# Episode 1104:  "Why Potter Cheerleaders Are Working Against The Game They Love"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-06-16  
**Duration:** 27m 1s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-1104-why-131592435

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## Analysis

Kaneda argues that enthusiastic Harry Potter cheerleaders are counterproductively undermining the game by blocking constructive criticism, when the community's real goal is to help JJP improve weak code. He contrasts this with Dune's lack of engagement, warns Predator may be overpriced, criticizes manufacturers for releasing games too early with incomplete code, and praises Spooky's approach. He also warns collectors not to rush into purchases, as prices will drop when code issues become apparent.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] 95% of Harry Potter buyers haven't even played the game yet — _Kaneda, opening segment on Harry Potter divisiveness_
- [HIGH] Harry Potter code is currently at version 0.70-0.72 and needs fundamental rework, not incremental updates — _Kaneda discussing code quality issues and design philosophy_
- [HIGH] The Harry Potter scoop on far right is too difficult to hit, harder than Guns N' Roses scoop but comparable to Godzilla — _Kaneda's detailed gameplay analysis_
- [HIGH] Retro Ralph was paid a Harry Potter Collector's Edition (worth ~$15,000) for making a featurette — _Kaneda discussing Ralph's compensation and access_
- [HIGH] Dune owner's club thread is only 4 pages long despite game being out over a month; Harry Potter thread is 170+ pages — _Kaneda comparing community engagement metrics_
- [MEDIUM] A fully configured Dune machine will cost $13,000-$14,000 with accessories, versus Harry Potter Arcade at $10,000 — _Kaneda discussing pricing and value proposition_
- [MEDIUM] Evil Dead code is significantly better than Harry Potter code — _Kaneda comparing game design and storytelling quality_
- [MEDIUM] Predator will be priced around $11,000-$12,500, significantly more than Alien — _Kaneda discussing Predator pricing concerns_
- [HIGH] Pinball manufacturers are releasing games incomplete, forcing buyers to wait a year for full feature sets — _Kaneda's extended critique of early release strategy_
- [MEDIUM] Many positive pinball content creators have only entered the space in the last 3-4 years and lack long-term community investment — _Kaneda's criticism of new content creators and manufacturer relationships_

### Notable Quotes

> "95% of people that have ordered a Harry Potter haven't even played it... Are you really going to be hypercritical about a pinball machine?"
> — **Kaneda**, early in episode
> _Central thesis: early buyers haven't experienced the game's problems firsthand_

> "The reason why so many people are giving feedback that is very constructive, very well thought out is simply this. We care about getting this game to where it should be because we love the way it shoots."
> — **Kaneda**, mid-episode
> _Reframes critical feedback as constructive help, not negativity_

> "The problem with Harry Potter is the overall way in which the entire game is coming at you, in which they bury the movie scenes, in which you don't feel any sense of accomplishment, in which everything is turned on at once."
> — **Kaneda**, mid-episode
> _Specific diagnosis of code design failure_

> "Bill is correct that this game shoots great and makes you want to come back for more. But Neil is also correct in that this game does a horrible job at storytelling... both these guys are right."
> — **Kaneda**, mid-episode
> _Acknowledges validity of both positive and critical perspectives_

> "When you start making content on behalf of a company, you also do lose the ability to objectively review that company's products because you're not going to want to lose access to that company."
> — **Kaneda**, mid-episode
> _Addresses conflict of interest in sponsored content creation_

> "How many of you would go see a movie for 30 bucks where the movie wasn't finished? ...None of these games should be released early. None of these games should make consumers be guinea pigs."
> — **Kaneda**, late-episode
> _Core argument against incomplete releases_

> "Evil Dead is maybe the second most beautiful game in all of pinball right now... The code is great. It makes you feel like you're playing the Evil Dead movies."
> — **Kaneda**, late-episode
> _Holds up Spooky as the model for proper release strategy_

> "if you buy Potter now trust me you're gonna get bored with it after a week the way the game is coded"
> — **Kaneda**, final segment
> _Direct recommendation against early purchase_

> "They're going to sell a ton of these games... But the company I'd want to be is just spooky."
> — **Kaneda**, late-episode
> _Identifies Spooky as winner vs. JJP/Stern despite Potter financial success_

> "I'm never going to get my free pinball machine. But what I want to do is just get these games better."
> — **Kaneda**, late-episode
> _Asserts editorial independence and core motivation_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, 12-year veteran pinball content creator and critic; maintains editorial independence from manufacturer relationships |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Harry Potter pinball; accused of not adequately addressing code quality concerns despite constructive feedback |
| Harry Potter | game | Jersey Jack Pinball premium title with excellent playfield design but problematic code structure; high sales volume and massive community engagement but facing criticism for narrative/storytelling issues |
| Eric Menear | person | Designer of Harry Potter pinball; Kaneda describes it as his best design from a gameplay/shot design perspective |
| Joe Katz | person | Code/rules programmer at Jersey Jack Pinball; Kaneda suggests inviting him to focus group sessions for feedback |
| Retro Ralph | person | Pinball content creator; received Harry Potter CE as payment for promotional featurette; Kaneda addresses access/compensation issues |
| Neil McCray | person | Pinside user advocating for better storytelling/narrative in Harry Potter; criticized for 'negativity' but Kaneda validates his points |
| Bill Brandes | person | Pinside user cheerleading Harry Potter as greatest game ever; getting upvotes for positivity despite limited critical depth |
| Triple Drain | person | Pinball content creators (Joel and Travis) whose critical Harry Potter commentary aligns with Kaneda's code concerns |
| Dune | game | Barrels of Fun pinball title; launched same week as King Kong; struggling with minimal community engagement/discussion |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Manufacturer of Dune pinball; claimed to offer best value but Dune pricing ($13,000-$14,000) undercuts value proposition vs. Harry Potter |
| Predator | game | Stern pinball releasing this week; priced at $11,000-$12,500; concerns about overpricing vs. Alien |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; relationship with collector community allegedly damaged; games appear 'too cheap' at premium price points |
| King Kong | game | Stern title; LE versions dropping to ~$10,000 secondhand, representing ~$3,000 loss for early buyers; artwork chipping issues noted |
| Avatar | game | Jersey Jack title; expensive CE machines dropping $4,000 in value; code updates came too late; Kaneda criticizes launch timing |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Described as the company Kaneda most wants to be right now; praised for complete code at launch, sold out 888, moving to Evil Dead |
| Evil Dead | game | Spooky Pinball title in development; Kaneda ranks as second-most beautiful game in pinball, superior code to Harry Potter, excellent storytelling |
| Guns N' Roses | game | Jersey Jack title; Kaneda uses as positive code comparison to Harry Potter; has dimples on playfield but playable condition acceptable |
| Star Wars | game | Stern title used as example of game too flawed (physically and in design) to justify community feedback investment |
| Godzilla | game | Jersey Jack title; Kaneda references its difficult scoop shot as comparable to Harry Potter scoop difficulty |
| Zach Sharpe | person | Referenced as manufacturer representative who promoted positivity around games; Kaneda implies new content creators have replaced this function |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Harry Potter code quality and design philosophy, Community feedback vs. cheerleading dynamics, Content creator compensation and editorial independence, Incomplete game launches and beta testing on consumers
- **Secondary:** Dune's poor market engagement and theme selection, Predator pricing and market positioning, Stern's brand reputation decline and product perception, Secondary market depreciation and FOMO-driven early buying

### Sentiment

**Negative** (-0.72) — Kaneda is frustrated and critical throughout, targeting manufacturer practices (early releases, incomplete code), cheerleading content creators (perceived bias), and market dynamics (overpricing, secondary market losses). However, he expresses appreciation for craftsmanship (playfield design, Spooky's approach) and advocates constructively for improvement, so sentiment is critical rather than purely contemptuous.

### Signals

- **[sentiment_shift]** Potter community experiencing visible tension between enthusiasts dismissing critique and critical voices seeking constructive improvement; upvote/downvote dynamics on Pinside favor positivity over substance (confidence: high) — Bill Brandes vs. Neil McCray discussion showing systematic downvoting of critical but valid feedback
- **[code_update]** Harry Potter code currently at version 0.70-0.72; Kaneda argues incremental updates won't fix fundamental architecture problems and requires substantial rework (confidence: high) — Direct statement about code version and assessment that 'next 0 going into code would just be more of what they already been doing'
- **[design_philosophy]** Harry Potter criticized for burying narrative moments, lack of accomplishment feedback, and overwhelming simultaneous activation of features; contrast with Evil Dead praised for moment-to-moment narrative clarity (confidence: high) — Extended analysis of movie scene integration, mode timing, and player understanding gap between Potter and Evil Dead
- **[product_concern]** Harry Potter right scoop difficult to hit, limiting casual player access to core movie mode mechanic; Kaneda estimates most casual players won't successfully hit it (confidence: high) — Detailed shot difficulty analysis comparing to GNR and Godzilla scoop positions
- **[content_signal]** Retro Ralph paid CE (worth ~$15,000) for promotional featurette; Kaneda addresses conflict of interest when content creators receive compensation from manufacturers (confidence: high) — Kaneda explicitly calculating Ralph's one-day compensation ($15k before tax, equates to ~$30k pre-tax) and discussing access/objectivity trade-offs
- **[community_signal]** Harry Potter generating massive discussion (170+ page hype thread) vs. Dune (10-20 pages) despite simultaneous launch windows; signals IP appeal trumps game quality in driving community interest (confidence: high) — Owner club thread comparison: Potter at 20-30 pages, Dune at 4 pages after 1+ month on market
- **[market_signal]** Collector editions dropping $3,000-$5,000 in value within months (Avatar CE, King Kong LE); Kaneda warns against FOMO early purchases as prices stabilize lower post-launch (confidence: high) — Avatar CE cited as $4,000 loss, King Kong LE dropping to $10k from ~$13k, pattern of early buyer disadvantage
- **[product_strategy]** Manufacturers shipping incomplete games with promised post-launch code updates; Kaneda frames this as unethical consumer practice analogous to selling unfinished movies (confidence: high) — Movie theater analogy, criticism of Avatar launch, examples of games requiring year-long code maturation before feature completeness
- **[gameplay_signal]** Harry Potter modes timeout quickly (30 seconds), players lose track of state; Evil Dead provides superior moment-to-moment clarity and accomplishment feedback (confidence: high) — Direct comparison of player experience; Potter players don't realize what ends/begins; Evil Dead opposite
- **[industry_signal]** New generation of pinball content creators (3-4 year newcomers) predominantly positive despite underwhelming games; older veteran creators more critical; suggests economic incentives favor manufacturer-friendly content (confidence: medium) — Kaneda's observation of timing correlation: newest creators coincide with most underwhelming games yet most positive coverage
- **[product_concern]** King Kong artwork chipping off near magnets; dimplegate discussions on Harry Potter playfields; quality control issues at premium price points (confidence: medium) — Reports of King Kong artwork degradation; warning against repeating dimplegate discourse for Potter
- **[business_signal]** Spooky identified as strongest position (sold out, moving to next project with complete code); JJP swimming in Potter revenue but code-challenged; Stern relationship with collectors deteriorated (confidence: medium) — Kaneda's direct statement: 'only one company I'd want to be is spooky' despite JJP's financial success

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## Transcript

 oh happy monday morning everybody welcome to canada's pinball podcast i hope everybody had a great Father's Day weekend. And we're going to talk about this week and pinball. What's going on? We've got Predator coming out this week. We've got a great discussion happening around Harry Potter. I really hope Jersey Jack Pinball understands what this community is trying to do right now. There's still a lot of divisiveness, which I don't like to see. There's a lot of divisiveness within this community as people are trying to give constructive feedback about this game. I still feel and sense this unwillingness to just accept that. Like, I get that you like the game. I get that you ordered the game. But the truth is this, 95% of people that have ordered a Harry Potter haven't even played it. And it's hard to tell, right? It's hard to tell what this game is going to be like if you own it. It's easy for multi-millionaires to be like, every time I play it, it puts a smile on my face? Are you really waking up in a bad mood if you've got millions and millions of dollars and you're standing in front of a pinball machine? Are you really going to be hypercritical about a pinball machine? And then we've got people that are just like maybe slamming it too hard. So we're going to talk about Harry Potter. We're going to talk about what does it mean if you make pinball content and you get paid with the machine? Does that mean you can still give an objective opinion about said machine. We are also going to talk about Predator Pinball, which is coming out this Wednesday. Have they priced themselves out of the market? It's a lot more expensive than Alien was. We're gonna talk about Stern Pinball. Is King Kong dead? Are they gonna come out with Jaws 20th this week? Will it be the 20th of June? Did I say Jaws 20th? Jaws 50th anniversary, which is June 20th. So is that going to happen? And then how does Stern sort of like repair what I believe is a damaged relationship between the collector community and its brand? Are their games just looking too cheap to justify the price of a Stern machine? Now that we have a Jersey Jack at 10 G's and 12 G's, do we really feel like a Stern premium is worth it when Harry Potter is also available for 10. How's Predator going to survive at much more money than that? We're also going to talk about Dune Pinball. I've noticed that this game has been out now for a while, and I don't see anybody unboxing it. So why did they reveal and release this game so early? And can Dune Pinball somehow get people reignited into this theme? And I'm going to give you sort of my opinion, and it's not looking great because of everything else going on in pinball. So let's start with Harry Potter pinball. So I've played this game a lot, and I saw Triple Drain did a show on my Saturday show. I aired some of their commentary because I think everybody that's played this game is coming to the same conclusion. It is Eric's best design to date. It is the most fun Jersey Jack game to shoot to date. So we all agree on that. And then the big question mark becomes, but what about the code? What about the software? Is there like a real unsatisfying nature to the software and how it's currently coded? And I think universally, everybody is feeling that this game is somewhat underwhelming because it doesn't make you feel a connection to the movies and it doesn't take you on a journey the way it should. Everything is on all at once. To start a movie, you have to hit the scoop on the far right. There's a lot of debate on whether or not that scoop is too hard to hit. The answer is in the middle. Is it easy to hit that scoop the way Guns N' Roses has the scoop up the middle? No, it's much harder to hit. You are not going to hit that scoop as much as you want to, considering how often you're going to want to hit it. Is it as hard as Godzilla's scoop? Maybe, but that doesn't make this any better. And I do think a somewhat difficult shot is not going to be satisfying because you can actually play a game and almost struggle to even start a single movie. I don't think everyone's going to have a problem. You're going to learn where that shot is at, but it is off the tip of that lower left flipper. And it's not how I would have coded a game because you kind of never want someone to play Harry Potter pinball. Even a casual that walks up to the game should feel like and get the satisfaction of choosing their movie and getting into one of their favorite Harry Potter movies. The majority of casual players that walk up to this game will never experience that if that is the shot. So they could change that with software. That's something that is fixable. But the big issue on this game, and this is the thing I want to say before I talk about the big issue. The reason why so many people are giving feedback that is very constructive, very well thought out is simply this. We care about getting this game to where it should be because we love the way it shoots. And we just want this game to be as good as it can be. And if Jersey Jack listens to all the shills that are just saying this game is awesome, it's the best pinball experience I've ever had. If they listen to those customers, this game will never get better. And I understand the code is at 0.72 or 0.70, but the game as it is, is coded so bad. So I don understand if your Jersey Jack the next 0 going into the code would just be more of what they already been doing There not stuff missing from this game I mean that There so much in it already I don play Harry Potter and feel like oh, it's missing so much. The problem with Harry Potter is the overall way in which the entire game is coming at you, in which they bury the movie scenes, in which you don't feel any sense of accomplishment, in which everything is turned on at once. And so you've got this really great group of people and they're giving the greatest feedback because we want to see this game get better. I saw something on Pinside and I love watching the battle between Neil McRae and Bill Brandes. Bill Brandes is saying this is the greatest game he's ever played. It puts a smile on his face like nothing else. and he's played it for hours. And anyone that doesn't think this is great, like shut up. And he's getting all the upvotes. And Neil McCray is saying, hey, look, you know, I'm not saying the game doesn't shoot great, but Jersey Jack has lost the narrative on how to create moments and how to storytell in a pinball machine. And he's getting all the thumbs down. And here's the thing is Bill is correct that this game shoots great and makes you want to come back for more. But Neil is also correct in that this game does a horrible job at storytelling. It does a horrible job of making you feel a moment like you're accomplishing something. And that's what's crazy is both these guys are right. Yet one is getting celebrated for his positivity and one is getting downvoted because it's negative to say this game is failing on a code level. And here's what I think is going to happen. I think a lot of you guys that bought this game early, you're going to get it. There's still going to be a long wait to get a Harry Potter, but I think everyone's going to see what I see. Everyone's going to feel what Joel and Travis saw at Triple Drain. Everyone's going to understand what Neil is saying. And that's going to leave more of an indelible impression on you versus the gameplay because after you spend a few hours and you're in love with the gameplay, you're gonna be so disappointed in how the code is. And then what, right? And then what? How long are you gonna have to wait to see if they fix the code? And that is why if I were you, there's no reason to rush to buy this game. They're gonna make so many of them. They've sold so many of them. And I also, if I were you, I would get the wizard edition with the rad cows. I think it looks better. You notice how they're not really showing the Wizard Edition very much. They want to sell as many CEs as they can. And they've done a good job. They've sold a lot of CEs of this machine. So speaking of CEs, I was happy to see Retro Ralph because we were going back and forth on this privately. And, you know, he's always mad at me for some reason. He always accuses me of not playing enough pinball. And if I just played more, I'd understand how great Avatar is. OK, yeah, sure, whatever. That's your prerogative. I don't think I need to play Avatar a lot. I don't own the machine. It's always funny to me when people who own these machines are on a mission to change our minds. There's a reason why Avatars didn't sell very well. And it's not because I was dogging on it. It's just a game that people don't want. And that's the thing. It's like the code itself is the number one reason people don't want that game. And then mechanically, it's a pretty empty game. And that's why we don't see the value in that game at like $12,000 to $15,000. He did a great featurette for the Harry Potter game. He had exclusive access to filming the team and the games. I'm not sure if he set up that whole medieval set, but it was a really great, what was it, like 20-minute featurette on the Harry Potter game. The making of it did a great job. Sold a lot of machines for Jersey Jack. I think that featurette is one of the main reasons everyone's going in on the CE is you hear Eric's excitement around the artwork and it makes you want one. So to pay Ralph to make that content, he was given a Harry Potter collector's edition machine as payment. Now, you know how I feel. You should never do anything in life you're good at for free. So I do want to congratulate Ralph on making in one single day the most amount of money any pinball content creator has ever made $15,000. I mean, I've got a podcast for a bunch of months before I can get even that. And that's $15,000 like kind of after taxes because you'd have to make $30,000 before to buy a $15,000 machine and he's just unboxing it. So that's good. Now look, the other part is this though. When you start making content on behalf of a company, you also do lose the ability to objectively review that company's products because you're not going to want to lose access to that company and you're not going to want to piss these people off and that's fine that's fine and that's why you know when i do this show and people are like oh you're just mad because you didn't get access oh you're jealous because you don't get predator content no i don't care about any of that i don't i don't need to give you scoops i don't need to give you early access to stuff. That's not why you're here. The reason you're here is when stuff does happen in pinball, which isn't very frequently, but when a game does come out, you are here because you know that I'm in nobody's back pocket. You know that I'm not going to hold back how I feel about a game because they paid me. And you know, I don't care about any of that access. My whole thing, and I've been in this for 12 years, and notice how so many of the extremely positive pinball content creators, and there's a lot of them now, how so many of them have just popped up over the last three to four years. They weren't in it with us. They weren't following this hobby. They weren't making content until now. And it's funny because the last four years, I would argue, have had some of the most underwhelming games in pinball. And yet we have the largest amount of positivity I've ever seen in pinball content as the most overpriced games and underwhelming games have come out. And that's what the manufacturers want. You don even need Zach Many to say bye bye bye anymore because all these guys will say it for him We just never going to do that We going to keep calling it as we see it As I see it Harry Potter code right now it really needs a lot of work So much is there, but it's all coming at us at once. And they really need to go back and rework the entire foundation of how this game is going to be coded. And I'm worried they're not going to do that. But the feedback they've been getting has been very constructive. and if they were smart, they would invite into Jersey Jack. They would call in five to seven people to give them true feedback. Like let them sit down with Joe Katz. Let them sit down with Eric Minier. Let them sit down with the JJP team and I would do a focus group because this is gonna be a game they're gonna make for years. And if they get it right, trust me when I say this, It will be a masterpiece if they get it right. But as it is, it's so far from that because gameplay is not enough to overcome the issues. And I think the reason why a lot of us are giving feedback is we know they can make it better. Think about another game. Think about Star Wars, right? Star Wars was a game where the reason why we didn't even care about giving much feedback is the things that sucked in Star Wars, we could not change. Yeah, nobody liked the stacking of the modes, but the physical game of Star Wars is atrocious. It's not fun to shoot. It's so cheap. It looks so mailed in. And nothing that we said was ever going to change a TIE fighter on a spring or that lazy use of the screen or the really overly difficult shot to get into the hyperdrive. Talk about a hard shot. I've played Star Wars so much. Way more people are going to hit the scoop in Harry Potter than ever get into the hyperdrive of Star Wars. And so because Star Wars was just such a miss, we didn't even bother. But Harry Potter, because it shoots so well, the reason why we're giving so much good feedback is because they can fix this game. All right. So speaking about fixing a game, let's go on to Dune next. because I'm looking at two games that have just recently come out. And if you look at the Harry Potter hype thread, it's like 170 pages long. If you look at the Harry Potter owner's club, it's even got like 20 or 30 pages already. Dune came out before Harry Potter. The Dune hype thread is something like 10 to 20 pages long at most. The Dune owner's club thread. Remember, this game's been out now for, I believe, over a month. The Dune Owners Club thread, because Dune launched the same week as King Kong. Think about how many King Kongs are out there in the world. Have you seen any customers unboxing Dune machines? And so their Owners Club is only four pages long. So how is barrels going to get new orders of this game? And we're not even seeing any conversation. And this is the difference between Dune and Harry Potter. The reason why there's so much conversation around Harry Potter is people care about the Harry Potter franchise. they love the Harry Potter franchise and they want to see Harry Potter become as great of a game as it can be and the reason why I think it's crickets over in the Dune pages is I just don't think anybody cares and that's the worst place you want to be you don't want to create something that people don't have an opinion about it doesn't move them to even engage and that is why I think it's going to be really hard. And it's also why as a theme, and I've been saying this, you've been saying it, selecting Dune was never a good idea. There's going to be a lot more conversation happening around Predator than Dune because a lot more people in this hobby care about the Predator IP. I'm not saying that Predator is going to be a better game than Dune, but deep inside most of the pinball buying demographic, you would rather have a Predator game than a Dune game, especially the modern Dune movies, which aren't something that you're just like dying to own. And the reality now is this, none of these games are cheap. So how much is a Dune going to cost you when you finally get all the accessories and the topper? How much out the door is that game going to be? It's going it be over $13,000 with a topper? Over that, easily, closer to $14,000. And so, you know, the whole barrels of fun sort of communication was we're giving the best value to customers in pinball. How can you now say that when a Dune machine will be $4,000 more than a Harry Potter machine, the $10,000 arcade edition? Because in the end, the pinball things that matter the most are the gameplay. It's the code of the game. Those are the things you're really going to experience the most. It's not going to be the radcals. It's not going to be the topper. Yeah, you might have to add a shaker motor to the entry level of Harry Potter. But other than that, that's a 40% cheaper game. It's going to get brutal. And now I'm seeing that the predator price is not cheap. It's like $11,000 or $12,500. There's going to be two different editions. That's a lot more money than Alien was. And I just don't know how many people are keen on writing checks for $10,000 to $13,000 to $15,000, one on top of another. If I'm an operator, sure, I'll take the new stuff because I can make money off of it. But as a home buyer, are you going to keep buying these things left and right? I just saw how many of you out there bought Avatar CE? Now they're $11,000. another $4,000 loss on a game. And King Kong LE is going to be next. You're going to start to see all these Kong LEs for 10 grand, another $3,000 loss. Jack Danger posted that they've got people working on the X LE code I hope they make that game great but it never going to recover Like the value of the game is never going to recover There just too much happening And Ralph isn wrong Once we make up our mind on something it really hard to change people minds See, I heard that like Avatar had this big code update and now the game is better. Well, so then why did you launch it if it wasn't ready? How many of you out there would go to a movie for 30 bucks? Think about this. How many of you would go see a movie for 30 bucks where the movie wasn't finished? They didn't put in all the special effects. They didn't put in all the lines of the actors. All the scenes weren't even filmed. And you go see it because you know what? We've got enough to show you some stuff. How many of you would go back and watch the movie again if your first experience with it wasn't that satisfying? So you know how I feel. None of these games should be released early. None of these games should make consumers be guinea pigs for the quality. None of these games should make you wait a year before everything's in it. Ridiculous. Name me another product you buy that you wait an entire year before it's complete. And is that being negative? Grumpy weirdo Kaneda is saying that he's tired of watching his friends lose $3,000 to $5,000 on every single collectible pin because these companies release them too early and then you lose all of your money. And then by the time the game is complete, you can buy it for $3,000 to $5,000 cheaper. What a grumpy weirdo. You should come over to my channel and I'll cheerlead the game on day one. I'll buy it for full price, even though I'm not disclosing all the discounts I'm getting from my distro friends on my channel. And no, I'm not talking about you, Ralph. So don't come at me now. I'm not even talking about you. You know who I'm talking about. So anyway, I mean, that's kind of where we're at. That's kind of where we're at. I think in the end, there's only one company I'd want to be right now. Well, look, Jersey Jack is going to be swimming in the potter money. It doesn't matter what anyone says. They're going to sell a ton of these games. But the company I'd want to be is just spooky. They launched their game, 888. They sold all of them in just a few months. And now they just get to make Evil Dead. you don't see anybody complaining about Evil Dead. You don't see it. Like people realize that Evil Dead is maybe the second most beautiful game in all of pinball right now. Maybe the most beautiful. The code is great. It makes you feel like you're playing the Evil Dead movies. Even if you don't like the Evil Dead movies too, that game makes you feel such a connection to the moments in the movie and the way it connects to the gameplay and the mechs. It's genius. That game is way better coded than Harry Potter. And that's the thing. It's like sometimes simplicity is important when you're playing a pinball machine. And this is why I said as of today, Guns N' Roses code is way better than Harry Potter code. Because when you're playing a pinball machine, you just want to know what you're doing. You want stuff to light up on the game to help you feel a sense of accomplishment. And when everything's lit up at once and everything's crashing over itself, it's not fun. It's not. Evil Dead is fun. And when you get into a moment, it's fun. And you feel this sense of accomplishment as you're going through the modes. The modes aren't just like timing out after 30 seconds the way they are in Potter. You play Potter, you don't even realize what's happening. You don't even realize what's ended and what's begun. The whole thing, it's so bad when you're in a movie. And Evil Dead is the absolute opposite. And you're not allowed to say this, Kaneda. You got to toe the company line. You're never going to get your free machine. I'm never going to get it. I'm never going to get my free pinball machine. But what I want to do is just get these games better. And I think the pinball buying community just needs to be patient. if you buy Potter now trust me you're gonna get bored with it after a week the way the game is coded everybody happy Monday how is it man happy Monday we're gonna get Predator today I didn't talk much about Predator um Oric Lawson is on the artwork he did the art for Alien was not a great art package on Alien I'm worried about the art package I don't think we're gonna see any of the characters from the movie but I don't even want to talk about this game because we're gonna see it in like two days and we can wait. A lot of predator conversations gonna happen and I'll wait until another show this week to talk about Stern and where does Stern go now? We're gonna talk about that. But yeah, it does feel like King Kong conversation has died down. It's just the way it is. And so the last thing I wanna say is there's a new picture of Harry Potter and Dimplegate. Let me just tell you this right now, gang. Every Miracle Playfield dimples like this, every single one. My Guns N' Roses has a lot of dimples, but here's the thing about dimples. You don't notice any of them when you're at a normal player's angle. It's only when you lean and put your ear on the glass do you see more of those dimples. It doesn't bother me on GNR. When I was playing Harry Potter, I saw a bunch of dimples. You're not even going to notice it. So that's just me encouraging everybody. don't try to make another dimple gate moment happen in 2025 you're gonna get dimples if you want the clear coat that's glossy like this go look at a king kong and there's not as many dimples but it doesn't look shiny in fact i've been seeing king kong photos where the artwork is chipping off near the magnet and damn i don't want to see that happen because if that's happening the only solution is fully populated playfields and Stern's not going to send those out, especially on a game not doing very well. The quality people, it's all about quality for this much money. You shouldn't have to be pulling your games apart. You shouldn't see artwork chipping off. And again, just wait, wait, let the early buyers be the guinea pig suckers and you will be able to buy all this stuff for so much cheaper. You're grumpy weirdo Canada signing off. Have a great Monday.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: d860c787-8580-40b6-b440-e3848f2737aa*