# deeproot

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2020-09-22  
**Duration:** 13m 39s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28XZfoH0PfA

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## Analysis

Cary Hardy visited Deep Root Pinball's San Antonio facility as one of six invited pinball personalities for what was supposed to be a launch event. Deep Root announced a postponement of their platform and Raza game release due to technical issues and feedback from the visit, which Hardy supports as the right decision. Hardy is bound by NDA and can only discuss public information, but emphasizes Deep Root has genuine innovation potential and deserves patience from the community.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Deep Root Pinball postponed the public release of their platform and Raza game due to technical issues and feedback from six invited playtesters — _Official Deep Root statement posted to their website; directly quoted in video_
- [HIGH] Cary Hardy and five other pinball personalities (Lauren, Carrie, Colin, Jeff, Chris, and Crystal) visited Deep Root's San Antonio facility for a beta event — _Deep Root's official statement naming the six guests_
- [HIGH] Steve Bowden has been working on the rules design for Raza and is excited about the game's mechanics and upcoming games — _Hardy's direct observation of Bowden at the event; Bowden is named in Deep Root context as working on Raza rules_
- [HIGH] Hardy signed a five-page NDA preventing him from discussing specifics beyond public knowledge — _Hardy states he has legally binding documentation and references it throughout the video_
- [MEDIUM] Deep Root showed innovation and technical capability during the facility visit, but needs more development time — _Hardy's opinion based on what he saw; states 'innovation is definitely there' and 'they have the potential'_

### Notable Quotes

> "Due to technical issues and lots of feedback from our guests, it ended up being more of a beta event... The result is the realization that we are not as ready for launch as we had hoped."
> — **Deep Root Pinball (official statement)**, ~0:45
> _Official explanation for the postponement; reveals technical problems and guest feedback drove the decision_

> "I fully backed this decision. This was a great call on Robert's part. I would much rather them postpone, delay, whatever term you want to use, make the changes needed."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~5:15
> _Hardy's strong endorsement of Deep Root's decision despite personal frustration about NDA limitations_

> "They could have easily just disregarded everything that we said and continued down the path of launching this game... I praise them for making the decision to take this flack by delaying instead of launching."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~6:30
> _Hardy emphasizes Deep Root listened to critical feedback, positioning the postponement as a sign of responsiveness_

> "If they get these technical issues fixed, then yes, they are going to be bringing new things into pinball, guys."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~10:45
> _Hardy's conditional optimism about Deep Root's potential for innovation if execution improves_

> "The only thing you can be mad about is that they have possibly built up your expectations and hyped themselves up and still have not given us anything... the major plus is that they also have not taken anything."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~7:45
> _Hardy's balanced framing of the situation: Deep Root still has customer money but hasn't delivered, yet also hasn't collapsed_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Deep Root Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas; announced postponement of Raza pinball machine platform and game release due to technical issues and feedback from invited playtest event |
| Cary Hardy | person | Content creator and pinball enthusiast; one of six invited guests to Deep Root's facility visit; published video analysis discussing the postponement and NDA limitations |
| Steve Bowden | person | Pinball rules designer working on Raza at Deep Root; excited to discuss game mechanics and rules during the facility visit |
| Robert Mueller | person | Founder/owner of Deep Root Pinball; made the decision to postpone the launch despite potential negative backlash |
| Raza | game | Flagship pinball game title from Deep Root Pinball; postponed from planned launch due to technical issues and feedback |
| Lauren | person | One of six invited pinball personalities to Deep Root facility visit (last name not provided in content) |
| Carrie | person | One of six invited pinball personalities to Deep Root facility visit (last name not provided in content) |
| Colin | person | One of six invited pinball personalities to Deep Root facility visit (likely Colin from Kineticist based on industry context) |
| Jeff | person | One of six invited pinball personalities to Deep Root facility visit (last name not provided in content) |
| Chris | person | One of six invited pinball personalities to Deep Root facility visit (last name not provided in content) |
| Crystal | person | One of six invited pinball personalities to Deep Root facility visit (last name not provided in content) |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Deep Root Pinball platform/game postponement, Technical issues in pinball hardware/software development, Raza game design and rules mechanics
- **Secondary:** Community expectations vs manufacturer readiness, NDA restrictions on content creator commentary, Pinball innovation and competitive market dynamics

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Hardy expresses frustration about the postponement and NDA limitations preventing detailed disclosure, but strongly supports Deep Root's decision to delay and praises their responsiveness to feedback. He projects optimism about Deep Root's innovation potential while acknowledging the community backlash they will face. The tone is cautiously positive about the company's trajectory despite current setbacks.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Deep Root's repeated postponements and delayed launches continue to impact community trust and manufacturer credibility (confidence: medium) — Hardy's entire video addresses the postponement and implicitly acknowledges Deep Root's history of delays by emphasizing that this is 'not a happy day' and they will face backlash
- **[community_signal]** Deep Root engaged six prominent pinball personalities for direct feedback on platform and game design before public launch (confidence: high) — Official statement thanks 'Lauren, Carrie, Colin, Jeff, Chris, and Crystal for their invaluable feedback and involvement in refining our platform'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Hardy anticipates significant negative community backlash toward Deep Root for postponement, but personally endorses the decision (confidence: high) — Hardy states: 'I'm sure Robert's expecting it. I'm sure it's blowing up. So without a doubt, he's going to be taking a lot of heat.' But also: 'I fully backed this decision. This was a great call on Robert's part.'
- **[community_signal]** Steve Bowden is passionate about Raza's rules design and upcoming game mechanics, eager to discuss details with the pinball community (confidence: high) — Hardy describes Bowden as 'so excited to finally be able to talk about all the things that he's been working on' and compares him to 'pulling a string on a toy and just letting it go'
- **[product_strategy]** Deep Root Pinball officially postpones Raza platform and game launch following facility visit by invited playtesters (confidence: high) — Official Deep Root statement: 'the only right decision today is to postpone the public release of our platform and our first game' due to 'technical issues' and guest feedback
- **[product_concern]** Technical issues emerged during beta testing that were significant enough to delay product launch (confidence: high) — Deep Root's official statement cites 'technical issues' as primary reason for postponement; Hardy notes 'due to technical issues, lots of feedback from our guests'

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## Transcript

 all right guys let's talk about this what's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball so if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below now as most of you are aware I did travel down to Deep Root in San Antonio, Texas this past weekend to get to go inside and legitimately be close as possible to what you would kind of parallel to the Willy Wonka movie where six individuals get to go inside and see what has been going on in this factory this time and you get to see all inside and all the goodies. That was pretty much what the whole thing was. Now let me preface all about what I'm about to say with I can only speak to you and tell anyone what is public knowledge. I have got a five-page NDA right here, legally bound documentation of what I can and cannot discuss so please understand it's not a matter of like the people that went are Win Schilling and they're trying to cover for them or anything like that it's a matter of what we are legally binding to only be able to say and in a nutshell all we can say is what is public knowledge. So understand that whatever I'm about to say and disclose to you is strictly by what is public knowledge. And for those of you that follow me and watch my videos and know how I am towards machines, then you will have an even better understanding to why this decision was made. So as of, I don't know what time, like two hours ago, Deep Root updates their website to this. So it says, Deep Root Pinball has spent years redesigning the pinball machine from the ground up and countless novel approaches. On this past Saturday, we had hoped to host a launch event with six well-known pinball personalities. Due to technical issues, lots of feedback from our guests, it ended up being more of a beta event. We are grateful and thankful to Lauren, Carrie, Colin, Jeff, Chris, and Crystal for their invaluable feedback and involvement in refining our platform to be the best it can be. The result is the realization that we are not as ready for launch as we had hoped. we are already working hard to fix the technical issues and implement our guests feedback so the only right decision today is to postpone the public release of our platform and our first game we hope that you agree that releasing a well-engineered and fun to play raza is in everyone best interest we hope to update you during this process we remain deeply committed to delivering the highest quality of gameplay and innovation to our players We thank you for your continued trust and patience The team at Deep Root Pinball. So that is the official press release. Now, there's actually a good amount of information here, guys, that you can put your own puzzle pieces together to get at least a better idea of why they are postponing and making this decision. And here's the thing, guys. No shills or anything. You know me well enough that I'm going to speak to you honestly on my opinions and feelings about something that I have no reason to tell you otherwise. The only thing I can do is not tell you certain things because of a legal binding contract. So here it is. In this sentence, it says due to technical issues and lots of feedback from our guests. That should give you a lot of information right there. So in this sentence, it tells you right there due to technical issues. So obviously issues occurred during our stay and things didn't go as planned. and they got feedback from myself and from others in the group. Now, I wish I could show you my email that I did send that had a bunch of information on there, but all that information that's on there is definitely not going to be able to be shown to you guys. But understand that I fully backed this decision. this was a great call on Robert's part. I would much rather them postpone, delay, whatever term you want to use, make the changes needed, and then if need be, bring us down again and try not to make it such a big deal that we're being brought in if need be. so that way we're not trying to get expectations and all the hopes risen up. But I would be more than happy to come in and give more feedback. So this is great. I know a lot of you are disappointed because you want Deep Root to succeed. And when I say succeed, be a competitor in this field to make other manufacturers begin to draw in more innovation to their machines. I get it. I'm there with you. I want them to succeed as well. And I think, especially after what I've seen, they are capable of doing it. The things I saw, I see what they're working towards and they have the potential. It's there. they just need more time something that was unexpected to me and like i said i did send them my concerns fully listed good and bad and what i really appreciating and i like thank goodness is that they they made this decision They could have easily just disregarded everything that we said and continued down the path of launching this game and showing you guys everything They could have done that easily. But I praise them for having to take all the flack they're getting as of right now and will continually get. I praise them for making the decision to take this flack by delaying instead of launching, and in my opinion, it would have been worse. I mean, without a doubt, it's definitely – it's killing me because I want to be able to just tell you guys about everything they're working on. I would love to or at least give you a lot more information about what was hopefully going to be revealed today. But now I can't. And, oh, man. Because like I said, a lot of you are going to be ripping on them and throwing flack their direction, and it's going to be negative, negative, negative. but I'm telling you there are things that we saw that I'm like okay good I'm glad I'm seeing this go in this direction this is going to be really good they just need more time to get it better so what I can say is that be patient yes Deep Root is going to be catching a lot of flack from a lot of you out there but the plus thing guys and you can't really be mad at them only thing you can be mad about is that they have possibly built up your expectations and hyped themselves up and still have not you know given us anything but the major plus is that they also have not taken anything you can't be mad too much about that they've got their money they're doing their thing they're innovating they're creating they're trying to improve this hobby they just need more time so let's review in a nutshell we came this weekend they showed us a lot of stuff i mean we're talking like no foreplay like brought us in there and revealed a lot of things to us that i was not even expecting. Saw a lot of cool things and innovation is definitely there. They just need more time to make it better. And as you can tell from the public knowledge that's been posted on their website, there were technical issues. Things did not go as planned as they wanted it to. And they got a lot of feedback from the six of us about our experiences and thoughts about what we were shown. And the positive note is that they are taking that feedback and they're listening, guys. That's a good thing. Like I said, they could have easily just been like, what do you guys know? We're going to go with it. This is, you know, you don't know what you're talking about, but they're listening. So I applaud them for that as well. It was one of those things where I sent my email in and I was like I hoping that they listen I was crossing my fingers that this would get delayed And I glad that they doing it So any way you look at it guys I completely on board with them delaying or postponing their launch Because I feel if they get these technical issues fixed, then yes, they are going to be bringing new things into pinball, guys. I think that's really all I'm going to say in this video. And like I've already stated, there's very limited things that I can tell you people. Only what is public knowledge. So according to their letter that it revealed to the public, I can merely just give you that with what I've already said. And that doesn't give you any more information than what they've stated. But like I said, when it comes to feedback that they've gotten from everybody here that they state, if you know me well enough and how I feel about machines and hardware and stuff like that, that should give you a better idea of what comments I could have stated. So everyone be patient. You can feel the way you feel. You can hate on him if you want to. I'm sure Robert's expecting it. I'm sure it's blowing up. So without a doubt, he's going to be taking a lot of heat. It's not a happy day for anybody at Deep Root, guys. I don't think they're all just sitting around right now just smiling and having a good day. I don't think anybody there is happy about this decision. I mean, some other things I could tell you that I don't see being an issue is talking to Steven Bowden about Raza. and his rules that he has in mind, he was so excited to finally be able to talk about all the things that he's been working on. He's been holding it in for this long, and so he was just finally excited to be able to go back and forth with other fellow pinball people about all the things that he's wanting to do and when the game's going to do this and you're going to be able to do that. It was like pulling a string on a toy and just letting it go and the Energizer Bunny, he was so excited to show us and tell us what this game is going to have in it when it comes to the rules and stuff like that, as well as the other upcoming games that he's working on when it comes to rules. He's super passionate and excited about what he has in store for all of us out there. So I know it's definitely a sad day for him as well that, once again, he has to refrain and hold back things that he wants to tell everybody. All right, I think that's enough. I'm hoping that all this information is safe and nothing negative comes back towards me, but knowing my life and how things are going, who knows? We'll find out. So that's going to wrap it up, guys. If you like what you've seen here, give me the thumbs up. And if you haven't already, subscribe button down below. Until next time, guys. Peace out. Outro Music

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 778a528c-5075-413c-bc99-6a73c2edac9f*