I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord. And I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord. You know, I picked a little bit of a slower, more melancholy song for this episode of Canada's Pinball Podcast. It's been a little bit of a delay getting a show to each and every one of you. Always want to be transparent with everyone who listens to Canada's Pinball Podcast. It's just been a little bit of a rough week. We've still been going through layoffs at work. Terrible. It's terrible to know people that are getting let go the week before Christmas. So that's really been weighing heavy on my mind. You work for years in corporate America, and then one day they just tap you on the shoulder. and that's it. It's not like our parents' generation where there was a lot more looking out for people. I think everyone is really nervous in my industry, and a lot of changes are happening there. So I'm still safe for now, but nobody knows. Nobody really knows what the future holds when it comes to marketing in the modern world. I'm a little bit just concerned about all the over-consumerism and just like getting inundated with all these things the world wants us to buy. You know, and here we are on Canada's Pinball Podcast. Here we are in the pinball hobby. And it is hard for me at times to compartmentalize stuff happening in the real world. Terrible news might be happening to some of my colleagues. And then to just pick up a microphone and talk about $6,000 to $15,000 pinball machines. It's not easy. It's not easy because I know for a lot of people out there, when the times are good, it's really easy to get very excited about this stuff. But sometimes you're going to get a curveball and you can't be worried or thinking about pinball machines. But we're still going to talk about pinball on this episode. I have some rumors for each and every one of you. Some of them you might have heard on Saturday. I have a brand new rumor. I don't think I've heard this anywhere. A new game coming out from a new-to-market pinball company. It's based on a very popular IP in the gaming space, and it's coming out early 2026. So I'm happy to give you that news today, and we're going to take it up a notch. But I just want to say I was really devastated by the loss of Rob Reiner and how that all happened. And for those of you who grew up in the 80s and 90s, the movies that that man put into culture were unbelievable. One of them, we have a pinball machine for the Prince's Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Stand By Me. The list goes on and on and on. And I just I don't know about you, but I'm just sort of tired of waking up in a world in which the news is always so damn negative. and so as we talk about pinball news sometimes I feel like maybe there's some pressure or onus should be on me to make things a little bit more light a little bit more positive but I don't think we're that negative I really don't and I think there's too many people that are overly positive about pinball and the reason why you're here is that we want to keep it balanced but I just want to say to each and every one of you out there it is now like nine days from Christmas doesn't feel like it. It really doesn't feel like it. I feel like as I get older, the holidays are not kind of what they used to be. There's a lot more stress in my head, but I will say this. I've got two little boys and they are so excited and I can't wait nine days from now to see the excitement on their faces. We got a lot of Jon Snow here in Connecticut. It's been so much fun being outside building forts with Killian and Cassian. But you're not here to talk about Kaneda's Jon Snow fort building podcast. It's about pinball. That's why you're here. Okay, so let's talk about pinball. Let's go around the horn and talk about what I'm hearing lately in the world of pinball. So I'm hearing that Stern's Pokemon is next. I'm also hearing that it is going to be mediocre. group. I'm hearing this could be another Star Wars game. I hope not. I really hope not. I don't think they rush this game like they rush Star Wars. But the thing I keep hearing, and I'm not quite sure what this means, but I'm hearing because the license was so expensive, Stern did not get most of the Pokemon characters. And I know as I say that to this demographic, you couldn't even name me 10 Pokemon characters. So as long as like Pikachu is in it, I think that's kind of the only character you probably even know. So I still love the debate around Pokemon because it is the world's biggest IP. Will it translate over into pinball sales? Nobody knows. As a marketer, it's not what I would have selected, but I've said it before. If you get the IP for Pokemon, you make it. You just have to make it. Because if you cast a net that is this wide, and I mean when you look at how big are the franchises, it like Pokemon like 112 billion next to Star Wars which is like 47 billion So it is humongous But will that translate into pinball sales Now, historically speaking, when you get these like super amazing IPs, it doesn't really bring as many people into pinball as people think. I keep hearing people say like, oh, Pokemon on location is going to crush it. Is it? Maybe. is it going to get more quarters than Star Wars, more quarters than Ghostbusters, more quarters than Guns and Roses? I don't know. Probably, maybe, who knows? But what I do know is this, all of our speculation, all of our questions about this game, we're going to get them answered in like two and a half weeks. So I can be patient. If I were to guess, how will Pokemon do? I don't think it's going to be this like juggernaut hit. I don't. I don't think it's going to cross over nearly as much as people think. Stern would have been a lot smarter to put a lot more effort into Star Wars. They would have been so much smarter to hold Star Wars back until 2027 for the 50th anniversary, I would have given Keith Elwin like two years to design all three games as individual titles. That's right. I would have allowed Keith Elwin to make a New Hope game, an Empire Strikes Back game, and a Return of the Jedi game. You know what they really should have done? Is just done the New Hope game to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the movie, put everything in the kitchen sink into it and then make an Empire Strikes Back game and then make a Return of the Jedi game all by Keith Elwin. Stagger him. Let him do Star Wars like every other year and then something else. The guy is so prolific that I think he could make it work. Instead, you put all the movies into one mediocre game. You put it in a blender. You play the damn theme song on repeat and it's annoying. And I think you just have another bad Star Wars game. So I don't think Pokemon is going to go like gangbusters. I don't. We shall see. All I know is when I walk around a pinball show and I've been walking around pinball shows for over a decade, I do not see Pokemon fans. I do not see people in the age demographic of Pokemon fans. And I don't think like you guys who are like closer to 60 are going to be buying this because your kids are into Pokemon. I just don't see it happening. All right. Walking Dead sales are abysmal. I heard that Neil McRae on his podcast is saying the game is selling phenomenally well. He's lying. He's absolutely lying. Zach Obrecht flipping out. One of the biggest dealers is saying the game isn't selling well at all. Why would he lie? He's selling the damn product. Speaking of selling the damn product, I saw a guy was offered. You ever wonder, you know, how much do people get offered for their home use only machines by a dealer? This is crazy. A dude was offered from a dealer $2,500 for his uncanny X-Men Pro. That's insane. But then again, it makes sense. It's the reason why, you know, these dealers, I mean, think about it. Some of these dealers sometimes are offering you like an uncanny X-Men LE for $8,500. If they are going to make $8,500 with a margin, how much do you think they offered the guy to get the machine from him? What, like $7,000? It's just crazy, crazy, crazy. All right, so speaking of crazy, have you seen what's going on with Chicago Gaming Company's quality lately on these Medieval Madness Merlin editions. I was just putting up a photo on Facebook of under the cabinet, they were doing some woodwork and you could see the bondo underneath the cabinet where they were maybe filling in some cracks or holes and they didn't even sand it down. They just sent it to a guy. And I'm just going to say this. If something like that is leaving the Chicago Gaming Factory. This company is in big trouble because they used to be so well known for their great quality. When they first made all the remakes of Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness and Monster Bash, the quality was phenomenal. Phenomenal. And especially the woodwork. This is Churchill Cabinets. Nobody does better woodwork than these guys. I don't know what's going on over there? But more than just this, man, people are having a lot of issues with these new games. The quality is not there. The sparkle on the armor is terrible. Not everything's lining up when it comes to like the apron and the cabinet and the side rails. Like what's going on over there? I don't understand it. Now, look, I'm just going to say this. I think they're going to do another run of medieval madness. And it does beg the question, why even call these things limited editions. They're not limited. They're not limited. They will just keep making another run and another run and another run. And I think the word limited is sort of like the word protein in culture now Everything got protein in it right It means nothing It like when everything organic nothing is organic Like it just means nothing You know we skipped over the rumored theme that I heard Stern was pursuing, that they might be doing a Corvette 2. You know, it's crazy when I ask people to guess a theme that started with the letter C. We got so many good guesses on the Saturday Morning Spectacular, and it was Mr. Christopher Franchi, who used to work over there. So I kind of believe him more than anybody that Stern Pinball is actually considering a Corvette 2. Now, they did Mustang. And look, a theme like Corvette, that might have sold back in the day when games were like $5,500, $6,000 for the LE. But there's no way, no way in modern pinball times that Stern Pinball with a straight face could come out with a Corvette game at these prices. Nobody is buying. Nobody bought the Walking Freaking Dead. And hey, the alarm bells must be ringing over at Stern. If they couldn't sell 500 Walking Dead LE remastered, they're in big trouble with the remastered strategy. I bet they thought this game was going to fly off the shelves just like Metallica did. And I'm telling you right now, if I'm them, I'm rethinking if it's ACDC next year. And it's ACDC next year. We don't need more ACDC games. If these remasters are not games that people need new in box versions of, it's going to be dead on arrival. We need new Tron. We need new Lord of the Rings. We need new Batman 66 and we need new Ghostbusters. Those are the four. Everything else is pointless. And they know this. It's like they absolutely know this. And I think they're cutting corners. Ever since the private equity company took over Stern people during COVID, this is what happened, man. The private equity came in during COVID. They demand the high margins. Gary has cashed out. I think they're just bleeding this thing until it's done, baby. All right, speaking of bleeding this thing until it's done, let's talk real quickly about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In just two weeks, people will be eligible to get their refund on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I think when we get to January 1st, there should be communications from Dutch Pinball. How many total games have you made as of today? Now, I think it's going to be more than that. People want to hear. They want to know where the games are. Like, are there 50 games sitting in the Netherlands waiting for a freight? Like, how many games have been unboxed? Like, how many actual games have gone to consumers? I just saw a heartbreaking photo. If you go into the thread, a guy finally got his Alice and it had like damage all throughout the box. The forklift went right through the decal on the side of the cabinet. Oh, man, it's so painful, right? Because this isn't like a game you can just get another one of. You know, it's not like you can just send it back to Stern and they're making like four or five hundred a week and they'll just grab you another. This guy's waited forever for this game. And that's a huge headache to replace. Look, I think the move to get people to hold on to their deposits, to get it back to the future. I think it was like a smart move for them. But I also think people are running out of patience with Dutch. And here's what I mean by that. Dutch Pinball can't even make 500 games in a year. If they can't make 500 games in a year, it is scary what's going to happen when they take orders on Back to the Future. So what happens when you get 5,000 orders? That's 10 years of making the game. And so I'm a little bit worried. I think they need to sort of figure something out here. Like if they only managed to get like 350 Alice games built. You have to remember these games were announced way back in October of 2024. And then production started in 2025. and the promise was we're going to build all 500 or your money back starting Jan 1. Well, here we are. It's almost Jan 1. And I don't know how many they've built. I think they are somewhere around 350. It's a lot of games short. And so as we move into Raza, which has already been announced that there will be 333 Raza's. Okay, so here's where it starts to get a little problematic when you just do the math. So if you're going to announce Raza sometime in March or April, and the game production isn't on the line that day, and it took you all year to make 350 of Alice, that means you're not going to finish the Raza builds in 2026, the same year you need to have the Back to the Future game on the line. They just need to figure something out They got what will be one of the most in themes in the history of pinball and they just need to figure out like a manufacturing solve here I mean it just that simple Like they either need to scale up or they need a US partner to also build the games alongside them We see what will happen If I were Barry and he knows this, I would have designed the game in collaboration with someone in the US. I would have been like co-producers of the game and I would have taken like 500 bucks a pop and sold thousands of them. Like imagine if Stern gave this game to Keith Elwin and they make like 8,000 units and you get $500 a pop? I mean, that's $4 million in your pocket for just inking the license. Now, not sure the license was transferable. Something about pinball pride that makes everybody in this industry make questionable decisions. And you know me, I'm rooting for these guys. I am. I'm rooting for them. But they need to figure out something. Can you do a morning shift and an evening shift and have two different teams making the game? I don't know. I don't know what the rules are. I'm not in the manufacturing space, but they need to figure something out. Staying over in Europe, here is the news that I was alluding to earlier on the show. I got a note from someone who said, hey, Canada, we love the show. We want to give you a bit of exclusive news, and we're going to give you the exclusive information and photos on this game. We are a company in Switzerland known as World Pinball. So they say they've been manufacturing 95% of their own parts for their pinball machines for the past four years. They said they're very demanding when it comes to quality. And they listened to the podcast a lot to show respect for pinball players. And they have a Japanese video game license that they will be coming out with in early 2026. Okay. I think this is like the world exclusive on this. So World Pinball, coming out of nowhere, we'll be bringing to the pinball market a game that you know the title, Resident Evil. Wow, Resident Evil coming out from this company in Switzerland known as World Pinball in early 2026. So take that to Pinside and say, thou who shall not be named just gave us an exclusive. I have another title, and maybe this is not an exclusive, but I have a good source on what the third spooky game is going to be. And I don't mean Beetlejuice included. I mean, after Beetlejuice, the next three titles in order from Spooky Pinball, I am hearing is as follows. It is going to be the Goonies. It is going to be Gremlins. And the third title, and again, if this is not you hearing it from me for the first time, I apologize. I can't keep up with everybody. I got two little kids. The third title that I hear that Mr. Franchi is working on is a title that you know as South Park. So we've had a South Park pinball machine before, but that was all the way back in 1999, people. It was a Sega game. That was 26 years ago. So South Park pinball from Spooky Pinball. Do we believe the rumor? I have to say it's a rumor. but man it's starting to look like spooky's gonna just have instant sellout after instant sellout after instant sellout everybody everybody thank you for being a member of canada's pinball podcast i really do appreciate the support thank you for being patient a lot's been going on in my world that's been difficult uh i try to kind of bury most of that when i get in front of the mic to talk about pinball because you're not listening to this show to hear some of my problems or things I'm struggling with. And when I hear about some of my other friends out there, my problems are very minuscule. Every day above ground is a great day. Do me a favor, give all of your loved ones a kiss tonight and let's wake up tomorrow and just feel optimistic that we are still here. We are still kicking. And in just two weeks, we're going to see if Pokemon actually attracts new people to pinball because this demo is not going to eat it up. Oh, and by the way, I saw that $100,000 Louis Vuitton machine. It doesn't surprise me. I mean, that's just like an art piece. You know, they'll make a few of them. They'll put them in the window and yeah, they'll sell them for $100,000 and some billionaire in Dubai will buy it. But come on. I mean, it's good for pinball. If anything's going to get more people in the pinball, it's the amount of exposure a game like that will get there's nothing more relevant than having a company like louis vuitton who is like the drivers of like culture and luxury being into pinball everybody have a great day canada out Oh Lord I can't be here in the end of the night Oh Lord Oh Lord I can't be here for this moment For all my life Oh Lord