# Episode 757: "JJP #8 (NOT 7) Coming Very Soon!"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-01-09  
**Duration:** 21m 45s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-757-jjp-76965855

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## Analysis

Kaneda reveals that Jersey Jack Pinball's seventh game is rumored to be The Godfather, designed by Eric Minier, with an announcement expected February 20th. He critiques recent industry pricing and marketing tactics (especially Stern's James Bond handling and Toy Story's underperformance), argues against FOMO-driven marketing, and advocates for informed purchasing decisions in a market where games cost $12,000-$16,500.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Jersey Jack Pinball's seventh game is rumored to be The Godfather, designed by Eric Minier, with reveal expected February 20th — _Kaneda states this as first media outlet to report it, citing a leaked image, though framing it as rumor rather than official confirmation_
- [MEDIUM] Toy Story 4 was a sales failure, with approximately 1,000 CEs losing people money, selling worse than Willy Wonka — _Kaneda cites secondhand reports ('I'm hearing') about poor Toy Story sales and pricing issues_
- [LOW] The rumored Godfather game is a response to criticism that Eric Minier doesn't design games with great flow — _Kaneda reports hearsay from people who allegedly 'flipped' the game, which would imply early access_
- [MEDIUM] The Godfather game has been finished and complete for approximately a year — _Kaneda states 'people have been playing this game for like a year' and calls it 'finished, complete'_
- [HIGH] Stern Pinball exhibited sleazy marketing tactics with James Bond 60th by taking non-refundable deposits before showing the game to distributors — _Kaneda directly criticizes Stern and distributors for this practice, calling it 'the sleaziest move' he's seen_
- [HIGH] Guns N' Roses was the greatest pinball launch of all time — _Kaneda states this as his opinion, defending it as 'everything about it was perfect'_
- [HIGH] Jersey Jack has released 7 games since around 2010, while Stern averages 3 per year over 13 years (approximately 39 games) — _Kaneda provides explicit numerical comparison_
- [HIGH] Eric Minier is 'the best designer over at Jersey Jack Pinball' and is efficient at completing games — _Kaneda states this as his assessment, noting Minier's work ethic_

### Notable Quotes

> "It's really not hard. Grown men, I don't want a forky pinball machine that has an LCD screen where there should be like a Ferris wheel or some sort of toy. Toy Story 4 was a sales failure based on the projections of that theme."
> — **Kaneda**, early segment
> _Defines core criticism of Toy Story 4's design and market failure_

> "You can't have those two things go together and have a successful pinball launch... And that is why if you are a new in box buyer, you are waiting and seeing before you plunk down your money on the game."
> — **Kaneda**, mid segment
> _Articulates buyer hesitation tied to pricing concerns_

> "I would announce, 'We're going to give you a game you can't refuse,' coming February 20th. I would break the trend of not letting people know in advance what the theme is a little bit."
> — **Kaneda**, late segment
> _Advocates for transparency over FOMO-driven marketing_

> "if FOMO is the only thing we've got, if that's the only marketing tool to get people excited about pinball, then this hobby is getting really lame, and he's right."
> — **Kaneda**, late segment
> _Quotes Jason from Pinball Party on industry marketing criticism_

> "The game was shown as a freaking exclusive to the game. This is the sleaziest move I've seen Stern do. I think they should be ashamed of themselves."
> — **Kaneda**, mid segment
> _Strong condemnation of Stern's James Bond distribution strategy_

> "Everything about it was perfect. Everything looked perfect. The game played perfect. Yes, then we had the chipping playfields, but that wasn't really Jersey Jack Pinball's fault. It was that clown Mirko."
> — **Kaneda**, late segment
> _Defends Guns N' Roses launch quality, blames third-party supplier for playfield issues_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, content creator, community figure; expresses strong opinions on industry pricing, marketing, and game design |
| Eric Minier | person | Jersey Jack Pinball game designer; reportedly designing JJP #7 (rumored Godfather), called 'best designer' at JJP by Kaneda |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; seventh game rumored to be Godfather with February 20th reveal; recently released Toy Story 4 |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; criticized for James Bond 60th marketing and distribution tactics; averages ~3 games/year |
| The Godfather | game | Rumored Jersey Jack Pinball #7, designed by Eric Minier; theme reveal expected February 20th; reportedly focuses on flow mechanics |
| Toy Story 4 | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game; described as sales failure with ~1,000 CEs losing buyers money; overpriced relative to reception; features LCD screen instead of physical toys |
| James Bond 60th | game | Stern Pinball game; criticized for pricing, incomplete code at launch, and predatory distribution practices involving non-refundable deposits before game reveal |
| Guns N' Roses | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game; called 'greatest pinball launch of all time' by Kaneda; had chipping playfield issues blamed on supplier Mirko, not JJP |
| Willy Wonka | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game; Kaneda reports being promised movie assets that didn't materialize; sold better than Toy Story 4 |
| Scooby-Doo | game | Spooky Pinball game by inaugural coder DJ; Kaneda expresses skepticism about code quality and recommends waiting to see gameplay before purchasing |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer developing Scooby-Doo with new/rookie coder DJ |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Rumored artist for Jersey Jack Pinball #7 (Godfather); handles art package design |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Pinball designer; reportedly arrived at Jersey Jack after JJP #7 (Godfather) was already complete |
| Pat Lawlor | person | Pinball designer at Jersey Jack; known for games that 'shoot great' according to Kaneda |
| Jason | person | Associated with Pinball Party; quoted by Kaneda on FOMO-driven marketing criticism |
| Mirko | person | Supplier/manufacturer involved in Guns N' Roses playfield chipping issues; refuses to answer questions per Kaneda |
| Jack Guarneri | person | Jersey Jack Pinball executive; reportedly made promises about Willy Wonka assets that didn't materialize |
| We Are Pinball | organization | Pinball expo/event referenced in context of Godfather reveal expectations |
| Deadflip | person | Streamer expected to showcase Scooby-Doo code at end of month according to Kaneda |
| Kaneda's Pinball Podcast | organization | Long-running pinball podcast; Kaneda is host; operates Patreon feed; nominated for Twippies award |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Jersey Jack Pinball #7 (Godfather) announcement and design, Industry pricing and value proposition for premium games, FOMO-driven marketing vs. transparency in pinball industry, Stern Pinball's James Bond 60th distribution and marketing tactics, Toy Story 4 commercial underperformance and design criticism
- **Secondary:** Eric Minier's design philosophy and game flow mechanics, Community skepticism toward rookie coders (Spooky/Scooby-Doo), Historical comparison of manufacturer productivity (Jersey Jack vs. Stern)

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.35) — Kaneda is enthusiastic about JJP #7 (Godfather) prospect and community energy, but deeply frustrated with industry pricing, FOMO marketing, and what he views as corporate disrespect (Stern, distributors). Defensive about his own hype-generation in past. Cautiously optimistic about future but highly critical of current market conditions.

### Signals

- **[machine_intel]** Jersey Jack Pinball #7 (rumored to be The Godfather) leaked/revealed by Kaneda as first media outlet; announcement expected February 20th (confidence: medium) — Kaneda states 'I have not heard this anywhere else in the world' and cites a leaked image showing JJP #7 with Godfather theme
- **[product_concern]** Toy Story 4 reported as sales failure with ~1,000 units of Collector's Edition losing buyers money; sold worse than Willy Wonka (confidence: medium) — Kaneda cites secondhand reports: 'I'm hearing it not selling well... a thousand CEs are out there losing people money. Everybody lost on this game.'
- **[market_signal]** Buyer hesitation and waiting behavior driven by high pricing ($12k-$16.5k range); secondary market depreciation observed (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'You can't have those two things go together and have a successful pinball launch' (fun to shoot + hate price); 'people selling them for 3, 4000 less'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Community sentiment turning negative on FOMO-driven marketing and corporate tactics; calls for transparency and product-focused marketing (confidence: high) — Kaneda quotes Jason: 'if FOMO is the only thing we've got... this hobby is getting really lame'; condemns Stern's James Bond approach as 'sleaziest move'
- **[business_signal]** Stern Pinball and distributors took non-refundable deposits on James Bond 60th before revealing game to distribution partners (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'Stern didn't do the distro call before they revealed the game... This is the sleaziest move I've seen Stern do'
- **[design_philosophy]** Godfather rumored to emphasize flow mechanics as Eric Minier's response to criticism that he doesn't design games with great flow (confidence: low) — Kaneda: 'I heard it's gonna be Eric Minier's response to all the people who say he does not know how to design a game with great flow. So I expect this game to be a flow monster'
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball #7 (Godfather) reported complete and finished for approximately one year; people have played it extensively (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'people have been playing this game for like a year. Finished, complete. I bet Eric has finished his next game'
- **[community_signal]** Long-form podcast/streaming content and Facebook live discussions driving community narrative and FOMO discussion (confidence: high) — Kaneda references 'my greatest Facebook live yesterday' about James Bond dividing community; mentions 88-page James Bond thread
- **[product_strategy]** Industry advocate argues for advance theme announcement instead of FOMO reveal to allow community debate pre-launch rather than day-of (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'I would announce... in advance... Let them complain about that in January. [Don't] inundate your launch day with so many people saying I can't believe they made Godfather'
- **[competitive_signal]** Community skepticism about Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo due to inaugural/rookie coder (DJ) vs. established designers at Stern and Jersey Jack (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'You really think Spooky Pinball on an inaugural game by a coder is going to be as good or at the level of the kinds of games you've been playing... I don't know. The verdict is still out'
- **[product_launch]** Jersey Jack Pinball #7 (Godfather) pricing expected at $15k CE, $12k LE range based on recent JJP games (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'Jersey Jack games now being very high priced, right? Fifteen for the CE, twelve for the LE'

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## Transcript

 You know, it's been a little bit of a rollercoaster week for Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I think I put up my greatest Facebook live yesterday. This James Bond game has divided the community, but in the right way. We're like 99% of us are on the right side of this argument. And I just want to play a little bit of an extended intro to the show today that just captures the energy and the vibe that I'm feeling going into 2023. And if you're part of the Kaneda Club, I know you're feeling it. And if you're following me on Facebook, you're feeling it. and don't let the haters try and stop you there are people going after my fans it's okay man everyone whether you love Kaneda or hate Kaneda you have to admit having Kaneda in pinball is good for pinball let's hit it Old English Cont springspanel Superman Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. It's Sunday. I'm hungover. There was a really good friend of mine in need last night. Lots of Chinese food, lots of alcohol, lots of optimism on everyone's faces going into 2023. I'm very optimistic about what's happening in my life in pinball, in the world in general, like watching the politicians not able to swear in speakers. Free cost Hussein For all non-ologicalvolley았어, garlic and番 sigue gameplay общλο, dé��란Love and miesz fundo support for rickhäjkrevel 필요합니다 for golden in the cutscene� shurer, shurer death of my age by the guard, sherer io shoving the fânxing of the original «OUD», 이번기 oneway id Audited Franken fockeng interpretations we distributed by indian order about kickboxing Montgomery lyurgy**, but they do so b话 scaling350 addictive int responsive "-Éééy". Just to see their options in the early part of this year because I'm here to tell you first podcast, first media outlet, I have not heard this anywhere else in the world. Then you've seen it already because I posted the Killian image that Jersey Jack's seventh game is coming out is rumored to be revealed on February 20th. Atomicbrance, just a few days before Killian's birthday, we are going to get Jersey Jack number seven. Now, here's what we think we know about this game. It is gonna be an Eric Minier game, which has everybody very excited. He is the best designer over at Jersey Jack Pinball. I don't care what anybody says. When Eric makes a game, he puts his heart and soul into it, and when Pat Lawler makes a game, sure, it shoots great, WPPR WPPR WPPR WPPR WPPR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR WPBR We know it's Eric Mineyer, we know Christopher Franchi is on the art package and the rumored title is Godfather. Now look, we've beat up this theme, we've talked about this theme for a really long time. Is it going to be Godfather? We should know in just about two months. Now this is really exciting because I don't think anyone was expecting Jersey Jack number seven to come out so soon. But the reason why it's coming out so soon, can you guess? It's really not hard. Grown men I don't want a forky pinball machine that has an LCD screen where there should be like a ferris wheel or some sort of toy. Toy Story 4 was a sales failure based on the projections of that theme. I mean if you Jersey Jack Pinball you thought Toy Story would have been one of your biggest hits of all time I hearing it not selling well They overpriced it It not even selling as well as Willy Wonka I hearing A thousand CEs at are losing people money Everybody lost on this game Look it fun to shoot I get it But this thing about pinball being just fun to shoot is not enough because here been the theme with Toy Story and James Bond 60th Fun to shoot Hate the price right You can't have those two things go together and have a successful pinball launch. And saying those things that I love the way it shootss and I absolutely hate the price and that is just the honest feeling of the majority of pinball people now. And that is why if you are a new in box buyer you are waiting and seeing before you plunk down your money on the game. And if you hate the price and you don't want to spend the money then you're not going to spend the money. No matter what's in the game, No matter how well it shootss, no matter what the assets are, what the toys are, if you absolutely hate the price and you don't see the value in it, you're not going to buy the game. And that's just the way it's going to be. And so with Jersey Jack games now being very high priced, right? Fifteen for the CE, twelve for the LE, we are expecting good things. Now look, Kaneda in the past would always overhype the game. I would get you guys super excited. Eric Minier, the genius, is coming out with his third game. The game would come out like Toy Story 4 or Willy Wonka and it would underwhelm us and then everyone would say you're a hypocrite Kaneda you got us excited. Look the only pinball machine that I really felt good about hyping was Guns N' Roses because I saw it. And look, Willy Wonka even though I did get excited because I played it before everybody else. If what Jack told me was gonna be in Willy Wonka, you too would have been as excited as I was. Nothing from the movie made it into the game the way he said it was gonna be in the game, okay? So don't just blame the messenger. I was told things that didn't come true. So I am not gonna hype this game. I'm not gonna tell you get your money ready. But I will tell you this. I think if you waited on Scooby-Doo, you are smart. I think if you Waited on James Bond LE because the code's not even nearly done, you are smart. And I think if you Waited to see the next Jersey Jack game, you are smart. Because at these prices, I don't know about you, but I'm about like maybe I'll buy a pinball machine a year now. That's it. Maybe I will buy a pinball machine a year. But it really has to check a lot of boxes. And the recent offerings from these companies just have not checked enough boxes. I mean, I'm surprised a lot of people went in on Scooby-Doo so early without seeing any of the code yet from a rookie coder. Like, I'm nervous. You really think spooky Pinball on an inaugural game by a coder is going to be as good or at the level of the kinds of games you've been playing over the last like 15 years from Stern, the games from Jersey Jack. You know, I don't know. The verdict is still out on what DJ is going to do The end of the month, I think Deadflip is going to stream it, but putting money down before that was really weird to see a lot of people do that. And I say retro because what happens if you gave a nonrefundable deposit on Scooby-Doo? What happens if you see the gameplay and the code is not good at all? What happens if you see the gameplay and maybe it could be boring and maybe the ball timesğu Oregon precisoCA principalmente of A aliment,ций erg Adv conscious, one ton meny physicians Communisteglybig sanitizer,forexc Conglientex Yi,geitholana,r 문제가ard I need to see the replay value, all this stuff, right? I need to make sure that this has enough because at these prices, buying pinball machine isn't fun anymore. It's not fun separating from like 16.5 with taxes and tip for a Toy Story 4 only to wake up the next day and see people selling them for 3, 4000 less.啊 이 자막에 대공ika갸jat 많eto액 글스� suced이�ně 수atives 포장된하면 프로젝트 고�ceğim 뭐야 Using sabia along with multi-ольше greeting language justsell the others. jamest FAR站 The game was shown as a freaking exclusive to the game This is the sleaziest move I seen Stern do I think they should be ashamed of themselves I think distributors who took nonrefundable deposits from people before the game was shown should really be ashamed of themselves If it one of you I think they should refund everybody because I think and I said it on my Facebook post any distributor with half a heart and half a brain would never after seeing the game because Stern didn do the distro call before they revealed the game Any distro who saw this game before never would have taken those deposits They would not have wanted to upset their customers Look distros care about their customers They do It's Stern that doesn't care about its distros when it pulls a sleazy move like this. And I think the whole thing has been sleazy. I think a lot of the sleazy tactics that have been happening have now been confirmed. Like our worst fears about how little Stern might care about us were confirmed with this James Bond release. And I think the big concern by everybody in the hobby right now is, is this the future of Stern? Okay, but let's go back to Jersey Jack number 7. So Godfather, is it gonna be Godfather? The other thing I've heard about this game from people who have flipped it, I heard it's gonna be Eric Minier's response. All the people who say he does not know how to design a game with great flow. So I expect this game to be a flow monster from Eric Minier Steve Ritchie's been over there, but I think Steve Ritchie arrived after this game was done That's the other thing this game has been done for a while like people have been playing this game for like a year Finished complete I bet Eric has finished his next game. He's really really efficient The game is a game that is not just a game that is going to be exciting, but also a game that is going to be waiting for assets. This isn't going to be like incomplete code. Jersey Jack is going to drop a fully featured game into the world. Prior to Toy Story, Jersey Jack Pinball launches were always sort of like the most special launches every couple years because it's one company who makes one game every like 18 months and their reveal videos are usually the best other than Toy Story. All of this is usually really good. Guns N' Roses was still the greatest pinball launch of all time. It will go down as the greatest pinball launch of all time. Everything about it was perfect. Everything looked perfect. The game played perfect. Yes, then we had the chipping playfields, but that wasn't really Jersey Jack's fault. It was that clown Mirko who's still in the industry for some reason, who still refuses to answer questions when Kaneda asks him, what's going on, man? Like, what happened? He just got up and walked out of the seminar room. In the meantime, we're going to get back on track with a really good Jersey Jack launch. The other thing is this, if I was Jersey Jack and I was giving Ken Cromwell some advice, if it is Godfather, I would announce that now. I would announce we're going to give you a game you can't refuse coming February 20th. I would break the trend of not letting people know in advance what the theme is a little bit. I think FOMO, if that's the only thing and Jason over at Pinball Party said this the best, if FOMO is the only thing we've got, if that's the only marketing tool to get people excited about pinball, then this hobby is getting really lame and he's right and I think everyone's feeling that way and he is right. So look, you've got Godfather, just let people know. You know the date. Let people know the date in advance. To give back to fans who are watching this video, regarding FanFest 2019 beyond the and titles like Godfather if they had let people know in advance they would have helped themselves because we would have got out of our system all of the anger about it being only Toy Story 4 or all of the anger about how can you make a Godfather pinball machine work and let people fight that out like look at the James Bond thread it's a great example of this look at that thread it's like 88 pages of grown wealthy white men beating themselves The game is now up for like three or four days, but I'll tell you this right now. Everybody in that thread is now exhausted of the argument and they will move on to the next thing to complain about. So it is sometimes a smart marketing move. If you know you have a few things people might complain about, let them complain about it further in advance and don't let that spoil the launch of the game. You really have the ability to really control the narrative more. And no one's going to be shocked that it's Godfather and be like, I can't believe you made Godfather. Why would you want to inundate your launch day with so many people saying, I can't believe they made Godfather? How stupid are they? Let them complain about that in January. The other thing that's interesting, right, with Jersey Jack, it's like this is Jersey Jack number seven, right? Seven pinball machines. And Jersey Jack came into the space around 2010. economic tehduth decade IGU including be it Panty tiver or Kitsama can Marylandin and Peters Dinaldin local pridearea comparatively message up Conservationpendid however penalty advantage Wedding district R das CSA has about on average 3 new games a year 13 years 39 games from Stern pinball versus 7 from Jersey Jack Look I think this is really exciting I think this gives us something new to look forward to it definitely will give us something new to complain about or celebrate and that what pinball is people It is a toy in a box an expensive box of blinking lights we are allowed to celebrate stuff we are allowed to complain about stuff I allowed to speak my mind How to choose your WiFi andarabatic philosophers The thing is nobody wants to come out and say like it's so toxic that he's telling people to wait and play the game before buying it. That is the behavior we need to get back to and Jason said it the best. He's like if it's only FOMO if you're not gonna stand behind your product and its features and just say hey, we're gonna make this forever. We made this amazing magical pinball machine. We're so happy. We know you're gonna want one. Here it is and just put it on the line and enough with all of the FOMO tactics. Quinn awardét Along slide maybe only may well win this contest importantly we analyze doggo personally at this J burstlaw event which is four years of overall championships restart with Итак out administrative What did you and slap a $20,000 price tag on it. That's it. That's the beginning and the end of the conversation. There's no FOMO for that game. And it really brought out the worst in everybody. Everybody, I love doing this podcast. I love hanging out with each and every one of you every Saturday morning. I love my new friends. I'm going to give a shout out to Cengiz. Man, this guy in Denmark, super fun dude. We're going to be making some reveal videos for you guys. I want to give a shout out to Cliff Albert. I don't even know if he's a subscriber. I think he is. He's a guy who The end of the podcast by saying yes, I love it when you vote for me in the twippies. I don't think it's a negative thing. I think when we hear people complaining about award shows and how they're structured, doesn't that take the fun and the celebratory nature out of it all? I mean, the Twiffies are going to be great. I think Emoto and Todd are going to do great. I can't wait to go to Texas. I got my cargo shorts ready. If I win, great. And I'm telling you this, if I lose the Twiffie for Favorite Pinball Podcast or Favorite Pinball Streamer, I will be the first person to stand up, applaud and congratulate the first person безτηmniej Fiona Speaks the languagephet Franchihops who shared this video on Facebook for Equ reuniy, being an Unplanned Distinguished giorno Tuesday thrilledimonetingヤی, during which phrasesaged clapping controls", to be then moved through the该 indieguide delleehajhinoors disciplinetoitw cy אנ acompanceed itjukë on having a conversation to get to a better, more optimistic place about pinball and that's what burns people. They see all of the Kaneda people having so much fun and I think they should just be a part of it everybody. Let's kick this song and get the energy back of what Kaneda's Pinball Podcast brings to pinball later.techmix Nextgen palace Finger, Part 2 Viola a they're

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