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DPP #22 "Holy cow there's a ton of games right now! It is the eve of Godfather! GTF is coming soon!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·18m 0s·analyzed·Mar 5, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Unprecedented Q1 2025 pinball glut: Godfather, Scooby, Foo Fighters, Queen, Bond 60th, Tank Force, Pulp Fiction competing simultaneously.

Summary

Don discusses an exceptionally crowded spring 2025 pinball release schedule featuring simultaneous launches from multiple manufacturers (Spooky, Stern, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Chicago Gaming). Key announcements include Jersey Jack's Godfather reveal on March 7th (two-tier pricing model), American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force teaser, and the ongoing release of Scooby-Doo, Foo Fighters, and Queen. Don expresses excitement about market saturation while speculating on which games will succeed and whether they'll appear at Texas Pinball Festival.

Key Claims

  • Godfather will be announced with full details on Tuesday, March 7th at noon

    high confidence · Don confirms official announcement date from Jersey Jack distributors and his own inbox communications

  • Jersey Jack may be moving to a two-tier pricing model (LE and CE only, no Pro) for Godfather, following Toy Story

    medium confidence · Don speculates based on distributor requests for LE and CE lists, but notes 'No confirmation yet'

  • Scooby-Doo code may have been rushed and incomplete at livestream announcement due to competitive market pressure

    low confidence · Don engages in pure speculation about why Jack Danger livestream didn't happen as promised

  • American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force features tank-tread legs on cabinet and lollipop rails

    medium confidence · Don reports seeing images of tank treads and possible rail configuration, though admits limited playfield visibility

  • Godfather designer Eric Menier previously designed Guns N' Roses LE and Pirates of the Caribbean for Jersey Jack

    high confidence · Don confirms Menier's prior work as industry fact

  • Over 70 games are being released this week/season

    low confidence · Don uses hyperbolic language ('seems like') and later clarifies he means a crowded market of major releases, not literally 70

  • Stern will release another Cornerstone game six months from now (around September 2025)

    low confidence · Don speculates without concrete evidence

  • Bond 60th retails for $17,000-$20,000 for a single-playfield machine

    medium confidence · Don states price range but uses colorful language that suggests rough estimate

Notable Quotes

  • “Man, this has been a crazy, crazy week. And last week I thought was nuts. All of a sudden we've got boom, confirmation. Harry Potter is out, Godfather is in.”

    Don @ early in episode — Sets tone for unprecedented market saturation and rapid-fire announcements

  • “Spooky Pinball, they were first to the punch, and I think that was wise... maybe they had to rush through the code... Purely speculation But maybe they had a date for danger that they couldn't meet because they wanted to have good code to show”

    Don @ mid-episode — Speculates on Scooby-Doo development pressures driven by competitive market dynamics

  • “I think the real winners here for sure uh spooky they've got out ahead of everything they've got some solid sales and commitments already... stern is a slam dunk windmill 360 slam on food fighters man i don't think anybody's gonna be skipping out on this one”

    Don @ late episode — Identifies Spooky and Stern as market winners despite crowded conditions

  • “This is nuts, guys. I don't know how this year is going to play out. And then we're going to have another Stern Cornerstone release in six months from now?”

    Don @ late episode — Expresses overwhelm at market conditions and anticipates continued saturation

  • “If they want to move machines, they need to get some games where people can play... holding onto their money and they've got nothing but a crowded market of excellent options”

    Don @ mid-late episode — Articulates core market concern: whether consumers have bandwidth for simultaneous releases

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanyChicago Gaming CompanycompanyEric MenierpersonJack DangerpersonGodfather

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball identified as market winner through first-mover advantage; Stern predicted as 'slam dunk' for Foo Fighters despite crowded conditions

    medium · Don states 'Spooky Pinball, they were first to the punch, and I think that was wise' and 'stern is a slam dunk windmill 360 slam on food fighters'

  • ?

    event_signal: Don attending Louisville Arcade Expo next week with merchandise giveaways and prize packs; Scooby-Doo confirmed playable at venue

    high · Don announces 'I'm going next week. And, like I announced on the last podcast, I'm going to have free stuff for people' and 'Scooby-Doo... will be playable at Louisville Arcade Expo'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Market exhaustion risk: consumers may lack budget and decision-making bandwidth for simultaneous premium releases from multiple manufacturers

    medium · Don asks 'are there people around that are still interested in a pinball machine either have tons of money or are willing to skip those first two and go for something like Queen' and worries about people 'holding onto their money'

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival positioned as critical proving ground for spring releases; expected to feature multiple game debuts and Jack Danger appearance

    high · Don speculates extensively on which games will attend Texas and notes it as 'the biggest festival of the spring in this crowded market'

  • ?

    leak_detection: American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force tank-tread cabinet design and lollipop rails visible in leaked images before official announcement

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.054

0:00
Coming through here on a Saturday on a very, very busy news week, man. March is here now, finally. It's been March. Are you ready? You better be, because there's like 70 games that are being released this week, it seems like. There's news coming fast and loose, even all throughout the day today. Can't wait to cover it with my news, my reviews, my hot takes. I've got everything you need, and it's coming up on your feed in just a few seconds. Get ready, everybody. Get packed. Put that seatbelt on. I'm gonna drop that slam early. First up, what's up? Welcome to everybody. Welcome to the subscribers. And konnichiwa, konbanwa to my new Japanese follower that I just got that update about. Boku no name wa don desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu to you, homie. I want to come out to Osaka and hit at that big arcade they got. What's pinball like in Japan? I know of one huge arcade in Osaka, and I want to hit it up. Maybe that'll happen this year. I can't wait. I also can't wait to get rid of these t-shirts I got. They're ready, everybody. Email me at donspinballpodcasts at gmail.com. I'll give you the PayPal link. $25 and it's to your door. Best value in Don's merchandise currently as the Rush Mods are out. All right, getting to the news. Man, this has been a crazy, crazy week. And last week I thought was nuts. All of a sudden we've got boom, confirmation. Harry Potter is out, Godfather is in, and there's a table, and that's about all I know. Well, that I know what the bottom of the play field looks like, because my boy, well, not quite my boy, but the designer of Godfather. Nonetheless, Eric Menier, he's my boy. He did my limited edition Guns and Roses. So, yeah, he gets boy status. So, they released the images of the bottom of the play field similar to the way they kind of teased Toy Story when we knew that was coming out. I will say this play field looks completely populated. It's nothing but wires. Now the resolution on the image was not big enough to really dive in there and see what those mechanisms actually were. At least not for my novice brain here. I can tell there's flippers at the bottom though. I did see those flipper, but they're max max coils, uh, you know, down. So I know for sure there's that at what looks like now let's see is upside down. So on the image anyway, in the back right hand side of the play field, which I guess would translate to the back left side of the actual play field it looks like there's some kind of mechanism with some height on the bottom of that board so there's got to be some maybe something that drops maybe something that pops up we don't know we will know what's popping off though we will know on the 7th on Tuesday at noon they are dropping these things and I'm already getting my email folder full of hungry distributors that are ready to take your order for the LE and possibly even the CE No confirmation yet, but what I have seen is they've been asking for limited edition and collector edition requests to get on a list. Does that mean they're going to follow the Toy Story model of only having two tiers? Is Jersey Jack going, you know what, we don't need an entry-level tier anymore. We're just going to go for that mid and top. It makes sense. I mean, if they're going to brand themselves as more of like a luxury lifestyle brand of game supplier, which I think would fit. You know, Jersey Jack's a step above. They don't quite have the numbers of churning out the meat grinder of pinball that Stern does, but they still are very capable of getting these machines out. So the two trim level, I think it would work. I think it seemed appropriate for Toy Story. Maybe just because you couldn't have trimmed it down anymore. Oh, did I say that out loud? I'm just joking with you guys. Bo Peep Loops for life. All right.
game
Scooby-Doogame
Foo Fightersgame
Galactic Tank Forcegame
Queengame
Bond 60thgame
Pulp Fictiongame
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Louisville Arcade Expoevent
Donperson
Nap Arcadecompany
Ulexcompany
Raw Thrillscompany

medium · Don reports 'we've been seeing it on the pictures link with those tank treads that that are the size of the entire legs... Looks like there was lollipop rails'

  • $

    market_signal: Unprecedented Q1 2025 simultaneous releases from five manufacturers (Spooky, Stern, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Chicago Gaming) creating intense competition and potential buyer decision fatigue

    high · Don explicitly lists Scooby-Doo, Foo Fighters, Queen, Bond 60th, Galactic Tank Force, Godfather, Pulp Fiction as concurrent releases; describes market as 'crowded' and 'nuts'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jack Danger (Foo Fighters designer) confirmed as guest at Texas Pinball Festival, indicating availability and strong factory status

    high · Don notes 'The designer of this game, Jack Danger. He just put out today that he actually is going to be at Texas... Everything must be going great at the factory then. He's not needed on site.'

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack potentially moving to two-tier pricing model (LE/CE only, no Pro entry level) for Godfather, mirroring Toy Story strategy

    medium · Don reports distributor requests for LE and CE lists without Pro tier, speculates 'Is Jersey Jack going, you know what, we don't need an entry-level tier anymore'

  • ?

    announcement: Jersey Jack Godfather official reveal scheduled March 7th, 2025 at noon with full details and potential pricing tier changes

    high · Don states 'we will know what's popping off though we will know on the 7th on Tuesday at noon they are dropping these things'

  • ?

    product_concern: Scooby-Doo may have had rushed or incomplete code at livestream announcement due to competitive market pressures

    low · Don speculates Jack Danger livestream delay 'Maybe they had to rush through the code. Maybe the code wasn't in viewable position. Purely speculation'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Chicago Gaming's Pulp Fiction pinball in development with Raw Thrills; no official announcement yet but strong rumors based on historical accuracy

    medium · Don states 'from the strength of this rumor, so far in my almost two years in this hobby, I've seen rumors this strong bear out so far'

    • 3:40
    So we're going to find out on Tuesday. Man, what a cluttered market. And I've heard some opinions about, you know, is it the right thing to do for all these companies to lump out all of their game releases like right after another? I will say there will be a couple of winners for sure. Spooky Pinball, they were first to the punch, and I think that was wise. And now looking back on it, when they released that they were making Scooby-Doo, and then we saw those Playfield images, we were promised a Jack Danger livestream, and it didn't happen. And did that not happen maybe because they saw this incoming tsunami of competition and really wanted to get out ahead of it no matter what. Maybe they had to rush through the code. Maybe the code wasn't in viewable position. Maybe not even up until they actually did the live stream themselves Purely speculation But maybe they had a date for danger that they couldn meet because they wanted to have good code to show I just spitting around here but that could have been the case Either way, the code seems to be release complete from what I was playing in my limited time in the arcade. Who am I kidding? I spent all my time up there with Captain Cutler. Man, I'm in love with that mech. I'm in love with that glowing deep-sea diving helmet, man. Hitting the footprints and things. so I was watching a nab arcade put up a link to this uh these guys at ie pinball did a stream for about an hour and a half and I watched the first uh 10-15 minutes of it actually they filmed it at the Korean barbecue place I was at down in LA where I took a picture of myself next to that game in box but I had to leave before they were able to actually unbox it but there is another pretty high quality stream out there of gameplay so one thing I did take away from it now that I've kind to come back you know i've played the game in a couple locations i've got one on order i'm still enthused for it i like the sound of all those uh classic cartoon sounds you know just hitting cutler a few times you get the beeps and the boinks and drawings um kind of takes me back to the cartoon so i i like the the ambiance that i think i'm going to get from this machine when i actually get it in the home environment with like that good spooky sound the bright graphics on the play field and the gameplay seems fun i'm excited i'm still excited for scooby but coming up right on the heels of that as foo fighters from stern i think we've all talked it to death i think we all love it um where are you guys coming down on the back glass for the pro versus the premium le i'm kind of leaning towards what he did for the pro actually i'm i may cop a pro to stick in my premium uh when that thing comes because i like the you know all four guys or five guys seven guys in the van uh we got the alien creature there and it just makes a good you know focal point kind of like exactly the opposite of what uh the the pro edition of bond looks like and i know that had to be had to be limited due to licensing that you can only use this one image nothing else because that's that's blansville and i'm so glad that there's been like like an aftermarket probably maybe unlicensed translate of 007 that looks so much better uh ulex got it out in uh in michigan at their arcade. And so if you look around for that alternate Translight for Bond, that's sweet. If I had one in my basement, I would for sure have one of them on order. It looks great. Moving on, who else is announcing?
    6:51
    American Pinball. They just got a new logo, kind of Captain America-y, kind of like steampunky kind of colors. I dig it. I like it. I think it's fresh.
    7:01
    So what do we know about their game? They're dropping more teasers, including a little bit of a, I don't know, maybe creepy video. This looks like to be taken from the LCD game during gameplay. I've heard rumors that they've got some live actors that have been shot. They've announced that, uh, just, uh, Kel, Carrie Ann, uh, later they played Sonya blade and ultimate, ultimate mortal combat three. And then four, um, she's been doing some work for the game. So there's probably going to be some live action characters cut in with these cartoony space graphics. And that's kind of what this looks like. It looks like a, you know, a guy's face inside of a funky looking space helmet. um the weird thing though is he's just kind of staring at you and i'm not sure what they're trying to convey there other than this is some of our art in motion um i went ahead and shared it on the facebook page but i mean it's all over the place you can see this new american pinball teaser for galaxy galaxy tank force galactic tank force galactic tank force uh my wife took a look at it and she's like what's going on with these eyes and i quipped back well obviously he's staring down your blouse while you're playing pinball i'm just saying i have no idea is this going to be on lcd screen um is the lcd screen going to be in the traditional position that we've been seeing it on the back glass i mean this is american pinball they're doing some new crazy things we have seen the pictures link with those tank treads that that are the size of the entire legs that go on the bottom of the cabinet to make this thing look like a tank uh so is this a play field lcd screen i haven't seen any images of the play field i haven't really seen good images of you know the sides i I think a little bit of the art where it says Galactic Space Force, Galactic Tank Force. Man, I can't get it right. They need to come with the marketing. Looks like there was lollipop rails. Is that a trim level thing? We're going to find out soon when they haven't released yet. I've heard rumors on a couple weeks. This crowded market, though, people that have had, like I've said before, people this winter have had money for pinball. They've already been hit by Spooky. They already been hit by a fantastic debut of Foo Fighters so who been able to skip out on those and will have room in their pocket for Galactic Tank Force with a Godfather right around the corner with a play field that looks completely flippin' loaded by a guy that's a hungry, up-and-coming, awesome designer. I mean, this guy did the Pirates of the Caribbean for Jersey Jack. He did Guns N' Roses. So the play field innovation is there. He's not afraid to play around with things, and he's free of the Lawler curse or whatever. um so is there you know are there people in this market that either didn't go in on scooby managed to avoid the siren song of foo fighters but are going to jump in on a tank force with godfather coming up there's already emails to order godfather out so either these guys drop everything they have on monday or they gotta wait a couple weeks um but in a couple weeks we're gonna be down in texas we're gonna be at a midwest gaming convention um are they gonna plan a show release They got to do something. I would hope. It would be nice if they would. Maybe they're still kicking it around. Maybe they don't know yet. But it would be nice to know when to expect to see this. Because we're hype right now for Tuesday. We know Tuesday belongs to Jersey Jack number eight. So they can surprise us again on Monday. Or maybe on Monday they release the date at least when we can expect to know more about Space Force. Because we're going to have to go in on all these other games. Because the selection is just mind-boggling. So I put myself together a little list of where we are at here. Let's take a break. Let's pump those brakes and let's review the list. So we got Foo Fighters released in production. Going to be out now. Is this going to be at Texas? Probably. You know who else is going to be at Texas? The designer of this game, Jack Danger. He just put out today that he actually is going to be at Texas Pinball Festival or the Texas Festival announced that he's going to be there to guest. They gave his booth number. So the dude will be there. That's fantastic. Everything must be going great at the factory then. He's not needed on site. so this guy can go out and do what he does best, which is promote those machines. I wish I could have been there. I was outvoted, as I said, be going on a cruise. But we'll be hitting up a convention this month, and I'll get to that in a second. So Foo Fighters is out. Queen has been released. Queen has been played. It was playable at Expo. It's playable at small places around the world. Where are they at with production? Has anybody ordered this? Is it going on site anywhere? I haven't heard anything. But will Queen be in Texas? I would imagine so. I mean, they got machines in country. This is kind of the biggest festival of the spring in this crowded market. If they want to move machines, I would expect to see it there. We got Bond 60th. Remember that? You know, that's out. I haven't seen it yet show up in location. This thing has to be shipping, though, but I haven't seen any unboxing videos. I haven't seen any live streams, and usually those pop up fairly quickly, especially for such a high-profile game as a $17,000 to $20,000 single-play field reincarnation of the Beatles with spawn salad dressing all over it.
    11:51
    That'll be out there soon. That's got to be at Texas, right? I've got that as a large possibility for Texas written down. So we've got Bond 60th. Galactic Tank Force. Are we going to see that at Texas?
    12:02
    That's not confirmed. But if they want to move some units, they need to get some games where people can play. There's people on the fence that are holding onto their money and they've got nothing but a crowded market of excellent options. and without just like one or two games coming out this season, those limited supplies, I think they're going to last a little bit longer, you know, cause we got like five companies coming out with their own limited additions. So it's not like there was just one big drop and then you're going to, you know, fight for those remaining thousand pins. So I'm hoping that they're at Texas. Nothing's been played. Nothing's been released yet from that. Godfather, nothing's been played. Nothing's been released, but that we do at least have a release date coming up. So, and Eric's picture on JJP site, did show a plethora of refrigerator-sized boxes on pallets behind him. So this game is probably ready to ship, maybe even be shipping out to distributors now. Will we see it at Texas? Yes, this is going to be at Texas for sure. It's got to be. Someone's got to be bringing one. Where's Pulp Fiction in all this? The rumored game from Chicago Gaming Company made by Raw Thrills, the guys who do those Jurassic Park shooter arcade games.
    13:09
    Haven't heard anything yet about release. Are they going to want to put this in this crowded market? Are they going to want to save it for summer when, you know, people have gone through taxes, got their tax returns, maybe gave first pass on all these releases and then could pick something up? You know, I don't know. At this point since they haven teased anything like how are they going to build up suspense for this game That a wait and see Is it going to be a Texas Big question mark Nothing been revealed Nothing been announced It's still just a rumor at this point, though from the strength of this rumor, so far in my almost two years in this hobby, I've seen rumors this strong bear out so far, so I'd expect we would see something like that. Scooby-Doo, it's been released, been played. Totally will be at Texas. texas it'll be down in uh louisville kentucky too uh and next week next week playable for uh the louisville arcade expo so right now that's a crowded crowded list did i miss anything email me comment down below if you missed anything uh we've got foo fighters queen bond 60th galactic tank force godfather pulp fiction and scooby-doo all right now in q1 2023 so that that's amazing this doesn't happen very often from what i gather and i'm a bit overwhelmed with everything um i think the real winners here for sure uh spooky they've got out ahead of everything they've got some solid sales and commitments already um you know say what you will about the non-refundable deposits uh they're gonna do okay stern is a slam dunk windmill 360 slam on food fighters man i don't think anybody's gonna be skipping out on this one the questions are are there people around that are still interested in a pinball machine either have tons of money or are willing to skip those first two and go for something like Queen. How well did Bond 60s sell? We still don't know. Did they sell out? Did they sell 200? I am really not sure. Where's Galactic Tank Force going to muscle into this crowd? Godfather's dropping soon to complicate everything else. And then we saw Pulp Fiction floating around there. This is nuts, guys. I don't know how this year is going to play out. And then we're going to have another Stern Cornerstone release in six months from now? What?
    15:13
    I'm excited. I can't wait. So, yeah, check out that Scooby stream. Links on Nap Arcade. These guys are out on On Tilt. That Scooby looks good. What else do I got? Cover Jack Danger is going to be there. Okay, so Louisville Arcade Expo. Smaller Expo. I've never been to it before, but I am going next week. And, like I announced on the last podcast, I'm going to have free stuff for people. So I'll have a passcode system or something. I'm going to have a backpack with some prize packs in it. In that prize pack will be at least a t-shirt, some stickers, a pin, whatever else I could think to throw in there. Probably a size extra large. I'm planning on having four, so I can give away two on Friday and two on Saturday. And I came up with this passcode system, right? So you have to listen to a podcast to learn what it is. Maybe it'll be Galactic Tank Force. Maybe it'll be Godfather. Maybe it'll be something. Maybe it'll be the name of a flipper or a coil or something. I'll come up with something, and I'll have a podcast out a few days before the convention where I'll release what that name is. And if you happen to see this guy, there's pictures of what I look like up on the Facebook page there. Even more reason to interact and like and follow the page. I'll also be wearing a big shirt that says Don's Pinball Podcast on it. So you just come up to me and say, you know, whatever it is, Williams Diner, something I'll come up with. And then, boom, prize pack is yours. Maybe nobody's going to come up to me and I'm going to have to go home with four of these things. I'll find a way to give things away. If I don't give them all away on Friday, I'll have four to give away on Saturday when more people are there. I'm stoked for this expo. I think it's going to be fun. More time on Scooby-Doo. I'll say what up to Spooky.
    16:48
    FlipTheLetterNOut.com will be there with some games too. Are they going to bring a Bond 60th? I don't know. I'll have to find out. Someone's got to have a Bond 60th in Louisville somewhere. If you know, leave a comment on the Facebook page. So I'll be there. There'll be stuff to give away. I'll have extra shirts too for purchase. I'll drop the price of $20. I got your back covered. If you come up without a shirt and you're topless, they won't let you in. Just give me a holler, dude. Throw me a message to the Facebook page, Don's Pinball Podcast on Facebook, or email at donspinballpodcast at gmail.com, and I'll give you the hookup. I love the emails I'm getting. I love the comments. Go ahead and bring them. And hey, Little Miss Harper, if you're out there listening in Santa Clarita and getting your hockey skates on, just know that Uncle Don said, what up, be good, and eat your vegetables, everybody.
    17:40
    Thank you.