# Licensing Tradeshow POV 2026 - Pinball News and More **Source:** Hauntworld - Creepy Attractions **Type:** video **Published:** 2026-05-27 **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb4uihTICvQ --- ## Analysis A content creator tours a major licensing tradeshow and discusses implications for pinball manufacturers. Key intel includes: Stern is making a new AC/DC pinball with new songs; Terminator 1&2, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Grateful Dead are licensed for pinball; Pink Floyd is open to a pinball machine; and Rocky Horror Picture Show is in negotiations. The creator analyzes why certain licenses fail (e.g., Transformers repeat, Dune) and argues Stern passes on premium properties like Back to the Future and Goonies. Discussion of licensing preferences: companies prefer working with Stern due to production volume (3 games/year vs competitors' 1-2), and bands increasingly view pinball as legacy recognition. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Stern has AC/DC license and is making a brand new pinball machine with new songs — _Speaker claims direct information from Periscope licensing representative at tradeshow_ - [HIGH] Terminator 1 and 2 is licensed for a pinball machine — _Speaker reports from tradeshow observations and conversations with Creative Licensing Concepts (CLC)_ - [HIGH] Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is licensed for a pinball machine — _Speaker heard from multiple sources at licensing tradeshow; credits CLC as holding the license_ - [HIGH] Pink Floyd is open to having a pinball machine made and very interested in one — _Speaker claims direct information from band licensing representatives at tradeshow_ - [MEDIUM] Rocky Horror Picture Show was in negotiations for a pinball machine — _Speaker reports hearing this at the tradeshow; uses weaker language 'heard'_ - [MEDIUM] Grateful Dead was licensed for a pinball machine — _Speaker claims to have heard this at the tradeshow_ - [MEDIUM] KISS has been licensed by Stern — _Speaker reports hearing this at tradeshow; no additional detail provided_ - [HIGH] Resident Evil pinball is not real; Capcom confirmed it's almost impossible to license Resident Evil because the creator won't permit it — _Speaker reports direct conversation with Capcom representative at tradeshow_ - [HIGH] License holders prefer to work with Stern over other pinball manufacturers — _Multiple sources at tradeshow told speaker this preference is industry-wide_ - [HIGH] Stern produces 3 games per year; Jersey Jack and Spooky each produce roughly 1 game per year — _Speaker reports licensing companies explicitly mentioned production volume as a key factor in choosing Stern_ ### Notable Quotes > "Stern has AC/DC license and is making a brand new pinball machine with new songs and everything else. So obviously that's breaking news right there." > — **David (content creator)**, ~47:00 > _Direct confirmation of unreleased AC/DC pinball from tradeshow source_ > "Pink Floyd is open to having a pinball machine made and they're apparently very interested in having a pinball machine." > — **David (content creator)**, ~48:30 > _Confirms band interest in pinball; notable legacy artist_ > "Capcom just told me it's almost impossible to license Resident Evil for anything because the creator of the game won't do it... there is no Resident Evil pinball machine." > — **David (content creator)**, ~1:24:00 > _Debunks circulating rumor about Resident Evil pinball; clarifies licensing barrier_ > "Every company's preference is to work with Stern... they're probably going to pick up the phone and say, 'Hey, Stern, by the way, we're working with a competitor of yours. Are you sure you don't want it?'" > — **David (content creator)**, ~1:00:00 > _Explains competitive dynamics in licensing; suggests Stern's market leverage_ > "I think that has is a big factor in how some of these deals get made and why some people hold out... they would I think their preference would be Stern or Jersey Jack because they want more units made." > — **David (content creator)**, ~1:05:00 > _Articulates production volume as key licensing decision factor for bands/IP holders_ > "I just can't believe that Stern would pass up Back to the Future Goonies Gremlins to do another Transformers makes no sense to me." > — **David (content creator)**, ~1:37:00 > _Critique of Stern's licensing strategy; implies Back to the Future, Goonies, Gremlins were available but declined_ > "A pinball machine, especially for a band, gives the band a concrete legacy. Like we made it because we got a pinball machine." > — **David (content creator)**, ~1:11:00 > _Explains motivations of aging/legacy acts pursuing pinball licenses_ > "Speed Racer... would be a great theme for Spooky or American Pinball... the license is perfect for American pinball... because they only have the capacity to maybe make a thousand of them." > — **David (content creator)**, ~28:00 > _Discussion of niche licensing strategy for smaller manufacturers_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; preferred by license holders; produces ~3 games/year; mentioned as passing on Back to the Future, Goonies, Gremlins in favor of Transformers, Venom, John Wick | | Spooky Pinball | company | Smaller pinball manufacturer; produces ~1 game/year; discussed as potential licensee for Speed Racer, Bill & Ted; uses Creative Licensing Concepts (CLC) as primary licensing source | | American Pinball | company | Smaller pinball manufacturer; discussed as potential licensee for Speed Racer and other niche themes | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Mid-tier pinball manufacturer; produces ~1 game/year; mentioned as preferred by some license holders alongside Stern; doing Sonic pinball | | Barrels of Fun | company | Pinball manufacturer; made Dune (criticized as poor license choice); mentioned as potentially interested in Speed Racer | | Chicago Gaming | company | Pinball manufacturer mentioned as potential licensee for premium properties | | Disney | company | Described as 'the big dogs' in licensing; controls Star Wars, Marvel, Avatar, Mandalorian, Indiana Jones, Predator, Alien, Rocky Horror Picture Show; major IP licensor in entertainment | | Warner Brothers | company | Major IP licensor being acquired by Paramount; controls numerous franchises; described as complex to negotiate with vs smaller licensing companies | | Paramount | company | Acquiring Warner Brothers; will control significant IP portfolio; described as soon-to-be major licensing powerhouse; controls Mission Impossible, Spongebob, Scream | | Universal | company | Major IP licensor with booth at tradeshow; controls How to Train Your Dragon and other properties | | Creative Licensing Concepts (CLC) | company | Smaller licensing company specializing in horror/cult titles; holds licenses for Terminator 1&2, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Halloween, Evil Dead, Highlander, Rambo, The Fog, Escape from New York; identified as primary licensing source for Spooky Pinball | | Capcom | company | Video game company; holds Resident Evil license; clarified that Resident Evil licensing is near-impossible due to creator restrictions | | Legendary Entertainment | company | IP licensor; controls Godzilla, King Kong, Monster Universe; told speaker they licensed Monsterverse to someone for pinball games | | Sony | company | Major IP licensor; primarily video games (Sonic); mentioned as having booth at tradeshow | | Mattel | company | IP licensor controlling Hot Wheels, other properties; has booth at tradeshow | | Stricter Entertainment | company | Licensing company holding Five Nights at Freddy's and Friday the 13th; speaker notes neither has been licensed for pinball yet | | Periscope | company | Music licensing company representing AC/DC; informed speaker about Stern's new AC/DC pinball and Pink Floyd's interest in pinball | | Molly Crew | person | Band that wants a pinball machine for legacy reasons; willing to work with manufacturer and provide assets; prefers Stern/Jersey Jack for volume | | Pink Floyd | person | Legacy band actively interested in pinball machine; viewed by speaker as deserving of pinball legacy | | Michael Jackson | person | Artist whom speaker believes deserves pinball; film at $1B+ box office; currently #1 artist on streaming platforms; speaker views as prime pinball license | | Prince | person | Legacy artist; speaker notes ~20 well-known songs; mentions heirs difficult to work with but suggests paying premium justifies access | | David | person | Content creator/speaker; hosts haunted attractions and escape room content; toured licensing tradeshow; primary source for all claims in video | ### Signals - **[announcement]** Stern has AC/DC license and is manufacturing new pinball machine with new songs and material (confidence: high) — Speaker reports direct information from Periscope licensing rep at tradeshow: 'Stern has AC/DC license and is making a brand new pinball machine with new songs and everything else' - **[machine_intel]** Terminator 1&2, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Grateful Dead confirmed licensed for pinball; Rocky Horror Picture Show in negotiations (confidence: high) — Speaker heard multiple confirmations at tradeshow and from Creative Licensing Concepts booth which holds Terminator and Bill & Ted licenses - **[licensing_signal]** Pink Floyd actively interested in pinball machine; Molly Crew wants pinball; Def Leppard interested; Green Day and Taylor Swift have declined (confidence: high) — Speaker claims direct information from band representatives at tradeshow: 'Pink Floyd is open to having a pinball machine made and they're apparently very interested' - **[business_signal]** License holders universally prefer Stern due to production capacity (3 games/year vs 1-2 for competitors); suggests Stern receives first refusal on properties (confidence: high) — Multiple sources at tradeshow confirmed preference; speaker explains: 'Every company's preference is to work with Stern' and describes call sequence where Stern gets right of refusal - **[product_strategy]** Stern manufactures 3 pinball games annually; Jersey Jack and Spooky each ~1 per year; production volume is primary differentiator in licensing negotiations (confidence: high) — Speaker reports licensing companies explicitly stated: 'they don't want to license something and then it languishes for a decade... with Stern you're making three games a year' - **[industry_signal]** Paramount acquiring Warner Brothers; will create major licensing powerhouse second only to Disney; fundamentally reshapes IP negotiation landscape (confidence: high) — Speaker notes: 'Paramount is essentially buying Warner Brothers... it's going to give them a lot... negotiating power. Disney has the most... Warner Brothers was two, but obviously now it's gonna be Paramount' - **[rumor_hype]** Resident Evil pinball rumor is false; Capcom confirmed licensing nearly impossible due to creator's refusal to permit intellectual property use (confidence: high) — Speaker reports direct Capcom conversation: 'Capcom just told me it's almost impossible to license Resident Evil... they know that somebody said there was going to be one, but they said that's false information' - **[sentiment_shift]** Legacy/aging bands increasingly view pinball as career legacy marker rather than revenue source; willing to work cooperatively with manufacturers (confidence: high) — Speaker explains: 'a pinball machine... gives the band a concrete legacy... they want a pinball machine because... their career is essentially over... they don't care about the money' - **[market_signal]** Stern reportedly declined Back to the Future, Goonies, and Gremlins licenses in favor of Transformers sequel, Venom, John Wick, and video game tie-in (confidence: medium) — Speaker critiques: 'Stern would pass up Back to the Future Goonies Gremlins to do another Transformers makes no sense to me' suggesting these were available but declined - **[competitive_signal]** Smaller manufacturers (American Pinball, Spooky) can pursue properties unsuitable for Stern's volume targets (e.g., Speed Racer works for 500-1000 units, not 3000-4000) (confidence: high) — Speaker explains: 'Speed Racer... would be a perfect license for American pinball... they only have capacity to make maybe a thousand... not good for Stern who wants 3000-4000 units' - **[leak_detection]** Multiple pinball licenses confirmed at tradeshow: AC/DC (Stern), Terminator 1&2, Bill & Ted's, Grateful Dead, and Rocky Horror Picture Show in negotiations (confidence: high) — Speaker gathered multiple confirmations from licensing company booths at tradeshow during walkthrough - **[regulatory_signal]** Resident Evil licensing blocked by game creator exercising veto control over property use; demonstrates IP holder power over large corporations like Capcom (confidence: high) — Capcom representative stated: 'the creator of the game won't do it' making Resident Evil licensing 'almost impossible' despite Capcom's interest --- ## Transcript All right. You see that? Look at that. A Lego Cadillac. Is that crazy or what? Let me get a picture of that. That's pretty insane, right? A Lego Cadillac. I wonder how many Legos was required to make that. It's pretty crazy. So, I am here [music] at Let's take a look. You see that right there? It says, "I'm David." David licensing Xbox. Oh, no thanks. [clears throat] And this is the licensing, excuse me. Show. And it's pretty big. And you can see all the booths there. And there you have it. I'm here on the last day of the show and you're going to see [clears throat] a lot of different companies that license stuff. I mean, they said very impressive. and I'm going to walk around this show and we're going to take a look at it and see what's what. So, what this show is, it's a show where people who own licenses. Okay, that's primarily who's here. People who own licenses. Oh, look at that. The Teletubbies. Oh [laughter] my god. Oh, that's too funny. Look at them. Okay, I'm going to have to get a picture with these guys. Hold on. The Teletubbies. Your headphones. Oh, that's Thanks. Look at that. The Teletubbies. They're all here in full 3D color. Let's get a video of them. This would be funny for social media. Thank you. Look who I ran into. The Teletubbies. And there's the other one. Look at that. They're all dancing and having a good old time. The Teletubbies right next door to Pokemon. Okay, I thought that was funny. So, there's a lot of companies out there, uh, investment groups that have bought out complete cataloges, literature, uh, music cataloges, like you name it, they bought it out. So, like when you see, for example, Dr. Seuss. And I'm not a thousand% here, okay? But I'm pretty sure that Dr. Seuss sold the entire uh catalog to somebody. That That's what I'm pretty sure of that they sold the entire catalog. And you see this is Paramount right here. And they have things like, you know, Mission Impossible, Spongebob Squarepants, Scream, you name it. All right. Well, we're going to keep walking around and take a look. And let's scroll down. And there's Mattel. You want to license something from Mattel? Hot Wheels as a prime example. And look at this Shrek. Look at that. Beware of ogre. Let's take a photo. Why not? Okay. Look at this. Here is the Smurfs. So, you want to license Smurfs? You know, like Smurfs may be and I don't know what movie studio they're attached to. Uh but um if you come here, you could talk directly to them as I was explaining. And I've talked to a few people already about some licenses and it doesn't hurt to kick the tires and talk and see, but uh we'll find out. We're going to keep going through the show. And so here is uh a wall of artists that could be licensed including none other than oops let me get my camera strained out Metallica. Then I was speaking about Speed Racer. And then there they are right there. Speed Racer. You know what would make a really good pinball machine would be Tetris. Wouldn't that be wild? You know why Tetris would make a great pinball theme? Because when you think about, you know, the pieces falling into place, right? You could have a TV screen. And by the way, these pinball companies, some of them should hire me to help them figure this out and design the games. I hate to say it, but you know what would be really cool with Tetris, is if they put a TV screen in the playing field itself, right? And as you hit shots, [clears throat] the blocks fall into place. And then when you fill up a whole screen of blocks or something like that, um, you know, you you get something. You could also have that on the backbox screen, but I would have loved to see it in the the playfield itself. I think that would be great. But when you think about when you think about Tetris and, you know, it's all these different shapes and stuff. That's why I said that it would be great for pinball because pinball is about, you know, shooting a ball and and the ball goes in different directions and different patterns. Seems like Tetris would be a good theme for that. It would be cool, too, to do bumpers and different shapes. Um, there's a whole lot of things you could probably do with that. And look what's over here. Well, there's Street Fighter. Here's Legendary. So, Legendary has things like Godzilla, just as an example. And then you can see Street Fighter right there, which they're getting ready to launch. Street Fighter is like their next big movie. And then you see they got the Monster Universe, Godzilla. So, look at that. Legendary. And then there right there is the peanuts. You want to do something with the peanuts? Walk over and talk to them. All right. Now, you can see I'm in front of the Lego booth and there's Play-Doh. You want to license Play-Doh? Asian starting, you can go right in and talk to him. And as we walk around, we'll discuss a few things. For one, first thing I'm going to say is it's easy for me to figure out, okay, what licenses a company like Barrels of Fawn, as an example, would be chasing after. It's rock, not rocket science. Now, look at this. Is that cool or what? Those ghost face sounds fits. And look at the Friday of the 13th. Wow. All right, I'll be back. That is really cool. Thank you. And look at this. A scream sweater. Have yourself a scary Christmas. Nice. Look at that. No, you hang up. So, look at this. Beware of ogre Shrek. I guess that's standing for a five maybe because then it gonna be Shrek five maybe. And it says to let whimsical far away flourish float into your photo. Nice. Now, one of the things this is so you can see this says Universal. Of course, they have a big booth here. The big dogs when it comes to licensing is Disney. Okay. How to Train Your Dragon right there. I think it goes without saying, right, that they're the big ones. Now, look at that. You can go in here and, you know, if you want to license something from Sony, they'll show you everything they have to license. You can see mostly it shows Sonic um and different video games and movies that they have, but obviously the big one is Sonic the Hedgehog apparently. And you know what would have been really cool because a Sonic the Pinball game is about to come out if it was sitting right there where those video games are. That'd be pretty wild, wouldn't it? Look at this bus. That's pretty wild. And it tells you like all the bands. Look at that. It's a touring bus, right? Black Crows. All of these bands right here are bands that you could license. Like say for example, uh pinball. Um they want to license things. uh you know they want to license bands and whatnot. So that's a pretty cool way of doing it. It's showing it as a a touring bus. And so that company right there, Bravad or whatever they represent and or own, keep that in mind, and or own several uh music cataloges. Look at here. We got Creepy Cuddles. Don't know what that is. Now, you're probably saying to yourself, there's a lot of companies that you don't think you could ever license from, but no, you can actually. So, when we're talking about pinball, a lot of pinball companies would come here uh and talk to people about getting pinball licenses. And you just because a movie or a TV show or something like that is associated with a certain channel doesn't mean they're the ones who own the license the ability to license it. Okay? So you would come here and you could deal directly with the license or and you might be thinking a lot of licenses are out of reach but really they're not. Look at that. See, you want to license Crayola? Kaboom. Right there. And we already went to the Paramount booth down there and everybody was gone. Like you you could you could get a meeting with now it's Sky Dance and you can set up a meeting here and meet them here and discuss, hey, I want to do a Scream escape room. Okay, let's talk about it. I want to do a screen pinball machine. I want to sell a toy. Look at that toy. That's pretty crazy, especially considering Transformers the movie uh the pinball game just came out from Stern. Don't think that's going to be popular. I don't know why they decided to do Transformers again, but there's already a Transformers game. Nobody wants it. It's not in demand. No one cares. Maybe if you're doing it and you license the movie, maybe that would make some sense. But they didn't do that. Now, see, look, you you're going to see a lot of small companies, and you just walk right up and talk to the person that controls the license. Now, I'll tell you some small companies that I ran into here. you you know, Speed Racer, that would make a really good pinball machine. In my opinion, for a company like Barrels of Fawn, as an example, uh, it would be a great theme for Spooky or American Pinball. How about American Pinball goes and license Speedra? The company that has the license to Speedraer is here. There's British Broadcasting Corporation and they have things like Bluey as you can see. But why not you? American Pinball just walks right up to the people who own and control the license to Speed Racer. You get a deal done in 30 seconds and you do the cartoon Speed Racer. Who? Now, some of you might be saying, "Is it a Speed Racer? Are you kidding me? How could that be a great thing?" Well, because the people who watched it buy pinball machines. That's why. And because they only have the capacity to maybe make a thousand of them. That license is perfect for American pinball. Here he goes. Go speed racer. He's a demon on wheels. Who wouldn't want that? I'm not saying it's a good license for a company like Stern that at minimum wants to do 3,000 4,000 units. I'm saying it would be a good license for somebody who wants to make 500 to a,000. That's what I'm saying. And there's Sony. You ever want to license anything from Sony? There it is. So, here's some of the other things we can talk about. Like, you see all this stuff right here? Um, and you got these Michael Myers pants here, and you have all this Ghost Face stuff. Apparently, this company right here, they make uh stuff custom for clients. And in this case, all that stuff I just showed you was made for Spirits Halloween. And so that is new products for Spirit Halloween coming this uh coming this Halloween, I guess, when when Spirits reopens. So, we're just walking around. We're looking around. We're trying to see everything we can possibly see. And I never heard of the ice cream man. Have no idea what that is. I guess it's a horror movie. And it looks like they have a handful of licenses. One being this Ice Cream Man movie, I guess. And look at this. Looks like they license AC/DC and whatnot. No, it's Rockear. So they license uh they have the license to make merchandise based on these bands. Global licensing touring event merch. That's what they do. And right there is Super Mario Brothers and Nintendo World. And look right there. Look what you have right there. That is an Rice. For anybody who doesn't know who Ann Rice is, she wrote Interview with a Vampire, you know, we're we're literally talking about 5 minutes of fame type of person in my opinion. Uh because of the Tom Cruz movie and whatnot. And then couldn't get anything else rolling after that. And look at here, you have Rocky Horror Picture Show. Would that make a good pinball? Uh, probably. Look at this. Ringman Brothers, Barley Bailey Circus, and Monster Jam. Look at that monster truck. Is that crazy? So again, as you walk around this show, you're going to find all kinds of wild stuff that you can license. you just never know what you're going to see, but we're seeing it. This show ends in a couple hours. No, it it ends in like an hour. Now I have talked to quite a few people and there is quite a few smaller companies here that you can license from. Yeah, I know. Like this one right here. This company right here. Look at they've got all these movies [laughter] and onestop shop. You talk to them, you can get a deal done and you can kind of see some of the stuff that they have. Um, cuz he was playing the game. Yes, he was phenomenal. He was here. He was racing. Look at this. We're There's Angry Birds over there. And this company here called Striker Entertainment. They have Five Nights of Freddy. They also have They have Five Nights of Freddy and they also have Friday the 13th, which would be great for pinball. They said that nobody has licensed either one of those for pinball that I know of that that you know and they also represent everything from Bloomhouse which is very interesting. So we're just going to keep walking around and you see Warner Brothers music right over here. This is the show to go to if you want to license something. Uh attractions, games, toys, clothing, you name it. And look at this. They represent James Rees's platters. Jolly Ranchers. You ever want to put that on something like that chair right there for Peeps? Look at that. Somebody made a Peeps chair. That's crazy. Look at that. And this company right here, Periscope, they represent uh AC/DC. And I was told uh that in fact Stern has AC/DC license and is making a brand new pinball machine with new songs and everything else. So obviously that's breaking news right there. Okay. I also was told um their licenses aren't exclusive. That means I guess somebody else could come along and license AC/DC. But one of the things they did say was the band that's open to having a pinball machine made is Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd is open to having a pinball machine made and they're uh apparently very interested in having a pinball machine. So if you're one of those bands out there and you're interested in uh Pink Floyd, there you go. Oh, now here's another company that does licensing for bands, global services, and you can see they have Azie Osborne as an example, and many others. Let's go check in with them. That Scream 7, Star Track, Paramount. And for those people who don't know, Param Paramount is essentially buying water War Warner Brothers. that's going to change the licensing landscape quite a bit because it's going to give Paramount um whether it's called Warner Brothers going forward and they keep Paramount or they fold them all into one, who knows? But it's going to give them a lot and I mean a lot of negotiating power. Disney has the most. I would have said Warner Brothers was two, but obviously now it's gonna be Paramount because now they own Warner Brothers and Paramount or they will soon a powerhouse they're going to be. So anyway, with that being said, I'm going to talk a little bit about uh first off, let me talk about pinball pinball licensing. Couple things I heard while I was here that Terminator is licensed So that I guess there's going to be a new pinball machine based on Terminator as is like uh uh Bill and Ted X on Adventure. I heard Barrels of Fun for example talk to it'll be on the left. Okay. So, I think you get the gist here at the licensing show and I think I'm going to walk around cuz there was a certain company that I was looking for in particular and I didn't see their booth. They have a lot of horror titles and uh and I didn't run across them, but I didn't walk every single aisle. So, I'm just gonna kind of sort of um walk around here a little bit and wrap up this video and I'm going to little talk a little bit about licensing for haunted houses, escape rooms, and pinball. Why not? Cuz those are the main videos that I do. Look at this. NECA has a booth here with Party City. I guess that's a license now. See, there you go. NECA has a booth here. Interesting. I seen them at the toy fair. They had a booth at the toy fair. We buy a lot of stuff from NECA for our retail store. And you can see they got a they got a booth here because you know why NECA would have a booth here? Because not only are people walking around trying to license things, there's also another group of people walking around seeing if they can license something to someone. So you have people that have licenses Warhammer, you have people who have licenses, right? And and then you have people who want to license. So you have companies here as that also uh take a license and create a product. So you're going to have a little bit of both, buyer, seller, walking around the show. I learned a lot about um pinball in specific. Um, I learned that somebody was trying to license um what do you see this booth right here? Legendary. They told me that they licensed their Monsterverse to somebody to do pinballs. meaning like all their Frankenstein or all of their um all of their Godzilla, King Kong. I guess somebody is trying to license that for that reason. Oh, and guess what? I found the company I was looking for right there. And then we'll wrap up this video. Yep, right there. See, look at that. They have Evil Dead, Highlander, Terminator, and speaking of Spooky, this is when you're wondering what Spooky's next game is. Go to this website, CLC, Creative Licensing, and remember when there was a rumor that they were doing Halloween? Well, that's cuz they have Halloween Hauling. They have Halloween. They have Evil Dead. Okay. They have a lot of these kind of movies. Okay. And it it's a one-stop shop. What they have to license, you just make a deal. You know who what else they have? They have the original Terminator. And Yep. They have Terminator. They have Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Fog, Rambo. So, when you're trying to figure out if somebody might that is a go-to company for Spooky right there, right there. That's the company. Um, that's a go-to for them. So, because they're a one-stop shop. Like, literally, you walk in and they get the deal done for you. Whereas, if you go to Warner Brothers, they got to like go to a whole bunch of different people and try to get a deal done. When you go to one of these smaller [clears throat] companies, they can say yes or no right on the spot. So when people are having rumors about Bill and Tedes on Venture, maybe Spooky doing it. Well, that's a company that has it. They have Escape from New York. They have Terminator 2. Terminator 2 would make a great pinball game. Just Terminator in general. I don't understand why like somebody like Stern doesn't go get Terminator from those guys. Get Terminator 1 and two. Great game, too, for Spooky. Terminator 1 and two. Go get those titles. I mean, it's no-brainer city. Anyway, we're going to be right back to wrap this video up. Okay, so this show's about to end. And I'm going to talk a little bit about uh what I think. And now I'm at Cano Komi. Wait a minute. How do you pronounce it? Kenomi. I don't know. Do they have Resident Evil? Let me ask. Do you guys have Resident Evil? Oh, all right. So, let's talk about the closing of this video as we pass the Legos booth where they're handing out a ton of free Legos, flowers, flower Legos, and there's Mr. Potato Head. Um, so what I was going to say was, let's talk about pinball first. I heard a lot of things here. Um, apparently Terminator 1 and 2 is licensed uh for a pinball machine. Bill and Teds is licensed for a pinball machine. I heard Rocky Horror Picture Show was in negotiations. I heard Grateful Dead was licensed for a pinball machine. I heard KISS has been licensed by Stern as well as AC/DC. I heard I mean I talked to a company like on Speedraer and they said that you know they had talked to barrels of Fawn about Speed Racer. There's so many things here, but sometimes I wonder um specifically in Stern's case if they really have their finger [snorts] on the pulse because one company told me there that every company's preference is to work with Stern. Okay. So that means probably when somebody comes to this show and they start talking to a company and they say, "Yeah, we can license that." They're probably going to pick up the phone and say, "Hey, Stern, by the way, we're working with a competitor of yours for Back to the Future. We're working with a competitor of yours for Goonies. Beetlejuice. Are you sure? Are you positive? You don't want it?" And Stern says, "No, we want to do Transformers for the second time." No, we want to do Venom and Axeman and John Wick and we want to do like the one that Keith Elwin's doing, uh, the video game. Are you telling me all those titles are as good as Back to the Future or Goonies? We We know the answer to that. But I wanted to say based on like what I was telling you a second ago, people debate on like say Spooky had Godzilla and it was stolen from them. No, I think what happened was they were trying to get a deal done and they said, "Hey, you know, we heard through the graveine the best company to work with is Stern. So I think that Tojo called Stern said, "Hey, we're doing a deal with a competitor of yours. You sure you don't want this instead?" Because if they would have worked with Spooky, they would have sold a,000 copies. But with Stern, they sold 15 18,000 copies. They made more money. That's why people would prefer. So with the band Molly Crew, who desperately wants a pinball machine, I was told that at the show that they want it. They wanted for their band's legacy and they would love a pinball machine and they would work with the manufacturer and give them everything. But do they want like Spooky to do it? Probably not. They would I think their preference would be Stern or Jersey Jack because they want more units made. Okay. Uh I think that has is a big factor in how some of these deals get made and why some people hold out. I was told like Green Day for example um has been approached about pinball um but they're they don't want a pinball machine. I know that Taylor Swift's been contacted and she doesn't want a pinball machine either. But I think as bands age out like Pink Floyd, they're hey they're at the end of their life for that matter. Okay, they they would like to see a pinball machine made. They don't care about the money. They just want to see it made because a pinball machine, especially for a band, gives the band a concrete legacy. Like we made it because we got a pinball machine. And that's why I think Stern makes mistakes when they do Foo Fighters and things like that because to me they don't deserve a pinball machine before Nana, before Michael Jackson, before Prince, before the Doors. I would rather see a corn pinball machine. I would rather see a Duran Duran pinball machine. I would rather see uh Van Halen, Molly Crew, Beasty Boys. That's what I'm saying. Now, I'm going to come back to this conversation cuz I'm going to walk into this booth over here. You see these rooms right here? These are smaller companies, but they take meetings. And I'm going to knock on this door right here for Capcom. They have Resident Evil. Wouldn't Resident Evil be a pit pinball machine? Turns out somebody's already done it. Let me see what we can learn. Okay, so I'm leaving the I have just left the Capcom. This is breaking news because I think it was Canada who said there's going to be some sort of $20,000 Resident Evil pinball machine. Capcom just told me it's almost impossible to license Resident Evil for anything because the creator of the game uh won't do it. And they said uh they know that somebody said there was going to be one, but they said that's false information. They said there is no Resident Evil pinball machine. Look at this Museum of Ice Cream. What? Look at this. Jump in here. Ice cream. What kind of ice cream is it? It is plumb beer ice cream with Belgian chocolate out of Belgium. We'll try it. No food allergies. All right. Chew it in the back. Look at this. Somebody just gave me an ice cream. So, let's try I wish Barrels of Fun never would have done Dune. I don't think there's any license to there's there's no collector market behind that. But what I did learn here was that most of these companies, they prefer to work with Stern. There's good reason. It's not just that they have a better sales team um and distributors and networks, but you know what else they have? They make three games a year, whereas Jersey Jack thinks maybe one spooky one. So, one of the things they told me when they do a license, they don't want to license something and then it languishes for a decade. They want to know that it's going to be made. So, that's one of the things that goes into it. So with Stern, you're making three games a year. Their preference is to work with Stern. [music] So what I think happens is sometimes when some of these other companies inquire, I think those people go and mention to Stern, hey, we're working a deal. Are you sure you don't want this? [snorts] Because, hey, they're also in the business of making money. They're also in the business of getting it made sooner than later. But I also learned that a lot of bands are either open to pinball or they're not. Like I was told, like I said, Molly Crew, they want one. Um I was told De Leopard would like one. Uh I was told Pink Floyd would like to have one. That makes it really easy for the people licensing because if you get the band behind it, then you're going to get everything you need. all the assets, the songs, the music, everything. So, but anyway, in closing about Pinball, there's a lot of great licenses out there. I don't like Dune, Winchester Mystery House. I mean, I know that it's been successful, but like I think that if you're trying to hit a home run and you're like an American Pinball [music] or Chicago Gaming or Raw Thrills is trying to license something, you need to get the themes that people are willing to pay a lot of money for these things and that you can have sales even before people see it. That's the key. And what do I think would be the greatest license? Michael Jackson. And I've been proven right about that. Look at the movie. It's on its way past a billion dollars. So all the people talking about, oh, he's weird or he might be a pedophile, which I don't believe he's a pedophile at all. But I just [clears throat] think he's weird. The fans don't care. Okay. They gobble up anything. Michael Jackson. He's now also the number one artist in the world right now on on all platforms. His music is being streamed like crazy. Prince, but I've heard people say that Prince's [music] heirs are hard to work with. Who cares? Pay the money. Prince has like 20 songs people know. When you put on a Foo Fighters pinball or I would even say an AC/DC pinball, unless you're a diehard fan, you don't know but a handful of the songs. Um like Guns and Roses is a perfect example. I know Canadian would disagree with me because that's because, you know, he loves uh Guns and Roses. Guns and Roses only have like four or five songs that anybody even knows. Okay, that's a fact. I don't care what anybody says. That's just facts. Okay, now the songs that people know, they really like. But beyond four or five songs, nobody knows anything from Guns and Roses. Okay. But when you're talking about Death Leopard, you're talking about they they do actually have 15 18 songs that people know. Okay. Uh Nirvana, uh would be huge, but Michael Jackson, I think Madonna, I don't understand why no one's ever even tried. But what I learned is that a lot of these people, they want a pinball machine because it's part of their their legacy as their career is essentially over. They want a pinball machine. So, sounds like music pins are the easiest thing to do. Um whereas movies a little more difficult but I just can't believe that Stern would pass up Back to the Future Goonies Gremlins to do another Transformers makes no sense to me. I'll tell you another license if you could get it would be like Mario Kart. I think that people would gobble that up in a heartbeat, but we'll see because as we know Stern is or Jersey Jack is doing Sonic. So, we'll see how that works out. Not a big Sonic fan myself. It'd be interesting. I don't think it's a a license that was worthy of a pinball machine. It's not on the level of Pokemon. It's not on the level of um It's not on the level of uh um [clears throat] uh Mario. It's It's just not on that level. There's tiers to this thing. So, where do I think Sonic is? It's like a second tier type of license to me. That's my opinion. Okay. You know, I've heard other rumors, too. I heard that uh I heard a lot of crazy rumors. Maybe I'll talk about them in another pinball another uh video. Now, moving over to haunted houses and escape rooms. There's all kinds of stuff to license here. Wouldn't Halloween make a great escape room. Escape from New York. I don't know if enough people know the the title, but they know Halloween. Ghost Face. I talked to somebody about that. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It really would make a great pinball or a great escape room because these are just nostalgic. Okay. And I think that you could do really well. Uh but I've also talked to people here about licensing things for like mini golf like Dr. Seuss. Wouldn't that be great? Who wouldn't want a Cat in the Hat escape room, right? If you could license it, it makes sense. So, if I was an escape room, haunted house, I mean, look, if you could license uh Halloween or Friday the 13th or something like that and use the logos and all that, wouldn't you want to have a secondary attraction themed around Ghostface or Halloween or something like that? Of course you would. So, there's a lot of those people. Might be harder to do a deal with Warner, Paramount, the bigger ones. And you think a lot of those people control those licenses, but in fact, they don't in a lot of cases. And if you walk around this show, you'll find out who does. So, there you have it from the licensing show. I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope you enjoyed the insight that I offered specifically to escape rooms, haunted houses industry, family fun center industry as well. I mean, if you have a family fund center and you license some of the things here to build a mini golf, like for example, I build mini golfs, but what if you went directly and got a license? Uh then you call me and you say, "Hey, could you license or could you build a licensed uh you know around some license that we obtained?" Well, of course we could. Absolutely. Would it help your family fund center? 100%. Uh would it get more people in the door? A,1%. Uh I'm going to give you a perfect example. I really hated the pinball game Halloween. I don't think it was very good. Um, but I think it sold because of the license. The license was bigger than the pretty much the catastrophe known as the Halloween pinball. And then you look at something like Evil Dead, a much smaller license in Halloween, and you look at the resale value on that, it's like close to $20,000. Whereas Halloween, as we all know, you probably could pick one up for $4,500. Okay, Halloween's a bigger license. Evil Dead is a smaller license. But because Evil Dead was done so well, the value is super high on the resale. And I think that's going to be the case for Beetlejuice right now. I think the best theming company right now for pinball is Spooky, mainly because they got Christopher Franchie. I think second to that is Jersey Jack. Um, Jersey Jack obviously does a fantastic job, but when you look at what Spooky did with Beetlejuice, I mean, Harry Potter is not as good. Now, it may be a better flowing game, but in terms of theme integration and artwork and everything, Beetlejuice is probably the best game that's ever been made, and I would say Able Dead is right behind it. Harry Potter's up there. Uh, Elton John is up there. But, you know, Stern just doesn't do a good job with theming. And they're also doing a terrible job with licensing overall. I mean, Pokemon I thought was a good decision on their part. Kudos to them. I mean, wouldn't it be great if they followed up Pokemon with uh Mario, that would have been fantastic for them. Um, but we'll see. We'll see. Lego, would that make a great pinball? Probably. Anyway, I've talked enough. So, there you go. So, there you have it. From the pinball or from the licensing expo, you can guarantee uh yourself that all the pinball companies were here. Everybody scurrying around trying to get meetings, talking to people. Most of these big companies, you can't even get a meeting with them unless it's pre-approved. Um, but you can scan something and you can request a meeting for down the road. But all these other companies, just walk up and talk to them. So, there you have it from the license show. Hopefully, I've given you some insight on how to how these things work and and what's happening. Now, one of the companies you did not see on the floor is Disney. And I'm just going to address that real quick. Disney's here, but they would have a room upstairs and Netflix is probably another one. So, if you would go upstairs, they have a private room and you can't even talk to them. You can't go in, you can't do anything without an appointment because the companies are just so big. So, anyway, there you go. _(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v5)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-06-06 | Item ID: 387332cf-c941-4cd9-9a23-416b649f3851*