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The Pinball Show Ep 177 BONUS: Reception & Sales Of Harry Potter Pinball

Pinball Show Patreon Feed·podcast_episode·33m 42s·analyzed·Jun 17, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Harry Potter pinball CE dominates first-week sales, comparing favorably to year-long runs of major titles.

Summary

Jersey Jack Pinball's Harry Potter machine achieved exceptional first-week sales, with Collector's Edition units outselling Wizard and Arcade editions by over 2:1 and 10:1 respectively. The game generated more orders in one week than comparable titles like Jaws achieved in 18 months, positioning it as a mega-hit license stronger than GNR and Godzilla. Reception is largely positive, with minor mixed reactions to callout choices and rule complexity, but overall strong community sentiment suggests sustained catalog success.

Key Claims

  • Collector's Edition outsold Wizard Edition by over 2:1 ratio in first week

    high confidence · Dealer (Flipping Out Pinball) with direct order data from first week of sales

  • CE orders outnumber Wizard + Arcade editions combined by more than 2:1

    high confidence · Same dealer quantifying aggregate order data

  • Arcade Edition sold approximately 10 times fewer units than CE in first week

    high confidence · Dealer stating near-10x ratio: 'almost at ten times, I probably am, ten times the number of CEs'

  • Harry Potter first-week sales exceeded Jaws total sales (18 months) by handful of units

    high confidence · Dealer comparison: 'within a handful of units to selling as many Jaws as we've sold in a year and a half'

  • Harry Potter first-week orders already exceed Evil Dead lifetime sales by 2x

    high confidence · Dealer data: 'sold over two times the amount of Evil Dead that we've sold' one week post-launch

  • Harry Potter sales stronger than GNR lifetime (5,000 LEs + 750 CEs ~6,000 units) is uncertain but plausible

    medium confidence · Dealer speculation: 'This will sell more. Oh, God.' but then expresses doubt: 'I will say no' to exceeding 6,000 total units

  • Godzilla still outsells Harry Potter significantly

    high confidence · Dealer comparison: 'Godzilla still got it by a good amount'

  • Most sales occur in first week/month; Harry Potter has already peaked in growth trajectory

    high confidence · Dealer analysis: 'Most of the sales are going to be in this first month, and it will fall'

  • CE lack of production cap was a smart business decision to maximize sales revenue

    high confidence · Jack Stoddard (Jersey Jack) asked dealer for input on unlimited CE window; dealer confirmed: 'from a sales and business perspective, I think it was extremely smart'

Notable Quotes

  • “We have over two times the number of collector's edition orders as we have wizard edition.”

    Dealer @ N/A — Core data point confirming CE dominance; establishes unexpected collector preference for premium edition

  • “Out of those, okay, this is significant. I can add up our total orders for wizard and arcade. That number totaled is still not as high doubled together as our orders for the CE. That's wild.”

    Dealer @ N/A — Dramatic illustration of CE outselling both other models combined; underscores market concentration

  • “I almost am, ten times the number of CEs ordered than I have arcades ordered. Ten times!”

    Dealer @ N/A — Reveals Arcade Edition near-complete market rejection; questions viability of lowest-tier offering

  • “if I'm George Jack Pimble, and let's say that my sales are somewhat indicative of general sales, then why would you ever run the arcade first?”

    Dealer @ N/A — Direct criticism of production scheduling logic; suggests CE production should dominate pipeline

  • “one week after Harry Potter sales and I am within a handful of units to selling as many Jaws as we've sold in a year and a half.”

    Dealer @ N/A — Puts Harry Potter velocity in stark context relative to established hit title; Jaws one of strongest performers

  • “I said, you know, respectfully, I think this is a case-by-case basis, and I think Harry Potter made sense, but I'm not so sure that model makes sense outside of Harry Potter or some huge licenses.”

    Dealer (in reference to Jack Stoddard conversation) @ N/A — Caution about replicating unlimited CE strategy for other licenses; highlights Harry Potter exceptionalism

  • “I think they could have done something like for Hagrid, the beloved Hagrid. Like they could have went so many places.”

    Host (Dennis) @ N/A — Critiques callout character choice (Mark Silk/Sorting Hat) as suboptimal vs. film characters; suggests creative compromise

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanyFlipping Out PinballcompanyHarry Potter (game)gameJack StoddardpersonEric MinorpersonJoe KatzpersonMark SilkpersonDennisperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Harry Potter achieved exceptional first-week order volume exceeding 18-month Jaws sales and 1-week Evil Dead 2x; CE orders 10x Arcade, 2x Wizard

    high · Dealer quantified: 'within a handful of units to selling as many Jaws as we've sold in a year and a half' and 'sold over two times the amount of Evil Dead' one week post-launch

  • ?

    collector_signal: Collector's Edition outsells lower-tier models despite lack of production cap; CE orders >2x Wizard + Arcade combined; challenges traditional FOMO/limited production value proposition

    high · Dealer: 'over two times the number of collector's edition orders as we have wizard edition' and 'CE outnumber wizard + arcade doubled'

  • $

    market_signal: Arcade Edition (lowest-priced tier) rejected by market at extreme scale; sold ~10x fewer units than CE; questions viability of entry-level offering despite $1,000 price advantage

    high · Dealer: 'I almost am, ten times the number of CEs ordered than I have arcades ordered. Ten times!' and 'the pinball collector community doesn't care about Jersey Jack's lowest end offering'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jersey Jack chose unlimited production window (not capped by unit count) for CE; dealer confirms Jack Stoddard explicitly consulted on strategy; assessed as smart for revenue maximization but risky for brand/secondary market value

    high · Dealer: 'he asked me that very thing' and confirmed this was 'extremely smart' from sales perspective but warned 'I'm not so sure that model makes sense outside of Harry Potter or some huge licenses'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Minor design criticisms surfacing post-launch (Mark Silk callouts, sound balancing, scoop shot difficulty) but not materially damping community enthusiasm; framed as 'light' critique

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.101

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. Dennis, people want to know about the reception and sales of Harry Potter Pinball by Jersey Jack Pinball. We're here to give it to them, aren't we?
0:25
Yep, they're good. All right, guys, that's it. You can turn off. You can push stop. Cash Chris. We got them. Thanks for your support. Thanks for joining in for all the support. They were big and successful. It's all good. I would call this a sales hit within the first day. Within the first day. You've often said that the sales are the strongest right away. They always are. Yeah. That's not really surprising either. Leaps and bounds. above. You guys want data points. Okay.
1:03
But you're going to be vague about it. Because you do have a business to run. I was going to say, well, be vague to a certain point. But I'll still tell you more than anybody else is going to tell you. Whenever the game came out, I thought... Remember, you and I were even discussing it. Like, man, they're going to run away with this. Arcade Edition, $99.99. And there's not really that much difference between that and The Wizard. I thought that the Arcade Edition would win out a lot of people that would otherwise get the wizard. Yeah, I did too. Like, you made such a good point. I was like, I think you're right. Like, yeah, why aren't they pulling more stuff, or why aren't they adding more stuff to the wizard? Even the Hot Rails in the GNR Standard Edition, the Hot Rails were all white, which is such a letdown. But in this, no, full Hot Rails. Like, I was very shocked by all of this. So one would think the Arcade Edition would be a great – I didn't know how it was going to pan out, because remember, in the main episode i said i i didn't i very much got wrong the ce i didn't know if that was enough difference because the three thousand dollar difference it was the big thing was the art package and the topper and we all know how people feel about the topper so like oh shit what is going to sell the best and a lot of people have probably heard um but what what do you think the model that has sold the best is oh the ce i mean but isn't that that always was my assumption but That's crazy, though.

  • Secondary market for non-Stern pinball games is depressed relative to production speed

    medium confidence · Dealer referencing Ken (unnamed) concern about manufacturers competing against secondary market due to slow production

  • “I think they were just like this – and in all those regards, they're right. This was the right shot to take.”

    Dealer (re: Pinball Brothers' Predator decision) @ N/A — Validates Predator license strategy as smart counter-move after string of misses; recognizes market necessity

  • “I think Predator might fail worse than Queen.”

    Dealer @ N/A — Dire prediction for Pinball Brothers' Predator despite strong license; cites economy, tariffs, and overseas manufacturing challenges

  • “It's such a strong license so strong stronger than Guns N' Roses stronger than Godzilla it's just the price is so high now and so I just don't think this game has legs outside the pinball community like some people think it will.”

    Dealer @ N/A — Contextualizes Harry Potter's strength within pinball ecosystem vs. mainstream appeal; doubts 6,000+ unit threshold

    • David Thiel
    person
    Guns N' Roses (game)game
    Jaws (game)game
    Godzilla (game)game
    Evil Dead (game)game
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Uncanny X-Men (game)game
    Elton John (game)game
    Avatar (game)game
    Kenperson
    Triple Drainperson
    Predator (game)game
    Queen (game)game
    Medieval Madness (game)game

    high · Hosts discuss 'mixed reactions' to audio, callouts, and rule complexity but conclude 'this is – had this been any other theme...would have been pretty well received' and 'doesn't maybe have like the tail...but becomes pretty good catalog game'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Harry Potter week-1 orders already exceed lifetime/sustained sales of major titles (Jaws 18mo, Evil Dead, X-Men 1wk); compares as 'really good Stern seller' despite being JJP product

    high · Dealer: 'these Harry Potter numbers should be equal to a really good Stern seller' and specific unit comparisons to Jaws, Evil Dead, X-Men

  • ?

    business_signal: Dealer notes historically difficult JJP relationship now transformed; sold more Harry Potters in week 1 than total GNR lifetime, signaling improved distribution partnership or demand-driven reorder access

    medium · Dealer: 'Our relationship with Jersey Jack Pinball has been a tougher one to climb' historically but 'we've sold more Harry Potters in one week than we have in total of GNRs'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Debate over whether Harry Potter will exceed 6,000 lifetime units (GNR benchmark); dealer skeptical due to high pricing and market saturation, but acknowledges 'wouldn't surprise me if they sold over 6,000'

    medium · Dealer: 'I will say no' to >6,000 units but 'I wouldn't be surprised if they sold over 6,000 either' reflecting genuine uncertainty

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Joe Katz rules design moderates stacking (vs typical JJP depth) but creates friction points (scoop shot difficulty limiting mode access); designer intentionality vs. playstyle friction discussed

    medium · Hosts debate scoop shot placement: 'why not just have it start a mode at the like Stern Star Trek?' vs. 'virtually no other game starts in the mode' defense

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Dealer questions why Arcade Edition produced before CE given 10:1 demand disparity; suggests CE production should dominate pipeline; implies potential inventory/cash flow misalignment

    medium · Dealer: 'if I get 10 times the number of CEs than I arcade, why would you ever run the arcade first?' and 'what are you waiting for?'

  • ?

    product_concern: Non-Stern manufacturers (including JJP) facing secondary market price collapse due to slow production; competing against own used inventory; Arcade Edition secondary value already below $1,000 MSRP

    medium · Dealer references Ken's concern: 'they're almost competing against their own secondary market sales based on the production speeds' and notes Arcade 'secondary market value is below $1,000'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Mark Silk performing announcer-style callouts despite being marketed as Sorting Hat voice; community suggestion that character callouts (Hermione, Dolores Umbridge, Hagrid) would have been thematic improvement

    high · Host: 'why not one of the instructors?' and 'he's not even doing sorting hat call-outs. It's weird' and 'I would have gone a slightly different angle...why not Dolores Umbridge?'

    • 2:27
    Why? Because it's not limited. Because it's got a topper that people hate. Yeah. Because it has an art package that is so different than anything we've ever seen. Yeah, but the art package is so much better than a montage. Yeah, I can't argue that. But to differentiate itself. I mean, I guess it is a montage, but I mean a character montage. Yeah, I know. But yeah, for $3,000, though, usually it's the topper and the limited ability. is that what really sells that CE in my opinion. It's not the glitter on the play field. It's nice.
    2:57
    It's those intangibles. And the art package isn't intangible, but usually art in and of itself, I guess, doesn't differentiate itself from the other art packages so much so that art is a factor here. But based on the numbers and the orders that we're seeing, it unequivocally is. I don't know what other argument can be made for the collectors because it sure as hell isn't the gold-ish powder coat trim package, right? Now, needless to say, I don't think the wizard powder coated trim package is much to rave over either. It's essentially black glossy with rainbow effects, which I think they could have done a better job and went like a royal blue or metallic blue or something. I think Merlin's edition on Medieval Madness. But, yeah, I was surprised at how many people said, you know what, day one, I would like to spend $15,000 for the top edition. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised by it. But the CE was the top selling from the other dealers I'm hearing from. CE is, without a doubt, selling more than the Wizard Edition. What comes next in sales, your guess? Well, given your tone, I'm going to guess Wizard. Yep, that's right. The Wizard Edition comes in at the second best-selling model thus far, and then the Arcade Edition. Let's talk about the breakdown between these models. The CE, one would think it would be on par with the Wizard.
    4:30
    No, you guys. Based on our numbers, our orders, We have over two times the number of collector's edition orders as we have wizard edition.
    4:42
    Why is that still so surprising to me? I do not know why you're surprised. If it was limited, okay. But it not being limited, it's just very surprising. I'm going to pull up my numbers on Elton John. So on Elton John, it was limited so we could only get some. But pretty much I could get, I pretty much got what I wanted on Elton John. At this point, it's pretty close between the Platinum and the Collector's Edition on our sales. When it comes to Avatar, Avatar was predominantly CEs. Way more CEs than LEs on Avatar, over double. So maybe that is the trend here. But we had a whole other edition of Harry Potter in the arcade edition. Let me crunch those numbers. Out of those, okay, this is significant. I can add up our total orders for wizard and arcade. That number totaled is still not as high doubled together as our orders for the CE.
    5:48
    That's wild. I think that in this next stat will really make you think about this new edition. So more than double the number of CEs we've seen ordered than the other two models combined and doubled. Or whatever. You know what I'm saying. How many more wizard editions did we sell than arcade editions then if wizards are second? Is that closer? Is that more apart? Oh, gosh. Probably three times as much. At this point, we have sold over four times as many Wizard editions as we have arcade editions. What the hell is going on? Four times. I think it's very clear that the pinball collector community doesn't care about Jersey Jack's lowest end offering. How clear did they have to be years past when they had to discontinue this model? And here they are coming back out with it again. and I have to look at the number of arcades because I'm like, really? I only sold that? Like, really?
    6:50
    Dennis, I'm almost at ten times, I probably am, ten times the number of CEs ordered than I have arcades ordered. Ten times!
    7:00
    People aren't buying the arcade edition, and I can't figure out why. Now, that could all change. It truly can all change depending on when these games come out. That's why I think if I'm George Jack Pimble, and let's say that my sales are somewhat indicative of general sales, then why would you ever run the arcade first? I just don't understand that. If I get 10 times the number of CEs than I arcade, why are we even breaking for another model if you are flooded with CE orders? What are you waiting for? I don't know why hopping all this back and forth hopping, none of that makes sense to me. Unless you're doing it into the ratio of the orders that have come in. So for mine in particular, it would be something to the effect of, if that was general orders, running CEs ten times as long as you would the wizard. That makes sense, I think, from a numbers perspective, doesn't it? Yeah, I can see it from that perspective. Yeah, just very strange. Do you think that these people are shocked by these numbers? Maybe a little surprised. I don't think overall shocked them. Okay. All right. Let's put this in context with other games. Give me a game that's come out, and I'll see if I can put into context orders, because I think some of it's surprising both ways.
    8:20
    X Okay X Okay I think X would surprise people because people don think X sold well I always heard it started really good It started on fire, and that was the end of the pandemic. Fire! On fire. So not that – I mean, keep in mind this is one week after Harry Potter has been announced, and the only thing that people have supplied us thus far is a deposit. so this isn't a full purchase now granted if you're going to walk away from your ce that's 2,500 out of your pocket that's a tough pill to swallow unless you call zach and say please oh god no i can't do it this time that was my impression of the people oh you played it very well we had so many so many orders to a certain point you're like i don't know you know getting a little worried like i don't know about all this i used a lot to manage because yeah we couldn't We couldn't refund people. Some people I could see if, let's say, the arcade edition did take forever to get. Maybe they walk away from their $1,000 because on the secondary market, as slow as these are being produced versus like a Stern, secondary market value is below $1,000. So, you know, that's the problem that Ken can now speak to. That was his concern when it comes to any manufacturer that's not Stern. He said they're almost competing. He said, oh, great. Hopefully he doesn't mind that I talk about this. He said they're almost competing against their own secondary market sales based on the production speeds of some of these popular games. So Jersey Jack is a prime example of that where they got a hit. But if they can't produce them fast enough, you start seeing, you know, time changes everything.
    10:09
    So, yeah, Uncanny X-Men. And right now, I've already still sold the whole time we've had X-Men sales. We've still sold only about 15% more Harry Potters at this point. So that's not that. But we've sold a lot of X-Men. Let's go to something like Evil Dead.
    10:37
    Right? well that's a little tough because evil dead's capped it's limited it is limited but we could pretty much have have got as many as we wanted because it took six six months or so to sell all of them so it's not like it was capped from a dealer it was capped based on i could have gotten as many as i want i wasn't really that capped um you know what i mean like if they're going to do an allocation, that's fine. But then if they still have a ton to sell after the first week, they're going to allow dealers to order more.
    11:16
    So I could kind of order. And we, oh boy, we ordered a lot of yield head. And sure, I'd like more, but I can't get more now. But until they sold out, they were open to order.
    11:30
    As of right now, only a week after Harry Potter, we've sold, flipping out pinball, sold over two times the amount of Evil Dead that we've sold.
    11:42
    That's a pretty good perspective there. Pretty good perspective. Now Evil Dead only has one model. Harry Potter has three. Keep that in mind. What about Jaws? You've sold more Jaws. I mean, to think about it, Jaws has been for sale for...
    11:59
    A long time. Almost a year and a half. one week after Harry Potter sales and I am within a handful of units to selling as many Jaws as we've sold in a year and a half.
    12:17
    I think that starts to become eye-opening now. Whoa. So Jaws is slightly ahead, but barely. Yeah, after a year and a half versus one week. Now, I do preach on this show a lot. That first week is where all the sales come from. So I don't anticipate, you know, this is normal trending. But based on the projections of this one week, this is a big seller. But in context of Godzilla?
    12:49
    Or not? No. Godzilla still got it by a good amount. I wouldn't even have done a comparison. There's a lot of things that Harry Potter does not have in its favor. But it's still closer than one would probably guess. Yeah, could be, sure. That's if all of these go through. These people haven't paid in full. They've only paid deposits.
    13:14
    Yeah, but they don't want to give up their deposit. Push comes to shove. And the last piece of data I'll give you, or it's not even a data point. It's just a reminder. that Harry Potter is a huge success for any manufacturer. Huge. But keep in context that Stern would be happy with these numbers, but as I'm looking at all the titles we've sold for Stern, these Harry Potter numbers should be equal to a really good Stern seller.
    13:51
    Let me ask you one other thing. You know what I mean? Let me do another pandemic era item. Guns and Roses.
    14:01
    They had three versions of that. The difference there, the skew would be we were a different dealership than that we are now.
    14:12
    Yes, much weaker. We weren't as large, and that is because, and I'll be open about it, Our relationship with Jersey Jack Pinball has been a tougher one to climb than with the other manufacturers. For whatever reason, some I know, some I probably don't know. But we've just had a harder time establishing their products than we have seen with other manufacturers. So we've come a long way. But yet we've sold more Harry Potters in one week than we have in total of GNRs. Okay. And what they end up selling, they made 5,000 LEs, 750 Cs, probably about 6,000 GNRs.
    14:58
    This will sell more. Oh, God. Hold on. Does this sell more than 6,000 units? Shoot. And the other, I'll say while you're thinking about it, the other tough part is when I'm giving my numbers compared to my Stern numbers, Stern probably has three times the dealers I've got more competition in Stern so I should be selling more than other manufacturers than Stern because there's more dealers but then again they're making more it's all relative I guess I'm going to say no I may very well be wrong this is such a strong license so strong stronger than Guns N' Roses stronger than Godzilla it's just the price is so high now and so I just don't think this game has legs outside the pinball community like some people think it will.
    15:49
    That's why I think it made sense for Jersey Jack to think, let's do an arcade edition to let people coin drop it. They'll never buy it.
    15:57
    There's a lot of talk. I won't be surprised if it passes $6,000. If you're asking me to say right now, which is what you did, I will say no. I just think starting at $10,000 on up at this stage, people aren't trapped in their home. There's just people that aren't buying pinball that were buying when Guns N' Roses was around. I just don't – it's just a different environment. I just don't think it can do it. Yeah, I don't think it – I may be wrong. It wouldn't surprise me if they sold over 6,000 either. I think this is one of the cases where – well, I guess like you've noted with many games, just even more so because it's such a popular license and everyone's liked what they've seen by and large that this is a – Most of the sales are going to be in this first month, and it will fall. It will have a it not going to like go away at that point but you have this it like it doesn it not going to gain more ground Like it not like Stranger Things which maybe it got better over time Elton John is a good example Elton John a game where people were less like really Elton John And then as they tried it, it got legs underneath it. It's already got its legs. So it's really only downhill from here. And the good thing is we didn't talk about this in the main episode. We could have. Sales were so great, and a lot of it was predicated upon the theme and the integration of that theme. but the good news is after the, and we can talk about the reception of this game too, it kind of flows into that, after the release of this game and the more tangible people are able to see what it plays like, what the rules are like they picked here and there but usually that's a make or break, you can get a lot of sales and then something fall in that tank like a Mandalorian or something like that whereas this, the community still was good with it But they were like – By and large, most of the criticism has been – I'm not going to call it nitpicky, but light. Like this is – had this been any other theme, I think this layout and this approach to rules would have been pretty well received. Yeah, that's a good point. Jersey Jack didn't need to do as good of a job as they did on this. But yes, they did make sure that they didn't really sabotage themselves as people learned more and more about the game. So I think this, because of that, this becomes – doesn't maybe have like the tail that we talk about a lot because it has a lot of sales already. But I think this becomes a pretty good catalog game for them. I think it becomes a Wizard of Oz. It becomes GNR when they sold so many of those GNRs. That's why, whales aside, I thought it was a very smart business decision to not cap the CEs because now you don't have to – there are people who haven't rushed into this and they're still going to be able to get that. And why not? Why not? From a Jersey Jack perspective, why not make that dollar? Because they aren't making it on the resale. I will. I don't think Jack would care that I spoke about this publicly. But when we were talking this past week, he asked me that very thing. He said, what's your take on us doing a limited window rather than a limited unit of the CEs. And I reiterated what you just said, said from a sales and business perspective, I think it was extremely smart. If you want to maximize your sales and make as much money as you can on something that you spent a lot of money to obtain, it was absolutely the right move. However, I will remind you, I'm strong with these manufacturers. I think I'm crazy. I said, However, I will remind you that I do not think it's a good decision for pretty much any other license. It made sense because it's Harry Potter, but I don't know if that makes as much sense if it is, insert rumored title. Right? You've got to be careful with that. Yeah, no, I agree. I was like, because on the second hand from a collector, like the goal here is not only to sell this product. This product will sell itself. But the goal is to sell your brand and what you offer so that you can retain some value of your brand. And you can do that by retaining some value on the secondary market with your games. And right now, frankly, sir, the secondary market is blowing a lot of your products. And we can discuss why that is. I'll tell you why that is. But you've got to be careful with that, too. You want to be able to retain some of that value so that whenever you do come out with limited stuff, people feel like they're not going to get hosed. Because people aren't going to buy things if they think they're going to get completely hosed. Like me, I don't care if something's limited. But it doesn't matter. You can take somebody that's actually wealthy. I barely have enough money to buy pinball machines. But somebody that's got a ton of money, they still don't want to lose $4,000 on a pinball machine if they can. Like, it just doesn't feel good. I bet people that collect sports cars and watches kind of the same. It's like, I don't mind. Like, I get that I'm not going to make money, but I don't want to get hosed. So I just, I said, you know, respectfully, I think this is a case-by-case basis, and I think Harry Potter made sense, but I'm not so sure that model makes sense outside of Harry Potter or some huge licenses. All right, so sales have been fantastic. We talked about some of the reactions. I think that what are the things that we're hearing most of? We talked about overall, people are liking it. I think it's going to be a good catalog game. I think it's going to have legs to be one of the games that people talk about.
    21:26
    It's going to be, in a sense, Stern's Godzilla, I believe, because it checks all the boxes everywhere it needs to.
    21:36
    Some of the things that people are having mixed reactions to, I don't know if you've heard about these. We've talked a little bit about them, like the audio choices. People are mixed at best on some of the sound effects, which they were kind of shocked that David Thiel had some of the sound effects that they don't like. And the call-outs, the Mark Silk call-outs, people – he's done a lot of work for pinball. And of recent, that I think it's kind of messing with people. i heard a little bit about like uh that at least in one of the iterations of the code his callouts were overpowering versus everything else like it was like more audio balancing than the callouts themselves but but i mean i will say i will say the one thing that's kind of interesting is you have all this stuff in the game uh it was i guess a little odd to me that they're spending all this on the license they didn't take anyone from the movie to do call outs i know i know like not even ron like ron's broke he's like got tax cases in the uk against him he's like needs the work well i'm i'm a fan of marks i'm a friend of marks but that's not going to compromise my take here i i this is this is on face value mean but it's not i'm not intending I think it would make more sense to have a sound alike with a different character than it would have been to have Mark Silk, who was the official Sorting Hat voice outside of the movie. So he's the Sorting Hat. Right, like at the ride or whatever. Yeah, or like the merchandising toy. He's the Sorting Hat. And the reason being is the Sorting Hat doesn't have a huge role in the film. That's where I was at, is this is not a logical narrator. Well, I guess in a way they probably think of it as like a neutral entity in that regard, perhaps. But it's like, why not one of the instructors? The bigger issue for me is when he's doing call-outs, he's not even doing sorting hat call-outs. It's weird, right, listener? But he's not. He's doing announcer call-outs. Like he's touted as the official sorting. But he's not – the sorting hat has its own bravado – has its own – what do they call that? Not tenor, but – he's not trying to do the sorting hat. That's the thing here. He's just trying to do an announcer. Because the sorting hat has more of a – like a gruffle, this kind of thing. He's not even trying to present. He's doing an announcer voice. I think having a sound alike for Hermione. Like what plays better than the bossy girl of the trio? She's bossy. How much better would it be to be bossed around and hit the left ramp, hit the right ramp? That's who she should be. I would have gone a slightly different angle because, again, thinking in the realm of – Not sooner. No, no. But, yes, in the realm of an antagonist callout, which can mock you when you do badly, why not Dolores Umbridge? That would have been good. she's the big figure right now in the Harry Potter dynasty. She's in the New Ride. She's like, she is the baddie. Well, it's her way. It's her form of delicious evil Oh yeah she just a nasty old woman Because she not a Death Eater in that you know that not the angle that she going with She going with this like Political Yeah this vicious pink smack style Yeah, the nun.
    25:26
    The Catholic nun. I think they could have done something like for Hagrid, the beloved Hagrid. Like they could have went so many places. So the call-outs by Mark, they're professionally good, but they just don't land for me. And I keep hearing Rudy. And I just, yeah, that doesn't land. The sound effects, honestly, I'm fine with. I don't get what people, I'm lost on that one, y'all. You guys carry that torch by yourself because I don't get that one. Sounds fucking phenomenal. Like the sound effects, the music, top notch. I don't get that. The other thing that people are mixed on, they think the rules are too heavy, like too confusing. And I told the listener my points on the main episode, but how do you feel about – I mean, this is a JDP thing. I mean – Or is it something you just – you learn? This is – it's – and you mentioned it on the main show. At this stage, because these are going to – the goal is to get them to stay in homes for a while. You almost have to err on the side of too much over too little. I, you know, ultimately, I don't think it's going to be overly convoluted if people spend some time with it.
    26:44
    I do think maybe the and I know Triple Drain touched on this. I'm not going to really like criticize the position of the scoop per se. Oh, boy. The decision to not let you start in a mode was like, why not just have it start a mode at the like Stern Star Trek? That scoops like the hardest shot that there is, but at least you always get to do a mode.
    27:09
    That was probably a worse decision than making the rules too complicated. Okay. I just don't like the scoop argument because virtually no other game starts in the mode. So it's not like, well, why wouldn't they start in the mode? Because nothing else does. A lot of them, it's not a particularly challenging shot. I mean, it's a fair enough point. But I did think the same about Godzilla. It's better now that you can shoot the same ramp twice and not have to alternate left and right because that left ramp is hard on Godzilla. But I saw plenty of people when Godzilla came out, and they could not get into a mode. And this is a tough shot. There's no arguing that. It is a tough shot to start. But you fall into it a lot, too.
    27:49
    Yeah. Let's not act like it was a good decision, though. Okay. You might say, I don't think it's a negative, but it's not like a smart decision. You can't argue that – you can't argue for half an hour it's a horrible decision, but then brush over the fact that Godzilla is not the same. Like that's the issue that I take with that whole argument. I'm fine with people arguing the same side of it, but don't brush over the one thing you sell and beat it to death on the one thing you don't. Like that's where the loss management is. No, I thought, to me, Godzilla is a case in point. Guardian's the same way. But you start in a mode, so it's different.
    28:30
    I mean, maybe the thought was the scoop isn't as hard on Godzilla, which is fair compared to Star Trek. It's not. So there is that. But the ramp shots were frustrating for the setup. Since the modification to letting you do an easy way to activate it, you know, okay. I think Turtles also, though, you could gripe about. I guess you did have a turtle choice where you could set it up so one shot would get you in. So it had some options. It had some outs. For the people that think that Scoop... And maybe Harry Potter will add some outs as they update the code. If people think that Scoop shot is hard, wait until you try to hit the spinner. There's a shot to the right of it.
    29:07
    There's a spinner shot to the right of that. Yeah, but you don't need that spinner. I know, but I'm just saying, if we're going to... But Eric does tend to like those really far shots. He did it on Godfather. He did it on Pirates of the Caribbean. It's his way. Yeah, I remember the Pirates one was a highlight. Yep, the extra ball. You've really got to go tip of the flipper. So Merlin's Arcade, does it outsell this?
    29:33
    It's limited to, so probably not. What are we going to sell in Merlin's Arcade? I don't know. I don't know if any of my operators are going to order one. Last question before we leave. Do you think Predator being released, do you think it's going to be surprisingly better sales than you think? or do you think it's going to be such a fall on the face that you just weren't expecting somebody could fail that bad on such a great license?
    29:56
    Yeah, I think Predator might fail worse than Queen. Oh, shit! Get to the drawing board! I'm not saying that it's going to play worse than Queen. I'm just saying, and it's not all Pinball Brothers' fault, But in this economy, with these tariffs, with what's looking like a questionable asset acquisition package, things are not looking so good. Queen at least had assets. They're safe if they have Arnold, which I think – Relatively. The game – They're only going to sell some of the best reputation. They're not number one on rep in any category. So it's – and them being overseas puts them behind the eight ball. Why do you even pick this theme if you don't have Arnold? Why are you wasting your time or your money? Well, and maybe they took to heart what you said in the main episode about how basically you judged every company that didn't even try and get Harry Potter as failures.
    30:57
    Yeah, that's true. They were like, we have the opportunity. We got to strike. We got to – I think wisely they were like, we need something. Like everything they've been doing is like miss after miss after miss. ABBA was a gamble that was not the right gamble. And they're like, we've got to get America. We've got to get America on board. Predator is the answer to this. We're not going to do Cuphead. We've got to do something big that people care about. And Predator is a great license. Oh, it's a great license, yeah. So I think – Especially for this demographic, it's a perfect license. Yeah, yeah. I think they were just like this – and in all those regards, they're right. This was the right shot to take. this is a this is a really smart license for them to go for it's clearly one that at least in some capacity was obtainable for them uh and it should it should all things being equal print money no it's not going to print harry potter money but it should print money the way if spooky pinball did die hard it would print money but how many companies i've told you go get die hard die It's so smart, guys. It's so smart. But so, I mean, it's one of those that never had its chance, but it's such a touchstone. People, the way you would say Goonies, like I'm not into Goonies, but Goonies is a smart license. It's a smart license. This is in there. One of those untouched licenses. I think they have the, my closing point, I think they have the license or they have the assets because on one of their little teaser videos, They do play the audio from, oh, what's the character's name?
    32:37
    Apollo Creed. Damn it. Why am I blanking on this? Oh, Carl Weathers? Thank you. They do play the audio cut of Carl Weathers. So if they have the audio, they probably have the video to it. And if they have the video of that, they probably get the video to all of it. So I'm hoping for the best.
    32:53
    Hopefully that was enough info for these people to be shocked and awed by the numbers, the sales, and the reception. Oh, they're satiated. Nice. I just spent Father's Day, an entire Father's Day, instead of being pampered as you're listening or talking to these wonderful people. So thank you. And you're welcome.
    33:12
    Yeah, that doesn't come across as snooty. And you're welcome, by the way, for listening, guys, after you paid us.
    33:19
    That's true. Can you imagine a waiter saying that? You're welcome. I can, a French waiter. Assholes. Oui, oui. You don't like this. I tell Chef. Don't be a snitch, bitch. Just because I don't eat it, go throw it away. Don't tell the chef. Yeah. You don't even know about this. That's right. The real golden snitch is the maitre d's we met along the way.