Saturday Morning Spectacular

Kaneda Pinball Podcasts YouTube Lives·video·1h 22m·analyzed·Nov 24, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Kaneda celebrates Evil Dead's release and analyzes winners/losers in pinball manufacturing.

Summary

Kaneda hosts a Saturday Morning Spectacular discussing a strong week for pinball highlighted by Spooky Pinball's Evil Dead release. He analyzes which manufacturers are winning or losing, praising Spooky's passion-driven design and Christopher Franchi's art direction while criticizing Stern's consultancy-driven decision-making (particularly passing on Back to the Future for John Wick), Jersey Jack's Avatar underperformance, and Chicago Gaming Company's lack of transparency and slow product cycles. He positions Evil Dead as a refreshing contrast to expensive, feature-light recent AAA titles from larger manufacturers.

Key Claims

Evil Dead is a widebody machine priced at $10,000, which is $5,000 less than Avatar CE
high confidence · Kaneda directly states the pricing and widebody configuration during the broadcast
Stern passed on Back to the Future licensing due to focus group testing via external consultancy, choosing John Wick instead
medium confidence · Kaneda claims this as 'the truth' but is speculating on Stern's internal decision-making process; no corroboration from Stern
Owners of recent Stern LEs (Foo Fighters, James Bond, Venom, John Wick) have lost $3,000-$4,000 per machine in secondary market value
medium confidence · Kaneda cites this as factual data but does not provide source documentation; claims total losses of $16,000+ for four machines
Avatar has no interactive toys and nothing that interacts with the ball
medium confidence · Kaneda's opinion based on gameplay observation; consistent with other community criticism but not formally verified
Guns N' Roses has 35-37 patches, which makes the game difficult to play and memorize
high confidence · Kaneda directly references playing the game and criticizes the patch system
Spooky Pinball has never released a 'take my money now' triple-A nostalgic theme title that resonates with home buyers
medium confidence · Kaneda's opinion on Spooky's historical theme portfolio; calls Rick and Morty 'the closest'
Christopher Franchi's art direction on Evil Dead represents his best work, ranking Evil Dead > Monsters > Batman in his personal ranking
medium confidence · Kaneda's subjective art criticism; he credits Franchi for improving Evil Dead's visual package
Keith Johnson (Jersey Jack game designer/programmer) throws code at games without listening to feedback
low confidence · Kaneda makes a critical opinion statement without specific evidence; characterized as personal assertion

Notable Quotes

“it's never a bad time to release a great game and it's never a good time to release a bad game”
Kaneda @ early segment — Core philosophy for evaluating manufacturer success; positions Evil Dead as example of great game timing
“I was in a rut I was kind of feeling like man these new in-box games are all stupid like everyone's losing money”
Kaneda @ mid-broadcast — Personal sentiment shift; reveals community fatigue with recent AAA releases before Evil Dead announcement
“you can't even understand what's on the inserts and you play the game for a few hours and you're like I don't I'm good”
Kaneda @ Avatar criticism segment — Characterizes Avatar's NA'vi language callouts and muted audio as alienating to players
“the only one who still refuses to get along with Kaneda is Don's Pinball Podcast... Don brother like at some point right just bury the hatchet bro”
Kaneda @ mid-show — Acknowledges ongoing conflict with Don; signals desire for community reconciliation but notes Don remains unresponsive
“Jersey Jack is not going to be able to sell that game for the next four months like it's just like it's over it's absolutely over”
Kaneda @ Avatar commercial assessment — Prediction of Avatar's commercial failure in secondary market; claims sales momentum is dead
“I think they've absolutely abandoned the home buyer the home collector which actually makes more of their sales”
Kaneda @ Stern analysis — Criticizes Stern's strategic focus on location/tournament buyers over home collectors who generate more revenue
“Stern brought in a consultancy and they did focus groups on what games they should make... when they put Back to the Future in front of them it didn't hit”
Kaneda @ Back to the Future discussion — Claims Stern used external consultancy for game selection; implies focus groups led to rejection of BTTF

Entities

KanedapersonSpooky PinballcompanyEvil Deadgame Christopher FranchipersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

?
business_signal: Chicago Gaming Company losing market momentum through lack of transparency, slow product cycles, and failure to engage community; positioned as 'annoying' and no longer competitive
medium · Kaneda: 'they're losing... they've lost all momentum... just don't they've just made everybody sort of annoyed... made no moves whatsoever to improve'
?
business_signal: Stern's reliance on Elwin (40% of sales) creates mono-dependency risk; Kaneda expresses worry about sustainability of 'win streak'
medium · Kaneda states: 'Stern has become a little bit of a one-trick pony with Elwin... 40% of their sales... I'm a little worried that Stern Pinball's win streak is over'
?
community_signal: Kaneda publicly calls for reconciliation with Don/Don's Pinball Podcast; notes mutual blocking but expresses desire to 'bury the hatchet' for community health
high · Kaneda: 'Don brother like at some point right just bury the hatchet bro... I don't talk about you I'm not saying negative stuff about you man'
?
community_signal: Spooky Pinball positioned as winning through transparency, community listening, and iterative improvement between game releases
high · Kaneda: 'they listen to you they are getting better with each game... they understand their strengths and weaknesses... smart moves'
?
design_philosophy: Guns N' Roses patch complexity (35-37 patches) criticized as unmemorizable and gameplay-disruptive; Kaneda argues 12 patches would be optimal
high · Kaneda directly references gameplay experience: 'you can't memorize what each of them do... when you're cradling the ball... it turns off the concert footage... so stupid'

Topics

Spooky Pinball Evil Dead release and market receptionprimaryManufacturer competitive positioning (winners vs losers)primarySecondary market value depreciation of recent Stern LEsprimaryChristopher Franchi's art direction and designer impactprimaryJersey Jack Avatar game underperformance and design critiqueprimaryStern Pinball's Back to the Future licensing decision and consultancy influencesecondaryChicago Gaming Company transparency and product cycle issuessecondaryCommunity conflict between Kaneda and Don's Pinball Podcastsecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.62)— Kaneda expresses genuine enthusiasm for Spooky Pinball's Evil Dead and market corrections (positive), but tempers this with sustained criticism of Stern's strategic decisions, Jersey Jack's Avatar failure, and Chicago Gaming's stagnation (negative). Tone is celebratory about good news in pinball but frustrated with larger manufacturers' poor execution and market consolidation dynamics.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

all right we're live let's do this share patreon hey everybody I'm gonna put the mic on a second got a special guest today go live okay next let's do I don't know why always says the future all right second very special guest here bud a Bren is still in Ireland so we've got a little little special guest here cassan come on buddy yeah want to watch daddy do his show see how CH show everybody how chill you are compared to your brother who's a maniac let's get you your sushi roll come on let's get you in the frame a little bit more buddy here you go Sushi yeah okay okay all right all right daddy's gonna have to I don't I don't want to block you buddy with the mic taddy's gonna go right here all right hey everybody good morning welcome to the Saturday morning spectacular I'm your host Canada people are going to join slowly let's just let's record this one too still got my cough but you know I'm dedicated to the cause we're GNA talk about what a great week in pinball what a great moment for spooky uh yesterday uh what Good Vibes the pinball world has seen this week I think it's restored a lot of our uh enthusiasm and joy for pinball um welcome everybody to uh the Saturday morning spectacular our little special guest here the the future of pinball podcasting the chillest baby on the planet Mr cassan win koris um I love his middle name after a friend of ours um so we're gonna get to it in a second let me just get my glass of water hold on one bu you tracking data yeah data what what you have no idea you have no idea yet how cool your daddy is yeah Daddy's pretty cool mama is even cooler all right you ready for the show ready for the show little man tracking me all right let's um let's open up audacity record this for the patreon subscribe this is um this is open to the public everybody so go tell your friends to come hang out it's fun to do it on YouTube I think we're we hit a good Groove here quality is better it's easier for me to read the chat and um we're gonna have a fun show today because I again I contrary to the haters out there I actually do enjoy when uh when we have good news in pinball and we have games that are exciting and games that are exciting people and I think that's an awesome thing so welcome everybody to the Saturday morning spectacular November 23rd who would have thought you know on this date this is the date that Chinese Democracy came out like nine years ago uh crazy it was 2018 or eight years ago whatever it is like I remember it because I launched the Dr Pepper program and I remember them fumbling the free Dr Pepper giveaway and then the front page of the New York Times uh on Thanksgiving was uh that axar Rose's lawyers were threatening Dr Pepper but you're not here to talk about that we're here to talk about what I believe is one of the most uh fun weeks we've seen in a long time we've seen spooky pinball release Evil Dead and I'm not sure if it's sold out yet it's going to sell out for sure it seems to be a game that has rejuvenated a lot of people's in enthusiasm not just in pinball in new inbox purchases in supporting a company that is building passionate products from the heart and I don't think I've ever seen a a clearer example of that than this game than watching the video up here that Greg and Zach put together this amazing featurette on the game and you know there's a reason why you don't see a video like this really you know like remember the avatar one that cost $100,000 to make right so all of that polish did not equal a game that had heart and soul this video did not cost $100,000 but I can guarantee you the game will have a lot more passion and soul uh and you don't need a polished video to prove that I he dropped his little my little man here dropped his little Sushi hold on a second there all right so we're going to talk all about it yeah it was 16 years ago gosh Brian thank you man I forget how long ago 2008 was I can't do the math it's nuts that there's on there hasn't been a new guns and& Rose's album since then um so look let's talk about everything going on in pinball because I think what we got this week is a shot right an adrenaline shot to all of us in the world of pinball and it's the right thing at the right time the right company with the right message and I think everybody is really really happy and I think that's a really good thing and I think if we think about you know where we go now in pinball this is just what we want more of we want themes that the designers are passionate about we want a team that works on a game that really loves what they're working working on and puts everything in it and isn't just answering an assignment we want toys that interact with the ball toys that interact with the ball there's not a single toy in Avatar there's barely anything in John Wick you know I think we're just over the gaslighting from some of these companies that we should just accept what they give us because yeah you know I don't know like think about the amount of things interact with the ball in games like Wizard of Oz in games like dialed in in games like The Hobbit in games like Pirates of the Caribbean right then think about what interacts with the ball right a real interactive thing in The Godfather in Toy Story in uh Elton John right and especially in Avatar and so I think everyone is at the point now where they're just over these empty games that are super expensive I mean it is crazy to me for $110,000 this game is $5,000 less than Avatar CE how much is in the game and it's a widebody I didn't even realize it was a widebody until someone pointed that out to me it doesn't look like a widebody uh but that's exciting and so I hope it shoots fast I I don't know how it shoots you know there's always that fear with the wide bodies that they might be a little floaty but I think this game I think this game is going to be nothing but pleasure and the more I thought about it too I was like look I'm not the biggest Evil Dead fan but I kind of want this game I'll tell you the reason I want it I want this game because I know the call outs are GNA be so funny so hysterical it's going to be like the next Rick and Morty and if you've ever played Rick and Morty gameplay is atrocious it it's atrocious gameplay but the call outs and the humor and the personality in that game are just incredible you know I love my Guns and Roses but you know there's really not call outs in that game that make you laugh I think they could have gone a lot further in G&R especially with the explicit mode on making you laugh and saying crazy stuff um cidd isn't a g all right we're not we're not still talking about Chinese Democracy um it's a phenomenal album gang like if you listen to it now after all these years 16 years later it's like a fine cognac you have to appreciate all the notes in those songs and the fact that Axel actually cobbled together over 17 years those songs they're just I don't know they're kind of special tracks I wish there was more of them in the game to be honest there's a some really like Kick-Ass songs that are not in the game uh in the pinball machine all right so how many of you out there ordered a an evil dead from spooky pinball let me put up a little bit of a poll let me put up a poll here I think I can do a poll start a poll did you order did you order did I say Rick and Morty Evil Dead okay let's start the poll start it it's up um I um yeah I just think it's such a good vibe moment for pinball I think as people look at Thousand Metallica Le topper as people look at American Pinball's inability to launch a new game as people look at Avatar Dead on Arrival as people are trying to fix their X-Men's what a good time for this company to hit with this game and as I've always said this and I say this to cassan I'll say it to Killian I'll say it to each and every one of you it's never a bad time to release a great game and it's never a good time to release a bad game and I think a lot of what we're seeing in pinball these days is proof of that you could release Godzilla any time you could release Evil Dead anytime you could release uh Jaws anytime they're going to do fine they're going to do just fine now we haven't seen this game play yet there are critics that it might be too much of a fan layout it might be too easy you know I I will say when you play some of the like Scooby-Doo it's a very easy game but I think you know I think this game is gonna end up in people's homes for the most part I think it is going to bring joy and entertainment and I think it's going to be the new chapter in spooky starts now I've been saying this I think this company has had a lot of growing pains I think they've learned a lot I think they hear the feedback I think they want to get better I think they have gotten better and I think they care I think bringing Christopher franie into the fold so smart so damn smart like even on just a pure this is maybe one of the most beautiful looking pinball machines I've ever seen when you look at the topper with franie artwork the whole package on this game is gonna stand out in your lineup like nothing else and that's a good thing and it's 10 grand right 10 grand and hey there will never be more of these than a Stern Le there will never be more of these than a jersey Jack CE these are going to be very very sort of uh you know scarce in a way and I the thing about it is and I love that Luke said this it wasn't Luke it was bug so Luke I'm gonna give you credit for something you didn't say I love that bug said this we wna we want to maintain the secondhand value of our games for our customers what a novel idea that your company will do much much better if people feel confident when they buy it they're not going to see it for $4,000 Less in just a few months hello James Bond hello Foo Fighters hello every sternal other than jaws and Metallica have lost four grand four grand so if you bought Foo Fighters James Bond Venom and John Wick right if you bought four Stern Le you lost six $16,000 and maybe more than that $116,000 if you bought four Stern Ellie and they just keep pushing the same strategy the same products the same number of Lees it just doesn't work it just doesn't work and they seemingly just don't want to try anything different they don't want to try anything different um bug hired Francy yeah it was like you know what's you know what saddens me is it's November 23rd and I was thinking about how awesome it would have been if we had the trippies this year how great of a year it would have been for people to come out and vote for all of these like interesting games and it wouldn't have been a run away it would have been great to see X-Men versus Evil Dead versus Jaws it would have been great to vote franie best artist because he would have won well maybe not maybe the Metallica art on the Ellie is pretty damn good right that would have been a fun thing to see and unfortunately with all of the content creators and all of the energy in this hobby uh we just don't have uh an ability now to recognize the best of pinball and I do think we should um we should find a way to get the T back or at least Greg and Zack should do their show and make it more of an open vote that would just be the easiest thing to do if if Colin doesn't want to do the trippies again just open it up for everybody just get rid of the whole you know here's like uh only insiders or content creators can vote um franie you did it you I texted him personally that he crushed it he crushed it uh different art on both sides everyone's going to have the same beautiful game trust me when I tell you this everybody get the butter cabinet it is so nice and you will never regret having the butter cabinet the only thing you will regret is not getting the butter cabinet uh I understand if you're going to shove it into a lineup you might not want the butter cabinet but you're going to still want the butter cabinet it's just nice knowing that it's there you know what I'm saying it's like why wouldn't you why wouldn't just get it with all the bells and whistles uh the topper this $1,300 topper is really uh the talk of the game even it's like it is awesome it is absolutely awesome you've lost all your stuff here you go here you go here you go all right just just I'm just throwing stuff at him uh Brenda's still in Ireland she's on a flight right now I don't even know what time she lands like the communication to Daddy hey has been uh little little bit less than I would have liked I think it's a test if I could keep this little munchkin alive are you gonna keep throwing that on the ground all right well you know he's doing he's chill he's chill I tell you my two boys I named them obviously they're going to be the peaky blinders and they're going to be badasses uh this is Thomas Shelby here Thomas Shelby is the chill just Stone Cold like you're you're never going to read him emotionally he's just gonna be a badass and get it done Killian is is Arthur Shelby the older son emotionally like like his daddy a primadonna he's all over the place he can't just relaxx so I think this is going to be the boss man and he's going to keep his older brother Killian in line um yeah so look lots of love for franie and no franie uh he said thank you back so you know look everyone's getting along everyone's getting along the only one who still refuses to get along with Canada is Don's pinball podcast you know he he refuses he still got me blocked he's got he's not I Haven blocked him he's still blocked Canadas pinball podcast so like when I was chatting with uh in the Facebook stream last night with bug I can't see anything that Don is posting it's just Don brother like at some point right just bury the hatchet bro like I seriously like I I don't have any ill will uh I just don't understand why he still will not do it I think I know why it's it comes down to the whole like if I do this like what that signals to my my followers and it's like dude nobody cares everyone would just rather see people get along than keep feuds going and I again like I I'm I don't talk about you I'm not saying negative stuff about you man um and look I've patched things up with everybody I mean he is the only one that refuses to talk to me it's just crazy um anyway if you know him you should be like look it'd be a good look man it's Thanksgiving it's the holidays we're all parents we're all just we're all just like trying to get by in this crazy world you know the world's so expensive I just got a fraud charge on my credit card for like $3800 like some crazy BS charge I'm like well that's that that's not me um but everything else is so expensive have you do you ever get your credit card bill now and you're like wow wait what how did I spend like $3,000 in the last like four weeks uh you know getting drinks for the Tyson fight my my Manhattans just the alcohol right just the booze like Woodford Reserve some sake some cherry leor amaru like just all the all the booze $575 just for for booze for Booze like to bring into the house if you had ordered those drinks out the bill would have been like $3,000 because every one of those Manhattans would have been $25 in New York City um Evil Dead has the best art package ever ever said like Don when Don drops a comment like that I don't know is it the best art package of all time um you know it's I I think there's no answer to that it's one of the nicest for sure uh has the art wait Evil Dead has the art pack yeah there is no word there he's Le he left out the adjective that's funny evil dead has the art package ever what does he mean is it the worst art package ever is it the best Don what's the adjective where's the adjective brother you didn't you didn't you didn't you didn't tell us we're we're all gonna be waiting oh it is the best he just confirmed it's the best um no it's good it's it's good it's like it's like way better than Guardians of the Galaxy am I GNA just no it's funny you know I mean when I when I if I had a rank franches art packages I I would I would go um let's see I would go Evil Dead I would go monsters then I would go Batman uh I just think those three to me are my favorites uh you know I know Batman he he had to do like a a last minute job on it but man it's still so such a fun looking game especially the SLE but um you look avatar art looks good ninja Eclipse like it's been a good year for art what it hasn't been a good year for are toys and mechanisms it really hasn't been the best year there um I really do think spooky pinball is is in such a beautiful spot and I want to just thank the team over there for I I don't just personally for making me excited about pinball again because I was in a rut I was kind of feeling like man these new and box games are all stupid like everyone's losing money and they are like you know this is not like Canada wakes up and says I'm gonna make up facts right I'm not making up facts that everyone who buys these new andbox stlees are losing three to $4,000 like those are just the that just that the data shows I don't want to see that I don't want to see Avatar when you ask people like what are the mechs in the game and there's nothing and then Jersey Jack flies is out out there and tells us this is the most loaded game they've ever made I mean just you got to just remember what what are you telling me like that's gaslighting me if you're gonna tell me that this is one of the most loaded games you've ever made and I look down at it and there's not a single toy there's nothing that interacts with the ball you haven't engineered a single complex mechanism in the game and then you didn't even get the UV light working and then all the clips are muted and then everything is coming at me in some foreign na'vi language that nobody understands you can't even understand what's on the inserts and you play the game for a few hours and you're like I don't I'm good like I just I don't even feel anything sort of like when you leave the Avatar movies I don't never need to see that again that's how you feel H well you know look it it is what it is and the sales are speaking right it's like Jersey jack is not going to be able to sell that game for the next four months like it's just like it's over it's absolutely over and you know Harry Potter is gonna be uh hopefully gonna turn things around it's not hard Jersey Jack put toys in your games unmute the clips and if you have all the assets stop letting Keith P. Johnson f up your games the to me this is Keith P. Johnson's got this way he wants to throw code at people and won't listen to any feedback okay cool won't buy it won't buy it I gotta be completely candid everybody I love Guns and Roses the worst part of the game is the 35 or 37 patches stupidest thing ever it it makes playing that game so so difficult like it's like when you're even when you're just going through the patches I I'll give you an example of why it's so stupid first of all you can't memorize what each of them do nobody wants to memorize 35 different like bonuses or attributes and then what's annoying is when you're playing Guns and Roses and you're in a song and you're trying to change your patch and you have to cycle through all these patches because because remember like you got to cradle the ball to do that and then because you're cradling the ball and hitting the patch button it then turns off the concert footage and goes to like all the menu screens it's so like it's like dude this game would have been better with just 12 patches just 12 patches like why why does there need to be a a bonus or not a bonus but just like why does there need to be like a a plus up for every single mode every single album every single song every like it's just like what is this anyway they still need to lower the price you Jeremy how much did you buy your godfather Le for how much did you pay because I mean I think those things are going now for like well they were 12 new I think you're you're walking out the door of the Godfather Le at like 7500 right I mean what you know I don't how much are you paying oh yeah we forgot about franches art on Elton John yes absolutely it's great like the Platinum art is by far the best and once again it's like so Jersey Jack you should have put franches art on the CE the fact that they didn't it again it just goes to show me knucklehead move you've got franie on artwork he crushes it make that the better version of the game um $88,000 for a Godfather Le I think you might have overpaid bro dude you can get like CES now for nine you know that right 67 total plays the problem with 67 total plays man it's like I don't know like what is that just as much as you know that doesn't matter like none of this none of that matters you're you know the you you'll get your dimples you'll get your this you're not gonna you know it's just I I don't know like it it's it just doesn't matter also I wouldn't want to buy a game that only was played 67 times you know what that means it means the game's not good it means the game's not good how can you play a game 6 I played Guns and Roses yesterday 67 times in one um no I mean here's the thing it's like it's like when um when the dust settles and and boy is the dust settling this hobby is sort of becoming a lot easier to see who's who's winning and who's losing let's do that right now who's winning in pinball and who's losing in pinball and I'm GNA be pretty candid and you know because to me if I were to Define what winning is in pinball is that you consistent ly are releasing games that are bringing people happiness that you ship your games to customers in a timely fashion that you have a you've built a brand that people really enjoy that that's part of it here you go buddy here you go you know that you're transparent with the community that you talk to the pinball community and and listen to their feedback and when you hear feedback from your customers you incorporate that into future decisionmaking right so let's go down everybody now and let's talk about who's winning and who's losing in pinball okay and and I'm going to give you my reason why and and please in the comments let me know if you you agree now look I'm going to just start off and say Stern is winning they they are winning you know on their terms uh how long their win streak will last is my worry because I think their win streak is over I think Stern has become a little bit of a one-trick pony with elwin you know elwin represents 40% of their sales and so like I'm I'm a little worried that Stern Pinball uh you know they're they're sort of they've made a lot of M mistakes lately about themes I think they've misread the community I think they've focused way too much on Stern Army and location tournament sort of operator you know buyers and I think they've absolutely abandoned the home buyer the home collector which actually makes more of their sales and I think they made a lot of really greedy moves and they burned a lot of longtime customers and they're now feeling the residual effect of some of those moves now but I also still do believe that Stern has some of the best talent in all of pinball they make some of the most Fun Machines of all time I I don't think you'd argue that and I I know they do care I I mean that I've met with George and Seth and Gary and Jack and you know and and I I I've feel the passion over there I think where Stern struggles is you remember like the the volume they need to make and then the amount of games they need to put out a year I think has turned that organization into a little bit of a churn and burn sweat shop versus a company uh that is taking their time to get it right to catch the quality issues at the manufacturing level before they pass those on to Consumers and I also really have to wonder what the heck happened when they passed on Back to the Future right I mean I you really have to have everyone who was in on that decision's head examined how do you pass on back to the future but make John Wick and I know the answer is because Stern much like jaguar are Stern brought in a consultancy this is the truth they brought in a consultancy and they did focus groups on what games they should make to bring in the next generation of pinball Enthusiast this is this is a true story and when they put back to the future in front of them it didn't hit because they those kids aren't in love with it you really think that they put Back to the Future in front of John Borg Keith Elwin Jack danger and Brian Eddy and they were like no let's not do that I think Stern used their consultancy I think they listened to all the wrong people and I think they made a colossal mistake and they passed on what would arguably be probably their biggest selling game of all time and I you know right now I don't know if that deal is going to happen with Dutch okay so Stern is winning Stern is winning spooky pinball is winning I mean for all the obvious reasons spooky pinball as I've said I think they've done everything a boutique company should do I think they are good human beings and I think they care and I think they um they just make you feel good about buying from them they listen to you they are getting better with each game I think they understand their strengths and their weaknesses and I think they've made some really smart moves I think you know bringing franie on board so smart you know and I think they understand that you know he's a very passionate guy like like all of us Italians and he's gonna you know say stuff that might not be PC but in the end who cares you're GNA get a great product and you got a guy that's passionate I mean that's great that's great and he's got damn good talent and I think bug and Luke and and the family over there and and Hilton and Ben heck and there's Mr franie right there uh I think uh I think they're having a good time and I think when you're having a good time and you're selling machines and every game you're GNA make is gonna be spoken for you're winning you know if there's one area of improvement I would like to see from spooky it's a theme that is a take my money now theme I don't think they've had that really I'm going to say this I don't think they've had that ever I really don't not in the pinball buying demographic I I don't think they've ever had a take my money now theme Rick and Morty was obviously the closest but even when Rick and Morty came out it wasn't like nostalgic it wasn't a lot of us you know be honest never really watched Rick and Morty and so we got into it because of the game but they've never sort of dropped a triaa theme team that's got Nostalgia that triple A with us you know I I don't mean like like it's going to be Matrix or Top Gun I mean it's like a nostalgic theme that is tripa a through the lens of the buying demographic and so I think they're G to get there uh I think it's GNA be an exciting two to three years for spooky pinball and I know that they're not going to have like overhead issues and they're probably not going to have like tariff issues and they're probably not going to suffer the pressures I think that you know Stern and other companies will feel all right so let's let's go back and forth some loser who's who's losing right now um I'm I'm not going to go into detail because I can't legally speak about it but I I will I will just give you the initials uh a and the other initial is p so they're losing right now and you know all the reasons why and that's all I'm going to say um if they want to if they want to get into the Winner's column they need to release a new game that's a winner and that's it that's they know they need to do that I think that's a fair assessment uh continuing to try to sell people on Old products that people don't want it's just it's just not a winning formula and it's just not going to it's not going to work out hold on I'm G to get this guy come on okay what do we we okay you know you know what I want to give hold on hold on hold on this look at this one go want to go down the ground look at that okay all right sushi sushi everybody like sushi yeah so AP not winning right now all right let's let's do another company that's not winning right now who is not winning right now no Chicago gaming company you know this is this hard one right it's like seemingly You could argue either way for Chicago gaming company but I think they're they're really in an annoying company they're they're annoying they're just annoying they have no public facing transparency they they used to make some of the best quality games I'm not so sure anymore they don't talk to us they only I they they just don't they just they they take forever to get stuff out there's no excuse um and I'm over it and I think they're losing I think they've lost I think they've lost all momentum I don't think people are enthusiastic about them and I think they just they've just made everybody sort of annoyed I think that's the only word I can come up with I'm I think you're annoying Chicago gaming company and you've made no moves no moves whatsoever to improve any of the things that annoy customers you've made no moves to get products out faster you've made no moves to have a a marketing or social media personality represent your company you continue to do absolutely nothing You released uh like chicag Cactus Canyon code like update but then you didn't release the update like you're still working on it after like three years uh you're still waiting for a plastic topper to be molded we've moved on spooky pinball just crushed that topper with this Evil Dead topper so Chicago gaming company in my book is is losing and I think they've lost all like I just think they've lost all of their sort of fan base I just don't feel like people care about them anymore um all right so those are two losers let's go back to who's winning right now Turner pinball is winning Chris Turner nicest guy in pinball may all of us who have young boys raise them to grow up with the the kindness and the the jovial nature of that man makes me ashamed for some of my past behaviors I mean it his mama raised him right as as we would say in in uh in certain circles so he's nice guy right came from the the worst place imaginable Robert Mueller's Ponzi scheme that's where he came from and what did he do did he try to bring out razza no he sold razza off to Melvin over at DPX he uh he sort of took what he learned and he made a game to teach himself how to make pinball and he offered a hundred of them and they sold out and he's going to make them and there's a lot of really interesting technology in those games and if you look at the platform of ninja eclips sorry if you look at the platform I I think he's engineered a a really much easier way to make pinball machines but but you wouldn't notice it when you play the game right lot he simplified a lot of the manufacturing process and I think some companies are going to take notice of Chris's Innovations and I think he might even become a board manufacturer for uh you know for some of these other companies that want to streamline their manufacturing which is good he's adding positive vibes into the pinball world so Chris Turner you are winning just get get a theme we want next okay all right who else is winning in pinball you know I'm thinking who's out there there's a few that I'm like not sure which way I'm going to go on um Jersey Jack is losing they're not winning and Jersey Jack losing after like 11 years they pain me the most you know because Jersey Jack is just like they're like a you know they've got all the all the resources you know it's like it's like a kid who parents gave him everything this this is Jersey Jack to me this is the analogy the parents who gave you everything they they gave you the best schools the best opportunities the best of everything all you had to do was show up use common sense and put it together and you would have been fine you know you would have succeeded you would have won you would have won and Jersey Jack with everything in their favor managed to destroy what that company stands for postat Lawler like it's crazy to me I thought Lawler leaving that joint would have made them the best I I thought his negativity his gestapo tactics he you know his you know Lord Lawler like his neg like his ego and and his you know his inability to to Mentor and Coach people there I thought they would have got better after Lawler and and it went in the other direction they just started yanking everything out of their games Jack guari has continued to select themes that only appeal to him and they continue to code games in an overly complex way that makes them not attractive to Casual players um they made Pirates owners wait six years six years to complete the code six years and I I know these things in isolation may seem like no big deal but it's not true they are big deals because they signify a larger a larger thing they signify how much you care about the people who own your products I mean look how long it took them to upgrade the code for guns and roses they've got the their bestselling game ever in five to six thousand households and they slept on polishing that code and and they and they let G&R owner even like yester I was playing G&R and I still for the life of me cannot understand why they can't with software update not make the game so stupid multiball heavy it's still I I did all the adjustments it's still there's moments in that game where I just want to take a sledgehammer and just destroy it because I'm like I want to just enjoy the beginning of patience or Civil War and like you know think about a song like Civil War like the game should feed you multiballs based on like the energy and the moments in the song that build up to maybe some of that like insanity but when you start a like slow song where you just want to get into it right Civil War is a great example and you're just flailing with six ball it's just it's so not fun and it's all fixable with code they just don't want to do it the and and I think Jersey Jack has really doubled down on what you see is what you're going to get and I think in their heads I I do I believe I think they think they're making the best most fun pinball machines on the planet and in and in in lie of our feedback which if they listen to our feedback as a community this isn't just Canada as a community they would be so much further along as an organization if they found a way to actually adapt and change some things and improve okay and I'm just curious you know I I think the reason they don't is nothing's at stake nobody's accountable nobody's responsible when you have endless money you can do you can do whatever you want and you know they feel like like that they feel like everyone's an employee getting a paycheck and they don't have to get it right to survive it's okay buddy it's okay you want to come down you want to come down okay hold on this is better for you to chew chew the radish there you go play the radish there you go all right let me let me get his dodo hold on a second I know some of you are probably like Canada needs a Dodo hold on one second dodo time I saw a Dodo in here somewhere okay to put him back down in a little bit stays up for like an hour hour and a half all right so I just want to end you know my jersey Jack feelings with I still believe in them I still believe in them I believe in Eric Minor I believe in Mark seidon I believe in Tom capera I I believe in them Ken Cromwell and Jersey Jack and Jack guari and Brett abbis I I believe I believe they're tired of this they're tired they have to be they have to be looking in the mirror a little bit like how many avatars do we sell today probably not many how many are we GNA sell not many are we gonna no we're not are we goingon to hit our goals no we're not I think they have to be tired of games that are let's be honest they're flops Godfather was a flop Elton John has been a flop Toy Story 4 was like you know like I'm sure they sold a lot but man a disappointment and um Avatar is another flop you know so it's like five years of your lives like you haven't had a hit since Guns and Roses so you know I think I think Harry Potter is going to be a moment in which if they win with Harry Potter and that begins the next chapter then so be it Steve Ritchie wants to work on Top Gun I don't think they're going to get license he's not doing Sonic the Hedgehog uh and there's a really good CH his next game is not a music pin they have the Matrix license the problem is they don't have any asset permission with that game so you know if they make the matrix it's not going to have assets like you need to make it work right all right so who's winning who else is winning in the world of pinball barrels of fun the name that we all made fun of but barrels of fun is winning I um I think everyone who uh who likes the Labyrinth theme has had a you know a great year like you got a labyrinth pinball machine like that wasn't really G to ever be made by anybody else I think barrels is um is a one better theme away from really showing is what they've got I talked to them yesterday and they are targeting spring of 2025 for their new game it is g to be released outside of the window of Harry Potter so I'm thinking Potter is going to be February March and then I think we're gonna see April may be barrels of funds new game I think it might be Goonies I think there's a Goonies movie coming out next year um and look they're um they've got to raise the bar Labyrinth was okay but man it didn't really have the toys in it but they you know they sold almost everyone they were slow getting games out but I still think they're winning um I don't think they're losing and I think they're just going to get better so I I put them up there as a win winner who else am I missing all right so let's go to there's some hard ones now because I get to G I get to companies like um you know P3 multimorphic is it just multimorphic and P3 is the platform um winning or losing you know I think Jerry's winning I'll explain why I think you're winning because you know people who um people who buy your platform seem to be enjoying it I think um Princess Bride is obviously your best game to date and people say good stuff about it uh your manufacturing is slow as can be but you don't rip anybody off and you're pretty transparent on when people can expect their games um I want to put Jerry in the winning column um you know I could easily put him in the other column but I I think he's definitely in in his own way he's achieved what he's wanted to achieve uh stubbornly I would have never done this platform but it I think he's winning um let's go to pinball brothers so we've got Abba we've got alien and we've got what else is that it Queen right those those three games um you know like pinball Brothers to me it's like you know I just I I just I I think they're more ah you know it's hard right it's hard because like they're not like winning or really losing in my book They're not winning over people you know what I mean like are people converted over to the pinball Brothers um because I think because again like alien was still just a remake of Andrew Highway's gam so if I were to look at what pinball Brothers have done after alien I'd have to say they're losing Abba and queen like just not not there right they're just not nearly the same caliber of what we're getting from other companies so I would put pinball Brothers in the losing column uh because I think they've I don't think they've gained like followers and fans and collectors I don't think they've innovated or elevated or brought to the marketplace a a theme that you know people really want you know look at the and and like the ABA art package on the regular one is one of the worst mailed in lazy things I've ever seen it's like if you don't take more pride in your own Creations how do you expect us to feel pride in buying them so I think they've got work to do I heard that pinball Brothers has the licens for predator I don't know if you guys know that I don't know if that's an exclusive I don't know if I should have put that behind the pay wall but I heard that they have the Predator license now that's awesome and I hope they have Arnold because I I thought that he's really hard to get his likeness but if they make predator and do it right then they could be in the winning column but I think they need to get a good designer over there that people know and trust I also think uh if you make Predator don't get lost in the world of UV lights CU UV lights have been the dumbest false promise of pinball in 2024 all right who else is winning and losing let's go to um I mean home pin's losing I'm not even going to go into home pin losing it's it's a waste of airtime I know you don't want to hear it um yeah they're not winning um padr gaming I always forget like padr gaming is like out there there right they they've done the fun house remake uh padr gaming remind remind me what else they've done so far I'm I'm forgetting something I gang you know this better than me I know they did the fun house remake it was that their first game padr I I want to say there was another game they made uh but I will wait to see what you guys say win well the worldwin like the they've done like these kits you know but I I don't consider the kits to be really that like great you know um okay so I I think padr gaming and I mean I want to say I just I actually want to say I think Rick and planetary are losing man I think Rick has made like Rick has taken way too long to get a lot of these games to Market and I I just you know and the 2.0 kits are not where they need to be and I don't know I just think planetary you know they they got burned by Damien and haggus they've been too slow to get the games people want like I think there's going to be some crazy hype when Twilight Zone comes out from Chicago gaming company I mean that's going to be a huge moment but again like you know you play some of these older games and they just you know don't hold up against modern games they just don't hold up like the themes are a lot too shallow all right so Dutch pinball winning or losing and do we separate Dutch pinball from Dutch pinball X this little man by the way is so good right he's like sat here you gotta you gotta remember he's been here an hour now just chilling out with his dodo and his daddy he hasn't cried or lost his cool he's so much easier I couldn't do this show if Killian were here right now Killian would be grabbing at the mic throwing stuff at my head going nuts going nuts let's put the artwork on I love this Frame TV there we go um yes so Dutch winning or losing I wanted say and I want to be honest here with Dutch they they are so close to being in the winning column they're not losing but they're they're at a Crossroads and I think Dutch is probably the hardest one right because they they got themselves out of the big Labowski Quagmire they have the biggest license in all of pinball secure they have you know the ability to make Alice's Adventures in Wonderland they can make a boutique game for a year say what you will about Alice but you know it's going to keep the lights on for them for a year it's all up to Barry and and you know I I know Barry personally I know Melvin personally and so I want to choose my words very carefully here I think Dutch doesn't know how to do this like and and what I mean by that I just don't think they in 11 years have gained the experience of really what it takes to make a game make everybody hole on their order and then make another game and order parts for that second game turn the line over and while you're making that second game you're developing game three and four I don't think they know how to do it I don't think they've ever had to do it and now they have to do it and so when I think about Dutch I don't know really if they have it in them and and what's crazy is you got to remember if it wasn't for Alice Back to the Future was not ready Dutch pinball would have been over there there is no other way around there was no game ready to go there was no game ready to go what Barry would have done if if because big Labowski like orders are done people like the games are now selling for 11,000 on the secondhand Market you know you're you're gonna you're not going to get new 1335 orders and my my worry is they um you didn't have anything ready like if Melvin doesn't design Alice in 12 months what did they have ready to go what they would have done is they would have come back out with their bride of pinbot thing you know and they they still have that they've got the Brian Allen bride of pinbot like and to me that's like these dudes tried to Hawk that thing on us like years ago and here we are still no you know there's there's not like an awesome Back to the Future Whitewood that's behind the door right now and they know that and so to me what winning for this company what I would do is I would partner with Stern make Back to the Future with Keith elwin get your royalty use that money to go get another theme and instantly start development on the game that's going to come out after Alice production is done keep everybody busy with Alice for 2024 and then come out with like Blade Runner you know come out with another like Rambo you know come out with something that you know is available that you can get and and make it so that's I I think there's a there's a pathway to winning for Dutch I think what will be the most difficult thing for Barry to do is to not have an ego or or to be overconfident you know it's it's the hardest thing for all men to do is to actually look in the mirror and say I can't do this because I maybe am not as good as I want people to think I am and it's one of the reasons why I don't start an agency I don't start a PR agency a marketing agency because I can't keep an agency running I'm good at ideas I'm not good at operations but it's more of an operational job to run an agency and so the moment I like you know I could be like yeah I'm good everyone's going to come to me and I'm going to create an agency and I'm going to be responsible for people's jobs and salaries and getting clients and keeping clients happy if I had to do all of that I would fail it's just not what I enjoy doing it's not what I'm great at so that's where I'm at with Dutch and you know for those who are saying Barry make Back to the Future Barry make Back to the Future right I guess the question is how much a big Labowski did Barry make you know did he make all of it then sure Back to the Future should be no problem but maybe Yap was responsible for a lot of Back to the Future sorry for Labowski maybe Yap you know maybe Barry was in a different place maybe he was he had other help you know so you know as much as people say Barry this is your moment um you know there you can't fake it now you know because Back to the Future has such specific things people are going to want to see and if you don't deliver those things you know way more expectations than a game like Labowski and Labowski nailed it man nailed it like the mechs everything um all right so Dutch I think I'm I'm fairly calling them out a Crossroads I also just want to say thank you everybody for joining right now um we are at 101 people and we've been consistently over or around a hundred people which is better numbers than I was ever doing on Facebook so I want to just thank each and every one of you for um for hanging out today for migrating over from Facebook or patreon uh I do want to thank everybody for your support of Canad pinball podcast we had some members of the spooky family some new members sign up um for the podcast this week so thank you spooky family we've got now I think everybody's subscribing to hear what I'm going to say about their new game um hey buddy hold on let me bring him in I yeah I don't really care about Facebook that much anymore come here come here okay okay G give me um I'm gonna I'm gonna go put him down he's been up an hour I'm gonna go put him down and I'm gonna come back so just give me a couple minutes and we're gonna finish talking about all things pinball is is that okay can you guys do that for me I want to make sure the baby's happy because the baby he's tired he's I mean you could say like he's he's been listening to can talk to an hour I mean that will that will wear down any man I'm sure all of you are feeling the same way inside after hearing me talk for an hour hold on all right little munchkin let's get you into your poo I love this age age it's like it's like such a beautiful age I mean by the time he's older Jersey Jack pins will be internet connected did he poo I don't think he poo check where's change I had to change a diaper we had a little number two incident oh look most people are still here I had to change a diaper um he boo his he boot his diaper um okay did I get everybody on the winners and losers should you guys want to look at I think is is franie still here should should we just look at this game should we just go to hold on a second let's let's go to um let's let's look at this together because like this thing is just damn beautiful spooky pinball oh man leave my page pains me to leave my page all right where's where is the game let's go to like oh my God come on really Google Chrome would like to record the computer screen ah you guys gotta be crazyy I don't know what's going on here can share screen it's not letting works come on guys can you uh can you see um let's see if this worked can we see that can you guys see the screen um can you see it now all right wow like wow look at this game I mean look at this thing it it's just it's perfect it's so awesome it's so much fun to look at this game I I just I I don't think franie I I don't think I think you're the balancing is perfect I think the the coloring I love you know it's like yeah know like Metallica premium is too green and boring like this coloring is so nice yeah you just you did it let me go to another photo hold on go what's the um what's the second flipper button for is that for the lower play field I mean look at this thing I you know I just I think this thing is going to pop in a lineup it's for the sling flipper oh cool um I I mean I just love looking at this game it just it puts a smile on my face uh let's go to some on okay when we look at zoom in a little bit I also just love the I love the Playfield art you know and you know I I told this to Melvin the black apron on Alice is you know terrible like you need to like the way this art Blends in with the whole game and it just looks so damn good I want one of these games but you know I'm going to wait someone's going to mod the hand on the left to have the middle finger uh I'm not sure if the game is sold out yet I I asked um I asked bug this morning how many they've sold he said thank you sir okay they're around the 500 Mark in one day which is great look that's where I think day would be you know 500 units in one day of an 888 you know my voice voice just goes like I'm sorry but you know it's um but it also goes to show you gang it's like it's a tough market right now you know there's just so many people have um you know there's so many games out there and and you know and it's hard not to it's hard not to kind of wait and see where things sort of net out but I think 5001 day is a great day for them and it's just G to it's just going to keep getting better you know I I again I think um the word of mouth on this is super positive um all right everybody here is the deal I know I took a pause can we all give Mr franie a round of applause on his art for this game how did we just get 140 people to join where did those 40 people just come from well done Mr franie you and I have had a interesting history brother but man you crushed it you're very talented a round of applause for bug and Luke keep getting better keep making games for themselves but like they crushed it on this a round of applause for Zack and Greg who made another great featurette video that is going to make everybody want the game a round of applause for Canadas pinball podcast the most humble pinball podcaster out there uh who's won six tippies in a row so many that they had to take down the entire award show because of his ego a round of applause for Bill Brandis who makes tens of thousands of dollars a day but does not sign up for Canadas pinball podcast which is $5 a month a round of applause for whoever designed the Metallica Le topper because it makes the spooky topper look like it's worth $5,000 um look everybody it's a it's a it's a great game like we just lost those 40 people like what happened did I just get put on like the front page somewhere what where they all go um everybody look have a great weekend have some drinks spooky crew um and you know congratulations to Ben heck and and everybody over there I really mean it um I think Good Vibes and positive energy is what we need a lot more of in pinball enough with the gaslighting enough with the empty games enough with the ripping people off enough with screwing over your previous Le owner like nope you know spooky pinball said they never gonna make more Rick and mores they never made more Rick and mores even though they know there's millions of dollars there they never gonna do it I'm sure bug and Luke are like what did you do dad what the heck did you do why did you say that like if you just never said that we would still be making Rick and Morty's today um thank you Chris glad to see everybody having this much fun around a launch well you know thank you thank you if it were up to me man we're up to me I'd be making games as like like Blues Brothers from omin that's that's my design Talent on pinball so thank you guys um good week Good Vibes everybody be good sign up for Canadas pinball podcast I'm not selling guns and roses I it took me an eternity to get it up the stairs I still love G&R despite all of its disastrous code decisions I mean that like there's like the guns and& roses is like a beautiful game if you just it's so much better when you take away the fat you know what I'm saying and and the just just let people enjoy the best parts of the game and cut out the fat and the game would be so much better like why did they even need all these like multiballs like why why do you need pyro ant multiball lights like why who who thought that every like we needed four different multi balls that you can start by just hitting a few switches a couple times who why why the game would just be better without any of that just collect the band members get in the song and if you get through the song then you get to the mini wizard modes which are awesome the album modes are awesome I just want to focus on that I don't want all this other stuff happening and then you you go through all of that like pyro amp like all the four multip they they don't give you any freaking points like I I get it like oh they're just meant to help you advance like that's the problem with G&R in my honest opinion is like instead of just enjoying and knowing what you're doing you're just always flailing all day long trying to trying to randomly Advance everything and none of it feels skill-based it just feels like and and it's all fixable they could fix all of this if they just simplify the game more and and Amplified the moments that matter more just take away the frustrating stuff there's too much of it oh I did change the settings I did I I how many times do I have to change the settings can I just turn up all the multiballs all right everybody be good love you Canada out