Episode 1121: "Will This Pin End Up Being a Cult Classic?"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·24m 10s·analyzed·Aug 8, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Kaneda predicts pinball's next 12 months, critiques early-access gameplay culture, and warns of market collapse from pricing inflation.

Summary

Kaneda discusses upcoming pinball releases (Game of Thrones Premium, Star Wars (LE), Harry Potter, King Kong, Dune), his preference for playing complete games rather than beta-testing incomplete code, and criticizes inflated secondary market pricing across the hobby. He uses Galactic Tank Force as a case study of how 'bad' games can become cult classics, compares the pinball industry to Ed Wood films, and warns that unsustainably high prices are damaging the market.

Key Claims

Star Wars from Stern will be released and Kaneda plans to buy the Limited Edition
high confidence · Kaneda states 'If Star Wars is coming out from Stern Pinball, I'm buying Limited Edition of that game' in opening monologue
Cuphead from American Pinball will never be released
medium confidence · Kaneda states 'It's never coming out by the way' and 'We needed to sell all of the inventory that is over at American Pinball before he would make Cuphead'
Galactic Tank Force is 'terrible' but has cult classic appeal among owners
high confidence · Kaneda: 'Galactic Tank Force is terrible. But here is the thing about Galactic Tank Force. When you go into the thread and you listen to people that have it, it almost becomes like a cult pinball classic'
Harry Potter, King Kong, and Dune will not be code-complete for approximately one year
medium confidence · Kaneda: 'The thing is they're not going to be done for maybe a year. And I think that's the latest trend in pinball'
Batman 66 took 2.5 years to become 'amazing' through code updates
high confidence · Kaneda: 'Batman 66 when it first came out, you know what I'm talking about? It took you two and a half years before your game became amazing. Two and a half years'
Jaws 50th Anniversary edition will become more rare and valuable than Limited Edition variants
medium confidence · Kaneda: 'I think Jaws 50th is going to be the game. That not now, it doesn't feel like it now because they're still making it. But I think a year from now... I think they're going to make less than 1000'
Secondary market pinball prices are unsustainably inflated and inventory is not moving
high confidence · Kaneda: 'Inventory is not moving at these prices. And I think everybody needs to get back to reality... It's not sustainable. It's crippling Porsche and it's gonna cripple pinball'
Stern considered implementing DLC/downloadable content for connected machines but has not yet done so

Notable Quotes

“American Pinball is like the Ed Wood of pinball”
Kaneda @ ~03:45 — Characterizes American Pinball's approach to game development as creating 'so bad it's good' products with cult appeal
“I don't want to buy a game, play it, not have it fully complete, wait for them to adjust this, that, wait for them to put in these modes. I don't like that.”
Kaneda @ ~05:30 — Expresses strong personal preference against early-access/beta gameplay, contrasting with community members who embrace code evolution
“In Lyman we trust”
Kaneda @ ~07:15 — References historical community phrase regarding Lyman Sheets' reliable code updates for Batman 66
“It's not sustainable. It's crippling Porsche and it's gonna cripple pinball”
Kaneda @ ~42:00 — Strong warning about secondary market pricing inflation and its systemic risk to industry health
“It was so much more fun when we were not this greedy”
Kaneda @ ~40:30 — Expresses sentiment that community culture has shifted toward unsustainable greed in secondary market pricing
“Grown men having mental health problems because of pinball content creators”
Kaneda @ ~25:00 — Criticizes drama and interpersonal conflict within the pinball community over content creators and rivalries
“When you travel, don't play pinball. Go enjoy the culture. Go enjoy the food. Go enjoy the people... Because pinball is available everywhere”
Kaneda @ ~20:30 — Offers lifestyle advice to community members, cautioning against obsessive pinball-playing behavior
“Do as many pushups and sit-ups as you do plunges in this hobby and you would be ripped”
Kaneda @ ~22:00 — Humorous suggestion that some community members over-prioritize pinball at the expense of physical health

Entities

KanedapersonStern PinballcompanyAmerican Pinballcompany Jersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyDutch Pinballcompany Barrels of Funcompany Star Wars

Signals

?
product_strategy: Kaneda warns that inflated MSRP on new games (especially Stern releases at $13,000+) is artificially inflating secondary market expectations across all tiers, creating an unsustainable pricing floor
high · If Porsche decides to make the base 911 $150,000 then your Porsche GTS that was $150,000 is now worth $180,000. That's what's happening in pinball
~
sentiment_shift: Notable shift from collaborative/generous pricing culture to competitive/greedy listing behavior; Kaneda expresses nostalgia for era when secondary market was less exploitative
high · It was so much more fun when we were not this greedy... It's not sustainable
?
code_update: Harry Potter, King Kong, and Dune are all receiving ongoing code updates; community divided between those who enjoy watching development and those (like Kaneda) who prefer complete games
high · I know they're making changes, I know they're gonna keep adjusting it... I don't want to buy a game, play it, not have it fully complete
?
collector_signal: Secondary market is experiencing inventory stagnation; machines listed at inflated prices are not selling; earlier examples (Ghostbusters LE at $8,500 MSRP) are now being resold for $15,000-$18,500
high · Inventory is not moving at these prices. Nobody's buying that... these prices are still stupid
?
community_signal: Content creator conflicts and rivalry creating mental health stress in community; Kaneda references personal conflicts with unnamed creators and discusses gatekeeping/grudge-holding behavior

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.072

0:00

I probably don't need no more but the second I walk through the door I tell them give me two packs, a little KC's, all white shirt and some blue cut jeans I go all night, stomping to the beat, I just gotta check, blow it all on my feet like Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ain't shit you can tell me I feel like Nelly Sit up sit up sit up sit up sit up sit up sit up Ah, thank God it's Friday, August 8th. Welcome to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. The only pinball podcaster that has multiple pinball machines on order and no place to put them. I've got the next spooky game. If Star Wars is coming out from Stern Pinball, I'm buying NLE of that game. I'm definitely getting Steve Ritchie's next game. I'm definitely getting Steve Ritchie's next game. I'm definitely getting Steve Ritchie's next game. I'm definitely getting Steve Ritchie's next game. I'm definitely going to get, I don't know, Transformers if they make that. Where am I going to put all of these games? Do I need to put an extension on the house? I'll probably just keep them in storage for now over at Automated, but man, it is going to be quite the next 12 months in pinball. If you think about it, if you think about what's about to happen over the next 12 months, we're going to get Spike 3. We're going to get the next game from Steve We're gonna get like four to five more games from Stern Pinball. We're eventually gonna get back to the future. We're gonna see if Cuphead's ever gonna come out. It's never coming out by the way. Someone asked me yesterday like, hey, where's Cuphead? And I'm like, bend over and I'll show you where Cuphead is. It's never coming out. Mukesh needed to sell all of the inventory that is over at AP before he would make Cuphead. Problem is, everybody knows that Cuphead is going to be Let's talk about how bad it is. Yes, I knew it would be bad. The reason I'm saying this is because Galactic Tank Force is terrible. But here is the thing about Galactic Tank Force. When you go into the thread and you listen to people that have it, it almost becomes like a cult pinball classic. I mean this. Why do we like some really bad movies? Why do we like them? It's like American Pinball is like the Ed Wood of pinball. in Pinsex & Boy Stepyears CrackPutil Natomiast Panacea Thomas Too pérence Internet Thanks to Phil.

3:50

Vin Godwin, asymmetrical переход Fun. So I don't know where your money's tied up. And I'm in these threads and I'm watching these people talk about this and that. I think a lot of you are probably waiting for Harry Potter. You know what I'm curious with Potter? I'm curious where it's gonna end up. And I don't even wanna almost play it anymore until it's code complete. Because I know they're making changes, I know they're gonna keep adjusting it, and that's cool. I'm not one of these people that actually likes to see how the sausage is made. I don't want to buy a game, play it, not have it fully complete, wait for them to adjust this, that, wait for them to put in these modes. I don't like that. I don't like getting to points in a game that are incomplete. It's unsatisfying to me, if you will. And I want to experience a pinball machine like a movie. I want to go to it when it's done. Certain people love watching the editing process. They love watching it transform into something new. And there's people in pinball who absolutely I'm just not one of them. So I want to play Harry Potter when it's done. I want to play King Kong when it's done. I want to play Dune when it's done. Those three games to me are going to be really interesting and even better when they're done. The thing is they're not going to be done for maybe a year. And I think that's the latest trend in pinball. We've become a little bit more. Maybe we've always been this way in pinball. It's kind of like the video game industry. Come Ohrenli Batman 66 when it first came out You know what I talking about It took you two and a half years before your game became amazing Two and a half years But Lyman always came through. And we always used to say in Lyman we trust. Now that's not the case with every game. Not every game keeps getting better and better. There are a lot of people that like this. It's just a game. Some games never really get past their initial launch magic if you will. I don't know. Maybe that's the wrong word, but you don't say they just never improve. They might put more stuff in it doesn't always mean it's getting better and better and better. The latest John Wick code update was like that for a lot of people. It's like they change some stuff. They made it easier. Some people like that. Some people don't. They added more multiballs. You can see more of the game. I think for some people you don't love it because it makes it easier to beat the game and then when you beat the game you kind of get a little bit bored. Games like Willy Wonka, they had a really good code adjustment. It wasn't like they added more. They just made it easier to see the magic and Wonka needed that because people owned Wonka for about like a year and a half and they could only get two golden tickets. Resológ, I'm a pinball player, but it's really hard to get to it. You got to open up the coin door. Now, when I owned Batman, talk about a perfectly coded game. It was a game where you could see everything. You could get to all the final wizard modes. You could see everything on an epic three ball game and it wasn't impossible. And also what I love about Lyman games is there was so much in it with all the minor So you can pick your own adventure and you could go the way you want it to go or you could go right for those final wizard modes. You know what I'm saying? Like, the journey to the end didn't require you to do everything. And some of these more modern games, it's become a lot more challenging ever to see the end of the journey. Because they make it too far out into the game and there's too much you have to do. And I mean, imagine in Jaws, you had to do everything before you battled Jaws. Then no one's gonna battle Jaws. And it was interesting because Stern started this strategy with Jurassic Park, I think was maybe the first game they did it on. Maybe it was Godzilla even too, where they wanted you to buy the topper as a way to get a shortcut to the final wizard mode. And so if you bought a topper for $1,000 or $2,000, that unlocks the final wizard mode. You know, there's a lot of worry Over at Stern Pinball that they would do DLC downloadable content and they were going to get us all on insider connected. They were going to connect all their games. They were going to know everything about us as players because our machines are now connected and then they were going to sell us additional modes additional software. They have yet to do it. It is the final frontier. I believe in Stern's overall marketing strategy. Let's get hundreds of thousands of This Week in Pinball cereal and You buy a video game console. You buy the unit, okay, and then you buy the game. But what else do you buy? Because you could just buy an Xbox and never go online and just play games offline. They make most of their money on the annual subscription to Xbox Live. When you think about pinball, imagine if Stern actually made online and competitive and versus play a real thing. Of course, every How to hamburgers paint inrakidane for kickboxing, cupboards Sugarfishes, bean browsing inrakidane play backblown, kiumombu, DBGa Noncult archive apenas First Depending esas taken Mari�asak on Dina Davila I'm a fan of pinball. I mean, they're a lot of fun. I mean, they're not fun enough for me to write a check for $10,000, but they're a lot of fun. Where are the portals? Did anyone get a portal yet? When that game came out, yeah, but where is it? Where is it? You got to ship the games. Where are these medieval madness Merlin editions? Nobody knows where those games are at. I see people in the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland thread. There's like a troll in there who won't shut up. And I don't know why they don't just moderate and get rid of these guys. You can get a refund on January 1st. Other than that, shut up. It's August 8th. You still gotta give Dutch the next 6 months or so to make your game. Shut up. You are grown men who entered into a contract. And you'll get your money back then if you don't get your game. The thing about Alice is this. Star grade Team Big Bay Nigger Jacob Mallory circuits Grade That make us have a good time Pinball content creators that are entertaining a hobby that 99 of humanity doesn care about But you and I found friends and family inside this incredible hobby, right? We're here to have a good time. Somebody tell this to the content creators who won't shake hands with Kaneda. He's difficult on my mental health. Grown men having mental health problems because of pinball content creators. Kaneda, you did it again. You're supposed to be sorry and you're making fun of the grown men who can't just stop taking this so seriously. They really do. You see these guys, like everywhere they go, I gotta go play pinball. I gotta go. If I'm in Paris, I'm playing pinball. If I'm in Tokyo, I'm looking for pinball. Do me a favor. When you travel, don't play pinball. Go enjoy the culture. Go enjoy the food. Go enjoy the people. Go enjoy the scenery. Because pinball is available everywhere. And why would you waste a minute of your time when you're in a new place, in a new culture, around new people, staring down at something that's in your home? It is absolutely inane behavior. And also go to the gym. Go to the gym. As I say, do as many pushups and All of us as you do plunges and this hobby would be ripped left and right. All right, what else is going on in the world of pinball? Should we look at what's for sale on pin side for a lot of money? Let's do it. Let's see if there's any new games that have popped up for sale. You know, by the way, I mean it when I say it, the game that I would go grab because I do think they might actually make less of these than the L.E. I think Jaws 50th is going to be the game. That not now, it doesn't feel like it now because they're still making it. But I think a year from now, I think it's what like 9600. Now, I think if you buy it, it's going to go up in value because I think they're going to make less than 1000. Because you got to remember like anyone who really wanted a Jaws has won. And so now they come out with this game. I don't think there's 1000 new pinball people that want a Jaws there's not, you know who got burned really? Every Friday, Friday, Saturday Tuesday, Thursday're Shiith is coming. Guys. With Jaws. Okay! With Jaws. It's Walking reinforces quil grasحدctica Node. Every Friday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday we tell the people at schneeNicholas.com that the president his selfiferate channel has been LateralinedTax. Little ticket will be in our pourside в box Sliver're coming. Now there is an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It looks like it has a topper on it for $13,783, which is the exact amount of money it costs to bring this game to his front door. PinsiderBemet who's in Colorado. Bemet's been on Pinside for a while. He has a lot of games. He said he's selling because of expenses. Unfortunately, because of life and expenses, he's selling this game. So he's crazy to me that you would ever have to sell a pinball machine to raise money. I, you know how I feel like you shouldn't be buying this stuff if you don't have like enough money to afford life. Like it's just crazy to me. Um, but he's selling it for $13,783 or best offer. Wow. I mean he, he's acting like he thinks it's going to be worth less. Now the thing is there is a few Alice spots for sale right now, but none of them are in a box like this one. This one's brand new. I'm going to go ahead and get the box off it. If you want an Alice right now and this is what everyone else is going to pay, this is an interesting test to see how long this game stays available for sale. He's not even making a profit. So if you want to cut the line on Alice, now's your chance. All right, let's look at what's going on. I like to go for the high price stuff. We've still got that KISS LE for $15,000 or best offer. Nobody's buying that. We've got an Aerosmith LE with the topper for $13,450. Nobody's going to buy that. We've got an Elvira House of Horrors 40th Anniversary Edition that is sale pending for $14,500. Is that a good buy? It's not a bad buy considering that Elvira is a great game. The 40th is beautiful and brand new stern lees that have way more units are selling for $13,000. Thing is with Elvira, they just made so many variations that I think all of them don't feel special now. That's kind of how I feel. I feel like they ruin that game with too many different versions of it. There's an evil dead with extras spooky pinball man. Did you ever think in a million years we'd see a spooky pinball game for sale for $15,000? That was the original asking price of Batman Super Limited Edition. We've got another Elvira House of Horrors, the Blood Red Kiss Edition with the topper for $12,900. I don't think that's going to sell. Pirates of the Caribbean LE for $21,000. A Pirates of the Caribbean CE in case that LE wasn't enough for $27,500. And below that, a Batman Super LE, which is in Philadelphia, PA. But you have to go look at this machine. The guy kind of ruined it. He put all this stuff on it. He changed the front decals. Cause like who does that? He wants 35,000 or best offer. 35,000. I bought my Batman SLE just a couple years ago unmolested for so I don think he gonna get anywhere near Maven earth propormorate Something To Say Areas R Escape Outro acre de bl pi A Jurassic Park 30th for $14,000. We have a Metallica remastered in a box for $17,000. A Big Bang Bar for $24,500. So here's another metallica remastered. $13,999 firm. Okay, so this guy's got the game. It's in mint condition and he only wants a thousand dollars over the $13,000. This is my friend Frank DeAngelo selling his LE. Here's the thing. If there's one for sale for basically 14,000 firm, how do you list one in a box for 17,000? How do you actually think you're going to get $3,000 more because yours is still in a box? And then the other one is for sale for 15. So you know, you got to really look at the market. We've got a James Bond All right, someone wants it. I've always found James Bond 60th to be very underwhelming. It looks cheap. It plays whatever. You know, it's not an exciting game to shoot. It plays like more of a classic solid state game. The scoring real thing just seems silly. It's like a solution in search of a problem. I never understood that game really. I never did. Stranger Things Premium for $13.50. What is this? What kind of person? And now it's time for some more fun stuff. So, this week we're going to be talking about the Wizard of Oz. Remember when you could go get a Woz for $6,500 brand new? Remember when you could go get a Woz even after it was all said and done? The WizardofOz Emerald City editions were somewhere around like $7,500 for like 4 or 5 years. Now this person wants $13,000 firm. Now what's interesting is this. When you put a Woz next to a Harry Potter, like let's be honest, you put a Woz next to a Harry Potter, which one looks more expensive? Which one has more in it? Of course the WizardOfOz. Now which one shoots better is definitely Harry Potter, which one has more assets Harry Potter, which one's a better theme Harry Potter, but still, Harry Potter collector's Edition for $15 kind of does make a WizardOfOz feel like a $13,000 I'm John Papadiuk, Black Water Podcast, Twippies Awards, and I'll see you next week. Bye. Parler. So that is a humongous detail. Nobody wants a routed game. Nobody. Nobody wants a routed new game. You might want a routed old game and restore it. But if a Jaws LE routed is 13, that's good news for everyone who has a Jaws LE. It's very good news. That means a non-routed home use only is definitely worth thousands more than that. The Avatar, the battle for Pandora CE 13 firm. Come on guys. You can't I can't sell in avatar with the word firm in the price. You take whatever somebody will give you. It has no demand. Here's a dumb one. Pirates of the Caribbean CE, right? Wasn't there just one up top for 27,000? This guy wants 39,000 or best offer. 39,000 or best offer. What? I just, I just got to stop there. There's another Pirates for $29,000 right below it. It is just bonkers. I'll end on this one. This is never selling. You ready? John Wick, Ellie in a Box for $13,000. Get out of Dodge. Everybody look, these prices are still stupid. I thought by now there would be more common sense and there's not. I think this hobby has kind of doomed itself to just thinking everything is worth this much. It's not. Stup is not moving at these prices. And I think everybody needs to get back to reality. It was so much more fun when we were not this greedy. When you had a Ghostbusters LE for $8,500 and then you went to list it for like $10. Now you see a Ghostbusters LE $15,000 $18,500 firm! There'll be a dude selling it for $15,000 and you list yours for $18,500 firm. We're not making that much more money. Everything we really need in life is a lot more expensive. Everyone needs to chill with these prices and come back down to reality. What's happening is because the new in box games are so expensive that's lifting everything else up. It's like if Porsche decides to make the base 911 $150,000 then your Porsche GTS that was $150,000 is now worth $180,000. That's what's happening in pinball. It's not sustainable. It's crippling Porsche and And it's gonna cripple pinball. Everybody have an awesome Friday. We'll talk to you soon.