# Episode 790: "Why Pinball Marketing Matters So Much Now"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-04-06  
**Duration:** 27m 29s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-790-why-81142447

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## Analysis

Kaneda argues that pinball manufacturers are failing due to poor marketing strategy, particularly theme selection and market research. He critiques Jersey Jack Pinball, American Pinball, and others for making games based on designer preferences or personal tastes rather than target demographic research. He contrasts this with Stern Pinball's model of consistent production and successful theme selection (e.g., Guns N' Roses), arguing that early marketing decisions (theme choice) matter far more than late-stage promotional efforts.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Jersey Jack Pinball lacks a real marketing department and theme selection is driven by Jack Guarneri's personal experience selling Stern games rather than market research — _Kaneda analyzing JJP's decision-making process_
- [MEDIUM] The only successful original IP pinball game in the last 10 years is Total Nuclear Annihilation; others like Dialed In, Galactic Tank Force, and Magic Girl failed — _Kaneda's industry analysis of original theme performance_
- [HIGH] Guns N' Roses is Jersey Jack Pinball's fastest and possibly best-selling game to date despite playfield and gameplay issues — _Kaneda's sales assessment based on theme fit with target demographic_
- [HIGH] Toy Story 4 was a marketing mistake because the target demographic (40-60 year old men) grew up with the original Toy Story, not the fourth installment — _Kaneda's demographic analysis of licensing decision_
- [MEDIUM] Dutch Pinball is rumored to be making Batman 1989 with Mr. Sharp involved, which would be highly successful if executed with proper licensing — _Kaneda reporting rumors about Dutch Pinball's upcoming title_
- [HIGH] Jersey Jack Pinball and American Pinball are not self-sufficient and are bankrolled by investors (Abbess family for JJP, Aimtron for AP), reducing accountability for poor decisions — _Kaneda's analysis of company ownership structure and financial incentives_
- [MEDIUM] Stern Pinball's marketing department convinced the company to make Black Knight by arguing it would sell based on Steve Ritchie's popularity — _Kaneda recounting an anecdote about Stern's internal decision-making_
- [HIGH] The Godfather is priced at $12,000, making it uncompetitive for location placement compared to cheaper alternatives like Foo Fighters at $6,500 — _Kaneda's operator economics analysis_
- [MEDIUM] Stern Pinball produces more games in one week than Multimorphic has produced in over 10 years — _Kaneda's comparison of manufacturer output rates_
- [HIGH] Most pinball manufacturers rely solely on FOMO (fear of missing out) as a sales tactic rather than genuine product development and testing — _Kaneda's critique of industry marketing reliance_

### Notable Quotes

> "The job of marketing is to get people excited and engaged in a brand. It is ultimately meant to get people to buy more of your product."
> — **Kaneda**, early
> _Establishes the foundational marketing principle he uses to critique the industry_

> "Most of these companies don't do any market research whatsoever. They don't do surveys about what themes people want."
> — **Kaneda**, early
> _Key diagnosis of industry-wide problem_

> "The biggest gamble when it comes to pinball marketing is people think if they build it, people will come."
> — **Kaneda**, early
> _Identifies the 'build it and they will come' fallacy affecting pinball manufacturers_

> "The Wizard of Oz wasn't successful because they nailed the theme, it was successful because it was an incredible spectacle with so much in it."
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Illustrates how execution can overcome mediocre theme selection_

> "If they have Batman 89, they can make a super limited Blackwater 100 collector Joker edition and simply charge whatever they wanted for it."
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Demonstrates how proper theme selection enables premium pricing_

> "The hardest part in all of marketing is separating yourself from the equation. It is not your job to personally pick what you want. It is your job to pick what the consumer wants."
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Core marketing principle he applies to pinball company failures_

> "Jersey Jack Pinball is making The Godfather not because he did market research that people wanted a The Godfather pinball machine. He's making The Godfather because he wants The Godfather."
> — **Kaneda**, late
> _Explicit accusation that theme decisions are personal preference, not market-driven_

> "Stern Pinball clobbers everybody because they're the only company that keeps the line going constantly."
> — **Kaneda**, very late
> _Identifies Stern's operational superiority rooted in manufacturing efficiency_

> "Stop making decisions based on the past. Stop making decisions on people's legacies in pinball that don't really matter."
> — **Kaneda**, late
> _Critique of American Pinball's decision to make Barry Osler's final game_

> "I wish more of these companies had survival based on their games' performances and weren't staying in business because they were bankrolled by another company."
> — **Kaneda**, conclusion
> _Final argument about accountability and investor backing reducing pressure to succeed_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, marketing professional, industry analyst providing critique of pinball manufacturer strategies |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Premium pinball manufacturer criticized for poor marketing/theme selection decisions (Wizard of Oz, Hobbit, Pirates, Toy Story 4, The Godfather) |
| Jack Guarneri | person | Founder/executive of Jersey Jack Pinball, makes theme selection decisions based on his prior experience as a Stern salesman |
| Ken Cromwell | person | Communications person at Jersey Jack Pinball, not responsible for theme selection |
| Pat Lawlor | person | Legendary pinball designer, pitched five game ideas to JJP but Jack Guarneri stopped him at idea one |
| Stern Pinball | company | Largest manufacturer, operates with consistent production model, makes more games in one week than competitors in months |
| American Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer criticized for poor theme choices (Legends of Valhalla, Galactic Tank Force); backed by Aimtron |
| Multimorphic | company | Platform manufacturer focused on modular systems; Kaneda argues insufficient market research supports the model |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer praised for maintaining production discipline despite smaller scale |
| Total Nuclear Annihilation | game | Only successful original IP game in past decade; driven by spectacular design and personal marketing tour by Matt Danesi |
| Matt Danesi | person | Designer of Total Nuclear Annihilation, conducted personal whitewood tour as marketing/research at industry shows |
| Galactic Tank Force | game | American Pinball original theme criticized as poor marketing decision with zero consumer research; designer-driven, not market-driven |
| David Fix | person | Designer hired by McKesh (likely typo in content) to make Galactic Tank Force money-making game |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Spooky Pinball artist/designer mentioned as example of boutique manufacturer talent |
| Guns N' Roses | game | Jersey Jack Pinball's most successful game; hit bullseye of 40-60 year old male demographic despite playfield/gameplay issues |
| The Godfather | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game criticized for being made because Guarneri personally wanted it, not due to market demand; priced at $12,000 |
| Toy Story 4 | game | Jersey Jack Pinball licensing mistake; least popular Toy Story installment for target demographic; still unsold units at distributors |
| Batman 1989 | game | Rumored Dutch Pinball title with Mr. Sharp involvement; Kaneda predicts would be highly successful if properly licensed |
| Chicago Gaming Company | company | Production line can run idle for 1.5+ years with no consequences due to Churchill Cabinets bankrolling |
| Jerry Gerry Stellenberg | person | Founder/owner of Multimorphic pursuing modular platform dream for 10+ years without market validation |
| Dennis Nordman | person | Legend designer; Kaneda contrasts quality of Elvira's House of Horrors at Stern vs. Galactic Tank Force without Stern team support |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary designer; Stern marketing department used his popularity to justify Black Knight remake greenlight |
| Barry Osler | person | Designer whose final game American Pinball plans to make; Kaneda criticizes as legacy-based rather than market-based decision |
| Abbess family | person | Investors bankrolling Jersey Jack Pinball, potentially reducing accountability for poor game sales |
| Aimtron | company | Investor bankrolling American Pinball, reducing pressure for profitable decision-making |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Marketing strategy and market research in pinball manufacturing, Theme licensing and IP selection as primary marketing decision, Jersey Jack Pinball's game decisions and market performance, American Pinball's theme selection and business model, Stern Pinball's manufacturing efficiency and competitive advantage
- **Secondary:** FOMO as primary sales tactic in modern pinball, Investor backing and accountability in pinball companies, Multimorphic's modular platform strategy and market validation

### Sentiment

**Negative** (-0.75) — Kaneda is highly critical of most pinball manufacturers for poor marketing decisions, lack of research, and theme selection errors. Positive sentiment only toward Stern's operational model and Spooky's discipline. Frustrated tone throughout regarding waste of investment and poor decision-making.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball and American Pinball not self-sufficient; reliant on investor backing reducing accountability for poor sales (confidence: high) — Kaneda identifies Abbess family backing JJP and Aimtron backing AP; notes these arrangements enable cavalier marketing decisions
- **[competitive_signal]** Stern Pinball's operational model (constant line movement) providing dominant competitive advantage over boutique manufacturers (confidence: high) — 'Stern Pinball clobbers everybody because they're the only company that keeps the line going constantly' and production comparison
- **[product_concern]** Pinball manufacturers making long-term strategic decisions without basic market research or consumer surveys (confidence: high) — 'Most of these companies don't do any market research whatsoever. They don't do surveys about what themes people want.'
- **[design_philosophy]** American Pinball prioritizing designer legacy (Barry Osler's final game) over market-driven theme selection (confidence: high) — Kaneda criticizes American Pinball's upcoming Barry O final game: 'Nobody cares about Barry O that much'
- **[licensing_signal]** Theme licensing constraints limiting game potential; example given of Toy Story 4 being only available option vs. original or other preferred installments (confidence: high) — Kaneda notes Disney forced JJP into Toy Story 4 specifically, not original trilogy
- **[market_signal]** Original IP games from boutique manufacturers failing except Total Nuclear Annihilation; Dialed In, Galactic Tank Force, Magic Girl unsuccessful (confidence: high) — Detailed analysis of TNA as only successful original theme in past decade; others tracked as failures by sales and market reception
- **[market_signal]** Distribution stockpiling of unsold Limited Edition games; Toy Story 4 CEs still sitting at distributors, creating inventory crisis (confidence: high) — Direct statement: 'There are still distributors today that have Toy Story CEs' and prediction of similar Godfather LE inventory problems
- **[product_concern]** Jersey Jack Pinball reliability issues affecting operator purchasing decisions and location viability (confidence: medium) — Kaneda notes JJP games break down more often, making operator economics uncompetitive vs. Stern alternatives
- **[product_strategy]** American Pinball committing to Barry Osler final game despite poor sales performance on recent titles (confidence: medium) — Kaneda asking rhetorical question about American Pinball's next marketing decision involving legacy designer game
- **[rumor_hype]** Dutch Pinball developing Batman 1989 with Mr. Sharp's involvement (confidence: medium) — Kaneda states 'I'm hearing right now that Dutch Pinball might be making Batman 1989' with caveat about licensing requirements
- **[sentiment_shift]** Growing skepticism about premium pricing model sustainability; Kaneda argues $12,000+ pricing for poorly-researched games is unjustifiable (confidence: high) — Discussion of Godfather at $12k vs. Foo Fighters at $6.5k operator economics; criticism of five-figure Limited Editions with weak consumer demand
- **[business_signal]** FOMO-dependent sales model breaking down due to market saturation and cautious buyer behavior post-reveal (confidence: high) — 'The only successful game...the only sales tactic they have is now FOMO' and analysis of failed initial sales windows forcing inventory decisions

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## Transcript

 Welcome everybody to the Kaneda Club. I'm your host Kaneda. We are only 10 people away from 600 club members. Amazing. Amazing everybody. So look, I'm looking at this Home Pin Spinal Tap video and it's horrendous. If you haven't seen it, go Google or go to Naps Arcade and see the worst trailer ever for a pinball machine. And it got me thinking about the importance of marketing and pinball. And as you know, if you don't know this, I talk about it all the time. I do marketing for a living. And the job of marketing is to get people excited and engaged in a brand. It is ultimately meant to get people to buy more of your product. Now look, sometimes people think marketing is at the end of the funnel. The product is developed and then you go to the marketing folks and you say, hey, now you got to sell this thing. But really good marketing and the best marketing approach, it happens way before the product is even conceived. And when I think about pinball and I think about why pinball marketing is so bad and why so many pinball decisions make you scratch your head, the answer is simple. Most of these companies don't do any market research whatsoever. They don't do surveys about what themes people want. They don't do surveys about whether or not people want modular pinball platforms like Multimorphic or Highway Pinball. And what I noticed is this. The biggest gamble when it comes to pinball marketing is people think if they build it, people will come, that they will somehow have customers if they build what's in their head. And there were years, people, where people would buy anything. And there were like years where if you just put the damn game in a box, there was a good chance you were going to find some sales of that pinball machine. But now that we've got like eight or nine companies trying to sell pinball machines, the importance of marketing and pinball and getting that marketing correct is more important now than ever. And I want to talk about a few companies and talk about their marketing strategies or lack thereof. And I want to talk about how if marketing was really in place in the right way, if they really had marketing people and strategists on board, how a lot of these companies could have avoided the current pitfalls they find themselves in. So let's start with Jersey Jack Pinball. Now, Jersey Jack Pinball is a company where I don't really feel like they have much of a marketing department. we know Ken Cromwell does communications for Jersey Jack Pinball but I don't think Ken Cromwell is selecting the themes that are going to go into each new game coming forward in fact we know who selects the themes for Jersey Jack Pinball it is Jersey Jack himself and he has gotten up on stage and talked all about how he was the one who when Pat Lawler said he had five ideas for a pinball machine he stopped Pat Lawler at idea number one which was dialed in you know and a lot of Jack's decision-making, I think, was based on the fact of what he saw was successful when he was a salesman for Stern Pinball. You got to remember, this guy sold a ton of Sopranos pinball machines. He sold a ton of Lord of the Rings pinball machines. He remembers how successful Guns and Roses was for Data East. The guy grew up in the amusement industry. So I think a lot of what drove Jack to make the decisions he's made came from Jack's own experiences. And that's fine. You can absolutely use what you've learned on the job to sort of guide you in the decisions you will make. But if we think about a company like Jersey Jack Pinball, let's imagine you're in their marketing boardroom. And before you even start designing a game, you have to come up with what theme should we make to sell pinball machines to a target audience that is predominantly Caucasian men 40 to 60 years old. And you have to pick a theme that's going to resonate with that audience. Okay, so let's go game by game with Jersey Jack real quick. Wizard of Oz. Now that does not seem like a game that would work very well at all. And I think the reason why Wizard of Oz was a sales success for Jersey Jack Pinball isn't because they nailed the theme. It's because when that game came out, what they did win people over with, it was just a game that was such an incredible spectacle. It had so much in it. It had an LCD screen. It had these full RGB lights. It had two upper playfields. It had all these mechs. It had a witch that came up from underneath the play field, a flying monkey that magnetically grabbed the ball. When you look at all of the stuff that is in The Wizard of Oz, it absolutely embarrasses what's inside Godfather today. But also remember that Wizard of Oz, when Jersey Jack showed it to the world, it was $6,500. So I think from a marketing standpoint, it was actually a good game to market for Jersey Jack because it was an iconic theme. He loaded it up with tons of magic, and he also got, which he hasn't had in a long time, all of the assets from the movie itself. And then the next decision was The Hobbit, which we know how that went, because The Hobbit movies flopped, and then the game itself didn't really impress, so that didn't do so well. We had dialed in, and from a marketing standpoint, that game made absolutely no sense. And something I want to talk about on this podcast is, Dialed In and Galactic Tank Force are very similar to me. It is what happens when you allow a designer to make a game for himself with hopes that fans of that designer will gravitate towards the theme itself. We saw it with Dialed In. It didn't work. We saw it with Magic Girl and Raza. That also did not work. We're seeing it with Galactic Tank Force, and we don't know yet if it's going to work or not. But when you look at all of these original themes that have come out in the last 10 years, the only successful one out of all of them has been total nuclear annihilation. And again, I would argue that the reason why TNA works so well, much like Wizard of Oz, when it came out, the game was an incredible spectacle to stand over. No one had heard music like that in a modern pinball machine. No one had seen a full RGB light show the way Scott Danesi put it into a game. And he really wowed people with the whitewood of that game. I remember being at shows. That was brilliant marketing. Scott Danesi, he took the whitewood around to all the different pinball shows. He was a very personal person. When you talk to Scott, he's such a nice guy. And what he was ostensibly doing was his own market research, his own marketing tour of his Whitewood stage game and he was lining up his customers with every conversation he had with people at a show So that by the time Spooky Pinball acquired the rights to make that game Scott had already impressed at least 500 people on that game at all the different shows with all the different conferences he went to. And think about it too, right? Scott D'Anessi did what pinball companies used to do. They put their game out in the world for people to test it. And he was also able to get valuable feedback from people as they were playing the game. Most of these companies don't do that anymore. And the reason why is the only sales tactic they have is now FOMO. And that's the thing that all of them are relying on, right? I'm going to show the game, I'm going to reveal it. And within 48 hours, I'm going to get enough sales of this machine to keep my manufacturing line going for the next six to eight months. We're going to talk about that and how I think some of these modern games are really going to screw over these companies because there is no way they're going to get enough orders after these reveals to keep their lines going. And they're going to really struggle not to stockpile inventory. But that's it, right? That's it. The only successful game, the only successful original IP game has been TNA. We've seen original IP games from Multimorphic. They have not been successful. So going back to Jersey Jack. So then you go from Hobbit to Dialed In. You then go to Pirates of the Caribbean, a game in which they didn't get many assets from the movie itself. And then we all know how that launch went. Horrible marketing launch of that game. Remember, they showed the game. Then they yanked out the mechs everybody wanted. Then we went to Willy Wonka. It was a really good shooting game from Jersey Jack Pinball. It didn't have all of the assets. people would have liked, but it was still a good shooting game. And I think over time, people grew to appreciate Willy Wonka. But again, I would argue Willy Wonka, men 40 to 60, are they clamoring for Willy Wonka? Are they clamoring for dialed in? No, the answer was no. And look what happened when Jersey Jack Pinball finally, finally brought a theme out that hit the bullseye of the target audience 40 to 60 dead center. Look what happened when they launched Guns N' Roses. Look at the feeding frenzy to get a GNR machine. Now, look, if you're going to do marketing strategy on will Guns N' Roses be popular with white Caucasian men in the ages of 40 to 60, you could come up with a ton of data and research to prove that if you make Guns N' Roses, you will attract this target audience. And the sales speak volumes. And again, just imagine that game with no playfield issues and no multi-balls happening every 30 seconds, and you'd still have people clamoring to get a GNR. But even with the momentum fading after the playfield issues and the gameplay issues, Guns N' Roses still is probably Jersey Jack Pinball's fastest selling game to date, and it might even be their best selling game to date. Okay, so after Guns N' Roses, How does Jersey Jack Pinball follow up with its next two themes? They make two humongous marketing mistakes. And again, this all happens before you design the game. So when you go to Disney and they tell you the only Toy Story you can make is Toy Story 4, somewhere in that boardroom, there was a marketing decision to go ahead with that license. And the moment that deal was inked, How did they not know they weren't going to make the Toy Story that people wanted? I don't think we've ever seen this before in the history of pinball theme selection, where someone picks the fourth installment of a movie that is by far the least popular. Remember the demographic, people. 40 to 60-year-old men grew up at a formidable age loving the original Toy Story. Not number four, not the one that was about Bonnie and Forky, but the one that was about Buzz, Woody, and Andy's room. And again, that marketing mistake is why Toy Story 4, I would also argue the game is pretty empty, and then they raise the price. But all of these things are marketing decisions. All of these are marketing decisions. And this is why the marketing at the very early stages is more important than the marketing at the later stages, right? If you make those early decisions right, like if you say Guns N' Roses, yes. If you say Pulp Fiction, yes. If you say Ghostbusters, yes. If you nail that early decision, and the most important early decision is what is the theme going to be? And if you can't get the right theme with the right assets, it's not worth making the game. So I'm hearing right now that Dutch Pinball might be making Batman 1989. And I'm here to tell you, if they were able to get that license in the right way, because Mr. Sharp is working with Dutch Pinball, I will tell you right now, I don't even need to see the game. If they make Batman 89 anywhere close to what they did with the Big Lebowski, they are going to sell thousands of that game. Because in this demographic, that is a perfect theme for pinball. And even though it's been done before, it doesn't matter, right? Jersey Jack made Guns N' Roses a better Guns N' Roses experience. So if Dutch Pinball makes Batman 89 better than the old Batman 89, guess what? Thousands will sell day one. And then you can start to have fun with the marketing, right? Because when you nail the theme and you know you have a theme people want, Then you can easily charge whatever you want for your super limited version of the game. I mean it. If they have Batman 89, they can make a super limited 100 collector Joker edition and simply charge whatever they wanted for it. And you would watch these rich multimillionaires who live in $10 million homes. They would march to go get one of those 100 for whatever Dutch Pinball wanted to charge. And the reason they can do that is people have an emotional connection to the theme, to the movies, and that is why people will separate their money instantly. But if you try to do that with a freaking Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition for $17,500, you are now insulting everybody, including yourself. And it makes no marketing sense. Let's talk about Galactic Tank Force. This is another game in which what marketing research did they do to determine that people would like to have a pinball machine where the cabinet looks like a tank. But before that, the other decision is this. McKesh is giving David Fix money to make me a game that's going to make me money. Isn't that the whole reason you would be in business for pinball? I want you to make me a game that is going to make me money and the best way to make money is to make a game people want The best way to make money is to make a magical pinball experience right Value begets value. And when you get the marketing decision right, the money will come. But if you get the marketing wrong, the money will never show up no matter how much Christopher Franchi marketing you do. And so they did zero market research to determine if people wanted a new type of pinball cabinet that looked like a tank. So zero there. Then you get into the actual theme itself. So what is it about tanks battling tanks in outer space to save the galaxy's ice cream? What about this theme is going to appeal to our target audience of men 40 to 60 years old? Absolutely nothing. If you were to do market research, how often are men in this age group talking about tanks? How often are they having conversations about ice cream? How often are they doing this, this and this? absolutely nothing happening in this game really connects on any level whatsoever to what the target audience wants. The only one who wants to make Galactic Tank Force a real game is Dennis Nordman. And this is one of the biggest problems with all marketing. And I go through this every day personally. The hardest part in all of marketing is separating yourself from the equation. It is not your job to personally pick what you want. It is your job to pick what the consumer wants. It is your job to study the data and analyze the data and give the company a marketing strategy that will be successful because the consumers will want it. And we all know that Jersey Jack is making the Godfather not because he did market research that people wanted a Godfather pinball machine. He's making the Godfather because he wants the Godfather. Multimorphic only exists because Jerry wants that platform. It's Jerry's dream. It's nobody else's. If he did any market research about modular pinball systems where the playfield is a screen, he would get research back that would tell him this is not the right direction to go in. And even after 11 years of the sales not being there, he's still stubbornly moving in that direction. And meanwhile, Stern Pinball will make more games in one week than Gerry Stellenberg has made in over 10 years. So then what is the point? What is the point? If Multimorphic was a magical great pinball experience, we wouldn't even be saying any of this. But something's not working. And look, I want everybody to be successful in pinball and everyone can have successful pinball machines. But if you don't do the marketing and you don't do the research and you don't even try to test your ideas out until the game is in the marketplace, you run the risk of what's going to happen right now to Jersey Jack pinball and to American pinball. And here's what's going to happen right now to both companies. They have released two games into the marketplace that the market is not going to really gobble up. And what will happen now is this. Because they did not make the correct early decisions on what game should we make, they are not going to have great sales. And the problem for both companies is this. If you don't get crazy good sales in the first month of a game being revealed, which is the strongest month, right, for FOMO and hype and getting all those orders. If you don't lock orders in in that first month when people see the game, if every day you don't have the line running at your factory, you're losing money. You're paying employees to stand around and do nothing. So that line has to be moving every day. I mean, that is Stern Pinball's model, people. the line is always moving. And that is why they're always running multiple games throughout the year. They lose money every day. The line is not operating at full capacity. They're losing money. And the same is true of Jersey Jack and American Pinball. So what happens when your Godfather LE orders aren't there, but you have to make like 100 to 200 LEs a week? The line has to move. So what happens is this. They're going to have to make those Godfather LEs. And it was another marketing decision to tell the world, we're going to make 5,000 of these LEs at $12,000. That is a marketing decision. And that was a boneheaded move because now there's no urgency to buy that Godfather LE. So let's picture this scenario. Let's just say, hypothetically, Jersey Jack makes 100 Godfather LEs this month. That's 400 games they're going to make. meanwhile as of today godfather le's are sitting at distributors unsold so who's going to absorb those 400 games they make in the month of april if you're a distributor are you going to order more knowing you don't have customers lined up are you going to order more knowing you're reading the vibe on pin side and other forums where people are saying hey i'm going to wait and see how can you order more when you saw what happened with the toy story le's you ordered people saw that the game started to lose a lot of value right away. What's gonna happen is this, both parties, both Jersey Jack and its sales force, its distributors, both parties are gonna lose because what happens when Jersey Jack has those 400 games in a box and distributors don't want them? Okay, so let's say this, they then have to start stockpiling them at the factory and then they're gonna say, hey, look, we can't make more LEs, nobody's buying them, let's go on and make the collector's editions. Okay, so then they have 1,000 collector's editions to make. Do you think they sold all 1,000 CEs? I don't. I think they probably only took an order on like 500 of them. And the reason why I don't think they sold all 1,000 at $15,000 a pop, I think people looked at what happened with Toy Story. There are still distributors today that have Toy Story CEs. Now, do you think they made 1,000 Toy Story CEs? I don't. I would love for them to come out and say they officially did, but I don't think they did. And all of this, Galactic Tank Force, Godfather, Final Resistance, almost all of it was destined to fail from day one when they made the marketing decision to go in that direction. You know, I'm going to tell you a true story. Stern Pinball did not want to make Black Knight. Stern Pinball does not want to go and make original IP games or IP that's just pinball IP. The only reason they made Black Knight, and this is a true story, it wasn't even because Steve Ritchie wanted to make the game. Someone in the Stern marketing department I not going to name his name but you know him He a very outspoken personality He convinced them to make it He said if you make another Black Knight you going to get sales People love Steve Ritchie. It's going to fly off the shelves. And it just goes to show you this. Look, all of these Bally Williams engineers, Dennis Nordman, John Papadiuk, Steve Ritchie, look, everyone's only as good as the team around them. And I mean that. Same thing with Keith Elwin. Everybody needs a team around them to make the games great. Look at how good Dennis Nordman's Elvira was when he was surrounded by the talent at Stern Pinball. Look at Galactic Tank Force when he doesn't have access to that talent anymore. Night and day difference in the games. So what's going to be interesting now is this, is what do these companies do now from a marketing standpoint after their games have not had great sales windows after reveal. Let's take Godfather again. If you make Godfather, right, and it's not selling great, the only way to get people to buy the game now is to get the game on location, right? You need more people to play the game, have a great experience, and then want to go order it for their home. Here's the problem with the Godfather. It's $12,000. Why would an operator put a $12,000 machine on location when they can go get a Foo Fighters for $6,500, spend half as much money and get just as many plays and also have a game that's not going to break down as often as a JJP game breaks down. It's a real marketing problem now. They're not used to this. Jersey Jack is not used to this. A lot of these decisions were made in years in which everything sold no matter what you did. And so this is going to be a very interesting next four to five months for companies like Jersey Jack, companies like American Pinball. But here's the other part. And this is why I think they make some of these cavalier marketing decisions. And then I'm going to end this show. It's almost like they can make cavalier marketing decisions that won't pan out because both of these companies are not self-sufficient. They're not accountable for the decisions they make. They are being bankrolled by other people's investments. Like this game doesn't have to be successful and profitable enough for us to get to the next game. So we better make sure we get it right. You've got the Abbess family money backing Jersey Jack pinball. They can't be happy at the sales of Toy Story 4 and Godfather, but it doesn't matter. This whole thing could be a tax write-off for them. And then you've got Aimtron, which is bankrolling American Pinball. Because if American Pinball really needed to make a profit, there is no way you land on a game like Legends of Valhalla. There is no way. People didn't want that game when they could have had it from Riot Pinball. They couldn't even get like a few hundred people to sign up to buy it when Riot wanted to make it. If you really wanted to make a profit, you wouldn't just make Dennis Nordman's wacky garage build game Galactic Tank Force. If you really wanted to make a profit, you would have secured the Sonic the Hedgehog license and just made that game. If all of these companies really wanted to make the greatest profit right now, somebody would have grabbed the Super Mario Brothers license and had that pinball machine ready to be in the market when the new movie came out. Look, and I know it's hard to secure some of these licenses. I know it. I know it's not easy, but still, American Pinball, I guarantee you they could have made The Last Starfighter, even though it's a weird movie. Look at everything that 40 to 60 year old men grew up with. And there are still a ton of untapped licenses that you could have made ahead of Galactic Tank Force. I think it's time in pinball that all of these companies realize nobody cares about who your designer is from back in the day. Do you know American Pinball's next marketing decision is this? They're going to make Barry Osler's last game that he designed. Why? Why would you make Barry O's final game when you need to make money? You need to make a profit. Nobody cares about Barry O that much. In the 40 to 60 year old buying demographic with games costing this much money, that means nothing. Stop making decisions based on the past. Stop making decisions on people's legacies in pinball that don't really matter. start doing some market research and what's funny to me in all of my years in all of my years of being in marketing and my bill rate is a lot of money an hour none of these pinball companies have ever asked me to sign an NDA and run some thoughts by me look the professional side of me I'm very respectful I never break NDA but only when there's a contract in place people if you just want to send me stuff and then say hey don't share it up and I'll just end this show by saying this. I wish more of these companies had to survive based on their games performances and weren't staying in business because they were bankrolled by another company. I mean, CGC is the same way. Churchill Cabinets is what bankrolls CGC. It's why their line cannot be moving for like a year and a half. And it doesn't matter. And it's ultimately why when all the dust settles, Stern Pinball clobbers everybody because they're the only company that keeps the line going constantly. And the other one that also does it is Spooky Pinball. Say what you will about Spooky. They understand that principle. Everybody else has got like ancillary money or just making wacky marketing decisions and their sales aren't there. And that's why they won't tell you transparently how many games do you make a month? How many games have you sold to date? All of it is a mystery. Everybody, thank you for being a member of the Canadian Club. This is just a little like off-the-cuff episode. We'll get back to pinball news and what's happening in the pinball marketplace. But I just wanted to say this. The most important decision that is made in pinball happens before a game is ever designed. You've got to give your designer the right theme, the right assets, and you've got to know that the target consumer will absorb it. It's not 1995 anymore. If Medieval Madness came out today, I'm not sure it would have the same success as it did when it came out in the mid-90s. It's just a different world now. Later. Hey!

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: f1c09867-1572-4142-8143-d5a29b5155bb*