Episode 1010: "Huge Metallica Remastered NEWS!"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·24m 44s·analyzed·Oct 12, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Metallica Remastered confirmed as all-new John Borg design with Premium/LE tiers and LCD screen.

Summary

Kaneda discusses Pinball Expo 2024 logistics and reveals exclusive news about Metallica Remastered: it will be shown at the show (likely factory tour only), come in Premium and Limited Edition versions with a new artist (not Dirty Donnie), feature an LCD instead of DMD, and most significantly, will be an entirely new game design by John Borg rather than a remake—a major announcement given Stern's stated policy against releasing new Limited Editions of previously LE'd games.

Key Claims

Metallica Remastered will be shown at Pinball Expo 2024, likely during Stern Factory Tour rather than on show floor
high confidence · Kaneda, direct statement: 'It will be shown at Pinball Expo. Will it be on the show floor? I don't know. I think it might be shown during the Stern Factory tour.'
Metallica Remastered will come in Premium Edition and $13,000 Limited Edition versions
high confidence · Kaneda, exclusive claim: 'Metallica will be coming out with two different versions... There's going to be a Premium Edition of Metallica. And now I'm here to tell you people, there's going to be a Limited Edition of the game.'
The new Metallica is an entirely new game design by John Borg, not a remake of the original
medium confidence · Kaneda, deductive reasoning: 'I think John Borg might have gone and redid the game. I think it could be an all-new Metallica game... Metallica Remastered. We're taking elements you loved in that game, but we're designing an all-new game.'
Metallica Remastered will feature an LCD screen, not a DMD
high confidence · Kaneda: 'We also know there going to be a new artist on the game... We know it will have an LCD. It not going to have a DMD.'
The new artist on Metallica Remastered is not Dirty Donnie
high confidence · Kaneda: 'We know it is going to come out in a Premium Edition form... We also know there going to be a new artist on the game. It is not Dirty Donnie.'
Stern previously stated they will never release a new Limited Edition if an old Limited Edition of the same game already exists
high confidence · Kaneda: 'Stern said that they will never, ever, ever make a limited edition game if they've already made a limited edition version of that game.'
Pinside has become increasingly negative and poorly moderated, with chronic 'hyper posters' dominating threads
medium confidence · Kaneda opinion: 'There's absolutely no moderation. It's like every time there's a hype thread, the trolls pull up in a double-decker bus and they just park it there for like months.'

Notable Quotes

“Nobody else does this. You never hear any, like, breaking news on any pinball podcast like Kaneda's Pinball Podcast because, you know, people just love to whisper in my ear.”
Kaneda @ ~2:30 — Self-promotion of exclusive industry sourcing and insider relationships that differentiate the podcast.
“It's like every time there's a hype thread, the trolls pull up in a double-decker bus and they just park it there for like months and just slam everyone who's excited about the game.”
Kaneda @ ~7:00 — Criticism of Pinside moderation and toxic community behavior pattern.
“Stern can sell 6,000 games because they can make those games in six months. All right. Jersey Jack Pinball should never even say in a million years they're going to make 5,000 units of anything.”
Kaneda @ ~14:30 — Analysis of manufacturer capacity differences and strategic positioning advice for JJP.
“It is actually the worst environment imaginable to experience a new pinball machine. It is so loud and deafening, you can't really hear the game.”
Kaneda @ ~22:00 — Practical critique of show floor conditions and commentary on Jersey Jack's advantage with headphone jacks.
“There should be, when you look at the list of things that are happening at this show... There are more people that will ever follow what's happening at Pinball Expo on the internet. There are more people not going to the show than are going to the show.”
Kaneda @ ~24:30 — Critique of show organization and argument for media access to unreleased games.
“Metallica Remastered is next... for the first time ever, as a world exclusive from Kaneda's Pinball Podcast's Pinball Podcast... Metallica will be coming out with two different versions.”
Kaneda @ ~31:00 — Key exclusive announcement framed as differentiator for paid Patreon content.
“If it's an all-new game, is it going to still have the Lyman Sheets code, which is one of the greatest codes in the history of pinball? And the answer is maybe, right?”

Entities

KanedapersonGreg ColtonpersonAlex Levyperson John Borgperson Jack Dangerperson George Gomezperson Dirty Donnieperson

Signals

?
business_signal: Chicago Gaming Company facing severe production/fulfillment crisis: Pulp Fiction Limited Edition delayed 2+ years despite confirmed orders; represents major loss of customer confidence and market credibility.
high · Kaneda: 'If you're going to go into Chicago Gaming Company on Tuesday, how do you ask any other question than, where the hell are the Pulp Fiction Limited Edition? It's crazy to me that they're even going to let people inside that factory when they have spent over two years and not delivered.'
?
business_signal: Stern's stated policy against releasing new Limited Editions for previously LE'd games creates business constraint but also marketing opportunity; Metallica Remastered LE release suggests strong confidence in distinct new design.
high · Kaneda: 'Stern said that they will never, ever, ever make a limited edition game if they've already made a limited edition version of that game... I don't think George Gomez is going to be caught in a bold-faced lie.'
?
community_signal: Kaneda's Patreon community (Canada Club, Raise the Roof Club, Omokase Club, Blackwater tier) positioned as superior alternative to Pinside for pinball discussion; active moderation and niche subscriber culture emphasize quality over toxic accessibility.
medium · Kaneda pitch: 'unlike Pinside, it is the best place to talk about everything going on in pinball... No moderation [at Pinside]... we debate everything... so much fun being on there.'
?
community_signal: Pinside forum moderation crisis creating toxic environment where chronic high-post-count users dominate game announcement threads with negativity; lack of pagination or thread management enables repetitive negative behavior over months.
high · Kaneda: 'absolutely no moderation... every time there's a hype thread, the trolls pull up in a double-decker bus and park it there for like months... after a certain number of posts, you go to a new page... if I said something on page 43, I'm going to say it again on page 44, 45.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.074

0:00

All right, Canada, what are you doing all these shows for? shaming people on Facebook that they spend more on a cup of coffee than Canada's Pinball Podcast costs for an entire month. And you know you're getting your money's worth. And some of you are even in the Omokase Club. $30 a month. We would love to go out and have Omokase with you if you are ever near Canada. All right. On this episode, let's talk about Metallica before we get to it. And I've got some exclusive information on Metallica. It's why you're here. Like, nobody else does this. You never hear any, like, breaking news on any pinball podcast like Kaneda because, you know, people just love to whisper in my ear. Before we get there, I want to talk about Chicago Expo, what's going to be going on at the show. It's right upon us. And I think a lot of people are really looking forward to this show. I'm so bummed out. I cannot be there. If you've never been to a pinball show, it's always a lot of fun because of the people. If you've never been to like TPF or Expo, you're never going to really experience the beauty of the community until you meet people in real life. And I'm just going to say this right now. I've been to every major pinball show and the most prolific people that host on Pinside, Iceman, Rare Hero, Crazy Levy. Well, Levy goes to some shows, but for the most part, the loudmouths on Pinside are usually never anywhere to be found at the shows in which people are all getting along. You know, I reached out to Greg yesterday, Rare Hero, because he's in the Alice thread every single day, like chiming in with how much he hates the game, hates Dutch Pinball. And I asked him, I'm like, man, like what's the end game for this with a guy like you? Like you have to really pop in every single day. And then he gets like a little bit upset that I'm policing his behavior on a forum. And it dawned on me why Pinside has become so bad lately. And over the last few years, there's absolutely no moderation. There's no moderation. It's like every time there's a hype thread, the trolls pull up in a double decker bus and they just park it there for like months and just slam everyone who's excited about the game. And here's the thing. I get it if you don't like something about a game or a company and you want to have your opinion heard. The problem with the way Pinside is set up, and I know this, all these hyper posters, they're closet narcissistic people that just want to be heard. They want the attention, right? That's the whole point. They want to see how many thumbs ups they can get. And yeah, I know this all too well because I'm not a closet narcissistic pinball poster. I was that on a surface level because that's what it's all about. I want to take this thread and I want to make it about me and my opinions and my feelings need to be heard over everybody else's. And the way Robin has structured the site in which like after a certain number of posts, you go to a new page. And that is why these people like live there forever. Because if I said something that I believe to be true on page 43, I've got to say it again on page 44, 45, and no one's going to moderate me and I can be redundant over and over again. I wish these people would just start a podcast or a Facebook page because when I make a statement about a game, whether I like it or not, or I want to make an observation, I can put it up on Patreon and my feelings and my sentiments, they live a lot longer than they would on a pin side page. If I put up something on my cover image on Facebook, 3000 people or more will see how I feel about something. And I don't have to keep writing it over and over again in a pin side thread. And I think that's what makes that site so unbearable at times, you know, but they're not going to change. They're not going to change. If you think about the behavior by these hyper posters. And I'm talking about the people with like 20, 30,000 posts on Pinside. They could have penned a novel with that many posts. Most of them work from home. They're on their computer all day long. Some of them are retired. Some of them have remote jobs and they literally are just on Pinside all day long. All right. So before we get to this Metallica news, let's talk about Pinball Expo 2024. Now this show, and I've been to it before, it's in maybe the worst area of Chicago. It's in Schaumburg, Illinois. And if you've ever been there before, you're not going to Chicago, right? The word Chicago should be nowhere near this show and its location. I think it's like 30 to 40 minutes outside of downtown Chicago. There's nothing really around it. When I went there last time, I would have loved to have brought the Canada Club to Omokase. There's no Omokase anywhere near Schaumburg, Illinois. And also, if you've been to a show before, and I just mean this, like if you've been to a show, you have to understand one thing. You're going to see the entire show in just a couple hours. And I mean that like not even like in one hour, you could easily laugh and walk the show and you'll see everything. You'll see the vendors and there's a lot of vendors this year. I mean, there's a ton. You'll see all the games and you're going to be doing laps around the show consistently to the point where your feet are hurting and to the point where you like do I go up to the room now and just take a break And for the newbies here the mistake the newbies make They go to the show on day one all the way through to the end. And I'm just going to say this, if you're going Tuesday through Sunday, you're going to be so over it by like end of day Thursday. I mean it. It's just too much. I highly recommend whenever you're booking a show, the most amount of time you ever need at any pinball show is two days max, like two full days at the show. You could probably get away with just one full day. Now, I know there's different highlights and seminars and factory tours, but trust me, you will get burnt out. The fun part is seeing all your pinball friends and seeing your homies and going out to meals. And all these grown men are acting like they are in college again. And the wives are nowhere to be found. And you're in this like convention center. And that's the thing I like about Expo kind of because it's so contained. Nobody's really going anywhere. Like you'll go to the factory tours. But for the most part, everyone's there most of the time. And that's what I like about Expo. It's not nearly as big as TPF. So if you've been to TPF, do not expect that size of a show. All right, so here are the highlights of what's going to be happening at Pinball Expo this year. On Tuesday, Chicago Gaming Factory Tour. OMG. Like, if you're going to go into Chicago Gaming Company on Tuesday, how do you ask any other question than, where the hell are the Pulp Fiction LEs? It's crazy to me that they're even going to let people inside that factory when they have spent over two years and not delivered those damn LEs. And then there is a Galloping Ghosts Arcade visit. I don't know how that's a highlight. Like, Galloping Ghosts Arcade is amazing, but it's always open to the public. On Wednesday, we've got October 16th, Logan Arcade. Okay, another just arcade open to the public. Not sure why that's a highlight. There is the company I will not speak about, Factory Tour. I just, I won't even speak about this company. And then there is Interium Bumper Blast, whatever that is, some tournament there. And then on Thursday, right, Thursday's really where the show starts. I mean this. If you go Tuesday and Wednesday, you really are sort of like, just why did I come here so early? You can see it. Like when you go to the show on Friday, you can see which people arrived on Tuesday and which people just arrived. Like when people come in Thursday, you're coming in fresh. You're coming in hot. You're coming in on the right day. I would even argue Friday, Saturday is the best. But when you look at people on a Thursday who came in on a Tuesday, they're already wiped out. So Thursday, you've got the Jersey Jack Pinball Factory Tour. I think you guys will enjoy that. And then the seminars begin on Friday. you've got the Stern Pinball Factory Tour. And I'm just going to say this right now. For those of you going back and forth between JJP and Stern, I think there is going to be no greater way for you to really understand how it is still David versus Goliath. I mean, it's no comparison. The moment you step foot into the lobby of each company, you will understand and you will just be blown away by Stern Pinball's facility. It's factory. It is so legit on every single level. Not to take anything away, but Jersey Jack's place is more of just a factory. There's no real lobby. You walk in, there's a few games on the left, and then there's just a cubicle farm, and then it's the factory. It really is all factory. Like there's absolutely no showroom. There's nothing else. When you go to Stern, Jersey Jack's entire facility could fit inside the lobby of Stern Pinball. That's how big Stern Pinball is. And I think, you know, when you see them both, you're going to realize why nobody should even try to go at Stern when it comes to volume and mass producing games. And Jersey Jack should become the company that it needs to be, which is limited high end games. I still think Jersey Jack should never even say in a million years they're going to make 5,000 units of anything. They need to stop that. They need to say we're going to make 500 CEs and maybe 2,000 LEs and that's it. 2,500 games max on any theme we make and move on to the next. They still will not embrace that. You don't want to sell 6,000 games if you're Jersey Jack of one title because then you'll be making it for three years and it messes everything up. Stern can sell 6,000 games because they can make those games in six months. All right. So then we go. There's more seminars. Here's the thing is like I don't even think the event hall is open until Thursday. So if you're in early, I don't even think there's much for you to do. The event hall opens at noon on Thursday and then it goes all the way to midnight. I think they changed that which is good because it used to open like later or something on these days and people complain. On Friday, you've got the Stern Factory Tour. You've got the event hall opens on 10 a.m. to midnight. And then Saturday, by Saturday, man, everybody is just wiped. But everyone's going to be there. Like, it's going to be a really banger of a show. You're going to have, like, all these people from Stern, JJP. I heard ABBA's going to be there, the Pinball Brothers. I think every single game that you can buy new in box will be represented at the show. Of course, Alice will be there, Avatar, X-Men, ABBA. Man, even as I say these themes and these titles, where are the great themes? Where are the great themes? And I also want to just for people who have not been to shows just reiterate we going to get a lot of feedback from people playing all these new games The one problem with playing a game at a show for the first time do you know what it is? It is actually the worst environment imaginable to experience a new pinball machine. It is so loud and deafening, you can't really hear the game. That'll go to the benefit of Avatar because you can't hear the clips anyway because they're muted. And now it's kind of sucks because if they added voices into those clips, you're not going to be able to hear them. But everybody going to the show, bring headphones that can be plugged in with a wire because you can plug into Jersey Jack games at a show. I can't underscore enough that that is a game changer. if you want to hear and experience Avatar for the first time. You cannot do that with X-Men. You cannot do that with Alice. You cannot do that with mostly any other game on the market. It is a huge benefit that Jersey Jack allows you to experience their games in the best way in person. So just realize that as you're going to be playing these games, there's going to be people behind you anxious to get on. That takes away from some of the enjoyment. There's going to be wankos who start a four-player game by themselves. Yep, that happens at a show. You know, and there's just going to be a lot of noise and your feet are going to hurt. But what you will get a sense, you will get a sense of gameplay. How does the game move? How does the game feel? You know, there's always that excuse that at shows there's so much power happening at the show. Like all those games are on. And so the show's power might drain the flipper power of the game. We hear that a lot, right? when games have weak flippers at shows. It's the excuse that the power and the wattage can't handle all these games. But I do think it's going to be really good to finally get time on most of these games because I think with most of these games, all we've had from everybody on pin side is a bunch of opinions and nobody's played them. Now, if I were these pinball manufacturers and I don't think anybody really does this, there should be, when you look at the list of things, that are happening at this show. You know the one thing that's not happening at Pinball Expo? And it's the biggest problem I have with all of these shows. Think about it like this. There are more people that will ever follow what's happening at Expo on the internet. There are more people not going to the show than are going to the show. And here's what the show does not provide. For all of the pinball content creators and pinball media that have thousands of people that follow them, there is no moment where the media get to get in early and are allowed to play these games for like an hour or so. They're not allowed to play these games uninterrupted while they speak to the company and their representatives. They don't get to have an experience that's any different than the mass public. If you remember a few years ago, I snuck into Expo before it was open to the public. I paid for my ticket. The reason I snuck in early and was hanging out with all the manufacturers and the vendors and that pissed off the show organizers is I wanted to capture footage before all the people came in and I wanted to play the games and get an opinion about them in the right way so I could hear them and I could feel them and I could sense them. And it was so much more rewarding. And I think that is a big thing that's missing. You just don't give any of the media an opportunity to see these games properly. Now, if I was a pinball manufacturer and I knew that all these pinball media and influencers and people were converging on Expo, I would open up early and I would talk to the organizers of the show. If the show opens at noon on a Thursday, well, invite all the media in there at 11. If the show opens at 10 a.m. on Friday, Saturday, then have media come in early on so they can experience the game in the right way. All right. So that's that. All right. Chris, what the heck show is this? You're making me listen to like 20 minutes of you ramble on about how Greg Colton won't shut up in the Alice thread, about how Pinball Expo is way too many days in a row and they don't cater to the media. We want to hear about Metallica. I know how to do content, gang. You leave the best for the end. It's why the weather is always at the end of a news show because most people tune in for the weather. All right. So here's the deal. Hot off the press, nobody knows this. I haven't heard this anywhere else. So what we do know is this. Metallica Remastered is next. It will be shown at Pinball Expo. Will it be on the show floor? I don't know. I think it might be shown during the Stern Factory tour. I am not sure it's going to be on the floor at Expo. And for obvious reasons, they still want to sell as many X-Men as they can. So showing it at the factory tour is a lot smarter, I think, than bringing it also to the show. I think they're going to want to let Jack Danger and his amazing game have the center stage. If they wheel out a new Metallica on top of that, I think it takes a lot of thunder away from Jack Danger. And no pun intended, but if this is an anniversary edition for Ride the Lightning, are they going to steal Jack Danger's thunder? It is definitely happening. It is definitely being shown now, you know this because I've told you this for months now something else We know is that it is going to come out in a premium form

18:23

it not going to be more expensive than the current premium trim We also know there going to be a new artist on the game It is not dirty Donnie We know it will have an LCD It not going to have a DMD But here what you don know And here's why you subscribe every month. And now, knowing what you're about to know, it's worth a discussion about what is this game really going to be. So I'm here to tell you for the first time ever, as a world exclusive from Canada's Pinball Podcast, take this to Pinside and make sure you spell the name right. That Metallica will be coming out with two different versions. It is going to come out as a studio game. And what they mean by that as a studio game, it just means that there's no pro version of the game. So it's going to be a studio game like Elvira. There's no Elvira Pro, right? They didn't yank anything out of a pro version. There's going to be a premium of Metallica. And now I'm here to tell you people, there's going to be an LE of the game. Yes, there will be a $13,000 LE limited edition version of the new John Borg's Metallica Remastered. Now, that changes everything, in my honest opinion. Because Stern Pinball said that they will never, ever, ever make a limited edition game if they've already made a limited edition version of that game. It's why Godzilla 70th, which was supposed to be an LE, ended up becoming a Godzilla Premium because they didn't want to screw over the LE buyers. Now, the original John Borg Metallica has an LE version of the game. I feel like there were two LE versions of the game back then. So if Stern is on the record for saying they're never ever doing that again, releasing a new LE when existing LEs exist, what does that mean? It either means they're lying about that statement, and this is going to be a remake of the classic Metallica game with new artwork. Or it means that this is a fully new Metallica game. I mean, it's not a remake of the John Borg game that John Borg went and made an entirely new Metallica game. Now, I think the latter is going to be what we see this week. I don't think it's going to be a one-to-one remake at all. I think Borg might have gone and redid the game. I think it could be an all-new Metallica game. And that sort of makes more sense. You've got 6,000 people that already own the old Metallica. Does the world need more of that layout and of that game? There's so many out there. So this changes everything. If it's an all-new game, is it going to still have the Lyman Sheets code, which is one of the greatest codes in the history of pinball? And the answer is maybe, right? Maybe, because think about it. Like they might have been able to take that code, take those moments and connect it to the new game. And I'm thinking what Borg might have done is this. I think he might have taken the original game and just made changes. Like maybe he added some toys or mechs to the game. Maybe he changed the way the ramps work. Maybe Sparky's in there. Maybe he's in a different location. You know what I'm saying? I think he might have done an all-new layout, and it might be heavily inspired by the original game, but I think he's taking it up a level. He's taking it up a notch. It's like Metallica 2.0, Metallica Remastered. We're taking elements you loved in that game, but we're designing an all-new game. And look, because there's going to be an LE, Stern would be flat-out lying to us when they said they're never doing more LEs on top of old designs. if they did it on Metallica. And I don't think George Gomez is going to be caught in a bold-faced lie, so I'm here to tell you right now, Metallica at Expo, a premium and a $13,000 LE. This means there is most likely going to be an all-originally-new-designed Metallica game that everybody sees at Expo next week. This is why you subscribe to Canada's Pinball Podcast. This is why you love this show. And I just want to say for the record, It's also why you should join the Patreon chat, because unlike Pinside, it is the best place to talk about everything going on in pinball. I mean it. It is so much fun being on there. We debate everything. We talk about shoes. We talk about art. We talk about beer. We talk about pinball. No, it's mostly about pinball until Kaneda starts sharing his shoe collection. But everybody, look, have a happy Saturday. I'll be back in just a couple hours with the Saturday Morning Spectacular. are. I give you way too much for the money. I think everyone who's at $5 a month right now, you know who you are. You know who you are. You're at $5 a month for all of this content that keeps coming. I came at you guys, even when I was on oxycodone and I was recovering from surgery that was painful. And you know, you know, you want to just go from five to 10. I'm not going to force you, but it would be really nice on the next few shows for me to give shout outs to the raise the roof club. Yes, I will give each and every one of you who raises their subscription from five to anything, five to 10, five to 30, 30 to 100. If you do it, I'm going to start doing the raise the roof shout outs and give each of you a personal shout out on the show. Thank you so much. I love you guys. Have fun at Expo.