the strongest design possibilities, while Call of Duty works on popularity alone, and Halo lacks contemporary relevance despite historical significance. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Microsoft owns Activision (as of 2024) and previously acquired Bethesda, both studios behind Call of Duty and Fallout respectively — _Dennis (host) confirms Microsoft's ownership of both studios as of 2024_ - [HIGH] Call of Duty releases a new game every year through three rotating studios (Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and a third studio) on a three-year development cycle — _Primary host explains Call of Duty's release strategy and studio rotation_ - [HIGH] Fallout has an extremely successful streaming show (TV adaptation) — _Dennis mentions the recent Fallout Amazon series as a significant factor in the IP's current popularity_ - [HIGH] Halo 3 is one of the fastest-selling and biggest entertainment launches in history, with $170 million in sales within first 24 hours and 14.5 million copies sold by 2012 — _Primary host cites specific sales figures for Halo 3 during rebuttal discussion_ - [MEDIUM] Fallout's post-apocalyptic 1950s aesthetic makes it more collectible and appeals to pinball collectors with merchandise and sculptures — _Primary host observes that Fallout's visual style lends itself to collectibility compared to other FPS franchises_ - [HIGH] Call of Duty is the most popular of the three video game franchises being discussed — _Both hosts agree Call of Duty has the broadest popularity, estimated at around two billion players_ - [MEDIUM] Raw Thrills successfully brought Halo to arcade with multiple cabinet models, similar to their Pulp Fiction project — _Primary host mentions hearing rumblings about Raw Thrills' Halo arcade success and potential pinball translation_ - [MEDIUM] The earliest pinball release of any of these three franchises would be 2026 — _Dennis speculates 2026 as the earliest possible release date if rumors materialize_ - [HIGH] Halo TV series was canceled after two seasons and cited as a case of studio interference and being exceedingly dumbed down — _Primary host discusses Halo TV series cancellation and quality issues_ - [MEDIUM] Fallout's TV show on Amazon captures the spirit of the games better than comparable adaptations like Yakuza, which was too serious, and Halo, which altered established lore — _Dennis and primary host compare Fallout TV series adaptation quality to other gaming IP shows_ ### Notable Quotes > "Essentially, what a pinball machine is, is now it is no longer wipe away what you once thought it was. It's essentially a physical video game." > — **Primary Host (unnamed)**, early segment > _Frames modern pinball positioning as a video game analog rather than traditional arcade game, setting context for why video game IP licensing makes sense_ > "The primary focus of where pinball is going and has been going is the homeowner. It's more akin to a video game than it is a skee-ball machine." > — **Dennis**, opening segment > _Establishes that home collectors, not location operators, are the primary market for modern pinball machines_ > "Call of Duty is the most popular of the video games. Especially right now. That's a new release, right? Two billion people do. It's right there with FIFA and Madden." > — **Primary Host**, mid-segment > _Quantifies Call of Duty's market dominance and annual release model appeal_ > "Fallout is post-apocalyptic with a very 1950s aesthetic to it... The aesthetics and the nostalgia make it a collectible thing, too. I've went into many pinball collectors' homes, and they have sculptures of Fallout World kind of stuff." > — **Primary Host**, Fallout discussion > _Identifies Fallout's aesthetic appeal to collectors as a major advantage for pinball theming_ > "I just think Call of Duty is just – it would be so sad to come out with a game like that before Pinball has come out with what everybody's waiting for for the last decade, which is true multiplayer." > — **Dennis**, Call of Duty assessment > _Highlights concern that Call of Duty pinball would miss a major game-changing feature (true multiplayer) that pinball industry is developing_ > "Halo would be the easiest one I think to do because in that context, you have just pick one of the games straight up... The story is already written for you. Get the voice actor who does Master Chief in the video game. Get the Cortana voice actress to do the guidance of where shots you're supposed to shoot, they're done. Done and dusted." > — **Primary Host**, Halo design discussion > _Articulates the narrative and production efficiency advantages of basing Halo pinball on a single existing game_ > "I like to sell games that have really big licenses, and Halo just... I don't think it has legs anymore. Five years ago, maybe, but I don't see it." > — **Dennis**, Halo assessment > _Expresses skepticism about Halo's contemporary relevance despite historical sales success_ > "If Stern could make Foo Fighters work, if Stern could make John Wick work, if Stern could make Venom work, then sure, Fallout, to me, is right in there." > — **Primary Host**, Fallout viability discussion > _Places Fallout in context of Stern's successful non-gaming IP conversions to pinball_ > "Doing something like Pokemon makes more sense than this. Yes. There's so many nostalgic video game stuff... Mario or Zelda. One billion percent." > — **Dennis and Primary Host**, closing discussion > _Suggests Nintendo gaming IPs (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon) as superior alternatives to the Microsoft franchises being rumored_ > "The Fallout TV show is like what will not piss fans off and then let's drop in a bunch of video game easter eggs and they're going to love this stuff and then we just have to have a competent story and everyone else will come along for the ride." > — **Primary Host**, Fallout TV adaptation discussion > _Explains why Fallout TV series success provides a strong template for pinball adaptation strategy_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Stern Pinball | company | Primary pinball manufacturer being discussed as potential producer of Call of Duty, Fallout, and/or Halo pinball machines based on rumor | | Microsoft | company | Parent company that owns both Activision (Call of Duty publisher) and Bethesda (Fallout developer), creating strategic licensing opportunity for pinball | | Activision | company | Publisher of Call of Duty franchise; acquired by Microsoft in 2024 | | Bethesda | company | Developer of Fallout franchise; acquired by Microsoft several years ago | | Raw Thrills | company | Arcade game developer that created successful Halo arcade units and previously brought Pulp Fiction to arcade | | Dennis | person | Co-host of Pinball Show podcast; primarily focuses on home collector market and game design philosophy | | Knapp Arcade | company | Source of the Fallout and Call of Duty rumor reported by NAP (Nap Arcade) | | Call of Duty | game | Activision first-person shooter franchise with annual releases; rumored as potential Stern studio title | | Fallout | game | Bethesda post-apocalyptic RPG franchise with recent Amazon TV series; rumored as potential Stern studio title | | Halo | game | Microsoft Xbox first-person shooter franchise; mentioned as potential pinball theme alongside Call of Duty and Fallout | | Infinity Ward | company | One of three studios rotating on Call of Duty development; created original Call of Duty and Modern Warfare series | | Treyarch | company | One of three studios rotating on Call of Duty development; creates Black Ops sub-series | | 343 Industries | company | Current developer maintaining Halo franchise after Bungie's departure from Microsoft | | Bungie | company | Original developer of Halo franchise; now independent and created Destiny franchise post-Microsoft | | Amazon | company | Streaming platform that produced the successful Fallout TV series based on the game franchise | | Evil Dead | game | Referenced as example of pinball game that allows player selection between different themes/eras at start | | Walking Dead | game | Referenced as example of pinball game with resource gathering mechanics (medicine, food, ammo) | | Foo Fighters | game | Stern pinball game cited as example of successfully converting non-gaming IP to pinball | | John Wick | game | Stern pinball game cited as example of successfully converting non-gaming IP to pinball | | Venom | game | Stern pinball game cited as example of successfully converting non-gaming IP to pinball | ### Topics - **Primary:** Video game IP licensing for pinball, Call of Duty, Fallout, and Halo as potential pinball themes, Home collector vs. location operator market priorities, Narrative design and storytelling in pinball games, Modern pinball as 'physical video game' positioning - **Secondary:** Fallout TV series as template for IP adaptation, Microsoft's strategic ownership of gaming studios, Stern Pinball's historical IP adaptations ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.55) — Hosts are cautiously interested in the rumor but divided on execution. Fallout receives generally positive sentiment; Call of Duty is viewed as conceptually weak despite popularity; Halo is largely dismissed as lacking contemporary relevance. Skepticism about 2026 feasibility tempers overall enthusiasm. ### Signals - **[rumor_hype]** Knapp Arcade reports rumors of Stern Pinball pursuing Call of Duty and Fallout licenses from Microsoft-owned studios; no official confirmation yet (confidence: medium) — Dennis cites NAP Arcade as source of initial rumor; primary host acknowledges Call of Duty has been suggested as obvious property but Fallout+Call of Duty combination is new information - **[licensing_signal]** Microsoft's unified ownership of Activision and Bethesda creates potential for multi-license pinball portfolio or strategic bundling (confidence: high) — Dennis explicitly notes that Microsoft owning both studios makes the rumor more credible; primary host discusses this as contextual advantage - **[design_philosophy]** Hosts debate optimal narrative approaches for each IP: single-game focus (Halo), location-specific vaults (Fallout), or era-selection model (Call of Duty) (confidence: high) — Detailed discussion of how each franchise's story structure maps to pinball design; comparison to Evil Dead's selection mechanic - **[market_signal]** Hosts confirm pinball market has shifted from location operators to home collectors; video game IPs strategically target home audience, not coin-op revenue (confidence: high) — Dennis explicitly states primary focus is homeowner; primary host contrasts home market with operator needs, noting Call of Duty would struggle without home narrative appeal - **[product_strategy]** If rumors are true, Call of Duty/Fallout would be positioned as studio titles (lower-tier pricing) rather than premium LE collectibles, suggesting Stern believes these IPs appeal to broader/newer collector base (confidence: medium) — Primary host expresses surprise that NAP reported these as 'studio titles' rather than premium releases; discusses implications for target audience positioning - **[competitor_intelligence]** Raw Thrills has successfully developed Halo arcade cabinet with multiple models; potential pinball licensing competition or cross-platform strategy under Microsoft umbrella (confidence: medium) — Primary host mentions hearing rumblings about Raw Thrills' Halo arcade success and speculation about pinball expansion - **[sentiment_shift]** Community perception that Halo, despite historical dominance, has lost contemporary cultural relevance; hosts view it as aging IP without current momentum (confidence: medium) — Dennis argues Halo lacks 'legs anymore' and is not 'relevant enough right now'; primary host questions whether it's 'big enough' for modern pinball market - **[content_signal]** Fallout Amazon TV series success creates opportunity for transmedia pinball adaptation that captures show's quality rather than relying solely on video game source material (confidence: high) — Extended discussion of how TV series represents 'darling IP right now' and provides better adaptation template than video games alone; hosts compare favorably to other gaming IP shows - **[design_innovation]** Evil Dead pinball model of allowing players to select from multiple game eras/themes at start represents viable design pattern for franchises with multiple campaigns or settings (confidence: medium) — Primary host references Evil Dead's selection mechanic as potential solution for Call of Duty's multi-era campaigns - **[rumor_hype]** Hosts speculate 2026 as earliest possible release for any of the three rumored titles if rumors prove accurate (confidence: low) — Dennis states '2026 would be the earliest we've seen any of them' as speculative timeline based on typical pinball development cycle - **[competitive_signal]** Hosts argue Nintendo franchises (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon) represent superior pinball licensing opportunities compared to Microsoft game titles (confidence: medium) — Primary host suggests 'Pokemon makes more sense than this' and both hosts express strong preference for Mario/Zelda over Call of Duty/Fallout/Halo - **[industry_signal]** Microsoft's multi-studio ownership and strategic IP portfolio suggests industry consolidation may accelerate licensing negotiations for AAA franchises in pinball space (confidence: low) — Implicit in discussion of Microsoft's unified control; no explicit commentary but contextual implication of strategic advantage in licensing multiple titles --- ## Transcript Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. Alright Dennis, let's get hot and heavy on video games and pinball. When a video game and a pinball love each other so, so much. They make lots of money. They sure do. I've recently been telling people, and I feel strongly about this, people not as familiar with pinball. You know, you go to these family events and stuff. Oh, you've still got the pinball machine. I've been trying to explain people what pinball is in 2025. So I tell them, essentially, in my opinion, what a pinball machine is, is now it is no longer wipe away what you once thought it was. It's essentially a physical video game. and then they scratch their heads and then they elaborate and they said basically it is just like a video game that has levels it's got bosses it's got objectives it's got tasks it's got achievements that you can gain it's got all that stuff it's really a lot to do but it is a physical form in which you are doing it and they're like oh okay that's a lot different than what i thought it was would you agree or disagree with that yeah that's a good description I like that description. It's a physical video game. And so much so that that's what we've been talking about in weeks past, I think exclusively here on the membership content, is the whole location thing is fine and dandy. But the primary focus of where pinball is going and has been going is the homeowner. It's more akin to a video game than it is a skee-ball machine. So, with that being said, Nap Arcade saying, hey, he's hearing some rumors out there. Possible studio titles from Stern Pinball upcoming include video game licenses of Activision's Call of Duty and Bethesda's Fallout. First off, are you hearing any of this? This was the first that I'd heard about it in this context. I have heard Call of Duty in particular suggested a lot as an obvious video game property to convert over into the space of pinball. Okay. I will add something, though. Well, this was a new thing to me in terms of the nap rumor where this could even make a little more sense. Microsoft now owns both of those studios. Oh, that's good. No, I didn't know that. Yeah. They bought Bethesda a few years ago, and they just in 2024 finally got all the approvals out of the way to own Activision. Wow. Well, you know what? Speaking of Microsoft and this being, I think this is interesting as well. I had heard rumblings that, remember Raw Thrills Play Mechanics? They brought the Halo franchise to video games, a very successful arcade unit that they built. So much so that they have different models, four-player, two-player, tethered player, fire team, Ravencroft, whatever it is, the Halo series. And I heard rumblings that they were thinking about bringing Halo into pinball as they did Pulp Fiction. Interesting. Another Microsoft-owned property. So if we're talking Stern here with potentially rumored Call of Duty and Fallout, potentially Halo. Are any of these three licenses, educators, are they popular today? Yes, to varying degrees. So the Call of Duty is the most popular of the video games. Especially right now. That's a new release, right? There's a new release. They put out a release every year. This is the way, hopefully, if I'm remembering it correctly. I actually do not play Call of Duty. However, I used to. However, two billion people do. It's right there with FIFA and Madden. There are some people that it is the game that they get every year. Like we're talking like a teenager that only buys a game. For some people, it's the only thing they play, yeah. Yes, yes, because it's got a very advanced multiplayer. It's just a very active community in that regard. And the way, the last I recall looking into it, that Activision achieves this, there is a Call of Duty every year. They have three different studios doing Call of Duties. So they're able to give them a three-year development cycle and always put out a game every year. Okay, so they rotate through three. Don't they have like Modern Warfare, Black Ops? Right, right. So it's like they have Infinity Ward and they have Treyarch, and I think there's a third one, and they each have their own flavor. So those are the programmers, and then Activision's the publisher, and they have them on a cycle because Infinity Ward was the first Call of Duty maker. And then they brought in Treyarch around, I think, Call of Duty 3, and then they were alternating, and then they added a third studio to keep this behemoth going. So they put out the game. They have different styles. Like Black Ops is with one particular studio. Modern Warfare is with another particular studio. And this way, they're able to get that game out. And then when it lives on with the multiplayer, those multiplayer games have very long tails. So a lot of people will continue to play. There are some that prefer to play the Black Ops games. And so they will just keep playing that Black Ops game for three years until the new version comes for that multiplayer. Wow. So it the most popular first shooter franchise in the world Oh Shit Okay All right So that super popular video games What about Fallout So Fallout is interesting in the sense that it's not seen in the same light as a first-person shooter. It started as a 3D isometric game with Fallout 1 and 2. But its really popular incarnation started with Fallout 3 when it became a first-person slash third-person. and you can cycle to however you want. Shooter-style game. It's got interesting mechanics in terms of, like, you level your character, so it's got RPG-lite elements, so you, like, enhance your strength, enhance your ability with laser weapons, enhance your ability with melee weapons, enhance your sneak to suit your play style. And it also has a combat feature called VATS, which allows you to, like, precision target enemies, like you want to shoot their limbs, You want to shoot them in the head or the tail or whatever mutant thing you're fighting. So it lets you have a sort of degree of control in terms of how you engage with particular monsters. It's got its own universe. And, of course, one of the things that we have to remember is it now has an extremely successful streaming show. There it is. Yeah. The Fallout, to me, from an outsider perspective, because I'm not into video games, is like Fallout is kind of a darling IP right now because it's multifaceted. Yes, and the big thing about the world, obviously, the Call of Duty games, they take place in different eras. They started as a World War II game, and then it became modern combat, and then they'll do Vietnam, or they'll do the future, all that. Fallout is post-apocalyptic with a very 1950s aesthetic to it. Yes, the aesthetics and the nostalgia make it a collectible thing, too. I've went into many pinball collectors' homes, and they have sculptures of Fallout World kind of stuff. The logo, they have a mascot. They have a main mascot, and just the style and stuff lend itself to more collectability. So John Youssi people collect Fallout merchandise and stuff. So that's a big pull, too. And it's a huge multi-platform. It's on all sorts of systems. Halo is an interesting one that you mentioned. So Halo historically was confined only to Xbox devices. So Microsoft's always owned Halo. It was developed by Bungie, and now that Bungie is not with Microsoft, it's actually maintained by 343 Industries. But it struggled more than these other two. Man, it did so well initially. Yes. Halo was awesome. It was – the big thing about Halo is when the first Xbox came out, which I've played the original Halo, but not on the original Xbox. I didn't own one of those. But it pioneered the first-person shooter for console. That was a PC space. And a lot of people favor playing shooters because of the precision of a mouse on PC. But Halo was able to come in and give it a reasonable controller mechanic. And so then people were like, hey, it can be fun to play shooters with sticks on a control pad. And that launched a whole thing. Like, Call of Duty goes gangbusters on console. But Halo was the console shooter. It's what pioneered that space. And it has a very future-forward sci-fi theme. You've got advanced AI. You've got alien races. And so here you've got these three different games with three different approaches. Call of Duty being the most grounded in reality. Fallout being that very post-apocalyptic loss of technology in some ways, sort of steampunk vibe in others. And then you've got Halo, which is like humanity's future, sci-fi, laser weapons and needlers and all sorts of weird technology. For what it's worth, Halo is the only one of the three that I've played. It was like the last – it was my last stint with video games was Halo, I guess, with the first Xbox there. Cortana, is that a thing? Yeah, that was the AI. Was it Hertzhog or what was the car thing that you drove around? Warthog. Warthog, yeah. Shit. And like Call of Duty, Halo, very, very deep multiplayer community. Oh, yeah. So there are people that even if the story is crap and they're mad. They like, yeah. Like campaign. Yeah, and that's what I mostly played with Halo. I've played more multiplayer Halo than I have Call of Duty. Campaigns. And even if the campaign's deeply criticized, a lot of times, I think even the current iteration, the Halo Online is seen as in a good spot. So a lot of people just like the game modes, you know, capture the flags. Is it still popular at all as a game? Yeah, but, I mean, that one's longer in the tooth than the other. Well, Fallout's a little weird because it's been a little while since there's been a new Fallout game, a mainline Fallout game as well. But Halo's getting kind of long in the tooth in terms of needing a new title to come out. They had a TV series, wasn't as successful, right? No, the TV series was canceled. after two seasons. It was a case in point of studio interference would be how I'd describe it. It's exceedingly dumbed down. Thanks Paramount. Or whatever it came from. I don't even know. Peacock? Probably. I don't remember. I don't remember. But he needs to go back to the mountain and die. Or Yellowstone. So let's look at these as a video game. Do any of these work? Work in what way I guess the easy way is like It a studio title it under a thousand You can almost make anything work from Stern Pinball under a thousand But let just say in general would would Call of Duty lend itself to a pinball machine I don't even know how you would do that. Well, with the power of insider connected, that might be the lean there you go at. Put in some objectives that might be inspired by various video games, like destroying this base, freeing these POWs, that sort of aspect. And then can you progress things? Can you make your shots easier if you upgrade from the pistol to a machine gun? Like that angle. So I'm kind of thinking maybe some elements of gathering resources off on the side with Walking Dead, for example. Remember, you have the medicine, the food, and the ammo. Maybe you do stuff like that. You have certain shots that will give you certain abilities or maybe allow you to add more people to your squad. What's visibly iconic with that IP from an aesthetic point of view? A tank? Like what? Yeah, I mean, it's so broad. It depends if you want to narrow it or are we just talking – World War II, if you focus on that. Right. If you were to model it on a particular game, you could pull in more campaign elements like certain characters have, I think, have recurred. Again, I'm not as deeply familiar with these games. I think World War II might work in a pinball machine. Yeah, I mean, you could go that route, and those were some of the really popular ones. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1 is one of the most. Of the Call of Duties I've played, it's my favorite. That one could be a solid one that you would do. So you could theme it around one particular game if you wanted to, and then you have a cast of characters that you could rely on, because some of the fans of these games know that sort of stuff. They could do the Evil Dead thing where at the beginning you just pick your game you want to play. Yeah. Again, though, I'm thinking with the play field art and stuff, like, obviously, if we're bouncing around between, like, modernity and World War II, there's going to be a problem. So you kind of have to pick a lane. I just think Call of Duty is just – it would be so sad to come out with a game like that before Pinball has come out with what everybody's waiting for for the last decade, which is true multiplayer. We're getting so much closer to that, but that makes sense to me, especially with Call of Duty, coming out with it whenever I can play you in Kansas at the same time. That makes sense to me. Otherwise, I just don't get it, really. I think it's probably, of the three, I think it's actually the weakest theme for pinball. I would have guessed number two there. Well, I think, you know, I think I think Fallout and Halo, it will be an easier ability to tell a story. But Call of Duty is the most popular of these three video games. So just on theme alone. Possibly. This is where I was a little surprised. I'm not surprised. Not the right word. But when NAP had reported that the rumor is that these are studio titles, I was like, really? Because the one thing all three of these have going for them is it would be great for operators to have pros with any of these. because that's where this value is. To this day, even shitty little Super Mario World is a great earner on location. It's not about the gameplay. It's just about being in that world and hearing those call-outs and hearing those sound effects. And same with Street Fighter probably could make okay money, but the difference is Mario is better known. Call of Duty is like that. just having Call of Duty, it making the same, like the tanks sound like the tanks, the guns sound like the proper guns. It's like if you were to do a Forza or a Gran Turismo pinball game, you need the cars to sound like the actual cars. And then people will come and they'll put quarters in. But that's not obviously, if it's a studio title, that's not the target. The target is clearly going to be the home audience, in which case Call of Duty is just the hardest one to tell a story with. With Fallout, you could either take a specific game and tell a story, or do like what the TV show did. The way the games have always worked is you are a vault dweller coming out of the vault, and each game is a different vault. So you come out of a different vault, and you're in a different state. Like Fallout 3 was set in Washington, D.C. Oh, okay. Fallout New Vegas was set in Las Vegas, and Fallout 4 was – I forget where. And Fallout 76 was set in West Virginia. So they give you a little location and you explore that world so you can have that. And in the case of Fallout, you've got all these creatures that are the same. You've got the Death Claws and you've got the Super Mutants. And you can have it be really goofy and quirky and you can go about it. So you could either invent your own story and do that or you could crib straight from one of these games like Fallout 3 and say, hey, let's go on the journey of trying to find the dad. Is Liam Neeson available to do the voice work for the pinball like he was for the game and be the dad? Who's Baby Billy with his nose missing? What's that guy? Oh, yeah, that's Walter Groggins. Yes. Sure. Is there a character in there? Do a pinball. That would probably be the smartest is do a pinball kind of set in the world of the TV show version. I was going to say that my worry is if starting to get their hands on it, they would lean more towards video game and get all the assets rather than the Amazon series. Sure. and again we talking about it in a video game context so that would be the I mean it what they do with comics now Let not theme it around the movie Let theme it around a comic It gives them more flexibility Which one do you think works better? I think with adults, with spending money, I think doing the show is the strongest choice. I think so. If they can get it out soon enough, because we don't know what's going to happen in development time of a pinball machine. I bet the series goes no less than three seasons with popularity. It might squeeze a Walking Dead four and five season that nobody watches. Walking Dead squeezed like ten. It's hot right now. It's honestly a series that I was not as strong of. I've watched it. It wasn't as strong to me as it was everybody else. You didn't have the touchstone of the games. Yeah. So I just. Yeah. The thing about the show that works so well for people is it actually captures the spirit of the games. The new Yakuza show I've heard does not capture like Yakuza is a silly game. And the Yakuza TV show is serious. Halo took all of the lore of Halo and like upended it. And case in point being Master Chief going around without his helmet on for entire episodes. And in the game, you almost never see him without his helmet. there's just stuff like that that pissed fans off but fallout was like what will not piss fans off and then let's drop in a bunch of video game easter eggs and they're going to love this stuff and then we just have to have a competent story and everyone else will come along for the ride no that's not so fallout i think potentially could work i think fallout might be the one i want the most i yeah i agree i want sit precious because there's so many modalities that they've created within that ip that's what helps that's what helps it out now halo would be the easiest one I think to do because in that context, you have just pick one of the games straight up. There's not any good TV show or they've done some animated things. None of those are worth farming. You take Halo Reach and do the Fall of Reach or you want to emphasize Master Chief, you're going to do something like Halo 3. You're going to take that and you're going to have those missions. You're going to play through those story elements. The story is already written for you. Get the voice actor who does Master Chief in the video game. Get the Cortana voice actress to do the guidance of where shots you're supposed to shoot, they're done. Done and dusted. Super easy. Halo would be the easiest. I already dozed off. I just don't think that's a good idea. Halo's just... No. It's no. People love... Again, we're trying to sell this to people who know the games. And there are millions of people that know Halo 3. It was like the game to get on the Xbox 360. It is beloved. And it is seen as one of the strongest games, if not the strongest game that they ever made? It's I don't know. For me, it's like, you know, I like Elton John music, but do I need it as a pinball machine? No, you don't. And you don't need Halo, but you know who does need Halo? Little Billy. Little Billy needs Halo. Or Little Billy will never own pinball. I like to sell games that have really big licenses, and Halo just... So you don't... Okay, so your issue with Halo is you don't think it's big enough. I don't think it's, well, big enough is one thing, relevant enough right now. I think dipping back into it 20 years from now, maybe, but I don't think it has legs anymore. Five years ago, maybe, but I don't see it. Halo, I had to do a quick search. Halo 3, fastest selling video game ever, held the record for biggest entertainment launch in history, $170 million in sales within the first 24 hours. $300 million in one week. Well, answer me this then, to rebuttal that. 14.5 million copies sold as of 2012. Do you think that Destiny would do well as a pinball machine? No. Why not? Because, boy, that was big. No, because I don't play it. My point being... No, Destiny could do okay. I mean, that's Bungie's sequel title when they went off away. And it was hot, and then it was not. And there's Destiny 2. Yeah, you know what? With a multiplayer base, it probably could do pretty well. Again, it's a game that I think you want to have on location, but I think that's true for all of these. Yeah, I think... I don't know how strong the story is. I played the demo of Destiny, and I couldn't get into it, but they made a lot of improvements after I demoed it. I think you can make Fallout work here, because, especially if you're Stern, if Stern could make Foo Fighters work, if Stern could make John Wick work, if Stern could make Venom work, then sure, Fallout, to me, is right in there. But Call of Duty, I think it could work on name alone, but I don't see Halo. Don't see it. Okay. Are we going to see it, though? Are we going to see any of those? I'm still skeptical. I think 2026 would be the earliest we've seen any of them. Yeah. Doing something like Pokemon makes more sense than this. Yes. There's so many nostalgic video game stuff. Yes. Gosh. What? And honestly, if they have it, they should be trying to have talks, Stern should, with Nintendo about something like Mario. One billion percent. Mario or Zelda. Jeez. You can turn it off now. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 1ad12f41-807a-49f6-8f0f-ca45c5946248*