So I'll sit here alone on my stupid bookboy throne. I hope you're happy. Don't think about me. Welcome everybody. Happy Monday morning. This is Kaneda. I'm surviving the Irish Armada. The in-laws are in town. And for those of you who have had in-laws as house guests, it's fun, but after a few hours you're a little bit like, I need my space. I need to bake. They were just leaving to go to the playground and someone dropped a gallon of water all over the floor. How do you drop a gallon of H2O all over the floor? You can't manage to get it from the kitchen into the Kia Carnival. Let's talk about what's happening in the world of pinball, baby. This is week two of Sonic the Hedgehog being out. Available to take your money now. Jason Knapp is reporting that 1,300 Sonics have been ordered. Exactly 1,300. Not 1,299. Not 1,301. But 1,300 exactly. I never like these exact numbers with zeros. It makes me think it's made up. Now we're going to talk about this game. We're going to talk about what's happening in the pinball world. But this game is the focus right now. It is out. There are gameplay videos, but there is still not. And this is a big question mark. Where is the official gameplay stream of this game from Jersey Jack? They seem very confident to send this game out in the world until it's been streaming it for hours. Vic's got some streams up. We know other content creators are going to stream it. But where's the official moment in which Jersey Jack is going to reveal the game with their design team streaming the game and explaining it? It's a little weird to me that an entire week goes by and they haven't even done it. And I hear people asking for it. And, you know, when you work in marketing, it's real simple. Just give the people what they want. The people want an official gameplay from the company. And I feel like they did, you know, the typical amazing polish to get the game out there, to get the word out there. But I think all these companies need to do a better job of communicating what buyers can expect or potential buyers can expect. Like it would have been nice if the game is going to be revealed on this date that you let everybody know the official Jersey Jack gameplay stream will take place on this date. We saw Jack in New Jersey this weekend with Steve Ritchie. We got more gameplay, unofficial gameplay from that. And I'm here to say right now that after watching more of this game, after seeing what's up on the screen, after watching the gameplay, the upper play field, I still have not changed my opinion. I see people on the chat saying, now I'm convincing people not to buy this game. I never said that. I still think this game looks fun. I still think this game should be played by you more than eight times before you tell us you ordered one. That's not enough. I still think this game, as I see it more and more, it's looking a little bit more like a Pokemon experience to me. And what I mean by that, like a really fun game to play out on location and enjoy it. That's what Elton John was for me. And because the way it's coded and the way it's all about immediate fast fun is perfect to put like 20 bucks on a Sonic and have a really good time. Now, owning it for like $10,000 to $15,000, that's a decision I think everybody needs to make after you spend a lot of time on the game. I'm not telling you not to buy it. I'm just encouraging you to get a lot of time on the game. And the more I read Pinside and the more I sort of like try to see how people are responding to this game, those who have played it, those who have not, it's kind of funny to me. Because the majority of people that are defending this game are people that have ordered it and not played it. So I kind of don't take those opinions that seriously. And then the response from people that have played it has been pretty universally the same. That it's a lot of fun. They're a little bit skeptical that the code is going to be very deep. Even though there like a lot in it that not what they mean by depth I think people mean depth of character and that it going to pull you in and really offer a lot of variety I think the constant looping of the Sonic Generations video game play happening on the screen has a lot of people a little bit worried that nothing you do below the glass is going to connect to what's really happening. On that screen, and I would say think about your favorite pinball games. There's a lot more synchronization of gameplay and what's happening on the screen. And the best games of all time, the Godzillas of the worlds, the Addams families of the worlds, the Medieval Madnesses, the Lord of the Rings, the Metallicas, the Jaws of the worlds, the best games of all time synchronize both. So what's happening on the screen and on the code and with the software is super connected in a very rewarding way to what's happening with the gameplay below the glass. And so that's just it. I think a lot of people are just a little bit worried and I don't mean like very worried. I think they're just a little bit concerned that owning it and seeing all that gameplay stuff on loop where nothing you do with the game itself changes what's happening on the screen might be a little bit concerning to some. And look, again, go play it. Go make up your mind. And so, you know, when you think about like 1300 have been ordered to date, that's not sold through. That's ordered, right? Those are just like dealers and distors are placing orders. Consumers are ordering the game. But $1,300 after a week, is that a success or not? Now, because that's not like all those are sold games, I would say the issue happening now is this. $15,000 is a lot of money. And Sonic is not Harry Potter in terms of popularity. And also, let's face it, people, Sonic is not having the launch week and the launch moment that Harry Potter had. And there's just a lot more love affair with Potter than there is with Sonic. And for most of us out there, I see it in the post, you're still craving the original Sonic you fell in love with. And Sonic Generations isn't necessarily the Sonic that is what you remember. And so I keep seeing people suggesting that they add in more of this and 16-bit graphics here and there. And you have to remember with Jersey Jack games, when they launch, the launch code is pretty much what you're going to get. Even when Harry Potter launched, they were very resistant when all the feedback, and I was the one screaming the loudest, that the movies, the clips, the muted clips are a big problem, and they fixed it. But their intention originally wasn't to really let you sort of hear those moments you loved. I think Eric said, like, if you like the movies, go watch the movies. Like, that's not a response, man. And they fixed it. So the thing with Sonic is you have to look at these Jersey Jack releases unlike a Stern release and a Pokemon release where Pokemon, there better be a lot more game coming. With Sonic, there's a little bit of what you see is what you are going to get with a Jersey Jack game. There will be minuscule updates, not major overhauls to anything you're seeing right now. So if what you see isn't something that's compelling you to buy it, you know, you're not going to get a radically different game in six months or a year the way Pokemon needs to do a radical improvement if this game is ever going to become good. I think Pokemon right now in the top 100 is like 150 something. I think it opened up at like 200 and something. Like the community has universally said that Pokemon is not good enough and Stern needs to do way more to make the game great. All right. So Sonic week two, I'm going to go play it this week. It is going to arrive at automated and I can't wait to jump on it and give you my first impressions. But even so, with unlimited CEs, I guarantee you nothing I experience is going to recommend that you go buy it right now. The only dude, and I see Delt again. He's back in the thread, baby. Go read Delt. He's already ordered it, man. He put in a non-refundable deposit, and he's once again, oh, you know, it's like everything he reads now is through rose-tinted lenses or blue-tinted sonic lenses. He has to see and read the optimism because he's committed. And I just encourage you, why commit when you can get this game in November? Again, the Kaneda Challenge does not change. I challenge each and every one of you to make it to November and don buy anything new in box until then And if you wait to then you know you going to be able to get a Sonic off the shelf baby They're going to be at dealers on the shelf in November. And then you've got the other games coming out. Speaking of other games coming out, there's all of a sudden these whispers, these rumors that Keith Elwin's Fallout is going to be game of the year. The dumbest thing ever. Can we stop saying that? I've been saying it. It's stupid when I say it because here's why. There is no award show anymore. There is no game of the year. There is no voting on which is the game of the year. There's none of that anymore. I think someone said to me, Transformers is going to be game of the year. I'm like, no, it's not. No one even owns it. The sales are terrible. It's not going to get the votes for game of the year. Let's start with Transformers. Then I'll go to Fallout. So Transformers is a game that how quickly, think about it. How quickly is this game being forgotten? It is like done. And it just goes to show you that you've got that like one to two week window where you really need to make a great first impression because everybody else, when they launch their games, they're doing a better job than Stern. Transformers, unfortunately, will be one of the greatest coded games in Stern history, and it will never recover from Optimus not transforming. That is it. That's the storyline. People are not going to get over it. I saw someone is putting a Optimus sculpt into this game that looks better. He looks a little weird, though. He looks too tall. Like, look at the sculpt. It looks like his legs are going on way too long. The proportions just are not right. And of course so, right? Because it wasn't designed that way. You're attaching him at the knee joint to the bash part of his legs that Stern made, and it's a different sculpt. So it just looks all weird. That's not going to solve the problem. It's Transformers. Transformers, it's more than meets the eye. If nothing in the game is more than meets the eye, game over. Okay, so we forgot about Transformers already. If you have one, congratulations. Your game is going to plummet in value. It's just that simple. And now everyone's talking about Fallout, the biggest bomb in Stern history, right? It's weird that we do this. Why do we always think the next Stern is going to just blow us away? When was the last time a Stern machine blew you away? Think about it. Godzilla was like, I think like five years ago almost at this point. When was the last time a Stern machine came out and exceeded your expectations? So Fallout apparently has now like a lower playfield with magnets. It's got a cannon on the left side of the game or something that fires across and shoots like drop targets. It's got, I don't know, upper playfield maybe. I don't know. It's going to be a Keith Elwin game and that is great. And I think Fallout is going to be really, really cool. My concern is just simply this. I just don't think Fallout as a theme is a take my money now theme for most people out there. So are you going to warm up to it? Do you want the Amazon show living in your house and seeing those clips from the show over and over again? And that might be an issue, but there will be a storyline. I do like the Fallout storyline, especially season one. Walter Goggins is doing the call outs. I like that. That's going to be awesome. When you think about Sonic, a lot of people, they're not feeling the call-outs. Game's not pulling them in the way some of those other games they really love pull you in. So that's going to be great, but it's still going to be Fallout. And so let's think about when we get Fallout. So right now it is June 29th and Transformers just came out. So I think Fallout, June, July, August, what do you say? Like end of August, early September is when we will get Fallout. So that's a pretty, you know, three month, four month wait before this game will be out. Then we're going to get the ACDC remastered, maybe a gold finger edition of James Bond. And that's it. Like that's Stern's year. So looking back on this year, you had Pokemon that was incomplete. Then you had Transformers where nothing transformed. Then you got Fallout, which is, I don't know, maybe like a B theme for pinball at best. And then you get a rehashing of a game that's been out for 15 years. So not exactly the Stern Pinball year we were expecting in 2026. So we'll see what happens. We might even get Van Halen out from Jersey Jack in like October, November by Mark Seiden. So that's also maybe going to happen this year. All right so Stern JJP let go to like Barrels of Fun because I think this company next is like the one that people are really curious because Barrels next game will be out this year They will get all these Winchesters made and they need to keep the line going So here's the thing about Barrels' next game. There are a lot of rumors about what it's going to be. And I'm here to tell you, I'm going to make my final guess. I'm going to make it in June and I'm not going to hold back why I think it's this. We know that it's not G.I. Joe yet. They have the G.I. Joe license. It is going to be out in 2028. It is the reason Jody Dankberg got fired from Stern. I gave the whole story on my Saturday Morning Spectacular. I'll give you the short version right now. Jody found out that G.I. Joe was acquired by barrels through the UK subsidiary of Hasbro. He then went and leaked stories and information about this to Pinball media and then he admitted to doing it when Hasbro got mad that the news was out there and all of his years of being protected by Gary came to a crushing end the Monday after Gary's birthday. He walked into Stern on Monday morning and Seth had had enough. He walked into a room with like HR, Gary and Seth and was told he was immediately terminated at Stern Pinball. Loose lips sink ships. And from what I can tell from the people over at Stern, the people that have been like, I don't know, on the receiving end of Jody's tirades, they're not really bent out of shape about that loss. I heard he already has a new job. Maybe he's next to David Fix over at Great American Pinball in the service department. But what is Barrels making next? What is the reason to go to Barrels at sea? The rumors are like G.I. Joe. Nope, that's not next. Batman, some reason like Batman Dark Knight. I would love a Batman Dark Knight. I would love Barrels to make it. I don't think that's next. I can't see Barrels of Fun having any Batman game. You know why? Because Jersey Jack's got the Warner Brothers license locked up, baby. And Warner Brothers DC. Do you think Jersey Jack that's made so many Warner Brothers games, they've made like what Wizard of Oz, Warner Brothers, they've made Harry Potter, Warner Brothers, they've made Willy Wonka, I think was also Warner Brothers. You know, they've got it locked down. We've got big trouble in little China, baby. You know I want it. You know it's a dream theme. You know they hired the guy that made the homebrew. But there's something about what Christopher Franchi keeps saying. He keeps whispering in my chat that that license can't be done right. And so I kind of believe Mr. Franchi on that. So I don't know. I don't think it's big trouble in little China. I don't think that's next. I also don't think it's the never-ending story. That's been a rumor for a while. I hear some mumblings around like the last Starfighter. I don't know. I don't think it's going to be that. I think the next game from Barrels of Fun, the reason why they're going to go next year and celebrate at sea is they are going to make the pineapple under the sea. They are going to make Spongebob Square Pants. Now, this is not new. I've said this Spongebob rumor for a while. It is a ginormous property. It definitely is something that everybody knows. It definitely is a fun world under glass. It's got the right sense of humor for this demographic. And so there you have it. That's Canada's final guess. I am not going to guess again. I think barrels is next game is Spongebob. Maybe this is why they're doing the barrel reserve program. I don't like it. I think it's silly. I think it's David trying to basically eliminate people's ability to have any secondhand value. He wants to control the supply when he gets the demand wrong. That's all this is. When he gets the demand wrong, he wants to then give himself basically like a second chance at getting it right. And when he does that, it's going to screw over everybody that went in at the beginning. What he doesn't realize is the reason he sold 525 Winchesters in two days is because there's only 525 Winchesters. If he had opened it up for more orders, all of a sudden those games don't sell out, they don't go up in value, it's burning him. It's just burning him inside because these Winchesters selling for $8,000 or $10,000 over, those guys are making so much more margin than he is. He's probably breaking even on this game to watch everyone else make a... Fortune off of it, and that's why he's doing this. So I think, you know, this whole barrels at sea, I'm not even going to talk about it that much anymore. I think it's silly. I think it's inane. If you want to spend one of your week vacations with your family on a cruise ship with cargo short wearing pinheads, more power to you. I can just see it right now. Don and Ralph are going to have like bunk beds on this cruise. I feel like Vic is going to be cajoled into going on to this thing. Not happening. Think about like hour eight being on this cruise and after you've played the pins, you don't want to spend any time on a cruise ship that has so much going on. You don't want to spend time in a tiny little room playing pinball machines. And last I checked, cruise ships rock back and forth. It is basically the worst environment ever to get a great pinball experience. All right, so Beryl's SpongeBob. You know, someone asked me how I thought this Tales of the Arabian Nights was going to sell from Pedretti Gaming. I don't know, man. Did you hear much talk about it? I don't think it's going to sell very well. I don't even think they're going to sell all $399. I think most of us are just over all of these remakes and remasters, and you're going to really have to raise the bar on them to make people want them. I don think Tails is going to sell very well And I think over at American Pinball they got the Circus Voltaire Now I been speaking to Brian and Melvin Brian assures me that this game is going to wow people and blow them away I think they already announced that there something like 720 of the nicest versions of this game I think that was the number Maybe it was something else I forget all these arbitrary numbers Maybe it was 660 It was something to do with I don know the Ringmaster or something But in the end, it's going to have to be pretty spectacular. Now, I've been told by Brian that we're going to be blown away. It's got Brian Allen on artwork. It's going to have a crazy topper. It's going to have a nicer screen below the glass. I will say that Tails mechanically is pretty wow. I would say that Circus, in terms of visual OMG, has a little bit more visual OMG than Tails does. But, you know, again, there's just so much new stuff around the corner. It's really hard to ask people to buy these old games, especially when you're not seeing Bally Williams anywhere on them. You're seeing American Pinball's logo, Pedretti's logo. It's definitely a gamble to look backwards to get future sales. All right, so that's American Pinball. We're not going to see their banger game until sometime next year. They might tease it at Expo. By the way, I heard that I am already being banned from Pinball Expo. That's what I heard. Someone shared me a text message that Rob Burke is already going to ban me from the show this year He hasn communicated that to me but I saw the text message and I just want to say look I not doing this again I'm not going there to have people there that hate my guts, that don't want me at the show. And I know that a lot of you out there want to go and hang out with me, but I have to put my family and my own safety first because the people that are threatening me really do terrify me. It's like they've got nothing to lose. I haven't done anything to them and I'm not going to do it. It doesn't matter to me. You can have your pinball expo. You can go there. I'm tired of getting in these conversations with Rob Burke. I'm tired of it all. Like it's so silly to me. David Fix already did enough to try to hurt me. I don't need to do this. I don't need to go to pinball expo and be fearful of my presence there when I'm just walking around having a good time. So yeah, Rob, thank you once again for making this very awkward and not putting your foot down. What you should be doing is banning the people that are threatening me, that are walking around, going to get security to escort me out. You're not doing anything to those people who are acting like they're above the law and you're coming at me again. And look, it's June. I don't care. I'm not going to Pinball Expo. I'm going to say it right now. I'm not going. I don't care what is there. Maybe I'll fly into downtown Chicago. And if you want to see me, you can come hang out at the Omokasi joint with Kaneda, but I'm not doing it. I think it is a total embarrassment to that show that they continue to pick on me when I never done anything at Pinball Expo other than have a good time encourage my fans to go and play the piano and have a great time with other pinheads What an embarrassment. All right, everybody, I'm expecting by the next show, I will have time on Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm so excited. I'm going to go reach out to Frank right now and ask him, when does it arrive? So by Wednesday's show, I will have my gameplay impressions of Sonic. And now I know what to look for. I'm looking to see how it shoots, how it pulls me in, how much fun it is. I know it's going to be stunning, but I want to see how this game feels after a lot of time on it. I might do what I did with Harry Potter, open up the coin door and just go all through the game. I don't think all the wizard modes are in there, but it's fun to just see it all and know what the moments feel like, even if I'm never good enough to get there. Everybody, happy Monday. Just be happy your in-laws are not there right now, spilling a gallon of H2O on your hardwood floor. Kinead out.