# Episode 954: "Just Say 'F Off' and Be Happy!"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-05-14  
**Duration:** 21m 35s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-954-just-104226037

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## Analysis

Kaneda celebrates the birth of his son Cassian and reflects on life priorities while delivering a passionate critique of pinball pricing across the industry. He argues that John Wick's poor sales, combined with overpriced games from Stern and Jersey Jack, have driven the community to collectively reject new machines at current price points. He announces exclusive details about Pedretti Gaming's Funhaus remake (750 LE units at undisclosed price, $7,500 OG edition) and criticizes marketing missteps by Dutch Pinball and other manufacturers, calling for price corrections back to 2019-2020 levels (~$10K ceiling).

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] John Wick sales poll shows over 1,000 respondents indicating very poor sales interest, threatening Stern's ability to move inventory — _Kaneda conducted and reported on a poll about John Wick purchase intent; results form basis for sales failure analysis_
- [MEDIUM] Elton John and Toy Story CE are not selling despite being positioned as premium products, attributable solely to overpricing not theme quality — _Kaneda's assertion based on community sentiment and comparison to Iron Maiden adoption despite theme indifference_
- [MEDIUM] No modern Stern game is worth current asking prices; even Jaws LEs have dropped from $13K to $12K and will slide further to $11K — _Kaneda's market observation based on secondary market pricing trends_
- [HIGH] Funhaus remake will have 750 LE units with Brian Allen artwork; OG edition at $7,500 with optional Rudy's Nightmare 2.0 code upgrade for $400 — _Kaneda claims exclusive announcement directly from Andrea Pedretti; detailed specifications provided_
- [MEDIUM] 11,000 original Funhaus machines exist in the market, suggesting limited pent-up demand for a remake — _Kaneda's estimate; not independently verified_
- [MEDIUM] Stern has no games in production pipeline for next four months after John Wick, leaving dealer inventory exposed — _Kaneda's prediction based on stated release timeline (Metallica in four months)_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky's recent games including Labyrinth did not sell out, signaling market resistance to new machine launches — _Kaneda's observation of sell-through rates across boutique manufacturers_
- [HIGH] Dutch Pinball announced DPX prematurely without completion of Lebowski production, creating negative narrative control and community mockery — _Kaneda's direct criticism of Barry (Dutch Pinball) and observation of podcast commentary_

### Notable Quotes

> "Two words, F off. That's it. I'm not mad at you. I don't want to fight you. I'm not going to fly to Chicago and start a fight or try to burn down a factory. I just want to tell you when you try to sell me James Bond 60th for $20,000..."
> — **Kaneda**, ~5:30 mark
> _Encapsulates community sentiment toward manufacturers; establishes tone of reasoned frustration rather than hostility_

> "And I think the rest of us actually have all the power because we have all the money. And if we stop buying, I think everything is going to be better."
> — **Kaneda**, ~13:00 mark
> _Core argument: consumer power through purchasing restraint can force price corrections_

> "And here's the lesson of John Wick. It's not that the game is terrible. It's not that it doesn't have guns on the artwork. It's this. The game does not deliver what the price of the game is."
> — **Kaneda**, ~25:00 mark
> _Reframes John Wick failure as value proposition issue, not gameplay or theme quality_

> "10K is the ceiling, people. And if you don't think 10K is the ceiling, just look at what happened with Funhaus."
> — **Kaneda**, ~37:00 mark
> _Establishes specific price target ($10K) as market equilibrium based on historical precedent_

> "I broke for the world yesterday for you exclusively on Canada's Pinball Podcast. I broke for you the details of Funhaus by Pedretti Gaming."
> — **Kaneda**, ~40:00 mark
> _Claims exclusive insider information about Funhaus specs; demonstrates Kaneda's access to manufacturer details_

> "Why'd you even announce DPX when you announced it? You weren't done making Lebowski's... You've done nothing since then and now they're just making fun of the name. They're calling it like Double Penetration X."
> — **Kaneda**, ~58:00 mark
> _Critiques Dutch Pinball's announcement strategy and notes community narrative damage_

> "Don't go in. Don't bail them out of their greedy mistakes... Stern, you did it to yourself. F off. We're all happy with ourselves."
> — **Kaneda**, ~74:00 mark
> _Final rallying cry to community to maintain purchasing resistance; frames as collective action_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda (Chris Kooluris) | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast; independent commentator; new father celebrating birth of son Cassian; vocal critic of pinball pricing; operator of Canada Club Patreon community |
| Cassian | person | Kaneda's newborn son; named after Cassian Andor from Star Wars; referenced as life priority shift |
| Killian | person | Kaneda's older son; mentioned as part of expanded family; cries audibly at episode end |
| Brenda | person | Kaneda's wife; described as doing great post-birth; identified as family priority |
| Gary Stern | person | CEO of Stern Pinball; referenced as culpable in pricing strategy; implicitly accused of collusion with other industry figures |
| Seth Davis | person | Stern Pinball executive; named as party allegedly colluding on pricing; implied to support current pricing structure |
| George Gomez | person | Legendary pinball designer at Stern; cited as not requiring damage control tour for Jaws, implying it succeeded on merit; accused of collusion on pricing |
| Jack Guarneri | person | Jersey Jack Pinball executive; accused of 'arbitrary pricing'; characterized as not intervening to stop price escalation |
| Keith Elwin | person | Pinball personality; questioned whether he stopped manufacturers from raising prices |
| Andrea Pedretti | person | Founder of Pedretti Gaming; developing Funhaus remake; consulted by Kaneda on marketing strategy; committed to no future variants of Brian Allen art version |
| Brian Allen | person | Artist creating new artwork for Funhaus LE; first official OEM release as lead artist; artwork described as 'stunning' with extensive Easter eggs |
| Nick Parks | person | US distributor receiving 400 units of Funhaus LE for distribution |
| Barry (Barry Spaan) | person | Owner of Dutch Pinball; criticized for poor marketing of Alice in Wonderland and DPX announcements; complimented for recent company success |
| Kevin Kulik | person | Hypothetical example of personality whose IP attachment could secure investor backing even for speculative ventures |
| Andrew McBain | person | Founder of Pinball Adventures; cited as ongoing business despite presumed losses |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; primary target of pricing criticism; John Wick underperformance; four-month production gap through Metallica release |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer; Elton John game not selling despite perceived quality; pricing criticized |
| Pedretti Gaming | company | Developer of Funhaus remake; two-tier product strategy (OG and LE); 750 LE unit production commitment |
| Dutch Pinball | company | Barry's company; recent success; criticized for DPX and Alice in Wonderland announcement strategy; Lebowski still in production |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer; recent games (Labyrinth) did not sell out; market resistance noted |
| John Wick L.E. | game | Stern pinball release; poor sales indicated by poll; Kaneda characterizes as failure; primary case study for pricing problem |
| James Bond 60th | game | Stern title; listed at $20,000; example of perceived overpricing by Kaneda |
| Elton John | game | Jersey Jack release; not selling despite perceived quality; attributed to overpricing, not theme |
| Toy Story CE | game | Jersey Jack release priced at ~$15,000; not selling; compared unfavorably to The Bomb at $4,500 |
| Funhaus (Pedretti Gaming) | game | Remake of classic Bally/Williams title; Kaneda announces exclusive specs: 750 LE units with Brian Allen art, $7,500 OG edition, $400 Rudy's Nightmare 2.0 upgrade, Lior topper TBD |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pinball pricing and affordability crisis, John Wick sales failure and market rejection, Funhaus remake announcement and product strategy, Consumer purchasing power and boycott strategy
- **Secondary:** Manufacturer marketing and announcement timing failures, Jersey Jack pricing and Elton John underperformance, Kaneda's personal life transition and values reorientation
- **Mentioned:** Secondary market pricing trends and inventory pressure on dealers

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.35) — Kaneda expresses profound personal joy about newborn son and family, but deep frustration and disappointment with industry pricing strategy. Tone shifts from celebratory opening to increasingly pointed critique, culminating in explicit rejection messaging ('F off'). Frustration is couched as reasoned resignation rather than anger—he maintains that companies won't go bankrupt, but calls for collective consumer restraint. Final sentiment is determination to hold the line on purchasing.

### Signals

- **[product_concern]** John Wick poll with 1,000+ respondents indicates severe sales resistance; Kaneda characterizes as 'utter failure' attributable to poor value proposition at current pricing (confidence: high) — I put a poll up...over a thousand people contributed to the poll. And man, oh man, oh man, if those results are accurate, it is going to be pretty tough for Stern Pinball to move these games.
- **[market_signal]** Kaneda establishes $10K as historical pricing ceiling; argues Jaws LEs are already dropping from $13K to $12K to $11K, signaling market-driven price correction (confidence: medium) — Even Jaws LEs now are sliding down to 12. They're going to slide back down to 11...10K is the ceiling, people.
- **[sentiment_shift]** Broad shift in community sentiment from FOMO-driven purchasing to collective rejection of new machines at premium prices; Kaneda argues this is permanent unless prices adjust (confidence: high) — new in box FOMO is dead...not enough of these games are bangers. And when it's not a banger, there's no FOMO and then you're in real trouble.
- **[leak_detection]** Kaneda announces exclusive specs for Pedretti Gaming's Funhaus remake including LE count (750), base price ($7,500 OG), code upgrade ($400), and art details; claims direct source from Andrea Pedretti (confidence: high) — I broke for the world yesterday for you exclusively on Canada's Pinball Podcast. I broke for you the details of Funhaus by Pedretti Gaming...750 of them...That edition is $7,500.
- **[product_launch]** Funhaus LE release pending at 10 a.m. on broadcast day; OG and LE two-tier product strategy with differentiated art and features (confidence: high) — Funhaus is coming out today...I think, at 10 a.m.
- **[business_signal]** Stern faces four-month production gap between John Wick and Metallica with no new releases; dealer inventory of unsold premiums creates financial pressure (confidence: medium) — Remember, the next game is not coming out for four months. Nobody's buying John Wick...Dealers are sitting on a ton of unsold premiums.
- **[industry_signal]** Recent Spooky Pinball releases including Labyrinth did not sell out, indicating market-wide resistance to new machine launches regardless of manufacturer (confidence: medium) — none of the new spooky games sold out. Labyrinth didn't sell out.
- **[product_strategy]** Kaneda argues manufacturers are over-relying on LE variants and anniversary editions to drive revenue; notes Stern cannot sustain this pattern without new hit titles (confidence: medium) — They're not going to be able to throw an anniversary edition on the line. They're not going to be able to remake another LE. They're screwed.
- **[content_signal]** Kaneda's editorial stance on pricing reaches 1,000+ poll respondents and broader Patreon community; his Saturday Morning Spectacular gun criticism sparked multi-creator response (confidence: high) — I saw all these content creators bicker back and forth about gun gate, making videos, slamming each other, apologizing...I'm never going to apologize ever for the video I put up on Saturday morning spectacular.
- **[design_philosophy]** Kaneda argues modern artists (Zombie Yeti, Franchi) would improve classic game aesthetics; Funhaus LE provides test case with Brian Allen's new art on established IP (confidence: medium) — modern artwork on these games is way better than it was in the Bally Williams period. It just is...Like if Zombie Yeti did the artwork on Adam's Family...it wouldn't be better?
- **[regulatory_signal]** Kaneda notes Alice in Wonderland (unannounced) pairing with Zombie Yeti, implying IP licensing challenges; suggests JJP needs aggressive marketing to overcome artist/community skepticism (confidence: medium) — like you're just going to watch all this money go in other directions...There's 500 people that want to spend like $14,000 on an untested sort of new brand, an old J-pop IP with like Zombie Yeti artwork and Zombie Yeti wants nothing to do with it.

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## Transcript

 Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Kaneda is Daddy 2.0. What a day yesterday. Oh my gosh. For those of you out there that have witnessed the birth of a child, there is nothing like it. Mama is doing great. Little baby Cassian is doing great. Yes, Cassian. I named him after Cassian Andor, the leader of the rebellion. I always wanted kids that had my initials, so Killian and Cassian, the start of the Peaky Blinder family. That is our little blended Irish-Italian-Greek family. It's going to be amazing. I am still on a high. When you see that little baby take that first breath, it's so incredible, and there are little fingers wrapped around your finger. It's everything. We have given birth to a life form, a little baby that will not be buying John Wick L. Lee. It doesn't seem like anybody's really buying this game. I put a poll up. I put an innocuous poll up that was like, how many people are buying this game? And over a thousand people contributed to the poll. And man, oh man, oh man, if those results are accurate, it is going to be pretty tough for Stern Pinball to move these games. We're going to talk a little bit about that, but I want to just talk about after my last show and after giving birth and after all of this stuff, all the commentary, all of your feedback, Rod and joining the Canada Club at $30 a month in Australia. Welcome, brother, to the Omokase Club and all the great feedback I got on that R-rated Canada show where I basically summarized how we all feel about Stern Pinball's pricing in 2024. The same way we all feel about Jersey Jack pricing in 2024. Two words, F off. That's it. I'm not mad at you. I don't want to fight you. I'm not going to fly to Chicago and, you know, start a fight or try to burn down a factory. I just want to tell you when you try to sell me James Bond 60th for $20,000 and you think an Elton John and a Toy Story CE are worth $15,000 when the bomb's $4,500 and then you want to triple the price of a Black Knight topper and then you want to charge us like $2,000 for a Foo Fighter topper and then you want to remake more anniversary editions and then you want to send George Gomez on a damage control tour. Did you see George Gomez having to do like an entire media tour when Jaws Pinball came out? Nope. He didn't go anywhere. He didn't have to go anywhere because the game was fine. Like people saw the value in it. And that's why when you add it all up, ladies and gentlemen, when you add up how everyone's feeling right now, it's just F off. And it's with a shoulder shrug. I'm not that mad. I just don't care anymore. I don't care anymore. At these prices, these games are not hitting. They're not landing. And with the whole world going bonkers, I was just reading a story. This girl goes to Shake Shack just to get a Shake Shack dinner with her friend. I'm talking two burgers, two fries, and two drinks. And she leaves Shake Shack with a $58 bill. The world is crazy right now and it's happening everywhere. And the easiest place to say no is pinball. And here's why I think people are saying no right now. And I mean this when I say this, I don't think you've fallen out of love with pinball at all. I don't think you're tired of pinball content creators. It was really fun last week seeing all these content creators bicker back and forth about gun gate, making videos, slamming each other, apologizing, say, hey, if I just thought differently, look, I'm never going to apologize ever for the video I put up on Saturday morning spectacular. I'm never going to take back anything I said there because I don't disagree with anything I said there. I didn't make it political. I didn't get into some silly debate. I didn't sort of lob insults at other people and how they feel about guns and this and that. I don't care about that. What I care about is that we're all getting ripped off and I will never rescind that podcast. I will never take it back. I will never apologize for what I said because I think I articulated in such a dramatic and entertaining fashion how mostly everybody feels. Almost everybody who out there wants pinball prices to be this stupid other than Seth Davis, Gary Stern, George Gomez, right? Who else didn't step in and stop this? Did Jack Guarnieri stop it? Did Keith Elwin stop it? Did anyone stop it? And so all of your beloved pinball gods and luminaries, they've all been colluding behind the scenes to make pinball this damn expensive. And I think the rest of us actually have all the power because we have all the money And if we stop buying I think everything going to be better And when we stop buying prices are going to come down It just that simple These companies are not going to go out of business It almost like impossible for a pinball company to go out of business right Zidware is still around in some way, right? People are buying the IP of Zidware still in 2024. Haggis Pinball has been losing money for 18,000 years and they're still around. Heck, the way pinball is going, I wouldn't be surprised if Kevin Kulik comes out of nowhere and says he's going to make total recall pinball and people would probably still invest in it because that's pinball. As long as that word exists attached to any business plan or idea, it's going to stay alive for a really long time. Ninja Eclipse, look at pinball adventures, right? Has Andrew McBain's company gone out of business? No, they're still around. They're still kicking. And that's why Canada's Pinball Podcast, even with a brand new baby, will still be kicking. Okay. But here's the I think all of us are just telling them to F off. We think you're ripping us off. And here's the other part. And this is the real part about all of it. And I realized this yesterday when I was holding Cassian and I was overwhelmed with the amount of happiness and joy as I looked and I brought Killian to see Cassian for the first time. And there it was like the three most important things in my world were Brenda and my two boys. And there we were, the four of us together. And this is it. Like this is everything we ever need to truly be happy. Like everything else is just ancillary to this. Everything else, as long as all of us can maintain our health and happiness and be together as much as possible, we will have one at life and we should all be aiming towards longevity and moments together that matter, right? And pinball is not the center of that. Pinball will never be the center of that. Now, what pinball can do really well is create a community in which you can find people that become your extended family. And I mean that. While my family is small, my nucleus family is small, my extended pinball family is big. And I love my pinball family. And I don't want to wake up without my pinball family. But my family in pinball means way more. You mean way more to me than any machine ever. my conversations with each and every one of you that I talk to mean more to me than any pinball machine would ever mean to me the things we do together are more valuable than any damn wizard mode I just saw a guy got to the end of James Bond and someone's like how long did it take you to get there and he's like 45 to 50 minutes and I just thought about that for a minute what that would mean to play a 50 minute game of pinball and I'm telling you right now instead of doing that I would much rather hang out with you guys for 50 minutes, drink in sake, have an omakase in Tokyo, a moment we would never forget, versus playing James Bond for 50 minutes. And I don't care what he gets to with his 14 billion points or whatever it is. It doesn't matter. Life is very short. It's very precious. And here's the thing. I think for most of us, we're all coming to this realization. And it's two things that are colliding. One thing is all of these companies are ripping us off. The other thing is that you have amazing games you're happy with. And that is the thing. That is the big issue happening in pinball. And that's why John Wick is an utter failure. And that's why John Wick will always be a failure. And that's why John Wick will never succeed. And it's going to be a learning lesson for Stern. And I'm happy so many of us are going to teach them this lesson. Here's the lesson of John Wick. It's not that the game is terrible. It's not that it doesn't have guns on the artwork. It's this. The game does not deliver what the price of the game is. No modern Stern does or will ever or can ever. Even Jaws LEs now are sliding down to 12. They're going to slide back down to 11 after 12. And this is what happens, okay? So no modern Stern is worth what these ripoff prices are. and then you're looking at your lineup and you've got games much better than John Wick. So if you think about that, okay, so they're ripping me off. I've already got great games. A lot of them are from Stern that I got for much less money. I'm happy. I'm happy. I don't need to go on on this new thing. F off. F off. Now, maybe you don't need to say F off. You can say I'm not interested, whatever it is. But that poll is not lying. And Stern is going to hear us. And Jersey Jack is going to hear us. Elton John is a great game. It's not selling. There's only one reason it's not selling. It's not because it's Elton John. So many of you guys bought Iron Maiden and you don't even like the music. So many of you guys bought other machines where you didn't love the themes, but you love the game. And the reason you went in is it wasn't priced that astronomical. That's the only reason why. Jersey Jack has just released the greatest game it's ever made and it's not selling. And it's because it's overpriced. And that's that, ladies and gentlemen. And so I think everybody's just going to end up being get ready for it. I think all of you are going to be happier when you stop buying these expensive rip off new in box games. I think you're going to really wait for the thing that really speaks to you. And I think as you get happier and as you wait and as you force these companies to do one simple thing everyone going to get happier We going to force them to lower their prices And when they do that they going to be happier because they're going to know they did the right thing. I mean that. Seth Davis is not going to destroy this hobby. Jack Guarnieri's arbitrary pricing is not going to destroy this hobby. They're going to be happier because they're going to know they did the right thing. Dealers and distros are going to be happier because they're finally going to be able to give you a product that's not a tanking asset. And we're going to be able to be happier because we're going to get prices back to where they were in 2019, 2020. That's it. That's the ceiling, people. 10K is the ceiling. And if you don't think 10K is the ceiling, just look at what happened with Funhaus. Now, look, Funhaus is coming out today. We're going to see it, I think, at 10 a.m. Here's my prediction about Funhaus. There's going to be 750. Now, I broke for the world yesterday for you exclusively on Canada's Pinball Podcast. I broke for you the details of Funhaus by Pedretti Gaming. They are now making two versions of the game, a classic edition and a limited edition. Now, I reached out to Andrea Pedretti, and I said, look, man, I'm gonna give you some free marketing advice. My going rate at Weber is like 400, no, it's $530 an hour. I'm gonna give you some free advice. Do not call the base level of Funhaus the classic edition. And I said, the reason why is that CE now stands for collector's edition. And if you call it the CE, but you mean classic, it's just annoying. Just call it the OG edition, right? It's Funhaus OG edition. It's got the original artwork, the original code, the original everything. So just call it the OG and people will be thankful. That edition is $7,500. It has the same art package as the Bally Williams game. You can upgrade this with a 2.0 code, which is Rudy's Nightmare. And the reason why that's only $400 and not like $2,000, when you upgrade it in original Funhaus to this 2.0 kit, you had to change the boards in it. You had to add those fast boards. And because this game comes with the fast boards, you don't have to spend all that money. It's just a software upgrade. Now look, the LE is really the one that's going to get all the attention. I heard Brian Allen's art package on this game is absolutely stunning. So that is going to be on the new play field, on the translate, on the cabinet, on the backbox, on the speaker panel area, everywhere. Like this thing is all new looking and they're only going to make 750. Now look, I say only with a caveat. Is that too many? I'll talk about that in a second. So 750 of them. The game is going to come with both the original code and Rudy's Nightmare. It has a shaker motor. It has a Lior topper that they're going to make available at a later date. That's annoying. Everything should be ready on day one. Where's Lior's GNR topper? I'm so tired of this. Gang, your topper needs to be ready on day one. It's too far along where people don't get this. The Apron LED RGB light show is exclusive to the LE. There's a premium sound system. There's magic glass. There's Rudy Eye light show. Not sure what that is, but I know they updated Rudy on the outside. So now he's going to have some light show going on. There's back glass title lights that are exclusive to the LE. A numbered plaque, an engraved watch. You're going to be able to get an engraved watch. Nick Parks is getting 400 of these to distribute in the US. There's a two-year warranty on the game, one year on all the parts, which is actually not bad in pinball. And I also asked Andrea Pedretti. I was like, look, man, if this game sells well, you better not come out with another version that has Brian Allen's artwork that's not the LE. And he's like, nope, this is it. So if you buy one, just feel good that they're not going to hoodwink you a few months from now. Now, here's the thing with all of this. I think this is going to be an interesting test of the market. Funhaus has a lot of games out there. I think there's something like 11,000 original Funhaus machines. I don't think people were really clamoring for more Funhaus games, but they did something smart. They've upgraded the way the game looks. And for those of you who are like, oh, it should have been the original and they're going to sell you the original, but let's face it, modern artwork on these games is way better than it was in the Bally Williams period. It just is. Like if Zombie Yeti did the artwork on Adam's Family, you don't think it would be better? If Franchi did the artwork on these games, it wouldn't be better? Of course it would be better. Now look, this is Brian Allen's like shot here. I mean him. You know, Brian Allen's been on the sidelines like making additional things, but he's never had like an official OEM release game like this, albeit it's a remake. But what I've heard about this game is nothing short of it's stunning. It's awesome. There's lots of Easter eggs. Like it looks incredible And I think this game you know even though there going to be 750 I think it going to be the fun house If you want a fun house everybody going to want Now that the big question Do you want a fun house for around right And then the Leora Topper you know is going to be another And so that's where we're at, right? Everything is a huge test of the market. And look, I'm just going to say this. I'm shopping for cars right now. And I got a really fun little two-seater sports car I'm going to get for my little zip-zip around town. And it's just crazy to me that this car is basically like just the price of two and a half pinball machines. And I'm like, how did it get to this? You know, so my money's going there. My money's going to furniture for the new house. I am not buying any pinball machines anytime soon. I'm happy about that. I'm going to wait to see what Back to the Future has. I've also been knocking on Barry's door. Knock, knock, knocking on Barry's door. Yeah. And I've been saying, Barry, you know, what's up with this Alice in Wonderland. Like you guys are doing nothing to keep the excitement going. And I keep telling them, you guys are making a mistake. Like you're just going to watch all this money go in other directions and come July, I don't think you're going to be able to just like pull the curtain off and Alice in Wonderland game. And all of a sudden there's going to be 500 people that want to spend like $14,000 on an untested sort of new brand, an old J-pop IP with like Zombie Yeti artwork and Zombie Yeti wants nothing to do with it. I think they need to get out more with some weekly teases and at least have like a launch date. I don't know. Everything just feels like, yeah, we did this. Why'd you even do it? Like, why'd you even announce DPX when you announced it? Like it didn't seem like it made any sense whatsoever. You weren't done making Lebowski's. And this is the thing. I love Barry. I know what he's doing over there. I'm really happy of Dutch Pinball's successes over the last few years. But man, it's just another example of marketing done wrong. You didn't really have a strategy. Why did you have to announce DPX? There was no point doing it the way you did it. And you've done nothing since then. And I listened to other pinball podcasters. and now they're just making fun of the name. They're calling it like Double Penetration X. And like, come on, you gotta get out there and control the narrative. And I think Stern learned that the hard way last week. I think all these companies are starting to learn this as I look over across the pinball world and none of the new spooky games sold out. Labyrinth didn't sell out. We gotta look at that factory, right? And it's not easy, right? It's not easy. A lot of these companies have a lot of overhead and they've got to move new in box games. And if people like you and me start to turn off our new in box purchases and new in box FOMO is dead, like it is dead. Yeah, it'll come back if there's a back to the future, sure. It'll come back if there's a diehard, sure. But not enough of these games are bangers. And when it's not a banger, there's no FOMO and then you're in real trouble because everybody is looking down at the games they own and they love what they've got. And I love what I've got in my life. I love my wife. I love my children. I love my family. I love my parents who gave me so much in life. They gave me the most valuable thing, a really good education. I decided to squander it doing a pinball podcast. No, I'm just joking. I love each and every one of you for being a member of Canada's Pinball Podcast. This show's only gonna get better and I'm gonna find the time to do it. I know this is gonna be challenging, but I'm up for this challenge. When I look down at baby Cassian, it makes me wanna be a better person in every area of life. And I can't wait to move this family into a house. I can't wait to be able to walk and see my demon in a bathrobe. And I can't wait to see this fun house at 10 a.m. And I absolutely can't wait to see what Stern Pinball is gonna do, people, because they're screwed here. They're not used to this. Remember, the next game is not coming out for four months. Nobody's buying John Wick. What are they going to do? How are they going to keep that huge line going? They're not going to be able to throw an anniversary edition on the line. They're not going to be able to remake another LE. They're screwed. There's no backlog on older titles. Dealers are sitting on a ton of unsold premiums. Everybody, trust me, hold the line. We need to hold the line. Don't go in. don't bail them out of their greedy mistakes. And we're going to do it because you know what, Stern, you did it to yourself. F off. We're all happy with ourselves. We're happy with our lineup. This is not worth it. You've ripped us off too many times and we're going to just hold on to our money. And you're either going to have to lower prices, lower the number of LEs, or you're in big trouble because you got four months to a new Metallica. It's not going to work. Canada out. I just heard Killian cry. I got to go get him. Later, everybody.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 33864155-998a-4cf1-87c0-ddb2c7cb6402*