# Why People Aren't Buying Venom Pinball

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2023-07-26  
**Duration:** 18m 45s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ_aRKN6RAU

---

## Analysis

Kerry Hardy analyzes Venom pinball's poor market reception through multiple data sources (Pinside polls, Facebook activity, distributor inventory) and identifies four primary reasons for low consumer demand: excessive pricing ($7k Pro, $10k Premium), weak theme appeal, Marvel fatigue across entertainment, and saturation of competing alternatives. Hardy argues the Pro tier lacks mechanical substance to justify its price, criticizes the battle mode code for insufficient risk mechanics, and predicts Venom may signal a pricing turning point for Stern—though expects the manufacturer will absorb the loss and move forward rather than adjust strategy.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] 72% of Pinside poll respondents (639 total votes) say Venom is 'not for me' — _Hardy directly references Pinside poll data showing clear majority rejection_
- [HIGH] Major distributors have LE spots available and first-run Premiums in stock, indicating demand failure — _Hardy notes distributors reaching out to LE buyers who declined, and posts advertising available inventory_
- [MEDIUM] Stern allegedly 'bullies' distributors into accepting minimum allotments regardless of market demand — _Hardy states 'allegedly stern really bullies their distros' but does not provide direct evidence_
- [HIGH] Venom Pro at $7k is 'not worth' the price given its stripped-down mechanical design — _Hardy's personal assessment based on stream viewing and Comic-Con observations; corroborated by commenter consensus_
- [HIGH] Community sentiment shows overwhelming preference for $5k Pro / $7k Premium pricing over current $7k Pro / $10k Premium tier — _Hardy states 'everyone said yes they would be on board for a 5k pro or a 7k premium'_
- [HIGH] Battle mode lacks sufficient risk mechanics; opponent never strikes back except in rare Grendel instance — _Hardy's detailed code analysis with video review; notes edit correction after discovering limited Grendel retaliation_
- [MEDIUM] Marvel fatigue extends beyond pinball to movies and Disney+ shows with declining viewership — _Hardy observes industry-wide trend but does not cite specific viewership data_
- [MEDIUM] Stern's pricing strategy unlikely to change unless full year of downward sales trend occurs — _Hardy's prediction based on Stern's operational model and rapid release pace_

### Notable Quotes

> "the hype is already on the downward slope"
> — **Kerry Hardy**, ~0:45
> _Establishes core thesis about Venom's market momentum collapse_

> "imagine that there is a thousand limited editions for venom and the demand isn't there for them people don't really care if they get an le for this game or not that's not a good thing for the distros out there that really have to fork up the cash first"
> — **Kerry Hardy**, ~2:30
> _Illustrates financial pressure on distributors when demand expectations unmet_

> "Venom Pro is not worth $7,000"
> — **Kerry Hardy**, ~5:15
> _Direct value judgment that encapsulates main criticism_

> "when you put up a game with a fan layout and want to compare it to another game with a fan layout, and you state, look, they're the same. You're making yourself look dumb"
> — **Kerry Hardy**, ~9:30
> _Dismissive critique of comparative game analysis in community discussions_

> "locked content, that immediately starts waving a little bit of a red flag that all we're merely doing at this point now is just turning the water up a little bit more"
> — **Kerry Hardy**, ~10:15
> _Early signal of concern about DLC-like monetization patterns in future Stern code_

> "there just needs to be more risk in the battle mode. If you're under level, then there should only be a couple of shots that actually count towards defeating them"
> — **Kerry Hardy**, ~15:00
> _Specific game design critique with suggested fix_

> "that's the good thing and bad thing about stern is that they are able to pump out games at a rapid pace and if that particular game doesn't sell very well then they'll just move on to the next one"
> — **Kerry Hardy**, ~20:30
> _Strategic analysis of Stern's operational resilience and market approach_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Venom; subject of pricing strategy criticism and distributor relations analysis |
| Kerry Hardy | person | Content creator (8k+ YouTube subscribers) analyzing Venom reception; conducts polls and provides market data interpretation |
| Venom | game | Marvel-themed pinball machine released by Stern; center of analysis for poor market reception and pricing issues |
| Pinside | organization | Major pinball community forum hosting hype threads and polls; primary source of market sentiment data |
| This Week in Pinball | organization | Pinball media outlet conducting community polls on Venom acceptance; corroborates Pinside rejection data |
| Southern Fried Gaming Expo | event | Upcoming venue where Venom will be playable; next public demonstration opportunity after initial release |
| San Diego Comic Con | event | Event where Hardy observed Venom Premium and Pro models in-person; basis for 'barren' Pro assessment |
| George Gomez | person | Referenced as Venom designer; contrasted with Foo Fighters for design quality and code maturity |
| No Fear | game | Pinball machine used in community comparison discussions; criticized as inappropriate fan-layout analog |
| James Bond (pinball) | game | First Stern game to implement major price increase to $7k Pro tier; sold well despite initial code issues |
| Foo Fighters | game | Recently released Stern title with strong sales; featured mature code and original layout as differentiators |
| Grendel | game | Venom battle mode opponent; only instance where Hardy observed opponent striking back/reversing flippers |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pricing and Market Economics, Consumer Demand and Market Reception, Game Design and Code Quality, Marvel IP Saturation
- **Secondary:** Distributor Business Model and Friction, Competitive Alternatives and Market Saturation, Battle Mode Mechanics and RPG Design
- **Mentioned:** Monetization and DLC Patterns

### Sentiment

**Negative** (-0.78) — Hardy expresses strong criticism of Venom's value proposition, pricing strategy, and code design. Tone is disappointed and analytical rather than hostile. Hardy explicitly states personal rejection ('definitely don't want it'). Community sentiment from polled respondents is overwhelmingly negative (72% rejection). However, Hardy maintains professional tone and avoids personal attacks on designers; criticism is directed at business decisions and design choices.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Distributor inventory management crisis; forced allocation model straining relationships when demand doesn't materialize (confidence: medium) — Hardy's allegation that Stern 'bullies' distributors into accepting minimum allotments; evidence of distributors reaching out to declined LE buyers; first-run Premium inventory available
- **[business_signal]** Stern's operational model absorbs individual game failures through rapid release pace; unlikely to adjust pricing unless full-year sales trend warrants change (confidence: medium) — Hardy's prediction that Stern will 'move on to the next game' rather than adjust strategy; suggests need for sustained sales decline to trigger response
- **[product_concern]** Battle mode lacks sufficient mechanical risk to support RPG progression mechanics; opponent AI passive except for rare Grendel retaliation (confidence: high) — Hardy's detailed video analysis showing minimal opponent interaction; suggests only time pressure creates risk, not opponent damage mechanics
- **[design_philosophy]** Venom Pro perceived as mechanically stripped-down despite $7k price; comparison to home pin suggests insufficient tier differentiation (confidence: high) — Hardy's Comic-Con observation; commenter 'looks way too barren to justify that price'; fan layout lacking mechanical novelty vs. other recent releases
- **[market_signal]** Marvel fatigue extending across entertainment industry; pinball community fatigued by oversaturation of Marvel titles (confidence: medium) — Hardy notes Disney+ viewership decline for Marvel shows; identifies theme disinterest as #2 reason for Venom rejection; community comments mention Marvel saturation
- **[market_signal]** Market saturation with competing new releases (March batch plus several before year-end); consumers delaying Venom purchase to evaluate alternatives (confidence: high) — Hardy identifies competing options as #4 reason for rejection; notes consumers willing to wait rather than commit to Venom Pro at $7k
- **[market_signal]** Growing market rejection of $7k Pro and $10k Premium pricing; community consensus that $5k Pro / $7k Premium would be acceptable threshold (confidence: high) — 72% Pinside poll rejection; multiple commenter quotes; Hardy's poll showing 'money' as primary objection; distributor LE inventory buildup
- **[product_concern]** Monetization pattern emerging: locked character content flagged as precursor to future DLC model (confidence: medium) — Hardy references prior video on 'frog in water' incremental monetization; notes locked content as red flag for future DLC inevitability
- **[sentiment_shift]** Hype collapse for Venom after initial release; Pinside hype thread declining, Facebook engagement ceased (4+ days without posts), distributor reaching out to declined LE buyers (confidence: high) — Hardy's observation of waned hype thread activity, lack of Facebook engagement, distributor posts advertising available LE spots indicating prior rejections

---

## Transcript

 So I put up a poll yesterday on my channel asking everyone if they planned on getting a Venom pinball machine. Well the results are in and I've got another data point now that confirms the majority of people don't want it. What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball especially to the over 8,000 of you that have decided to hit that subscribe button down below. Now, it's been over a week since Venom was released. Since then, we've had the Premium streamed, we've had the Pro streamed. So, what all has changed since then? I would say hype. Hype has definitely dwindled down on this particular title. now if you look at the pin side charts for the hype thread that's what it's there for is to get all hyped up excited and all the potential buyers are there to chit chat back and forth about what they like or don't like about this game and as you can see the hype thread on pin side has already waned pinball enthusiast page on facebook hasn't had a venom related post and i want to say at least four days and honestly i haven't seen a venom related post in the last couple of days and the posts that i have seen are from the distros out there that state they just had a le spot open up spoiler alert if John Youssi posts like this that means that that particular distributor has gone down their typical le buyers list or even the people that at first stated they want to get the le for their game and so they've reached out to these individuals and some or a lot more than they were expecting said no now recent polling data shows that all of your major distributors out there have le's available and not just your le's but even the first run of premiums are available which doesn't really mean a good thing for stern and especially doesn't mean a good thing for the distros out there because allegedly stern really bullies their distros into taking a certain amount of machines whether it be le's or premiums or whatever whether the demand is there or not allegedly stern is riding those distros to accept the allotment that they are issued so imagine that there is a thousand limited editions for venom and the demand isn't there for them people don't really care if they get an le for this game or not that's not a good thing for the distros out there that really have to fork up the cash first. So the hype is already on the downward slope. Well, maybe that's because people have already put in their order and now it's just a waiting game for them to receive their game. Nope. Now I'm well aware that the numbers I'm about to show you are merely a small fraction of potential buyers. But the thing is, these numbers and graphs are pretty much close to identical so that kind of gives you an idea that even if you were to spread this for everyone to respond that is in this hobby the chances are those numbers would still correlate and equal the same just on a larger scale so let's just go straight to pinside pinside here let me bring it up But, Pennside has the question at the top of their hype thread stating, are you in? And 72% say not for me. With a total vote of 639. Then we'll go over to This Week in Pinball. And they also have a poll that shows that the majority is in the no. Then you also have the poll that I put up yesterday. let me refresh to see if it's changed any so currently we are at a total of 265 votes 88 of those people state no but why well the most common answer money yeah it would seem that this game is potentially the turning point for buyers i mean the prices have gone up year over year and I want to say the first game to take the big price hike was Bond that shot the Pro up to over And that game had really awful code at launch, but it had a very strong theme, and it still sold very well, and I think a part of that was due to the Gomez design. Then after that we had Foo Fighters Which sold tremendously well Demand was very high But it had the full package You had the art, you had a matured code You had a very original layout In comparison to what we've been seeing So it didn't really Have any kind of negative effect When it comes to the price being in the 7k region For your pros And now they announced Venom And People are saying No So some of the comments I have include and are not limited to the last price increase was too much 6k for a pro is ridiculous but acceptable 7k I won't do I want venom, but this game also requires premium which makes it Unattainable honestly with these insane prices. I don't see myself buying a new game anytime soon It looks fast and fun, but my price range is the pro, and it looks way too barren to justify that price. The machine looks real cool, but at these prices, I do not dare acquire one. Plus, I have no knowledge on how to maintain them anyway. 10K for premium hurts. Dream themes only for me moving forward. Not getting it. I'd like to, but the hobby is just too expensive to keep buying modern, and I like my other games. Now, these are just a few comments. There's many more on Pinside going through all the pages. I mean, it's all worded differently, but they're all the same. Essentially, they do not want to pay the prices that Stern has in store, at least on this game. Because if you look at the differences between the Premium and the Pro, you're getting all the cool stuff on the Premium, and you're still getting the high price for the Pro. Venom Pro is not worth $7,000. Now, obviously, worth is subjective. But when you have what looks to be the vast majority of people in this hobby agreeing by looking at the Pro during the stream and people in person at San Diego Comic Con can look at these two games and go, the Pro looks very stripped down. But yet the price is still $7,000. and I remember asking people recently like if they price their pros at like let's say 5k their premiums at seven and their limited editions at nine would that change your mind on buying a venom everyone said yes they would be on board for a 5k pro or a 7k premium that was the spot that everyone was in agreeance with like yeah I could get behind that so you've got a seven thousand dollar pro that is pretty damn barren all you have is your lanes nothing interesting mechanically wise except for the fast locks or quick locks that they have on left and right and then you have the premium which has all the goods but you're looking at a ten thousand dollar price tag and this game is going to be highly dependent on the code carrying it to make it interesting because whether you like it or not fan layouts all shoot the same and it cracks me up watching some of you out there trying to compare this game to other games one of them being um no fear look at it it's a replica of no fear i mean even though no fear has an upper flipper with a whole other shot up there, but whatever. It's still the fact that you're wanting to compare a fan layout to another fan layout. It's dumb. You're basically, when you put up a game with a fan layout and want to compare it to another game with a fan layout, and you state, look, they're the same. You're making yourself look dumb. Think about that. Yes there definitely similarities on the non layouts but that at least a little more valid because there definitely differences in the shots and stuff But a fan layout to a fan layout there a reason why they call it that And to say that they're the same, duh. I mean, but there's also some people out there that are iffy about the code. That you're able to progress and level up. And some people don't know if they like the whole idea of being able to pick up where you left off. It's obviously mixed feelings on that, and they're curious about the replayability of it down the line. And then you have the locked characters that you can unlock by completing certain tasks. And whenever I see that there is locked content, that immediately starts waving a little bit of a red flag that all we're merely doing at this point now is just turning the water up a little bit more. And for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about when I say that, I made a video over a year ago when Insider Connected first launched talking about the frog in the water and stuff like that. I'll put a link in the video in the description down below if you have not seen it, but this is merely just the slow onset of DLC that's going to be happening in the future. I mean, it's almost inevitable at this point. But anyways, the main issue I have with code at this point is just in the battles. There's not much to them at this current point. This obviously can change over time, so I'm stating as of right now, the issue I have is that there's not much risk. you get into a mode with somebody and if your level is lower than your opponent all the risk is is that you have to make more shots in order to defeat them the only risk during a battle is you running out of time that's it but every time you make a shot you get time added so where's the risk really in this because your opponent never hits you back you watch the stream again go ahead prove me wrong but i never saw your opponent strike you back or anything the only health bar is at the top and it's the opponent's health bar so they're basically a punching bag during battle mode edit right here i had a feeling that there was definitely something when it comes to the battle mode that i probably didn't remember and that is that yes evidently and it may be only Grendel that does this because that's where I'm only seeing it in this playback video of the premium but he does attack at one point and causes your flippers to reverse which I think is pretty cool little stuff like that but that seems to be the only time that I have seen an opponent fight back or do anything and that is just at that particular moment so maybe it's in the code but i just don't know if it's in there enough so that's my edit anyways back to it and the only thing that changes the battle is what level you are and how many shots you're going to have to make but there's no risk except for just running out of time where i feel like if you're wanting to make it more of an rpg like the video games like you seem to be doing dwight then i would say then you need to add more risk to this so if you're a lower level than your opponent then I think you should have only one or two shots that are going to actually count towards like going further into the battle and there should be much more shots that would count against you whether it be you lose time or you take damage but I think the fight should definitely be more difficult than just having to make more shots to beat them. It's the same ordeal when you play any other RPG video game, if you walk into an area that you're under leveled for, it's not that you're going to have to spend more time killing these enemies. It's the fact that also when the enemies hit you, you're probably going to get one-shotted or just not be able to beat them. And so what gives you the ability and the want is, you know what, I'm not ready to fight this person yet or these monsters yet. I'm going to go level up, get stronger, then I'm going to come back and I'm gonna start stomping some faces, hopefully. But as of right now, I don't see the current code for battle modes implementing anything like that. So in a nutshell, there just needs to be more risk in the battle mode. If you're under level, then there should only be a couple of shots that actually count towards defeating them whereas every other shot actually counts against you to lose time And if you above them I could definitely see how you have more shots available and the battle should be easier You got that You just need it to be more difficult and basically higher risk if you underleveled I think that would be more interesting if you get into a battle with somebody and you know that you're underleveled for it. Like, this is going to be a tough one because I'm underleveled. But when I was watching it on the beginning of the premium, They were under leveled, but there was still so many shots that were available to hit and The only negative was that you might run out of time if you don't hit them but That's all that's I mean, that's all I have to state about code. That's my only issue but back to the main reason for this video I mean, I've got a list here of just you know for most common reasons People are not purchasing venom number one. The price is too high number two Number two, it's not a theme that speaks to them, not a theme that they love. It's not a theme that they feel is worth spending all that money for kind of thing. Theme is important to a lot of people, and this is just not a theme that they care for. Number three, people are starting to get Marvel fatigue. And this is not just on the pinball level either. This is talking about pinball movies, Disney+, just pumping out those Marvel TV shows, most of them of which do not have the viewership that they used to whenever they first started doing these things. It's just that I think people in general are just kind of getting tired of the whole Marvel stuff. They just kind of need a break. Everywhere they look, it's Marvel this, Marvel that. And number four, better options are currently available or will be available in the near future. I mean, we're currently pretty saturated with pinball machine options. Because we had a bunch of them that came out in March. We have obviously a few more coming out before the end of the year. And currently people look at a $7,000 Baron Pro for Venom that's not a theme that speaks to them as like, no, I'll think I'll hold on to my money at least for this game and see what's going to happen next. I mean, what if? What if this is the turning point? What if Venom is the beginning of an economic shift in Stern's pricing? I mean, will it take one game with low sales for them to change their whole pricing? Oh, God, no. that's the good thing and bad thing about stern is that they are able to pump out games at a rapid pace and if that particular game doesn't sell very well then they'll just move on to the next one so if venom is considered a failure or you know just you know not selling as well as they at least planned it to then they'll just move on to the next game the only thing that's going to cause them to change the way they have things priced is like a full year of a trend of downward sales that would definitely trigger them to go okay we need to make some changes so just so we're clear i'm not telling you to not buy stern pinball i'm merely stating that i feel like this is going to be a game that people are going to be trying before they buy and the thing is it's going to be difficult to try this and because we got a whole month ahead of us of this game not being shipped out it's going to be at the southern fried gaming expo that's the the next point in time where you'll be able to play it but after that they're not going to be shipping out the pros to these locations until september so it's mainly going to be up to stern over the next month or so to keep the hype going for Venom. So let me know what you think about all this in the comments section down below, guys. I mean, how do I feel about it? I mean, I definitely don't want it because the same reasons why everyone's listed. It's the price. I look at the Venom Pro and I go, that looks like it's a home pin that has been stripped of so much and then they want to ask me for seven grand for it. and it's not a theme that speaks to me. So there's two of the most common reasons right there. I just don't think it's worth it for what you're seeing in this game. Like, yeah, it's fast, but fast doesn't immediately mean the game's going to be good. Oh my god. I still have to edit this, and then I've got work in the morning, so this is going to suck.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: d47c1327-0828-42d2-b364-2fe96c0128f3*