# Episode 1228: "The Shills Coming for Kaneda & Everything Happening in Pinball Right Now!"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-06-05  
**Duration:** 29m 47s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-1228-for-160274173

---

## Analysis

Kaneda criticizes Stern Pinball's recent game designs (Transformers, Star Wars) and content creator partnerships as inauthentic, while surveying the broader pinball manufacturer landscape. He reports Keith Elwin's next Stern game is delayed to 2026, discusses upcoming releases from Jersey Jack (Sonic, Van Halen), Spooky (Goonies, Gremlins), Barrels of Fun, Dutch Pinball (Back to the Future), and others, highlighting market oversaturation and the dominance of limited-edition (SLE) strategies.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Keith Elwin's next Stern game will not release until 2026 — _Kaneda stated 'We broke the news yesterday that Keith Elwin's game is not until next year' and later 'You're not going to have your savior, Keith Elwin, until next year.'_
- [HIGH] John Borg's next game is either Ozzy Osbourne or AC/DC remake, releasing August/September — _Kaneda: 'Jhon Borg, either Ozzy Osbourne or ACDC Remake is happening next. And that's going to happen sometime August, September.'_
- [HIGH] Spooky Pinball's next game after Beetlejuice is Goonies, possibly as an SLE — _Kaneda: 'What's after Jersey Jack Pinball? Spooky Pinball. It's Goonies. 100% it's Goonies.'_
- [HIGH] Jersey Jack will announce Sonic the Hedgehog officially and show the game June 23rd — _Kaneda: 'They haven't even confirmed yet that it is Sonic the Hedgehog... but I don't think we're going to see the game until June 23rd.'_
- [MEDIUM] Jersey Jack has secured the Grateful Dead license — _Kaneda: 'We also heard they have the Grateful Dead license.'_
- [MEDIUM] Dutch Pinball's Back to the Future will have 88 SLEs in America and 88 in Europe — _Kaneda: 'The rumor is 88 SLEs in America, 88 SLEs in Europe, and then the rest of the games are going to be, I don't know, maybe limited.'_
- [MEDIUM] Back to the Future LE will cost around $15,000; SLE around $20,000-$22,000 — _Kaneda: 'I think you're looking at 15K easily for the LE of the game... and I think the SLE, Barry, if I were him, 88 only... maybe $20,000, $22,000 a pop.'_
- [MEDIUM] Pedretti Gaming's Tales of the Arabian Nights remake may release after Sonic (late July) — _Kaneda: 'It seems like that might be their strategy. If Sonic is June 23rd, I don't think we're going to see Toten until like July.'_
- [HIGH] Stern sold Batman SLE direct to consumers, not through dealers/distros — _Kaneda: 'Stern sold Batman SLE direct. They did not sell it through dealers or distros. There's a reason they did that.'_
- [MEDIUM] Barrels of Fun's next game needs to be a mainstream theme and day-one sellout of 1,000 units — _Kaneda: 'Their next game needs to be a day one sellout it needs to be a thousand units. And it needs to be a mainstream theme that can get everybody excited.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "Why would people root for a company that can't figure out how to make a transformer transform?"
> — **Kaneda**, early in episode
> _Core criticism of Stern's Transformers design failures; establishes main theme of episode_

> "The code might be amazing, but that's not enough anymore. It's not enough."
> — **Kaneda**, mid-episode
> _Key insight on Stern's design philosophy—software cannot compensate for weak playfield mechanics_

> "Do you think the Wall Street Journal, when it visits Apple to see its new products, do you think they put on an Apple T-shirt?"
> — **Kaneda**, mid-episode
> _Analogy defending independent journalism standards in pinball content; critiques content creator sponsorships_

> "I think Back to the Future, it sells itself... They are not going to have a problem getting orders. They're going to have a problem building them."
> — **Kaneda**, Dutch Pinball section
> _Assesses Back to the Future's commercial dominance and production bottleneck risk_

> "This hobby is absolutely inane. It is inane."
> — **Kaneda**, opening
> _Frames the entire episode's critique of industry tribalism and irrational loyalty_

> "Can't you see when we say stuff like this how oversaturated this hobby has become? There's just way too many companies."
> — **Kaneda**, later in episode
> _Explicitly names market saturation as existential problem for pinball industry_

> "I think Goonies is going to be even greater than Beetlejuice."
> — **Kaneda**, Spooky section
> _High confidence prediction about Spooky's next title and its commercial/critical reception_

> "When you've got like a license like Funhaus, someone makes it and it's a sales flop. These companies aren't going to be running to make another remake."
> — **Kaneda**, Pedretti Gaming section
> _Observation on remake market viability and IP licensing risk_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast; independent content creator and industry critic |
| Keith Elwin | person | Legendary designer at Stern Pinball; next game delayed to 2026 |
| John Borg | person | Designer at Stern Pinball; next game either Ozzy Osbourne or AC/DC remake |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer criticized for weak Transformers and Star Wars playfields; strong code but weak mechanics |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer with Sonic the Hedgehog June 23rd reveal and Van Halen in pipeline; 3,000 Harry Potter CEs in circulation |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Wisconsin-based manufacturer with Goonies confirmed as next release, then Gremlins; considering SLE strategy |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Houston manufacturer needing next game to be mainstream theme, day-one sellout; David Van Ness leadership concerned about timing vs. Back to the Future |
| Dutch Pinball | company | Barry manufacturing Back to the Future with 88 SLEs each in America/Europe; production bottleneck risk |
| Pedretti Gaming | company | Making Tales of the Arabian Nights remake with Brian Allen artwork; reportedly delaying release until after Sonic |
| American Pinball | company | Mentioned in context of J-Pop games (Circus Voltaire, Raza) with Melvin developing new title ~1.5 years away |
| Multimorphic | company | Modular platform manufacturer with P3 games; Portal, Princess Bride, Weird Al titles; possible new Jerry mech game in development |
| Chicago Gaming Company (CGC) | company | Poor marketing/communications; rumored to be developing Halo with Mark Ritchie; Zach Sharpe involved |
| Pinball Brothers | company | Made Predator (300 units); rumored to be developing The Fifth Element |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | game | Jersey Jack upcoming release; June 23rd reveal date; major community anticipation |
| Goonies | game | Spooky Pinball confirmed next title; possibly as SLE; high sales expectations |
| Van Halen | game | Jersey Jack upcoming title by Mark Seiden following Sonic |
| Back to the Future | game | Dutch Pinball title; 88 SLEs each region; $15K-$22K pricing; major commercial draw |
| Tales of the Arabian Nights | game | Pedretti Gaming remake (Toten); Brian Allen artwork; stalled release schedule |
| Transformers | game | Stern title criticized for left playfield inactivity and toy failures; secondary market losses predicted |
| Gremlins | game | Rumored Spooky Pinball game after Goonies |
| The Fifth Element | game | Rumored Pinball Brothers title; Kaneda expresses high enthusiasm |
| Zach Sharpe | person | CGC employee reportedly upset about information leaks; Kaneda references his paranoia |
| David Van Ness | person | Barrels of Fun founder/CEO; historically launches too early; concerned about Dune release readiness; timing challenges vs. Back to the Future |
| Don | person | Content creator working at Spooky Pinball; Kaneda criticizes him for content creator-company affiliation conflicts |
| Mark Seiden | person | Jersey Jack designer; confirmed for Van Halen game |

### Signals

- **[product_concern]** Stern's Transformers and Star Wars criticized for poor left playfield layout; transformers don't transform; player dissatisfaction despite strong code (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'I definitely think that Stern failed on this assignment with Transformers... the code might be amazing, but that's not enough anymore.' Also: 'I think Transformers piss poor what's on the play field.'
- **[industry_signal]** Excessive number of manufacturers and simultaneous game releases creating oversaturation and competition for orders; strategic planning challenges for all companies (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'Can't you see when we say stuff like this how oversaturated this hobby has become? There's just way too many companies.'
- **[community_signal]** Content creators wearing manufacturer shirts and making promotional content for companies they don't work for; conflict of interest and lack of journalistic integrity; ties to sponsorship deals and dealer relationships (confidence: high) — Kaneda extensively critiques content creators visiting Stern, wearing shirts, praising games while affiliated with competitors; calls them 'shills' and 'turncoats'
- **[business_signal]** Back to the Future projected to have multi-year production delays to fulfill demand; only 500 Alice units completed by June 2026 after 2024 reveal (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'The good news for David is that Barry can't really make Back to the Future quickly... Alice was revealed to the world in 2024... it's crazy how long it's taken just to make 500 Alice games.'
- **[product_strategy]** Industry shift toward limited-edition SLE releases as primary collecting strategy; regular editions losing value; SLEs becoming the only 'worth collecting' games (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'I think that's going to be what defines this year. The frenzy to get the SLEs that are going to be the only things worth collecting. And then it's just wait everything else out.'
- **[market_signal]** Game prices increasing significantly; Back to the Future SLE projected at $20-22K; Multimorphic P3 units approaching $15K; no manufacturer competing on price point (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'Nobody's winning on price. Nobody. So in a world in which everything's so expensive' and 'I think the SLE, Barry... maybe $20,000, $22,000 a pop'
- **[product_concern]** Remake market showing weakness; Funhaus remake flopped; uncertain replay value vs. new games; older properties struggling to generate excitement compared to new designs (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'When you've got like a license like Funhaus, someone makes it and it's a sales flop... I've yet to see a remake game with remastered code that actually is as exciting as anything that's part of the new games.'
- **[personnel_signal]** Key designers delayed or at capacity; Keith Elwin not until 2026; John Borg not producing hits; availability of top talent constraining production pipeline (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'John Borg hadn had a hit in forever and a day' and 'You're not going to have your savior, Keith Elwin, until next year.'
- **[rumor_hype]** High community excitement for Sonic the Hedgehog, Back to the Future, Goonies; major releases expected Q2-Q3 2026; secondary market volatility expected (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'A lot of enthusiasm around Sonic, a lot of expectations around Sonic, and I can't wait to see this game' and 'I think Goonies is going to be even greater than Beetlejuice.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Shift toward LCD/digital assets as primary design element vs. physical mechanical innovation; modern games lacking 'physical magic'; playfield complexity declining (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'Pinball's turned into something about what's on the screen and getting all the LCD assets. But where's the physical magic?'
- **[code_update]** Stern Pokemon owners experiencing long wait for code updates with zero communication about progress, issues, or timeline; frustration with lack of transparency (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'Why is it that Stern Pinball cannot, on a weekly basis, at least communicate to all of us Pokemon owners, what is going on?'
- **[industry_signal]** Major IP licenses (Grateful Dead) announced but designer assignment unclear; remake opportunities (World Cup soccer) being missed in current market window (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'We also heard they have the Grateful Dead license. Is that going to be an Eric game? I don't know' and 'nobody thought to remake that [World Cup soccer] game again' despite current soccer popularity

---

## Transcript

Thursday, never looking back, it's Friday, I'm in love. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. It is Friday and I have triggered some people, baby. Once you start calling people stern chills, I start getting text messages, people want to fight Kaneda. It's fun, man. Look, this hobby is absolutely inane. It is inane. You would think that the majority of people in this hobby are actually Stern employees or Stern investors. Why would people root for a company that can't figure out how to make a transformer transform? And I feel bad for these content creators that went over to Stern and now they're in Stern's marketing materials on Facebook. And we got people like Don who works at Spooky. Dirty Pool was over there. He's like an employee of Barrels of Fun. It's like so strange to me that they're opening up the doors to these content creators who are basically affiliated with their competition. When is Stern going to realize that is not a winning strategy? And also for those of you over there, if you're affiliated with another company, have some loyalty to them. Don't go over to the other company, don't wear their t-shirt, and then don't make content praising their games. It makes no sense to me. I have General Motors as a client. We wouldn't invite people from Ford to come over and pretend like they're into our products. Even if they love cars, it doesn't matter. It's like the world's forgotten what loyalty is all about. And nobody calls anybody out on this stuff. And then I do. And then people want to fight me. They want to say, Kaneda, you're a shill. Like, I'm not a shill for any of these companies. I like what I see happening in pinball with certain companies. Other companies, I don't like what they're doing so much, but I definitely think that Stern failed on this assignment with Transformers. And I think lately over at Stern, it's like the code has gotten so good on their games, but the games themselves, the physical games, have been piss poor. I think that Star Wars was piss poor. I think Transformers piss poor what's on the play field. And I think, yeah, the code might be amazing, but that's not enough anymore. It's not enough. So let's do this. So let's do this on this episode of Canada Live where I'm doing a podcast. Let's do an around the horn of everything happening at every company right now. How does that sound? So we'll start with Stern. We broke the news yesterday that Keith Elwin's game is not until next year. Everyone on Pinside now saying that's an old rumor. Sure, sure it was. Yeah, you were hearing that left and right. No, you weren't. So Keeith Elwin next year, Jhon Borg, either Ozzy Osbourne or ACDC Remake is happening next. And that's going to happen sometime August, September. Then we're going to get Goldfinger on the big Spike 3 screen. That's going to piss off everybody that has a James Bond LE or a James Bond Premium. This is Stern's business model. Let's keep making new versions of old games. I think it's a losing strategy. I would hate to be Seth. The pressure on this company to keep moving units, it's really going to be burning the old buyers. I mean, that is really what Stern's been doing lately. Let's burn the old buyers and keep getting more stuff on the line. Did you see they have like Rush on the line right now? What? Who needs more Rush machines? I don't get it. It's like whatever they have in parts, they're going to put on the line and shove it out into the world. I would hate to be a dealer or a distro having to absorb all of this stuff. So when it comes to Stern Pinball, I think the next six months are going to be kind of harsh on these guys because I think everything happening around them is going to be way cooler and way better. And I don't exactly know what the path forward is for Stern. I get a sense that they've lost their swagger a little bit. Working over there isn't that much fun and they can't hide it anymore. They really can hide it I know the team that worked on Transformers is not happy that the final product isn what they designed And if you think anything other than that and you want to fight Canada because I calling you a shill then call me whatever you want When I see content creators who have never transformed a transformer toy in their life praising this game for its toys I really start to wonder does anybody have any integrity left Is everything for sale? You paid money out of your own pocket to go to Stern and then make marketing materials for Stern Pinball. To me, that is not really that cool. You will never see me in one of those videos ever. I promise you that. Okay, let's keep going. Jersey Jack, Sonic the Hedgehog, 18 days from now. I think they're going to sort of start trickling out the teasers for this game. The first thing they're going to do, and they haven't done this yet. People keep forgetting this. They haven't even confirmed yet that it is Sonic the Hedgehog. So I think the first thing we're going to get one of these days soon is a confirmation on the theme. Then they might trickle out some stuff here and there, but I don't think we're going to see the game until June 23rd. And after that, we're going to get Van Halen from Mark Seiden. So that is what's next. We also heard they have the Grateful Dead license. Is that going to be an Eric game? I don't know. I think Eric's next game is a movie title. Is Steve Ritchie doing the Grateful Dead? I don't know. Now, Jersi Jack is still, for the most part, a company that really has only had one new game a year. So it would be unprecedented if they can get out another title this year alongside Sonic. So to be determined, we haven't seen them really do that yet. I'm curious to see what happens to all of these like 3,000 Harry Potter CEs in the world. Are we going to see people get rid of those? What will happen to the Potter price once Sonic the Hedgehog drops, but a lot of enthusiasm around Sonic, a lot of expectations around Sonic, and I can't wait to see this game, and I can't wait to see it with all of you. I am going to do a Kaneda Live in which we see this game together and share our reactions live in real time. That's a lot of fun. I'd rather do that than fly to Chicago, see it before all of you, and then not be able to say anything. Remember, all of these shills, there's a handful of these shills that have all seen Sonic that are Win Schilling Transformers. You got to remember, like, what does that say about these people and how easily they switch coats? They're like turncoats. They're like, what do they call those people? Traitors, right? It's America 250. These are like the Benedict Arnold of pinball content creators. They'll put on your shirt and say they're all about this game and then they'll take it off and go put on a Jersey Jack shirt and make content saying how great Sonic is. It's really weird to me. I really do think that all content creators should have a little bit more integrity and be about the community and making as close as they can get to unbiased content. And yeah, when you go over to a pinball company, you don't have to dress in their clothes. Do you think the Wall Street Journal, when it visits Apple to see its new products, do you think they put on an Apple T-shirt? Do you think the New York Times, when they're covering the latest technology from Samsung, arrives at Samsung in a Samsung T-shirt? Sert, it's really, really strange to me how quickly everybody just sells out instantly and then you call them out on it and they're like, oh man, what do you know? Well, all I know is how to get the most freaking subscribers in the history of pinball content. And by the way, I've been working with Brenda on like ironing out the issue with Apple. If you listen on Apple, just refresh it. Hopefully this show will come up on Apple. I'm doing it live here. You're seeing some of the mistakes and the outtakes. I might go through and take that out of the podcast, but this is how we do it, baby. I'm trying to read what you guys are saying as well in the chat. So we've got Jersey Jack. What's after Jersey Jack Pinball? Spooky Pinball. It's Goonies. 100% it's Goonies. I know that Spooky Pinball is considering maybe doing an SLE of Goonies. See this is interesting So instead of doing a show game maybe they might do an SLE version of Goonies I think it smart Make a certain number of them really price them super super expensive and you sell everyone make it fair for everybody to have a chance to get one and then there won be any complaining and then you have the ability to put a few like more money in your pockets Like you could put another maybe like half a million dollars in your pocket if you make a move like that And I think the money should go to Spooky. I don't think it should go to the dealers or the distros. I think all those games much like people forget this Stern sold Batman SLE direct. They did not sell it through dealers or distros. There's a reason they did that. And I think if Spooky makes an SLE of Goonies, they should sell it direct. They should create a lottery as like a right to get one, although hold one for Kaneda, hold one for Kaneda, baby, and then give people a chance to get one of those super coveted versions. And then the other games are going to be also very limited and they're not doing any more show games. And I think Goonies is going to be even greater than Beetlejuice. But all of a sudden, a lineup of modern spooky games is starting to seem really amazing. I think the one thing everybody wants from spooky, lose these like RC car servos. And that's like the last final thing. And then maybe get the flipper feel to be a little bit closer to Stern. But other than that, man, these games are like they don't really need to change much. I mean, they sold out of Beetlejuice before they showed it. The same thing's going to happen with Goonies. So super excited. And then after Goonies, I do think it's Gremlins. A lot of exciting stuff over at Spooky Pinball. Let's go to Barrels of Fun. See, Barrels of Fun to me is a little bit of a mystery. Not the Winchester Mystery House, just in general. What is next from Barrels and when will we see it? So I think we're going to see Barrels' next game maybe at Expo. So, you know, David David Van Es has a little bit of a weird strategy with his launches. He's historically launched way too early and he knows that and he doesn't want to do it again. He's said to people I know that have spoken to him, we don't want to do that again. We don't want to release a game and then there's like a six month wait to get it and the game's incomplete and it'll just hurt the game. I mean, Dune really was not ready to be released. He was worried about Harry Potter. He was worried about Keith Elwin's King Kong. And so he released Dune so incomplete. The early word of mouth was not good and the sales were abysmal. They were abysmal. For a game that has all the assets from that movie, it was abysmal. It was also like a terrible marketing strategy not to just confirm earlier on that it was Dune. Dune because remember when he finally announced it was Dune everyone was just kind of disappointed like nobody wanted it the same way when Elton John first came out it was like a disappointment to get confirmation that it was a theme not everybody wanted so I think he you know he needs to figure this out see the hard part is this and then Winchester was a complete mystery and it did really well but I still think barrels is in a position now where their next game needs to be a day one sellout it needs to be a thousand units. And it needs to be a mainstream theme that can get everybody excited. I'm a little worried that if it is He-Man and this He-Man movie bombs, is that going to be the game to go with? Is it going to be Big Trouble in Little China? I think that's a smart move. If I'm David David Van Es and I even have a chance at making Big Trouble in Little China, I think you're going to sell more of those than He-Man, than maybe even G.I. Joe. I mean it. I just think the storyline in Big Trouble is perfect for the man cave. I don't think these grown men are still watching G.I. Joe at all. I don't really watch old G1 Transformers anymore. The movie is where it's at. Now, David has said there might be an opportunity to make another Transformers game. And if that's the case, and this company makes Transformers G1 the movie, that's the way to go. The movie's way better than the show. It really is. It was like much more serious. The soundtrack was better. The storyline was much tighter. And so will it be He-Man? Will it be G.I. Joe? I don't think we're going to hear anything about it. The problem David has is this. Regardless of what it is, if it's He-Man, G.I. Joe, Big Trouble, the problem is simply this. The timing for when this company needs to get its next game out overlaps directly with Back to the Future. And I just wouldn't want to go up against Back to the Future now. The good news for David is that Barry can't really make Back to the Future quickly. And if the first 500 Back to the Futures are allocated already to Alice Adventures in Wonderland owners then you looking at maybe not even until year two or three if you put in your order for a Back to the Future on day one and you don own an Alice Gang it is June 5th of 2026 They have not even finished building the 500 Alices yet Alice was revealed to the world in 2024 Pinball Expo 2024 Sometimes it crazy You have to scratch your head and realize how long it's taken just to make 500 Alice games. So let's go to Dutch. Dutch's This whole year is all about back to the future. I don't think anyone cares. The rest of us don't care about the Alice Topper issue. Back to the freaking future. The rumor is 88 SLEs in America, 88 SLEs in Europe, and then the rest of the games are going to be, I don't know, maybe limited. I don't know if Barry's going to set a limit on these games before he reveals them to the world. Now the issue is really manufacturing. I still think Barry maybe should have inked a deal with a Jersey Jack, with a Stern Pinball. I think this is going to be a headache game to build. I also think it's going to be expensive. I think Back to the Future regular whatever edition, I think there's going to be two editions. I think there's going to be the SLE and the LE. And I think you're looking at 15K easily for the LE of the game. And I think the SLE, Barry, if I were him, 88 only, I mean, I'm looking at maybe $20,000, $22,000 a pop, and he's going to sell every single one. It's got all the assets. It's got the DeLorean. It's got the flux capacitor. It's got a lot in it. So, you know, I'm not sure, though, like looking down at the playfield of this game, it's not really going to be like an Elwin. It's not really going to have the layout that's going to blow you away. Pretty simple in my honest opinion. And I got to be honest, it's not like a crazy ton of stuff going on. But as I've said earlier, a theme like Back to the Future, it sells itself. And I think this game is going to be one of those games that just sells itself. They are not going to have a problem getting orders. They're going to have a problem building them. So that's Dutch Pinball. You know what we don't talk about? What's after Back to the Future for Dutch Pinball? And the reason why we don't talk about that is that's maybe five, six years from now, and they're going to be stuck building back to the future for five, six years just to fulfill the demand. Look, and Barry might just be comfortable doing that. And that's his prerogative. And he's going to get the orders. There is no question in my mind that he's going to get the orders. And even four or five years down the road, there's still going to be demand for back to the future. It's just that kind of iconic property that a lot of people are going to want. Let's keep going, baby. Pedretti Gaming. Pedretti Gaming seemingly stalling on releasing this Toten. Where is this Toten and what are they waiting for? It's almost like now they're going to wait until after Sonic. And so it seems like that might be their strategy. If Sonic is June 23rd, I don't think we're going to see Toten until like July. And so, you know, Pedretti Gaming, Tales of the Arabian Nights. Will it be good? Will the quality be good enough? Will the Brian Allen artwork be worth it? Will it be worth it? And Toten's a weird game because it was always beautiful. It's a loaded game. I'm not necessarily sure we want these older games, though. I think Rick, I think Rick colossally messed up. I do. I think Rick waited way too long. And the reason why is that Rick wanted way too much money for so many years to do this stuff. And now I think he's kind of just prostituting these games around to whoever will make them now because he knows he's out of time, man. He's running out of time. There's just too many games out there. There's too many new companies. And when you've got like a license like Funhaus, someone makes it and it's a sales flop. These companies aren't going to be running to make another remake. Now, games like Twilight Zone and Adam's Family, they're always going to find new buyers, even if they made a lot of those games back in the day. I think Totem's going to do okay, but what is okay? And what do they have to make to make it work for them? How much do they have to charge? All I know is I've yet to see a remake game with remastered code that actually is as exciting as anything that's part of the new games that are coming out. I just feel like this old stuff, even though mechanically it's really awesome, I don't think the replay value and the excitement is quite there. That's going to happen in an American Pinball Circus Voltaire. It's crazy, right? We got these two J-pop games, AP, Circus Voltaire, and then what? They're going to do another run of Galactic Tank Force, and then what? I know the game that Melvin's working on, the new banger from AP, that's a good like year and a half away. So what are they going to do to fill the... Factory with, what are they going to get on the line between now and then? We also know there's a game that's been developed that Melvin owns the rights to that could possibly slot in somewhere and you know it as another J-pop game, Raza, Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland. When's that game going to go on the line? So it's kind of this weird like J-pop's got three potential titles about to come back out. You know what's really the biggest miss? That nobody remade his World Cup soccer game. That soccer game, if they re-skinned it for this World Cup, could have been a really cool remake this time of year with everything going on in the world. Think about all the bars and all the potential operator dollars that would come from that game. It's a super fun game. I think, you know, it gets an underrated score. I think it's one of the most enjoyable J-pop games ever. And where is it, right? In the biggest soccer year in the history of the world, nobody thought to remake that game again. All of the marketing in this industry is so bad, it's comical. Okay, who else is out there in the world? What about Multimorphic? What's this Jerry game with like the mech of all mechs? Do you think it's Dungeon Crawler Carl? I don't think so. You know, going from Princess Bride, Weird Al, Portal, Jerry's like moved the themes better into his platform. He's got more upscale themes in his platform. But I don't know, man. I think on this platform with this screen, Jerry should be looking at more of the world of anime and sort of stuff like that. There's all these great cartoons, graphic cartoons and animes out there. I think that would be the perfect thing to put onto his platform. So we shall see. It's just hard, man. It's hard because Portal is as expensive as like a Jersey Jack Harry Potter CE. And when did this happen, right, where just the modular unit now is almost the price of a Stern Pro. And so if you go in on a multi-morphic, you're like 15 grand in on one game. And then if you buy more of these new modular games they almost like each Do you guys want to spend 20 grand on two multimorphic experiences I just don think so I really don think so All right who else is out there in the pinball world? I know stuff is happening with CGC and play mechanics. I know this because Mr. Sharp over there was really annoyed when one of my friends was reaching out to him. He's like, what do you know? What do you know? And here's what we've been hearing, that it's going to be Halo. I know Sharp is paranoid that his suppliers are leaking information, but it's at the point now where nobody cares. I want to tell CGC, on behalf of the community, we no longer care. You have run the worst marketing and communications possibly in the history of pinball, and nobody cares anymore. So if you're making Mark Ritchie's halo, nobody cares. If you're bringing back, I don't know, Twilight Zone, you're going to sell them, but we still don't care as much anymore. Like you just take forever because we know if they unveil a new Twilight Zone, it's going to be one of these things where you wait another year and a half before you get your game. It's just so boring. Everything happening at CGC. Who else is out there in the pinball world? Let's talk about our friend, the Pinball Brothers. I say our friends because, yeah, I want to be friendly with these guys. If they bring out the fifth element, I can't wait. I really hope this rumor is true. The fifth element is a dream theme. It's a take my money now game. From hearing what people are saying about Predator, I'm hearing like this about Predator. Like it's still a little clunky. It's not the greatest game to have if you don't have a big lineup. But if you do have a big lineup, then Predator, you know, with a subwoofer attached to it and jumping into the jungle, it just breaks up the monotony. It doesn't feel like another Stern. It doesn't feel like another Jersey Jack and it's got like a real like machismo game going right. You're you're in the forest with the crew and and you're Dutch and you're trying to kill the Predator. I mean, that's really adult theme game. You know, you walk over to Pokemon and you're going to feel like a kid. You walk over to Predator and there's like blood and skulls and all this stuff happening. So I don't really think Predator is the answer, but it shows us that they have the potential to make an interesting game. I would argue that the mechs and Predator kind of suck There not really a lot of interesting stuff happening mechanically And the fifth element is a beautiful world under glass So they really need to nail the sculpts in that world of Flost in Paradise and whatever the city is that they in and Corbin Dallas and his flying taxi and all that stuff And the Egyptian pyramids in the beginning, you know, with the Egyptian scene and all the Amadougeans or whatever their name is and, you know, Zorg and all that stuff. Like the fifth element has such a visual identity and if they can nail it I think there's going to be a lot of excitement around it. Now the question is when? Predator has been done for a while. I think they've made every single one. They only made 300. And so I think if we see this game it might be during like Expo again. So once again, we've got Goonies, we've got potentially David David Van Es' next game, we've got Back to the Future, and maybe Fifth Element all crashing on top of each other, on top of possibly John Borg's Ozzy Osbourne, on top of Goldfinger, on top of maybe Mark Seiden's Van Halen. I don't even know if I missed anybody, but I just want to say this. Can't you see when we say stuff like this how oversaturated this hobby has become? There's just way too many companies. And it's like the strategic approach for all of them is going to get more and more challenging. And the problem is, is nobody's winning on price. Nobody. So in a world in which everything's so expensive, nobody's winning on price. Then they have to put more magic into these games. But I also would argue that most of these games don't have much magic in them mechanically. And so pinball's turned into something about what's on the screen and getting all the LCD assets. But where's the physical magic? And I think this year so far has been defined by the pathetically long wait to get some Pokemon code into the game. I didn't even talk about it. But why is it that Stern Pinball cannot, on a weekly basis, at least communicate to all of us Pokemon owners, what is going on? Like, what's the issue? What should we look forward to? Why is there zero communication? And then you build this transformer where the entire left side of the game has got nothing going on, nothing transforms, and then what? You know, you're not going to have your savior, Keith Elwin, until next year. John Borg hasn had a hit in forever and a day I don really know what going on You think Brian Eddy like original Dracula game is going to be the answer Not at these prices And so everyone hoping Sonic the Hedgehog with his loop-de-loops and the JJP platform just sort of blow us away. But I'm feeling the oversaturation. I'm also just exhausted by the content creator shills that have Just sort of, I think, almost ruin the pinball content space. Like it used to be fun. People used to be more provocative. They would just keep it real more. We used to have like all these content creators that were on the side of the community and then they all sold out. I mean, it's when I say this, if you have an ad for a dealer in front of your show, you sold out. You sold out. Like what is this for a dealer? I mean, come on. Come on. And then, you know, they're getting the games for less money and then they're telling you to buy. It just doesn't work. It doesn't work. And look, I'll promote my dealer and distro friends, but I'm not putting ads for them in front of my content. It's just not worth it. It's just absolutely not worth it. And nobody doing it even needs the money. It's just weird. You know, someone knocked on my door like, Kaneda, I'll give you $1,500 a month to sell out. Huh? I don't think so. I don't think I'm going to do that. I think I'm just fine with my fans here. You guys are the best. Thank you so much for the support. Been a little like Friday show. It might have some weird noises. This table's been making noise. I don't know. I'm just trying to get a show up to see if Apple even works. I did a show like yesterday. So just you're getting a lot. You're getting a lot of content. But man, it's really I mean, is when I say this to me, it's a year of wait and see. And it's a year of trying everything you can do to get in on these SLEs that are about to come out. I think that's going to be what defines this year. The frenzy to get the SLEs that are going to be the only things worth collecting. And then it's just wait everything else out. I can't express how sad it is to see people losing money on Transformers. You're going to lose so much money on this game if you buy it new in box. Everybody, happy Friday. Canada out. Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart. Thursing doesn't even start, it's Friday, I'm in love.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-06-06 | Item ID: 4eea9c30-f646-4655-a9bc-870497d96a3a*