Episode 1175: "Pokemon Teaser This Week?"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·22m 34s·analyzed·Jan 7, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Pokémon teaser expected soon; Stern facing design/culture issues; Dutch Pinball production capacity concerns.

Summary

Kaneda speculates that Pokémon pinball will be announced within two weeks, discusses concerns that George Gomez is taking over Jack Danger's original design toward a simpler game more aligned with Deadpool's approach rather than complex titles like X-Men. He critiques Stern's recent game quality, slow sales of Star Wars and Walking Dead LEs, and production culture under apparent CEO pressure. He also expresses concern about Dutch Pinball's manufacturing capacity to meet Back to the Future demand after falling short on Alice production targets.

Key Claims

Jack Danger originally designed Pokémon with creative, complex layout before George Gomez sidelined him for a simpler design approach
medium confidence · Kaneda references hearing this from 'people over there' at Stern without direct confirmation
Pokémon will be announced via 30-60 second Friday teaser, then full reveal the following Tuesday based on Stern's typical launch cadence
medium confidence · Kaneda speculates based on Stern's historical announcement pattern and dealer contact timing
John Borg admits to rushing Star Wars in an eight-month design cycle versus typical 14-16 months at Stern and 18 months at JJP
high confidence · Kaneda explicitly attributes this to Borg; this is a notable personnel/design concern signal
Star Wars LE can now be purchased for $3,000 off MSRP ($10,000); Walking Dead Remastered LE similarly discounted
high confidence · Kaneda observes secondary market pricing and forum discussions in real time
Predator has not sold 300 units despite being an iconic, nostalgic theme with wide operator appeal
medium confidence · Kaneda states this as observation but specific number uncertain; notes Pinball Brothers absorbent tariff costs on pricing
Dutch Pinball made approximately 300 Alice machines versus their 500-unit goal
medium confidence · Kaneda estimates 'around like 300, maybe a little bit more' based on community reports
Beetlejuice production has begun; multiple machines showing same serial number (745) indicating manufacturing batch consistency issues
medium confidence · Kaneda reports 'a few people have the same number' from community feedback
George Gomez is 73 years old and designing Pokémon under pressure to solve Stern's financial/sales problems
high confidence · Kaneda states age directly and references cultural pressure from CEO Seth and board expectations for private equity returns

Notable Quotes

“I think George is going to be answering a homework assignment versus making a game that he's super passionate about. I think he's going to be making a game to try to get Stern out of a financial hole because their last few games have been really mediocre.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Core criticism of Stern's current leadership and design culture; suggests financial desperation over creative passion
“It's barren. And it's interesting how the owners are like, 'I don't understand why this game got such blowback at launch.' And people are like, 'It's barren.' And they put a picture of it next to the Data East Star Wars, which has nicer artwork, which has more interesting mechanisms in it.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Direct criticism of Star Wars playfield design and mechanical depth compared to 1980s competition
“In 2025, this game comes out and has almost nothing in it. John Borg himself admits to rushing this game in eight months—an eight-month design cycle.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Personnel signal about Borg's rushed timeline and quality impact; confirms accelerated development schedule
“You can't sell 300 of an iconic theme, a nostalgic theme like Predator. That's an issue, people. That is a real issue.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Market signal indicating Predator underperformance relative to IP recognition and operator appeal
“What you need to realize is that silence is toxic. You made it so. So even if you don't have an exact time frame of when a customer can expect their topper, you can't go silent.”
Kaneda @ late-episode — Community management critique of Dutch Pinball's communication strategy regarding Alice production/topper delays
“This is the most important year in the history of Dutch Pinball. And as I start to do the time frame and the math, I do get a little bit concerned because if you have like 200 or so Alice's to make and you now have gone on the record to say you're going to make 333 Razas, we all can say right now, because it's already almost mid-January, you're never going to get those 333 Razas made in 2026.”
Kaneda — Business concern signal about Dutch Pinball's manufacturing feasibility and Back to the Future production timeline

Entities

Pokémon PinballgameGeorge Gomezperson Jack DangerpersonStern PinballcompanyStar Wars PinballgameJohn Borgperson Dutch Pinballcompany

Signals

?
business_signal: Dutch Pinball production capacity crisis; manufactured ~300 Alice units vs 500-unit goal; projected inability to meet Back to the Future demand (estimated 1,000+ orders) with existing constraints
high · Kaneda: 'If you can't make 500 Alice's in a year, how are you going to handle the demand for Back to the Future, which is going to have like 1,000 orders?' and detailed timeline analysis showing Raza production cannot begin until June-July
?
business_signal: Stern facing financial pressure and sales collapse; CEO Seth calling frustrated meetings about Walking Dead/recent game sales; private equity returns driving design decisions
medium · Kaneda: 'I'm hearing like Seth has been calling meetings and he's like yelling at people about what's going on, where the sales for The Walking Dead are'
?
community_signal: Dutch Pinball criticized for radio silence on Alice topper delivery; communication breakdown damaging community trust despite game quality
high · Kaneda: 'What you need to realize is that silence is toxic... even if you don't have an exact time frame... you can't go silent. You can't not respond to anyone's inquiries'
?
design_philosophy: Pokémon expected to be simpler, more traditional layout (Deadpool-style) versus Jack Danger's complex/innovative approach (X-Men/Foo Fighters style)
medium · Rumors cited about design pivot toward 'traditional layout' and 'basic game in terms of mechanisms'
?
design_philosophy: King Kong art direction and comic book stylization criticized by community; Kaneda notes vitriol and compares unfavorably to Winchester/Dune art packages

Topics

Pokémon Pinball announcement timing and design directionprimaryStern Pinball's financial/cultural/design crisis under board pressureprimaryStar Wars Pinball quality criticism and rushed development timelineprimaryDutch Pinball manufacturing capacity concerns vs Back to the Future demandprimaryPredator Pinball underperformance and lack of Arnold Schwarzenegger licensesecondarySecondary market pricing collapse on recent Stern releasessecondaryBeetlejuice production status and serial number anomaliessecondaryKing Kong art direction community criticismsecondary

Sentiment

negative(-0.72)— Kaneda expresses significant skepticism and concern about Stern's near-term prospects (Pokémon design compromise, Star Wars failure, sales collapse, cultural crisis), Dutch Pinball's production viability, and Predator's market performance. Mixed optimism on Beetlejuice and cautious hope Stern can recover if they produce a legitimately great game. Frustrated with Andrew Highway and serial entrepreneur patterns. Positive sentiment only on boutique alternatives (Spooky, Christopher Franchi work) and acknowledgment of Stern's historical capacity for greatness.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.068

If I could just wait five more minutes and tell you how I feel. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Canada Spinball Podcast. We are just days away from Pokémon. Dealers have been contacted by Stern. They know the details. Now, if that has happened on a Tuesday, I think we're going to see the Pokémon sort of logo teaser theme reveal on this Friday. It's either going to be this Friday or next. And Stern's typical launches go like this. On a Friday, they announce the theme with some like 30 to 60 second teaser video. Usually it's like 30 seconds. They'll be like the Pokémon ball and it's going to be like, got to catch them all. Stern pinball. And then on Tuesday, we're going to get the full game reveal. Little weird that they're over at CES in front of all of these people and they're going to do it the week after. It's kind of like they can't just get their stuff together lately with all of these like licensor approvals. But here's what we know so far about Pokémon. The game started as a Jack Danger game. I heard from some people over there Jack was getting really creative with the design and the layout. You know, he likes to push the envelope. X-Men, Foo Fighters, two great shooting games, one of which was killed by bad code. X-Men, the code's getting better. And I heard that he sort of was sidelined by George who wants to make a much more simple pin. And so now the latest rumors are that this game is going to be more of a reflection of a new Deadpool versus a game maybe like X-Men or Foo Fighters. We might get a more traditional layout, and we might get more of a basic game in terms of mechanisms. Now, I hear people out there being like, well, Canada, what's the problem? Deadpool's a great game. And I would say back to all of you that Deadpool had Zombie Yeti, maybe his second greatest art package, maybe his greatest art package ever, on a Stern machine. It was before the Rainbow Explosion, and it was perfect. Like, Zombie Yeti's Deadpool machine looks so good. And remember, too, back then, this is when we were sort of fresh to all the Zombie Yeti comic book style artwork. And hey, he's got a comic book style approach to his art, and it's a comic book! So it works perfectly. Now, you know, look, if he does Pokémon, it is a comic and anime, so I think it would fit the theme very well. But here's the issue. It's now 2026 and Stern Pinball, I think, needs more than just a game that checks the boxes. I think they need a game that is magical, that has like mechanical engineering. That's awesome. They need a statement game for this new Spike 3 platform. Everybody knows it. I'm in the Star Wars thread today. And it's interesting how the owners are like, I don't understand why this game got such blowback at launch. And people are like, it's barren. And they put a picture of it next to the Data East Star Wars, which has nicer artwork, which has more interesting mechanisms in it. That's why there was blowback, people. In 2025, this game comes out and has almost nothing in it. John Borg himself admits to rushing this game in eight months, an eight-month design cycle. Jersey Jack Pinball has 18 months to make every single game. The typical Stern design cycle is at least like 14 to 16 months. And so why would you rush out Star Wars? I think the biggest thing with Pokémon is this. It's not really going to be a Jack Danger game at all. This is going to be a George pin. And, you know, 73-year-old George Gomez, does he have an emotional connection to Pokémon? Do you think he's seen a single Pokémon episode? I mean, he's probably making this game. But you know what I'm saying? The man hasn't been dreaming about the possibilities of putting a Pokémon world under glass. And this is why I think, and I don't know yet, but if I were to make my guess, I think it's going to be underwhelming. Because I think George is going to be answering a homework assignment versus making a game that he's super passionate about. I think he's going to be making a game to try to get Stern out of a financial hole because their last few games have been really mediocre. And I'm hearing like Seth has been calling meetings and he's like yelling at people about what's going on, where the sales for The Walking Dead, how come this is not selling so well. And so it a company that got its back against the ropes and it doesn't feel like the culture over there right now is one where everyone going in and having a good time and bringing their best ideas to the table and everybody collaborating on how to make Pokémon the best pinball machine. But what will happen is this. This game will sell very well based on theme. And even as I say that, I almost want to play Devil's Advocate. I don't know, man. I don't know if there's enough crossover between Pokémon fans and people that will drop 7,000 to 13,000 on a pinball machine. And here's the thing that I think has happened is Stern's lost a lot of the base, the core people that are just pinheads that used to buy every new Stern. And a lot of those people, they're just burned. They're tired. They're burnt out of losing so much money. Even Star Wars right now. I'm looking at Star Wars. You can go get the LE for almost $10,000 now. So $3,000 off, people in the thread are like, well, I got a premium for the price of a pro. And you know, this doesn't just go away. These are the latest releases. You can almost now go get a Walking Dead remastered LE for $3,000 off. These games are not selling. And so when you lose that aura that you make something that has the value, it doesn't even hold the value at MSRP. I think a lot of pinheads are just like, look, I'm curious. There's not a single pinhead out there that isn't excited on a new pin day. There's not a single pinhead out there. And I mean this. That's not open-minded when every new pin comes out. There were people that wrote off Barrels of Fun because of Labyrinth. And then they bought a Winchester. There are people that might hate Stern Pinball and their recent releases and think they're barren and cheap. But if they put a great game out in the world, you're going to buy it. They still have the capacity to make amazing pinball machines. When you go on the PinSide top 100, there's no denying the fact Stern has made some of the best pinball machines ever. They're in a little bit of a quagmire. They're in a little bit of a weird place right now. I think culturally they need a change and I don't know who that change agent is. Seth has the weight of this company on his shoulders. He's now the CEO. Gary ran this thing for many, many years. His father was in the industry. He grew up in this industry. George Gomez, same thing. He's been doing this since he was just a young lad. And here he is now at 73, handed the biggest IP in the world. and you know when he's designing this game, on one shoulder is the young George Gomez being like, what's the greatest creative stuff we could do? And on the other shoulder is the bean counter being like, well, we have to maximize profit and we have to give back to our private equity investors a return on their investment so we can't go crazy with the bomb on this game. Look, I hope this game blows us away. I hope this game exceeds our expectations with every Stern launch recently our expectations have been lowered so they don't even need to come out with like the next Godzilla in my honest opinion they just need to come out with a game that just looks like a ton of pinball fun it just looks like a game that is unique that doesn't feel like more of the same and I think that's the other thing with Stern lately, all these remakes and remasters and new versions of older games, whether they're anniversary editions or not, it does feel like we've seen this movie before. You're asking us to pay more to see the same movie again, and it's just not working. It's just not working. So we shall see. All of our Pokémon questions will be answered. They will be answered within the next two weeks. Now, speaking of two weeks, this is too funny. The man who made two weeks famous in the world of pinball is back at CES. Andrew Highway is back with his latest invention, Ice Splosion. It is a home machine to make slushies. I'm not even making this up. Now, he's had this Ice Splosion idea for like six, seven years. Because I remember people who worked on the art for the Ice Splosion logo. But here's the funniest part. Here's the funniest part. He is clearly looking for investors. It's not available to buy. And it's coming out sometime in 2026. There is just something about these serial entrepreneurs that fail every single time and they just keep coming. Now, I will say this. Now you know what to get Canada for Christmas. I mean this. If the Ice Splosion machine actually does make it to market by the end of this year, I would like one. I would want one of these. I think we should put these things on every machine as a topper. after you have a good game, just go up there and make yourself a slushie. And I love the fact that all of these like scam artists, you know, they always start with the same line. Andrew's got this line. It's like, this all began with my love of slushies. This all began with my love of pinball. This all began with my love of hydrofoils. If you don't know the Andrew Highway story people and some of you are newbies you have to remember about a decade ago when this guy was lying to the pinball community only one pinball podcaster called him out. Only one pinball podcaster was asking the tough questions. And a lot of people came at me. He threatened me. He was coming at me. And guess what? I was right. If it smells like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, it is a duck. What else is going on in the pinball world? People are getting their Predator machines. Look, I'm happy if you get a Predator. It's just not for me. I just cannot enjoy a Predator machine without Arnold. It is that simple. To me, it is Batman without Batman. It is Star Wars without Luke Skywalker. It's just not going to work for me. That doesn't mean you can't have fun. That doesn't mean you can't be, you know, in Dutch's crew. I see they're using AI to make all these weird Facebook posts with all the dealers and distros. They still have not sold 300. Could you think about that for a minute? There are about what, like 8 billion people in the world. There are probably in excess of 20,000 pinball collectors in the world. And there are probably 5,000 hyper buyers of pinball. And there are easily well over 300 locations globally that would love to put a new pinball machine in their arcade or operate it because new games bring in money. And you can't sell 300 of an iconic theme, a nostalgic theme like Predator. That's an issue, people. That is a real issue. But look, I'm happy you're getting it. I think it's a game that's just going to keep losing value. And I don't think they're ever going to get Arnold into this game the way Alien eventually got Ripley into the game. What else is going on? I'm starting to see a lot of people getting nervous about Back to the Future. Old habits die hard. Barry is once again going a little radio silent on people that want answers to where the toppers are on some of these Alice games. The new Alice's are shipping with the toppers. The issue is it's a really intricate topper. So you need to design a special box and you need to ship it in a way that's not going to break. It's a lot easier to ship it attached to the game. The thing is this, what Barry and everybody over there at DPX needs to know is that your company has a history of saying nothing. And what you need to realize is that silence is toxic. You made it so. So even if you don't have an exact time frame of when a customer can expect their topper, you can't go silent. You can't not respond to anyone's inquiries about the status of their game. And so this is a thing we need everybody. And I mean, this is not just Barry, it's everybody as a company. That's the old Dutch and I think if Dutch really wants to make it to Back to the Future they need to never go radio silent again. How many total Alice's did they make? I don't know, somewhere around like 300, maybe a little bit more. That's a far cry from the 500 and now they got to get Rasa on the line. What's gonna have to happen at Dutch Pinball is the company is gonna need to change. They're going to need to work harder and longer if they are to get to Back to the Future. And I'm a little bit nervous. They took off two weeks during the holidays. That was a pivotal moment for their company. You got to get as many of these Alice's in a box as you can. So maybe in this year, you got to work harder. Maybe in this year, you can't take the vacation you want to take because you got to survive. And I'm still getting these vibes that there's still a little cavalier about it all. And that Melvin has made these two games to help them survive. And I think they need to collectively get together and just approach this differently. It's all not just going to work out because you have Back to the Future. Remember when Lebowski came out, a lot of people wanted one, but their own internal issues are the reason why it all collapsed. So not for a minute do I think, simply because they have Back to the Future, that that's going to fix a lot of the internal issues. They need to work on these now. And getting 500 Alice's made in a single year was a great goal to achieve. and they came up way short. And that's not a good indicator. If you can't make 500 Alice's in a year, how are you going to handle the demand for Back to the Future, which is going to have like 10 orders? And so this is concerning. And I hope that this company really really figures this out and they need to figure it out this year this is the most important year in the history of Dutch Pinball and as I start to do the time frame and the math I do get a little bit concerned because if you have like 200 or so Alice's to make and you now have gone on the record to say you're going to make 333 RASAs, we all can say right now, because it's already almost mid-January, you're never going to get those 333 RASAs made in 2026, because RASA manufacturing might not even begin until like June or July. If we're looking at the way things are going, they still have to make all these Alices because, you know, they're not going to get 200 refund requests. And so what do you do? I mean, you got to hire more people. And if you don't hire more people, you got to work longer hours and you got to get it done. And I think this is going to be a test of Barry's work ethic of the organization's work ethic. And they're either going to show us they're going to step up or I think it could collapse. I mean, I think it could collapse because they got to get it together. I hope they do, man. You know me. I hope they do. I like these guys a lot. I've always said, I can't wait to see what Dutch does next. I think unlike Stern, they're going to put a lot in the game, but they got to get the manufacturing together. They still in 12 years have only made two games. That's not a recipe for success. All right. What else is happening in the pinball world? Beetlejuice is the Beetlejuice production has begun. Everyone has game number 745. Apparently what's going on with that it's like weird a few people have the same number. I can't wait for this game to get out there. I can't wait for this game to be in the hands of all the fans. There was so much hype well deserved for this game and now I want to see what people feel about the game in their homes. I think we're going to see games going out the door by the end of this month and then it's just going to be the year of Beetlejuice all the way up until the end of the year when they announce Goonies. It's going to be fun. It's going to be great. I have to make a correction. On this year's Canada's Kudos Awards, I gave Jeremy Packer a kudo for Evil Dead. The problem is I forgot that I gave him a kudo for Evil Dead the year prior. So I need to change the game in which he gets the kudo for. It is going to be Beetlejuice. Okay. I was splitting hairs between the two and it's going to be Beetlejuice. I've had a lot of Stern people. I've had a lot of Stern fanboys come up to me and be like, I can't believe Stern didn't win anything. And someone yesterday said to me, Canada, it should have won for King Kong Art. And I'm like, are you kidding me? King Kong Art? I mean, it's fine, but man, no. And I'm just going off of the community's feedback. There has not been any universal love for King Kong Art. In fact, the vitriol, a lot of the vitriol for Kong outside of lack of assets is the art package and how all the art packages look the same and how that comic book stylized Kong is not how you relate to King Kong. So no way was King Kong going to win over Harry Potter or Beetlejuice or Evil Dead. No way. In fact, I would put Dune way in front of King Kong for best art package. I would put Winchester A good art package really shouldn't make people upset. I'm just saying that. All right, everybody. It's going to be a great week. I'm really looking forward to it. How do you guys feel, man? I feel like I'm getting the cobwebs out. Coming back from the break, getting back into work, the weekly routine. A little depressing. I won't lie. It's dark out. It's cloudy. It's like you're tired. You haven't seen the sun. Or I haven't gone on a long walk in a long time. And it's like, it's dark when I leave. It's dark when I get home. I go into the office. It's still pretty quiet. Everyone always needs like a Caribbean vacation after the holiday vacation. People have been asking me if I'm going to pinball at the beach. I don't know. My new company, we've been acquired and the PTO days are a lot less. We used to have unlimited. Now I have a very limited number. And so getting to pinball shows for me this year is going to be a lot harder. I've already booked Japan and Italy. I just can't burn like three PTO days down in Florida seeing pinball machines. I would love to, but I've got to put my family first and trips with Brenda in front of pinball trips. All right, everybody. I think in just a few days, we're going to see Pokémon teaser. And I think in maybe less than a week, we're going to see the game. It's about to get real exciting. Thank you for being a member of the Canada Club. We'll chat soon. Canada out.