Episode 915: "As You Wish"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·18m 45s·analyzed·Feb 17, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Kaneda critiques Elton John sales struggles, Multimorphic platform rejection, and mod-dependent game design.

Summary

Kaneda discusses recent pinball releases and announcements while mostly recovering from illness. Key topics include Jersey Jack's Elton John struggling sales despite quality gameplay, Multimorphic's The Princess Bride announcement drawing criticism for the proprietary platform format, Chicago Gaming's Pulp Fiction arriving with audio concerns, a sophisticated third-party Jaws mod that enables ball-eating shark mechanics, and broader industry concerns about companies shipping subpar products while relying on the mod community to fix design shortcomings.

Key Claims

Elton John likely only made 500 collector's edition units, not 1,000+, indicating weak sales despite game quality
medium confidence · Kaneda's analysis based on JJP's shift to collector's editions; stated as inference rather than confirmed fact
Approximately 200 Multimorphic P3 cabinets exist in the market
medium confidence · Kaneda's estimate: 'All 200 people out there who do have it'
A European customer ordered 9 Fathoms from Haggis Pinball in May 2023, paid in full for August delivery, and has only received 2 machines as of the podcast date
high confidence · Kaneda citing specific customer experience with Haggis Pinball
Pulp Fiction Bad Mother Flipper Edition will not ship until summer (July/August timeframe)
medium confidence · Kaneda's speculation based on production timing patterns
Jaws Limited Edition machines will lose approximately $2,000 in secondary market value within two months
low confidence · Kaneda's prediction based on industry pricing trends
The third-party Jaws shark eating mod costs approximately $500 (price of a PlayStation 5)
high confidence · Kaneda's direct statement about mod pricing
Elton John is a better game than Toy Story 4 and Godfather but will sell fewer units
low confidence · Kaneda's subjective opinion
Chicago Gaming Company's next announcement will likely come in March 2025, with release in March 2026
low confidence · Kaneda's speculation based on historical release patterns

Notable Quotes

“Everybody's losing money. I love it. Everybody's losing money.”
Kaneda @ ~0:30 — Commentary on secondary market depreciation of recent premium releases like Elvira's House of Horrors
“As you wish. You know what Wesley says to Buttercup when he's rolling down the hill? 'As you wish.' And that is the one thing that Jerry Stellenberg, founder/owner of Multimorphic, will not give to the pinball community.”
Kaneda @ ~8:00 — Clever thematic critique of Multimorphic's refusal to make standard cabinet format games
“There's a reason why they don't want to tell you Multimorphic is making it because it's a turnoff. It actually turns people off.”
Kaneda @ ~12:30 — Analysis of Multimorphic's branding problem and community sentiment
“I did the sound on this game and there's no way it should sound that way... I did not design this game to sound like it comes from the 1970s.”
David Thiel @ ~17:00 — Designer defending Pulp Fiction audio quality against show floor distortion complaints
“I think a mod should just enhance something that's already there and it should not change gameplay. I will die on that hill, everybody.”
Kaneda @ ~28:00 — Core philosophy on mod acceptance boundaries and criticism of design outsourcing to mod community
“Why should they even make the effort? And you best believe, I bet these pinball companies now are saying, don't even bother with that. The mod community will make a fix for that.”
Kaneda @ ~27:30 — Industry concern about manufacturers relying on aftermarket community to address design failures
“I still think Haggis Pinball is stringing everybody along. They have to be running on fumes and their entire business model is robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Kaneda @ ~22:00 — Strong criticism of Haggis Pinball's operations and cash flow management
“It's nice. The armor is nice. I won't lie. The side art on the cabinet's not blowing me away. The playfield artwork is all blue. There's not much on it. It's an empty art package in the game overall.”

Entities

KanedapersonJerry StellenbergpersonSteve Ritchieperson David Thielperson Keith Elwinperson Josh Kuglerperson Jersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

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business_signal: Haggis Pinball suspected to be operating on cash flow crisis model (robbing Peter to pay Paul); European customer's 9-unit order from May 2023 still only partially fulfilled months later
high · Kaneda: 'their entire business model is robbing Peter to pay Paul' and 'He just received two games from Haggis Pinball from that order in May. He still owed seven more machines.'
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community_signal: Debate over third-party Jaws shark eating mod changing core gameplay mechanics; concerns about mod detection compatibility with Stern Insider connected platform and impact on score validation
high · Kaneda: 'Once you install this mod, all of a sudden the ball is going to go places it didn't go before... Is it going to be able to detect whether or not this mod is installed?'
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design_philosophy: Kaneda criticizing industry trend of shipping subpar products with reliance on mod community for essential fixes; argues manufacturers have no incentive to improve if mods address design failures
high · Kaneda: 'don't even bother with that. The mod community will make a fix for that... as long as we show them that we're willing to accept less for more money, why would they ever change?'
?
leak_detection: Princess Bride images leaked or revealed prematurely through insufficient image blackout; high-contrast embossed images of cabinet, back box, and Multimorphic M coin door visible
high · Kaneda: 'The fact that they didn't just like black out the image so you couldn't see it if you change the contrast on your computer... we can kind of see this like highly contrasted embossed like image of the cabinet and the back box'
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Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.056

0:00

Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Where you been Kaneda? Well, I've been really sick with a stomach bug. I'm still like at 50%, but I gotta get a show up for everybody. You can't get through the weekend without an episode of Canadian Pinball Podcast. And there's been some pinball news. We've got a Jaws mob that finally eats the ball. We've got Multimorphic making Princess Bride, something Canada told you like four months ago that was going to happen. We've got Pulp Fiction's out in the world. We've got Looney Tunes and we've got Texas Chainsaw Massacre making its way out into the world. We've got American Pinball supposedly coming to Texas Pinball Festival with their next title. What else we got going on in the pinball world? We got the Pinball Brothers and the European Gaming Company, whatever their damn call, they're getting ready to launch their Bally Williams remakes. We've got Stern Pinball Elvira Blood Kiss Editions, which are now selling for like $1,000 less new in box. You can go get one now for like $11,000 or $10,500. Everybody's losing money. I love it. Everybody's losing money. And we've got Elton John pinball out in the world. People are loving that game, but it's still not making sales go through the roof. Let's just start out right now with Jersey Jack. They've got Elton John collector's editions on the line. Now that means they didn't make many platinum editions of the game. So the strategy to put Christopher Franchi's artwork on the platinum edition to drive sales, was it successful? It's a beautiful game. There's just something about this game that's not clicking with your wallets. Like, the gameplay is there. The music is there. The shots are there. The toys aren't necessarily there. But the game is so much fun, and yet people don't want it. I think this game is suffering from a revolt of everything we've seen in the pinball world over the last couple of years. And you sort of drew a line in the sand, and you said, Hey, the game we're really going to take it out on is Elton John. And it's really strange to me because Elton John is a much better game than Toy Story 4. It's a much better game than The Godfather. And I think those two titles are going to sell a lot more units than Elton John. And if they're moving on to the collector's editions already, what does that mean for the future of this title? Are distros sitting on platinum editions once they make all these collector's editions? And there's no way, there's no way, ladies and gentlemen, we both know this. There's no way they sold a thousand collector's editions of Elton John. There's no way they sold a thousand of Toy Story or a thousand of like freaking Godfather. I bet they've only made 500 of each of these games in collector's edition format. It's a beautiful game. It's a Steve Ritchie in Jersey Jack clothing. And it's just not clicking with people. Now, speaking of clicking with people, let's get to the Princess Bride. the Jerry Stellenberg Multimorphic Second License Game on his platform. I don't know about you, but I liked this movie when I was a kid, when I was about Fred Savage's age. I think all of us loved this movie back in, what is it, like sometime in the 80s. It was very romantic. It had Andre the Giant. It was funny. It was the kind of movie you could watch with your parents and not be embarrassed. And it had a lot of good comedy. It had a lot of memorable lines and memorable scenes. And so I really do love this movie. Now, that being said, do I think The Princess Bride is going to make for an amazing pinball experience? I sort of put this theme in a similar category as Labyrinth, right? It's like a cult classic. Certain people love it. Certain people don't. Did you carry your love for this theme into adulthood? That's the big thing. Are you still someone who wants to spend this much money? Remember, because a multimorphic is like $10,000 to $13,000 depending on whether or not you get the LE or the regular. I don't know. All these things are sort of super limited if you ask me because nobody really owns a multimorphic. Is this going to be the kind of theme that makes you want to plunk down this much money Now look if you own an existing multimorphic cabinet if you have the platform now this is a great day for you All 200 people out there who do have it this is a really great day for you But for everybody else, it's ironic that the main line in Princess Bride is, as you wish. You know what Wesley says to what, Buttercup when he's rolling down the hill? As you wish. And that is the one thing that Jerry Stellenberg will not give to the pinball community. He won't give them a pinball machine as they wish, because everybody wishes it to be in a normal cabinet. And it's almost at the point now where Jerry has gone past the point of no return, because he's all in on this platform. And so when this game gets revealed on Monday, you have to not just want this game, you're going to want to have to go all in on the platform. Now look, I've heard good things about Final Resistance. I don't know that much about Weird Al. I haven't played it that much. But I do know that there's not a lot of love for this platform. And if you buy one, you better buy one wanting to own it forever. Because as we've seen on the used market, it's almost impossible to get rid of these things without not just losing your shirt. You're going to lose your pants and your underwear when you try to sell one of these P3 multimorphic platforms. And I still just don't get it. I just don't get it. At what point is Jerry going to read the room? Is he going to hear the feedback? I mean, just go into the thread itself. Everybody is just destroying the fact and almost praying and wishing that anybody would make this game other than Multimorphic. How do you go on a 10-year pinball manufacturing, build my own company from the ground up, and I'm going to create something that people don't want? And they are very vocal that they don't want it. And it's like so weird that it's your platform that's turning everybody off more than anything. Sometimes when you just try to be different, it doesn't always work out. And this hasn't really worked out for Jerry. You know, look, I'm keeping an open mind to see the game, but there's no way I'm ever going to go in on this platform. When I go through the thread, too, almost half of the people in the thread were wishing this would be a Barrels of Fun game. Now, obviously, Barrels of Fun is not making this. They have to make all their labyrinth games. But that just goes to show you, if you have an ambitious idea and everyone's just telling you, stop with all the ambition, just make a damn good pinball machine in a normal pinball format and your company would be twice, maybe five times more successful. You know, and that's just it. That's where we're all at with this game. We're going to see it on Monday. The other weird part was this. The fact that they didn't just like black out the image so you couldn't see it if you change the contrast on your computer. It's so embarrassing. It's so embarrassing that we're looking at this game in the worst possible way. And now we can kind of see this like highly contrasted embossed like image of the cabinet and the back box. We can see the little multi-morphic M on the coin door. Really, really bad marketing. And it's just funny to me. There's a reason why they don't want to tell you multi-morphic is making it because it's a turnoff. It actually turns people off. All right, I apologize to my multi-morphic fans out there, all three of you, please accept my forgiveness. All right, so we got that going on. We got Pulp Fiction's making their way out there on location. They are making their way to customers. And with this game coming out, it's just like, finally, we get the Pulp Fiction's, right? Now, I don't even think the LE or the bad mofo versions of this game with the topper, I don't think those games are going to be made to like the summertime. I'm kind of happy about that. I don't have to write a check to sometime in June, July, maybe August. And so it's going to be a long road for all of us bad mo foes. We'll see if this game, once it's out there, once we play it a lot more, once this game makes its way into a home environment, I'm really curious to see how people feel about Pulp Fiction after they've played it 500 times. It presents really nicely at a show. Now there are issues with the audio at the show. And I've seen this come up a few times in the thread. People are concerned about the mono audio of the game and whether or not it's kind of scratchy and coming through the speakers distorted. Now, when I was playing this game at TPF, I did notice that when you really crank the volume, it was very tinny and distorted sounding. And so David Thiel jumped into the thread and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I did the sound on this game and there's no way it should sound that way And we have to make sure they hooked up the speakers properly to the amplifiers in the game And you should not get a distorted sound He like I did not design this game to sound like it comes from the 1970s It is supposed to sound as good as a modern pinball machine. So who's right and who's wrong? Again, we just need to see more reviews of this game as it gets out into the wild. But always a good day when Chicago Gaming Company actually decides to make something. They're really good at building machines. They build some of the highest quality pinball machines in the world. So I'm glad to see this game come out. Do we even speculate what's next from Chicago Gaming Company? I feel like they're going to announce their next game maybe March of 2025. And then we'll finally get it in March of 2026. So we're a good two years away from whatever else is around the corner at Chicago Gaming Company. It feels like an eternity, right? two years from now, are all of these companies going to make it? We'll see. We had a little bit of an update on Haggis Pinball and where the money is. I think that was my last show before I got sick. Who's got the Haggis deposit money? And now we know that that money went from the distributor to Haggis Pinball. So Haggis has your thousand dollars. I just want to say this. I got hit up by a gentleman in Europe. He ordered nine machines from Damien. He was told in May of 2023 that he needed to pay in full for all nine of his games, and those games would arrive in eight weeks. He just received two games from Damien from that order in May. He still owed seven more machines. And these are fathoms, people. They're not centaurs. So I just want to say for the record, I still think Haggis Pinball is stringing everybody along. They have to be running on fumes and their entire business model is robbing Peter to pay Paul. And if you go in on a centaur, you have nobody to blame but yourself. I think you should wait. I think you should pressure Damien to make the games first, send the games to the distributors and then buy the game. Do not risk any of your hard-earned money on this company because they do not tell the truth and they are not honest with their customers. And the reason why more people don't speak up is they just want to get their damn games because they've been waiting for two years. Let's move on from this company. All right, what else is going on this weekend? Pinball. Papa's coming back. That's awesome. I don't really talk about pinball tournaments, but if you wanted to see the return of Papa. You've got it, ladies and gentlemen. And then we've got Jaws pinballs and LEs are being unboxed as of today. I saw LE unboxings this week. It's always amazing to me how Wellstern does this. It's like they just get it done. They reveal a game. They take your money. You have the game within a few weeks. There's no drama. There's no mystery. I think Jaws LE looks okay. It's not blowing me away. There's just something about it, right? It's nice. The white armor is nice. I won't lie. The side art on the cabinet's not blowing me away. The playfield artwork is all blue. There's not much on it. It's a pretty empty art package in the game overall. But that's not the biggest conversation happening this week. It's not that people are getting their Jaws LEs because we all know those Jaws LEs are about to lose $2,000 in value in just two months. The big news of the week is there is a mod for this game. There is a mod for the Jaws Pro right now that actually has the ball going into the mouth of the shark. And kicks it out underneath into the Vuck back to the right flipper. And not just that, it simulates the gameplay with the captive ball. There's optos and you have to hit them three times just like hitting the captive ball three times. And then the ball goes into the rubber shark mouth. And not just that, the shark wiggles like Jaws back and forth like he's attacking the ball. I give credit where credit is due. This is an engineering feat that is pretty impressive. I mean, it looks like it's stocked. This thing looks like it came from Stern Pinball. The way this gentleman made this mod, really, really well done. Does it look a little silly with those posts like on the sides of Jaws? A little bit. It's a little bit wonky. I'm not going to lie. But at least he did something that should have been done at the factory. And I don't believe Keith Elwin when he says it wasn't fun. What are you talking about, Keith? How is this not more fun than hitting a captive ball And I think Elwin excuse is just that I think it an excuse Now this mod is