Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • AActivity
  • +Health
  • ?Guide

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Episode 1033: "Chicago Glitch Company"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·20m 48s·analyzed·Dec 10, 2024
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Kaneda criticizes CGC's Pulp Fiction LE for quality degradation and reveals practice, expanding into broader pinball market concerns.

Summary

Host Kaneda delivers an extended critical monologue at 5:30 AM about Chicago Gaming Company's Pulp Fiction LE reveal, arguing that the final product shows significant quality degradation compared to the pre-production teasers shown two years prior. He focuses on specific physical quality issues (topper paint quality, speaker grill logo centering and sizing, car wheel detail downgrades) and criticizes the company's practice of revealing games years before delivery, contrasting CGC's approach unfavorably with Stern, Spooky, and other manufacturers. The episode escalates into broader industry critique about market saturation, unsold inventory, unrealistic pricing, and what he perceives as an impending market collapse being masked by the industry.

Key Claims

  • Chicago Gaming Company revealed Pulp Fiction two years before delivery with a superior pre-production version compared to the final LE product

    high confidence · Kaneda's direct observation of reveal video vs. final product photos

  • The Pulp Fiction LE topper has poor paint quality, with Mia Wallace's eyes looking like 'scary zombie' and John Travolta resembling 'Conan O'Brien'

    high confidence · Kaneda's detailed visual critique of the topper

  • The speaker grill logos on the final Pulp Fiction are off-centered, pushed to the top, and flipped positions from the reveal version

    high confidence · Kaneda's comparative analysis of grill design

  • The visible speaker grill area on the final version is smaller than shown in the reveal video, but the logos were not scaled down proportionally

    high confidence · Kaneda's explanation for logo/grill mismatch

  • Cactus Canyon promised code updates two years ago that have not been delivered

    high confidence · Kaneda's statement: 'They said they were going to update the code. It's now been two years on that game. There's no code.'

  • Neil McRae's Pulp Fiction LE review misleads viewers by presenting it as gameplay footage when the SE has been in circulation for over a year

    medium confidence · Kaneda's critique of McRae's review timing and methodology

  • Pulp Fiction LE topper mechanics may not function as advertised—the Mia figure turning and lighting up feature appears to work differently in McRae's unit than in the reveal video

    medium confidence · Kaneda's observation: 'does the topper not even function as well as it did in the reveal video?'

  • CGC has a pattern of missing deadlines and burning customers with delays across multiple remake titles

    high confidence · Kaneda: 'a company that just doesn't know how to hit any deadline. They can't even hit deadlines within a year, let alone two years.'

Notable Quotes

  • “After two years, they had two years to figure out a way to make whatever they showed us originally to just put like a thousand of those in a box and get everybody what they wanted. Get everybody what you paid for.”

    Kaneda@ 3:57 — Core criticism of CGC's failure to deliver on promised pre-production quality

  • “When you become an apologist, you've actually helped these companies make pinball worse.”

    Kaneda@ 5:44 — Key philosophical stance on consumer standards and accountability

  • “It's a pinball machine, people. This is not a car like a Tesla... There shouldn't be any differences between the game you see on the day they ask for your money and the final version of the game.”

    Kaneda@ 9:10 — Central principle about pre-order reveal practices

  • “They switched which side the logos go on. Do these guys have any common sense?”

    Kaneda@ 7:52 — Frustration over apparent carelessness in design execution

  • “Why did you show this game two years ahead of when you could get the game to customers? Why?”

    Kaneda@ 10:01 — Direct challenge to CGC's business strategy

  • “If pinball is gonna survive over the next few years... I keep thinking about all those games that automated. There are games everywhere, all over the world, sitting unsold.”

    Kaneda@ 15:07 — Expression of existential concern about industry health

  • “I don't know if the collapse has already happened and they're just hiding it or if the market is actually bigger than I think.”

    Kaneda@ 18:00 — Central thesis on potential hidden market downturn

Entities

KanedapersonChicago Gaming CompanycompanyPulp Fiction (Pinball)gamePulp Fiction LE (Bad Mofo Edition)productPulp Fiction SEproductZach SharpepersonNeil McRaepersonPlay Mechanicscompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Pulp Fiction LE exhibits visible quality downgrades compared to pre-production reveal: topper paint quality poor, figures poorly rendered, speaker grill logos off-centered and repositioned, car wheel details downgraded from reveal version

    high · Kaneda's detailed side-by-side comparison of reveal video vs. final product photos, specific observations about topper paint strokes, logo centering, grill size mismatch, and car wheel detail regression

  • ?

    product_concern: Speaker grill logos not centered despite being centered in reveal version; logos appear to have been flipped sides from reveal to production

    high · Kaneda's observation: 'logos are not centered with the grill' and 'they switched which side the logos go on'

  • ?

    product_concern: Pulp Fiction LE topper mechanics may not function as advertised; Mia figure turning/lighting feature appears to malfunction or work differently in final version vs. reveal video

    medium · Kaneda's observation comparing Neil McRae's unit to reveal footage: 'does the topper not even function as well as it did in the reveal video?'

  • ?

    product_strategy: CGC revealed Pulp Fiction two years before delivery, contradicting industry standard practice and creating unrealistic expectations relative to final product

    high · Kaneda's repeated questioning of why CGC revealed the game two years early, comparison to Stern/Spooky practice of revealing only final versions

  • $

    market_signal: Significant quantities of unsold new-in-box pinball machines globally in warehouses, described as 'marketing casualties' suggesting potential market oversaturation or demand shortfall

Topics

Chicago Gaming Company quality control and production practicesprimaryPre-production reveals vs. final product discrepancies in pinball industryprimaryPulp Fiction LE topper paint quality and design issuesprimaryIndustry-wide market saturation and unsold inventoryprimaryConsumer standards and accountability in pinball purchasingprimaryCGC's history of missed deadlines across multiple titlessecondaryJersey Jack's IP execution and marketing practicessecondaryStern Pinball's strategic direction and survivalsecondary

Sentiment

negative(-0.85)— Kaneda is deeply frustrated and angry with Chicago Gaming Company's practices, with particular intensity directed at quality degradation and pre-production reveals. While he expresses some sympathy for the industry (wanting Stern to survive), his overall tone is cynical about market health, industry transparency, and consumer empowerment. His 5:30 AM recording time and self-acknowledged 'going off' repeatedly underscores the intensity of his dissatisfaction.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.062

0:00
And I don't like to think about the city, no, no. And I, I, I hate the cutness I do. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said. Oh, everybody, 5.30 in the morning coming at you from Connecticut right now. I'm looking at these Chicago Gaming Company photos of Pulp Fiction, L.E. Bad Mofo Edition. the world has waited two years for this game.
0:32
Looking at the details on this game, I'm reading Neil McRae review this game as if the same exact game hasn't been out for over a year in SE format that everyone's already seen. Maybe Neil's game is different because he's got mirror blades on it. His opinion matters more about gameplay than the last year and a half of people playing the game, apparently. So here's the thing, everybody. The reason why I'm calling this podcast Chicago Glitching Company is I don't like any of this.
1:03
And I want to explain what I mean by that. And it's not even about like this product specifically, even though there's things in this reveal now that we see the final version of the game that are clearly taking a step back. We're going to talk a little bit about the topper. The grill isn't the same. just all the little details that excited us about the pre-production version of the game right when Zach did that great video and they showed us the teasers of the game and all the
1:36
trailers everything got us really excited they nailed all the details and then two years go by and then the final product the details aren't as nice and that's the thing I want to focus on and I just want to say this right now. If you want to come on my Facebook page and tell me that CGC games earn great on location, I don't care. I don't care what any operator tells me about how their game earns on location. Why would any home buyer who buys a new in-box product where they just want to get exactly

  • There are significant quantities of unsold new-in-box pinball machines warehoused globally, indicating potential market saturation or collapse

    medium confidence · Kaneda's commentary on 'marketing casualties' and games 'piling up' in warehouses

  • Jersey Jack likely manipulated UV ink effects in their Avatar CE launch video to make the UV experience appear more impressive than it actually is in final production

    medium confidence · Kaneda: 'they manipulated the video in that $100,000 launch video'

    • “Stern needs to survive... they need to stop thinking like they need to attract new audiences and they need to double down on why we love pinball in the first place.”

    Kaneda@ 18:45 — Strategic industry critique focusing on core audience vs. growth strategy

  • “For this much money, no company should ever show you anything that is not the exact thing you're going to get for your money.”

    Kaneda@ 14:38 — Fundamental consumer protection principle

  • “When's the last time Jersey Jack took a theme and exceeded your expectations on it?”

    Kaneda@ 16:28 — Broader criticism of competitor Jersey Jack's IP execution

    • Stern Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Cactus Canyongame
    Monster Bashgame
    Attack from Marsgame
    Medieval Madnessgame
    John Wickgame
    Avatar CEproduct
    Metallica Remastered LEproduct
    X-Men (Pinball)game
    Omnicomcompany

    medium · Kaneda's commentary on 'games piling up,' 'stacking up,' and dealers/distributors not knowing what to do with inventory

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Kaneda's trust in Chicago Gaming Company has fundamentally eroded due to pattern of delays, quality control issues, and bait-and-switch reveal practices; declares he no longer cares how good their quality is

    high · Kaneda: 'on principle alone, I don't care anymore how good the quality is for CGC... I just don't care anymore'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Host expresses concern that pinball industry may already be in collapse phase being masked from public view, evidenced by unsold inventory and weak product launches

    medium · Kaneda: 'I don't know if the collapse has already happened and they're just hiding it or if the market is actually bigger than I think'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's Metallica Remastered LE priced significantly higher than original Metallica LE despite consumer salary stagnation over 10 years

    high · Kaneda: 'metallica remastered le is twice the price that the original metallica le was... have all of you doubled your salaries over the last 10 years?'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball community split into two camps: standards-focused consumers holding companies accountable, and apologists defending manufacturers despite quality/timing issues; apologists' purchasing behavior enables continued low standards

    high · Kaneda's extended critique of the 'apologist' camp and how their tolerance enables manufacturer misbehavior

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: Kaneda advocates for principle that pinball manufacturers should never reveal non-final products when taking pre-orders, establishing consumer protection standard

    medium · Kaneda: 'no pinball machine should ever be revealed to the world unless it is the final production version of that game'

  • ?

    product_concern: Cactus Canyon promised code updates remain undelivered two years after initial commitment to players

    high · Kaneda: 'They said they were going to update the code. It's now been two years on that game. There's no code. People are still not playing the updated code.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Neil McRae's Pulp Fiction LE review misleads audience by presenting it as novel gameplay when SE has been in circulation 12+ months; positions McRae's early unboxing as source of authority despite no meaningful difference in game mechanics

    medium · Kaneda: 'Neil's reviewing his LE as if he's got a different game than any of the SEs out there... it's not this time, brother. We all know how the game plays.'

    • 2:11
    what they were sold, we're not making money off of our games. saying a game earns on location as an excuse for bad details for anything to be different than what our expectations are is a lame excuse i just don't get it i don't get how these operators like well doesn't matter man doesn't matter what you think about toy story because it earns great on location really i'm happy for you that your toy story that's 12 to 15 000 is maybe one day gonna break
    2:42
    even. And by the time it breaks even, you're going to look at that 15 grand you dumped into a Jersey Jack game when Bitcoin was $26,000 a coin. And then you're going to wake up today and tell me how great your game earned on location when you could have made like 300% more money if you just put it into something normal. So here's the thing, everybody. Again, it's 530 in the morning. I'm going to go off a little bit. So I'm looking at this topper first and foremost. Look at it. It looks garbage. It looks absolutely horrible.
    3:14
    Who painted this thing? It's like I handed Killian a paintbrush and said, hey, just give me some eyes on Mia. And they look absolutely terrible. It's like you can almost see the brush strokes. It's like they used a brush that was too big. Everything about it just looks really bad. She looks like a scary zombie. And then John Travolta looks like Conan O'Brien. Doesn't really look like him. All of a sudden, something happened, right? It's like when we saw the original version of the game, the stuff that excited us on it, right? Nobody said anything bad about the topper.
    3:46
    We didn't look at the figures and be like, that doesn't look right. We didn't see the cars and the lights and everything going on up there. It just was exciting. Now, all of a sudden, you get the final version of it. After two years, they had two years to figure out a way to make whatever they showed us originally to just put like a thousand of those in a box and get everybody what they wanted. Get everybody what they paid for. Get everybody what you showed them to hook them on your game.
    4:19
    And you couldn't do that. And we know that they were delayed because of the toppers. And here's the sad part. If this is what they deem to be acceptable, if this is what satisfies them, then I'm just going to tell you right now, it doesn't satisfy me. I don't want to support a company like this that takes two years and then drops something like this where it just looks worse. If you're going to take two extra years to get something to market, everything about
    4:51
    it should be better. and I think it speaks volumes to the pinball buying community. I think there's two camps here. I think there's people here who absolutely have some standards and they live their life with some principles and just on principle alone I don want to support a company that does stuff like this And then you got the other camp of people the people that are the apologists They look at something like this and they like, what are you complaining about? The gameplay is below the glass. Why are you focused on the
    5:22
    topper? Why are you focused on the grill? And I'm sorry, but I know you ordered your game and I know you want to defend the company that you ordered your game from, but why? Why don't you have the same standards. Why aren't you holding these companies accountable? And the more that second camp continues to buy these products, what has it done for the rest of us? Think about it. When you become an apologist, you've actually helped these companies make pinball worse. More of us had standards about what we expect. How much should a topper cost? Like if you keep
    5:54
    buying $2,000 cheap plastic toppers, they're going to keep making them. If you keep buying like $9,500 premiums, they're going to keep charging us more and more and more. So I think, again, we all should have higher standards in pinball. The other thing I was looking at, and I'm like, wow, that doesn't look right. It doesn't look right. I was looking at the speaker grill because that's one of the differences between the SE and the LE is that nice sort of metal speaker grill area. And it's got the Play Mechanics logo and it's got the CGC logo.
    6:27
    and I looked at it on the final version of the game and I'm like, it doesn't look right. Something's off here. I don't know what it is, but I'm looking at it and I could see that the logos are not centered with the grill. And I'm sorry people, but when you're gonna do stuff like this, you center it. When things are off centered, when there's clearly an area where the thing needs to be in the center, it's just off putting. And I noticed it right away. Again, these are guys that have been staring at this game for two years.
    7:02
    It shouldn't take a blowhard podcaster in his garage at 530 in the morning to instantly pick up on details that just don't look right. The thing is, all of our eyes work. That's how we are engineered as humans. We can see things that just don't go right. There's just something about symmetry and balance and harmony. And I'm sorry, but these pinball companies for this much money should just be nailing it. It shouldn't take a guy like me.
    7:34
    I'm not even an artist, but I can tell you when something's off-centered. And so I'm looking at these things on the grill, and not only are they off-centered, they're all pushed towards the top of the grill. They also, this is so funny to me because I keep feeling like they bait and switched all of us. They even switched which side the logos go on. Do these guys have any common sense? If you sold everybody the game with the Chicago Gaming Company logo on the right and the Play Mechanics logo on the left, how is it that when you got to final production of the game, you switched those logos?
    8:12
    I realized why they don't look right because in the final version of the game, the grill itself is smaller than it was on the reveal video because that grill got a little bit smaller or the area that's visible is smaller. They didn't make the logos any smaller because the logos look beautiful on the reveal video and now they don't look right on the final production version of the game. Here's my thing. Here's my takeaway on all of this.
    8:43
    No pinball machine should ever be revealed to the world unless it is the final production version of that game. I don't think we should see any company ever push their product out. It's a pinball machine, people. Remember, this is a pinball machine. This is not a car like a Tesla. This isn't like the automotive industry where you see the concept first and then you get the final production. this is a pinball machine. There shouldn't be any differences between the game you see on the day
    9:17
    they ask for your money and the final version of the game. We don't see Stern do that. They don't make any changes between reveal, take your money, and game. We didn't see Barrels of Fun do that. They didn't make any changes. We don't see Spooky Pinball do that. When they reveal a game, The game is the game. There's nothing that's going to change. And here's the thing. If anything's going to change, it's got to change for the better. And so I think with Chicago Gaming Company, the reason why I'm making a little bit of
    9:49
    a bigger deal than this really is, to me, this is just the icing on the cake of a rotten cake with this game's reveal. You reveal a game two years ago. Why? Why did you show this game two years ahead of when you could get the game to customers? Why? What was the rationale for that? I would love to hear the excuse from Mr. Sharp or Doug over at CGC. Why did you do that? It not even like CGC has a line going every single week like a real pinball company I get that they take their time but why didn they just wait
    10:30
    Why didn't they just wait? It's not like you don't know people are going to want Pulp Fiction. It's not like it's ever going to be a bad time to release the first Quentin Tarantino pinball machine into the world. If you had released this game with the final production version with a great reveal video and the games were on the line, there would be no worry that you'd get sales. But they keep doing this. They've done it so many times. And I think it's at the point now where it's like fool me once, fool me twice.
    11:00
    But just on principle alone, I don't care anymore how good the quality is for CGC. I don't care anymore. I just don't care anymore. Because CGC to me, if you think about it, what do they stand for? the consumer experience around Chicago Gaming Company, it's a mixed bag. I get it. When this company first came out and was making these remakes, they were making beautiful remakes. They made the games better than they ever were originally. And here's the thing though, when you're remaking games like Monster Bash, when you're remaking games like Attack from Mars
    11:35
    and Medieval Madness, I think people are a little bit more patient with you because those games have been out for like 30 years. You know what you're going to get? You're going to get a better version of a classic game and they're just going to enhance everything. But man, it sort of ran out of steam with Cactus Canyon, right? People were just tired of waiting. They said they were going to update the code. It's now been two years on that game. There's no code. People are still not playing the updated code. And it just seems like a company that just doesn't know how to hit any
    12:09
    deadline. They can't even hit deadlines within a year, let alone two years. And so I think with a game like Pulp Fiction, you don't get the same patience anymore. You don't get the same patience anymore because you've been burning people with these delays for so many years. And it is a new game where people want it. They don't want to wait two years. It's not a game where I can go to the local like operator and play an original version of Monster Bash as I wait for my remake. I guess you could go now and play a Pulp Fiction SE as you wait for your LE. I love that Neil McRae is
    12:43
    like reviewing his LE as if he's got a different game than any of the SEs out there. Neil, we know how the game plays. I know Neil loves to be like the first to unbox and show us a game. He did it with X-Men. But Neil, it's not this time, brother. It's not. Like we've all seen the gameplay. And also, like I was noticing in the reveal trailer for this game, when Mia wants to win the dance competition, her topper figure turns and faces you and lights up. When Neil
    13:16
    McRae's game is doing it, it did not do that. So I'm also wondering, does the topper not even function as well as it did in the reveal video? Not to mention the cars also look a lot uglier. look at the wheels on the cars. The reveal video cars look much better. They look much more accurate to that time period. Now the wheels look like a cheap child's toy. So just on principle alone, I'm allowed to have my principles. I just don't like this. I didn't like it when Jersey
    13:50
    Jack showed us Avatar CE and had pre-production play fields. Nobody, and I mean this, nobody who's in on a $15,000 Avatar CE. Nobody really knows what the UV ink experience is going to be like. It didn't work at Pinball Expo when they tried to pipe and drape the area. And so you just spent $15,000 on a game. And we all know now what they did. They manipulated the video in that $100,000
    14:24
    launch video. Now, CGC did not manipulate the reveal video, but they definitely showed you something that was not final. So that's my thing, everybody. For this much money, no company should ever show you anything that is not the exact thing you're going to get for your money. I would argue with anybody that thinks that I am wrong on that statement. I don't understand why anybody would support a company doing it that way.
    14:56
    Whose side are you on? That really is the ultimate question for everybody out there, content creators, everybody. Whose side are you on? I'm on the side of the consumer. Look, if pinball is gonna survive over the next few years, I mean this. I keep thinking about all those games that automated. And again, that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are games everywhere, all over the world, sitting unsold. And it makes me wonder, like, is the pinball market big enough? Does it have enough room to grow?
    15:28
    Or has the pinball collapse already happened It just being hidden right now from our eyes You know what I mean It like if you look at all those new in box games as sort of marketing casualties I think that the best way to think about it. All those games are marketing casualties. They are stacking up. And how long are they going to hide it from us that these companies have been bringing to market games that we don't really want at these prices. They've been bringing to market themes that aren't really lighting us on
    16:03
    fire. And they're hiding those games in warehouses all over the world. And they're piling up. And these dealers in these distros, they don't know what to do, right? They don't know what to do because not every game is going to be a Keith Elwin L. Lee. They know that Jersey Jack is going to find some way to mess up Harry Potter. They're just going to do it. It's going to have muted clips or they're just going to reskin dialed in. You know it, everybody. You know they're going to do something. When's the last time Jersey Jack took a theme and exceeded your expectations on it?
    16:35
    Okay. I don't know. People will see every time they show a clip, every time they show a clip, it's muted clips and that's not going to work with Harry Potter where it's all about the interaction between those kids. And if you don't see that interaction happening and you don't feel it, it's not going to work, but they're piling up. They're piling up all those marketing casualties, all those cardboard boxes. If that doesn't telegraph to you that this hobby is not as big as they think. I mean, just think about it. These companies are making all these games and
    17:07
    nobody right now wants them. Look at what's happening in the world. I haven't had a significant raise in like five or six years. Okay. Five or six years. My company was actually just acquired by Omnicom. We are now the biggest marketing media company in the world. And let me tell you the mood right now amongst everybody. Everyone's just nervous. Nobody knows what's going to happen. Nobody knows how things are going to shake out. And for a lot of you out there, if you're 40 to 60,
    17:39
    unless you're self-employed and you are in 100% control of your destiny, you get to an age where You have to start being a little bit more careful with how you spend and invest your money. I mean, that's where I'm at right now. I'm not going to pump it all in the pinball machines, especially as I see these pinball machines losing so much value right away. And so I don't know. I don't know if the collapse has already happened and they're just hiding it or if the market is actually bigger than I think. And I don't think they know, right?
    18:09
    I don't think they know. I mean, think about the biggest pinball company in the world made John Wick. It shows they did zero market research with its audience. That is scary. And I think deep down inside, the biggest thing that I'm afraid of in all of pinball, because Stern needs to survive, people. Stern needs to survive. If Stern goes away, it's not like pinball is going to go away. But who really wants to live in a world where all we get is like one boutique game that slowly trickles out? Yeah, sure. That could be the pinball landscape. But I do want Stern to survive.
    18:45
    But the thing is, to survive, to survive, I think they need to stop thinking like they need to attract new audiences and they need to double down on why we love pinball in the first place. They need to reignite the love of pinball with its audience today, with its audience over the last 10 years, not try to attract these young kids who have no money into their hobby and stop wasting so much time with the Stern Army and location play and all these
    19:20
    badges. That's not going to do it. They need to make the actual product without any insider connected, without any badges or achievements. they need to make the actual product freaking amazing again freaking amazing freaking something that when you look down at that world under glass you want to spend this much money because these games are so freaking expensive it's absolutely insane people metallica remastered le is twice the price that the original metallica le was have all of you doubled your salaries over the last 10
    19:54
    years maybe right maybe some of you have but anyway everybody look welcome to an early morning edition of canada's pinball podcast i just want to say cgc shame on you nobody should be revealing a game that's not final on the day they take your money if you disagree i feel bad for you because then you're on the wrong side of this debate everybody have a great day we'll talk to you soon
    20:24
    Outro Music