So, I mean, I think we'll definitely have our cake and eat it, too, that it's going to transcend age, race, gender, location, you name it. So, I mean, it's going to be something for everyone. And will there be more value based on demographic? I'm sure. So let's talk about that when it comes to bringing in the younger audience. Because I think collectively everybody agrees, I'm speaking on behalf of everybody here, that in order for pinball to survive into the future, you need to bring younger players in. Because certainly Jeff's going to be dead soon. I'm going to be, you know, wow. Two weeks after me, you jerk. you are significantly older than me. So really there is this talk of bringing in the new, the next generation of players. And when we look at tournaments, we talked about Johannes Ostermeyer last week, and I know that there's a lot of younger players out there. They are still the minority, the vast minority of the pinball community. Confrontational question, but doesn't theme really impact on bringing in the new audience? And I would say Avengers, yep, absolutely. Other things, less so. And does it come down to really what he's going to sell versus what he's going to bring new players in? Again, I think it's both. I think, I mean, there's no reason why you can't have your cake and eat it too. So, you know, Avengers, I think that is pan age. I mean, that's everyone. I mean, you look at Mandalorian, there's no hotter streaming show on television, Stranger Things. But then it doesn't mean that you can't service potentially an older demographic, Jeff, with a Led Zeppelin or something. But again, you look at kids these days and there's kids wearing younger than my niece and nephew wearing Led Zeppelin T-shirts and stuff. So I wouldn't even quantify a band as necessarily just being old because it kind of transcends age, especially when it's such an iconic band or theme. I need to know more about Stern Connected. What can you tell me? What is going to bring an old fart like myself and somebody just as old as Marty? I mean, just as old. You know what? I mean, you should talk to George about that. I mean, I can't wait to get my hands on it more, I mean, personally. But, I mean, I think for your lowest hanging fruit, I mean, it's just going to be a lot of cool stuff, you know, with achievements and other stuff within the game that are just going to be fun to do. It's not going to necessarily be tournament-centric and super serious. I mean, it's just going to be fun engagement. I mean, I don't know if either of you are gamers with like Xbox Live. I am not, but I know people who are, and it's kind of what you make of it. It could be as little or as much, but it's there. Yeah, Jeff and I are actually both gamers, and he messaged me the other night when I was playing. I can't even remember what I was playing. I was playing something, and he goes, what are you doing at home? Well, it was a public holiday. So yes, we are gamers. And I do like achievements and trophies. I'm not obsessed by them, but I do. It's very cool when it sort of pops up on the top corner. But isn't it that like achievements are for location only, not at home? No, both. So, I mean, I think that's like a really cool layer where it's like, yes, you can earn achievements on your home game. but if there's like a special promotion going on for you know stern army locations around the world to defeat godzilla multiball quickly or whatever the achievement is you could have it verified at a location which i think helps promote people to go and play and support i'm going to interrupt you there that's great and fine if you have locations nearby if they have those games if they're part of stern connected and when i'm guessing that the majority of people buying machines now, and I don't know this to be true, I think I'd bet the farm on it. More people are buying them not for locations, for home use. Why not have a two-tiered verification system? So yeah, you get the green checkmark if you're on location. We'll give you a red checkmark if you're at home because we don't know if you've taken the glass off or not. I think you're limiting the possibilities for a home use player by not allowing them to have that certain verification. Well, I think it would be verified as not location and again like i don't know the depth of it i mean that's kind of a george question but if if it's not a verified location then it would essentially be at home marty i thought from hearing it there was no check mark or trophy received if it was at a home location and i would just suggest make make a home version of that so that oh no no you can get achievements at home like i mean it's not just achievements on location okay some sort of verification just to brag to your friends or something like that but yeah i mean well you'll have your own profile that you're kind of populating so i mean i'm assuming that it would work where it's like if you got star thor multiball on avengers at home you get the achievement of starting thor multiball at home but if you did it on a location game as well you'd get that a verified location starting through a multi-ball it really is whether you look at people like i've said many times on the on this podcast and in person to anyone that'll listen i'm not interested in internet connectivity whatsoever there's there's nothing that has been announced or that i think about that really appeals to me does that i guess concerns probably a strong word but does that factor into your thinking and do you actively try to convince people to get on board or do you just go well it's there for people that want it and if you don't want it that's fine because there is a monetary value to connected sure and i mean i think with games moving forward and they're already built in it's not so much of a sell because it's just part of the ecosystem of a stir machine moving forward it's whether you you know want to adopt its use or not honestly i would say the parallel is no different than competitive pinball. I mean, if you go to a show and this is, you know, the fight that Josh and I have lived for years, it's called, we coin it selling the dream. And, you know, with the IFPA launch parties before my time at Stern, and you're trying to get people to, you know, come on, come over here, just, you know, I'll pay for your entry, just playing this tournament. And it's like, there's a lot of people that are hesitant or have zero interest in competing in a tournament. So it's like, they get enjoyment out of just playing casually on the side where there's some people that they get enjoyment out of playing in a competitive setting. So for me, it's no different than with connectivity. There's going to be some people that's like, nah, I don't care. I'm not going to create an account. I don't care about achievements. And you know what? That's fine. But it's there if they change their mind. They can try it. They might like it more than they were expecting or maybe not. And to me, it's kind of like no different than a tournament. It's like, yeah, I tried it. It wasn't for me, which is okay. I mean, at the end of the day, people are going to enjoy pinball the way they enjoy it. Yeah, but you are actively trying to get people into tournaments through the Stern Army program. That's what I believe it is. So are you actively trying to get people wanting connected? Oh, absolutely. I think there's a difference here. I think there's the IFPA, which we're used to in those type of competitions. I think we're about to see a new layer of competitions with Stern Connectivity, with the Stern Army, with these machines. Something that isn't IFPA related and is probably Stern exclusive. I'm sure Jersey Jack will probably do the same with their Scorbet launch. But I think that is the unknown factor for me and possibly the wow factor once we start seeing these games manufactured with Stern Connected, being able to put them in the older titles. And then it's like, okay, this is something I haven't experienced before. It's something new. Yeah, I mean, it won't be the first to tell you that it's like you don't know what you don't know. So, you know, things will shift, change, adapt based on the landscape. So it's no different than like with connectivity right now. It's like for Godzilla being the first game that is truly connected. You know, once these start hitting locations and homes and people start creating their connected accounts and the retrofit kits go out and the older titles start going out. It's like it'll be interesting just to see the adoption and the interaction engagement. And I'm sure there's going to be a lot of key learnings that we'll be watching closely. I use the parallel of almost like audits in a game where Deadpool, you know, it goes out first code release and it's like, let's check the audits. How many people are starting Ninja Multiball? That's a terrible percentage. You know what? In this next code release, we're going to start with a game having the locks lit. You don't have to even light the locks. on the Ninja Katana ramp multiball. And I would expect nothing different with connectivity. Competitions will be interesting for sure. You mentioned it's tough for you to get out because Benson's not vaccinated. So I know you were scheduled to go to District 82. I talked to your brother. It doesn't sound like that's going to be possible for the Sharp boys. You've got Chicago Expo coming up later this month and also the Stern Factory Tour. Are we going to see Zach Sharp at either one of these? uh my guess would be probably not but i guess you never know you know i can neither confirm nor deny oh my god get a new line is that is that my 40th birthday present to you guys yes thank you uh do you accept returns actually i got a more important question um you know for some of these new titles i was wondering and i'm asking for a friend do you take deep root credit at all Oh, man. Oh, wow. Is that too soon? Yes. I don't know. I'm just reading on behalf of email. We get a bunch of emails and questions, so I had to ask that. I do have another question, too. Somebody was asking me about these titles, and they're coming out. I remember not too long ago we would see four kind of cornerstone titles a year. It looks like it's going to be three this year, and I would assume that's part of the supply issue and the backorders. When you have so many backorders, are you kind of laying off? maybe the new title releases. I know you've only got this window where you have the license to be able to produce, but if you just throw out a title and you're like, okay, here's Godzilla, good luck getting it until, I don't know, March. And we speak from outside the US where it certainly takes a lot longer. Are you holding back on the titles a little bit because of this? I wouldn't say necessarily, because again, you have windows of your contracts to sell a particular license and every game's independent. I mean, just to use an example, and this is hypothetical, But, you know, say that there's a backorder of Mandalorian, but we have all the parts in on Godzilla, but we're missing one piece on Mandalorian that we're waiting for. So we can only build Mandalorian up to a certain point, but we can't ship them because we're waiting on parts. But we have all the parts on Godzilla. It's like, wouldn't you keep the factory moving and build Godzilla to ship Godzilla? or would you just wait for that one missing piece to come in on Mandalorian before you would move forward on a new game, hypothetically? Keep the line moving, man. I can tell you from experience, keep the line moving. Yep. Feed the beasts. Yep. Bring in the cash. So, Marty, as we wrap up this interview with Zach, do you still stand by your decision saving Zach over Josh? And, Zach, would you have, in fact, maybe perhaps saved Marty, which was the factor in him picking you over Josh? Well, for me, I mean, I would save me over Josh. Just hypothetically speaking, you were saying if you were drowning, you know, I have done a half Ironman. So, you know, I am very good at swimming, biking, running. So I can physically save you probably better than Josh. No offense. So, you know, it was very strategic of you to pick me. And then I guess in an inception level kind of way, me saving you ended up saving me. Or is that Interstellar? I don't know. I'm kind of messing up my Christopher Nolan movie. Fuck, it's Dunkirk, I think. I don't even know. Or Tenet, right? Yeah. I'm running backwards while you're saving me, saving him. I'm sleep deprived. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys. Yeah, look, it was very simple for me. I thought to myself when, you know, you did the Stern tour for me, and I know that you do a lot of Stern tours. You'd said to me at the time, you do a lot of them. but usually you do groups and I was sort of a spur of the moment and you're like yeah you know what I'll make time for you and that's when I thought he did it for me too so don't get sound like you're so special no no no no no I'm sure he does Josh Sharp wouldn't do that is all I'm saying no good point that is true so there's my point yeah I remember Escher at the Papa World Championship when he won the last one and I think he had to go to the washroom and I think Josh gave him grief over that. Yeah, go ahead. The clock ticked. Something to that effect. Do you remember that, Zach? It sounds like something Josh would do. What a dick. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Well, happy birthday again. Congratulations on the price increase, the new car that you purchased with that. And I guess we've got to find – where do we send the invoice for doing this show for your appearance here on Final Round? Don't think this is free. just don't send it to or if it's a invoice send it to uh josh's address to his attention please we're screwed he's good he's good at payment eugene's good at uh paying the bills over there okay zach happy birthday buddy welcome to the 40 club uh it was a good 10 years long ago for both marty and me but um anyway uh enjoy and uh best to you the family and benson's poops awesome thanks see us thanks man there you go zach sharp my favorite of the sharp brothers obviously what did we learn though jeff in all seriousness probably a good thing that they did these increases on the godzilla machine and i think i've heard other podcasters talk about what's it going to be like on the next one is the next one going to be that loaded what are your thoughts um uh what do you mean by loaded if you look at the premium what we saw in godzilla and even the pro. I know it's scaled back a little bit. There's a lot in there, I think. Let's overlook the $300 for the Stern Connected piece, but the supply really has dictated that the price has gone up. I mean, again, that secondary market, people are paying these kinds of prices. So I've had distributors say to me, here, I'm selling it to you for this deal, maybe giving you a league deal or whatever the case may be. And you know how many guys turn around and flip them for another a thousand bucks or so or just sit on it for a couple years and sell for even more especially the le's well i hear what you're saying because last episode we joked about the fact that we'd seen godzilla and we hadn't and now we have seen it i still am curious about what you're saying about this game being different they're like obviously what you're implying is that it's got more in it, therefore it's a good time to do a price increase because I see no more, no less than what Avengers has got in it. If you look at the Avengers premium, that Doctor Strange disc is pretty unique, the subway, different ramps and stuff, but that's all settings. The tower is pretty cool in Avengers. But I look at that building, I look at the magnet, that's pretty unique, the Mecha Godzilla, those are three things that stand out to me on Godzilla as wow moments. Sure. they are wow moments i in my mind i'm i'm thinking about bill of materials and what goes into it i think they're on par and i'm not trying to sort of negate that that argument and therefore say well the price increases is not at a great time i agree with them having to do a price increase at whatever time they have to do it because i know i know for a fact that the cost of materials has gone up significantly. And people, us, the public, will look at that and say, well, you know, that's just the cost of doing business things going up. Well, they are a business. Businesses, I've said this so many times before, businesses exist to make money. Because businesses that exist to not make money are not-for-profit. They aren't a not-for-profit. They are a business. Therefore, they need to make money. And they need to make a certain amount of profit and margin. and if your costs go up to maintain your margin, your price has got to go up.