I mean, what a week for pinball. Somewhere in all of this gun gate arguing, somewhere in all of the Hitler quotes, somewhere in all of the political discussions about Stern going woke, somewhere in all of this madness, we're going to get back to the hobby we love. We're just going to get back to talking about these pinball machines. And that's probably going to happen tonight when Stern Pinball is finally, after a week of probably the worst Stern launch in history, we're finally going to get to see the game and this is what they should have done on day one instead of bringing in all these mickey mouse youtubers and guys that don't even own your product who own a godfather and a toy story for i mean talk about people with no taste in games and you're using them to get people excited about your game it was a huge mistake and the sad part about all of this is that stern pinball has employed a social media and marketing company to help them sell John Wick. And we can see the effects of their work on this launch. And I think they're learning a really valuable lesson. You don't have to cut out the core pinball media when you launch a game. You could have done it with everybody involved. Like you could have had B. Kong and that silly dude in Long Island who doesn't really know what he's talking about alongside Jason Knapp, alongside the other content creators. You didn't have to like exclude them. And I think Stern is going to learn a lesson on this. Now, the real lesson that I've been thinking about all week is I think we just need to get to a place when you reveal a pinball machine, enough of all the delays and giving people the stuff that is really the exciting stuff, which is the gameplay, which is the mechs, which are the toys, which is the code, which is the wizard modes. All that stuff is what's going to get people excited about John Wick. And when I think about all the complaining and all the debating this week, how easy would it have been for Stern Pinball simply to cut together a gameplay video that shows John Wick using his firearm throughout the game as you're playing it. We know it's in there, and I'm just not sure why they wanted there to be like three to four days of never-ending bickering and complaining when they did not have to do that. I also think the next game they come out with, they're definitely going to invite more of the pinball media. And hey, I just want to state for the record, I am not expecting Stern Pinball to ever bring me in to any game launch. I don't want to be invited into a game launch early on because I don't want to sign an NDA and I don't want to have to make some shill piece of content on their behalf because I don't agree with where their games are priced. I don't agree with where their company is headed And I don't align with what I'm perceiving is a great arrogance on their behalf on how they launched this game. And I think it caught up with them. And I think the shills they brought on board to showcase this game really showed everybody here how much they think about us. And I want to once again say to you, it's really easy to turn Stern Pinball into the Bud Light of pinball in which you're so big. And you have so much volume in market share where you think the only way to grow is to go after new audiences at the expense of your core audience. Let's face it, people. Nobody buying a $300 arcade one-up is in the market for a $7,000 to $13,000 pinball machine. and nobody who makes that kind of content knows how to talk about knows how to film knows how to communicate what's going to get people excited in the pinball community and even when you watch those videos like look at these guys they don't even know how to talk about it they don't have any context they have nothing it's like bringing in newbies who are just excited to get invited to Stern's social media marketing company's office with a game in front of windows. It just doesn't work. So look, it is Friday. Here's another crazy thing about pinball marketing. There are 52 weeks in a year, 52. Now, only on three of those weeks will the world's number one pinball company, Stern, reveal a game. And when they do that, they grab all of the attention. They are grabbing millions of dollars in money when they sell their product, and they're going to control the conversation during that week or two when they launch a new game. So there are 52 weeks in a year. 49 of them are available to you if you're not Stern Pinball. Why would Pedretti Gaming and the pinball company release and reveal their Funhaus game on top of John Wick? Like you had 49 other weeks in the year to showcase this game where you're not trying to interfere with Stern Pinball's launch. Now, the only thing I can think of is they're witnessing how bad this John Wick launches and they want to take advantage of it and they want to show people what you can get for $10,000 if you don't get a John Wick. But I don think there anybody who cross Funhaus and John Wick I don think Funhaus and rudy are going to be the elixir to all the complaints about john wick now look if you had a game with a lot of guns in it that would be funny like i think there should have been more cgc marketing happening around pulp fiction this week how funny would it have been if cgc just kept reminding everybody we got your guns right here. I mean, there is legitimately a huge firearm as the main art piece in Pulp Fiction and they did nothing. What a golden opportunity missed by Chicago Gaming Company. But once again, they're another company that never talks to us, never communicates anything to us, and we're supposed to just guess when those bad mofo LEs are actually going to go into manufacturing. So a really weird week in pinball. I think I speak for all of us when I say it was a really exhausting week to be in this hobby. I don't really think I've seen a launch in a long time that had so many people triggered, had so many people arguing, opened the door for so much dramatic content. And absolutely, Kaneda is going to walk through that dramatic door. My subscribers have gone up, which is great. I know Cengiz and Kerry Hardy are going back and forth. I didn't get into that mess because I don't want to get into that mess. I don't think anybody who's listening to Kaneda's pinball podcast or listens to pinball content wants to get into a gun debate. Like, I don't want to do that. I want to talk about pinball. Do I think it's a mistake that guns aren't on the game? Absolutely. I don't know really weird decision because i'm looking at all these toys that lion's gate is selling based on john wick And those toys have guns all over them So it's really weird that they kind of look at pinball as something that's going to be in front of kids But my question is so what like so what you think a kid is going to walk up to a pinball machine And a john wick image holding a gun is going to inspire that kid to become violent more than a Call of Duty or a Halo or like a Grand Theft Auto video game. I don't really understand it. But also like what a messy week for Stern executives and George Gomez and him getting in arguments with his own community and his own fan base all throughout social media. Pinside was a dumpster fire. Nobody's even talking about the gameplay. Nobody's talking about the mechs in this game. Nobody's talking about the code or the new AI coding system that's going to make the game harder the better you are as a hitman. None of that is happening. So I hope this afternoon when we finally get gameplay, we're going to get back to having more of a civil conversation around this game. I still don't think this game is going to sell very well. I still really do believe that a lot of the anger we're seeing this week is really stemming from the community is just over how expensive these games are. I think everyone knows deep down that a Stern bomb is like $3,500. I'm going to tell you right now, I know 100% accuracy that the Jersey Jack bomb is $4,500 on their game. So just think about that for a minute. They don't want you to think about it, but think about it. If Jersey Jack's Elton John's bomb is $4,500 and their bomb is clearly got more in it than any Stern machine, what do you think a Stern bomb is? So we're paying almost $10,000 over the bomb for a Stern LE. And crazy, you're spending almost $11,000 over the bomb for an Elton John CE. And I think that's the source of all of the anger. Like I'm fine with these companies making two times what a game costs, which is really normal profit margins on a product like this. But they're now making three times what these games cost to make. And I think there's just an overwhelming anger by the community and being ripped off. I think these companies took these prices to a stratospheric level because they're greedy. They didn't put more in these games. That's my whole point. Like if you're going to charge this much money, then the bombs on these games should be increased by another thousand dollars, but they didn't do it. And so as much as I would love to have a new game come out and talk about the shots and the geometry and the gameplay and the artwork and the code, there's just no avoiding that we're getting ripped off on everything. And if you see the value there, I really do question your judgment because how can you see the value in games that are now so much more expensive than they used to be? So it's going to be interesting to see how the community behaves because it's going to be interesting tonight on this John Wick Twitch stream that Stern is going to air because the commentary in the chat section is going to be flooded with a lot of people talking about the guns or lack of guns and this and that. You know, Kerry Hardy's probably going to be there. I'm going to be there. Everybody's going to be there. It's going to be a grand old opera of grown men who have nothing better to do on a Friday night than to witness a $7,000 to $13,000 pinball machine offered for us to buy, and we have many, many opinions about it. I've also been doing more digging for each and every one of you about what is Jersey Jack's next game, and here's the thing. I know for a fact the next game is Mark Seiden's game. I'm also hearing that it's a real head-scratcher. I think it might be the Muppets. I know for a fact that Jersey Jack has Harry Potter, The Matrix, and Muppets. And so I haven't heard of anything other than Muppets that might be next. And so just maybe that might be Mark Seiden game I don know but we see it in six months As that game gets further in development I am sure there going to be more concrete leaks on what the title is because I know for a fact that there are distros out there that know what the title is. It's going to happen. People are going to get drunk. They're going to be loose lips. They're going to talk. And the moment I know and get more sort of solidified confirmation about what the theme is, you know I will tell you instantly what it is. All right, so what else has happened in the pinball world in this crazy week? So somewhere amongst all this John Wick madness, Jersey Jack revealed Guns N' Roses code 3.0. Now look, I'm really excited that after four years, this company is going to maybe finish the code by the time I unbox my game. I'm also still nervous. I got a message from someone who said that they just played the new code and right away they started a multiball. And then once again, without even aiming for anything, another multiball started. So I thought the whole point of this code was to minimize all of these random multiballs that keep starting when you don't even try to start a multiball. So do me a favor. I want to hear from you because many of you own Guns and roses. Update your machines to code 3.0 and let us know, let me know what it's like. Like, what are the differences? Are you feeling it? Because even the Jersey Jack communication around the update, it's so ambiguous what they're actually doing. You know, Stern goes line for line and tells you exactly what they changed. Jersey Jack is like, hey, we just worked on balancing the game better. And that's all they say. They don't really go into much detail. So I want to know from you, how good is this new code and have they really addressed a lot of the issues on this game and the major issue is simply this too many multi balls you're flailing all the time it's like chopping wood and when you start a song or a mode you're not really focused on what your shots are because you're just flailing away on multiball did they fix that that's what i want to know all right what else is going on you know with all of this john wick drama it's like it's taken a lot of heat off of companies like haggis it's taking attention away from companies like home pin nobody's really talking about spooky right now but apparently their next few games are killer and mr hilton is working with ben heck on the code of his next game so we're gonna see a new game from spooky i think ben heck is the designer i think it might be evil dead it might be beetlejuice it might be sonic the hedgehog and it might be goonies but i do believe that spooky pinball does have some killer themes coming in pinball and that's the thing too is like there's a lot coming back to the future's coming uh is alice in wonderland gonna land with enough impact to get like 500 people to buy it let's talk about funhouse right now right because this is the here and the now so funhouse is coming out and they've killed one of the versions of this game so they put out the teaser today we saw the new artwork with brian allen nothing to complain about there looks like Funhaus? I guess the big question is, is that people who love Funhaus and they want a remake, do they want new artwork or do they want the original? Now, look, they will sell you the original with the classic artwork. And that game, I believe, is $7,500. And then they will offer you the LE version of the game for $10,000 that has the new artwork. I'm not sure if that is now going to come with the topper. Here's what I think they're going to do. The topper was supposed to come with the LE for $11,000. So here's what I think Nick Parks and the pinball company are going to do. They are simply going to sell you the topper as an additional item for $1,000. And I don't think they're going to make the topper exclusive for the LE. I think they're going to now offer it up for anybody to buy it because they're probably thinking, all right, we're not going to sell an $11,000 funhouse, right? Kanae has been ragging on that price and $10,000 might be the ceiling because then we can market this game as being basically the same price as a Stern premium. What we'll do is we'll sell the topper as an accessory and that will get us to where we originally want it to be, which is an $11,000 game. Now, I don't know how many LDs they're going to make. I heard it was originally supposed to be 500. Nick Parks has commissioned 400 of them. So if you want to buy this game, Nick Parks is the only place you're going to be able to get it in America. That leaves 100 additional games for Pedretti Gaming over in Europe. I'm not sure if they're going to bump that number up. I think if they were smart, they would keep it at 500. I think a thousand le's is stupid i think everyone feels that way about every single jersey jack ce every single stern le a thousand is too many i don't know how many times we have to say this i don't know how many games stern needs to see their le buyers lose three to four thousand dollars in a year before one of these companies actually gets the courage to bring back down their limited game to 500. And I want to leave this show by giving Jersey Jack, once again, a bit of marketing advice. Jersey Jack pinball, your bomb is $4,500. You're never going to be able to escape that. We know the information. What that means is when your games were 9,500 for an LE and 12,500 for a CE, and the bomb was 4,500. That means you were making $5,000 on every LE you sold and you were making $8,000 on every CE you sold. You have not put more into your games since then. You actually put less into your games since then Now your profit has become almost on an LE which is basically an unlimited run game And now your profit is over on a freaking CE Now Jersey Jack I understand that you want to be a more premium pinball company, right? And I know this. I'm just going to use an example, like let's use Gucci as an example. Do I really want to know how much the bomb is to make a Gucci blazer? I mean, the markup on that is way more than three times. It's probably 10 times. It probably only costs Gucci $200 to make a jacket they could sell for $2,000, right? And what you're paying for though is the brand. You're paying for that. That's it. You are paying for the brand. you are not paying for the material. And I think what Jersey Jack needs to do, I think they need to start thinking about their marketing like that. Like how do we make JJP as a brand stand for something that equals premium exclusivity, right? If I saw people walking down the street, all wearing Gucci t-shirts because Gucci just made so many of them and then put them all on sale, people would stop buying them. And that's why when you see so many Guns N' Roses Ellie's out there, right? It just destroyed like the value of the game for everybody. And I think Jersey Jack pinball, you don't need the money, Abbas family, what they should be doing is creating that premium exclusive brand that has more cachet. And the way they need to do that is I think Jersey Jack should say from here on out, and they should say it right now, we are only going to make 2,500 games per title, regardless of what the title is, right? and then make two games a year. That's 5,000 Jersey Jack games a year. That's a lot of games. That's a lot of money. They don't have to lower the price, but what they need to do is this. We are gonna make 500 CEs at $15,000 and we're gonna make 2,000 LEs at $2,000 and that's it forever. None of these 5,000 LEs of GNR, None of these 1,000 CEs of Godfather, Toy Story, and freaking Elton John, which nobody's going to buy, which we know you didn't sell 1,000 of them. I don't believe you ever made 1,000 Godfather CEs. There's no way. And I don't know why they don't do this. Why are they trying to play the volume game like Stern? And then, you know, you make two games a year. You make two games a year. You would have a waiting list to get on your CE waiting list. Every dealer would love this because they would instantly sell out of every one of your CEs. And then you've got a nice even number where every time we have a game, there's only 500 for the entire world of the creme de la creme version of the game. The only reason Pirates of the Caribbean held so much value, they only made a thousand total, right? They made something like 700 LEs, 100 standards and 200 collectors edition. That was it. That was it. If they just kept making that game till the cows come home, nobody cares. You know, Rolex very carefully limits the production of their watches. And again, I don't want to know how much it costs them to make a watch. But what I do want to know is they're not going to flood the market with every single watch they make. And I really don't understand like what they're doing over there in the marketing department at JJP. Like, do they even have these discussions? Like does Ken Cromwell like do some data and market research and walk in there and say, hey guys, we're doing this all wrong. Like we should be trying to build this brand and make this brand stand for something. And if we announce we're going to make 5,000 Elton John Platinums, we've just destroyed what this brand will stand for. And they should say this, Jersey Jack pinballs are not for everybody. And the moment you tell these rich people that we're not making this for everybody. We don't want everybody in the world to have access to our brand and our product. That's when you are creating a brand with value. That's how you communicate your brand is valuable. It's not for everybody. All right. Not everybody gets the uni. Not everybody gets the gold Daytona. Not everybody gets to order the new Lamborghini. That's how it works. And nobody's got the guts to even try that. Yet they're charging us a luxury price and they're not behaving like a luxury brand. And that is why these companies don't get marketing. They haven't been trained in marketing. They haven't had real jobs in the real world doing marketing. They haven't. And so it's a whole new ball game now. And with 14 pinball companies out there, they all have to start thinking about marketing now because it's gonna matter. You're gonna have to figure this out. You know, when they launched this fun house today, I saw this note, like when they sent it to dealers, like we did a lot of market research. No, you didn't. You didn't do a lot of market research. How did you do any market research to land on people want more fun houses? You just didn't. You're making this stuff up. Everybody, happy Friday. I'll see you in the Twitch stream of John Wick. It's going to be fun. Kaneda out. Thank you so much for the support. And for all you new club members, welcome to the Kaneda Club. This is where the fun is at. and make sure you join the barrels of chat on the Patreon page and on the app. If you have the app on your phone, there's a lot of fun conversation happening there. Everybody be good. We'll talk to you soon. I'm the only one in the building of our just a game. Tell it to my heart. I can feel my body.