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Episode 766: "Pinball March Madness is Coming!"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·29m 48s·analyzed·Feb 3, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.041

TL;DR

Kaneda predicts March 2023 will be "pinball madness" with major releases, criticizes James Bond pricing, and urges restraint on purchases.

Summary

Kaneda discusses the anticipated "March Madness" of pinball releases in 2023, analyzing upcoming games from major manufacturers (Stern, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Spooky) expected to debut at The Pinball Fest. He critiques Stern's James Bond for incomplete code and high pricing, expresses cautious optimism about American Pinball's Dennis Nordman game and Jersey Jack's Godfather, and addresses production and pricing challenges across boutique manufacturers.

Key Claims

  • March 2023 will see simultaneous releases from Jersey Jack, American Pinball, and Stern Pinball at The Pinball Fest—an unprecedented convergence in pinball.

    medium confidence · Kaneda opening prediction; TPF timing is stated as fact but specific game releases are framed as expectation

  • George Gomez stated Elvira production is indefinitely delayed and not a priority for Stern Pinball.

    high confidence · Kaneda cites 'George Gomez on an interview yesterday'; direct attribution

  • James Bond LE models have depreciated by approximately $5,000 on day one, with secondary market prices $2,500–$4,500 below MSRP.

    medium confidence · Kaneda estimates based on stated MSRP ($19,000–$22,000) and distributor discounting ($17,500 'backdoor deals')

  • Stern Pinball has not released gameplay video or Dead Flip stream for James Bond before taking customer money.

    high confidence · Kaneda states this directly as fact about Stern's sales practice

  • American Pinball's unreleased Dennis Nordman game (Galactic Space Tank Force) features a unique cabinet design, 3D playfield back, middle ramp, and artwork by Christopher Franchi.

    medium confidence · Kaneda reports hearsay: 'I've heard that...' and 'I heard that...'; multiple unverified sources

  • Pat Lawlor's influence on Jersey Jack Pinball's Godfather design resulted in a sparse, toy-story-like game rather than a mechanically complex one.

    low confidence · Kaneda speculates: 'As I feared...I think Pat Lawler still had his thumb down'; based on unverified rumor from someone who claims to have played it

  • Scooby-Doo from Spooky Pinball costs over $13,000 when fully loaded with all options, including shipping and tax.

    high confidence · Kaneda states specific invoice price; presented as verified calculation

  • Venom by Brian Eddy has been code-complete for over one year.

    medium confidence · Kaneda states 'Venom has been done for like over a year'; presented as fact but no external source cited

Notable Quotes

  • “For $10,000 premiums and $13,000 LEs, you should be embarrassed that you're putting a game out into the world that is this incomplete.”

    Kaneda@ 3:47 — Direct criticism of Stern Pinball's James Bond for delivering incomplete code at premium pricing

  • “The day one FOMO in pinball is dead. It is dead. And I know people are like, well, if it was a hot title, it wouldn't be. Sure, that hasn't been the case since Godzilla.”

    Kaneda@ 14:30 — Market analysis: claims FOMO-driven purchasing has ended; Godzilla is new benchmark

  • “It's about time these boutique companies got together and combined their efforts and made a single manufacturing facility that could have different products on different lines.”

    Kaneda@ 23:59 — Industry critique: suggests consolidation of boutique manufacturing to improve efficiency and labor utilization

  • “We don't need more pinball machines. We need more great pinball machines.”

    Kaneda@ 25:35 — Core philosophy statement; reframes market demand away from quantity toward quality

  • “What if all of us collectively woke up and said, hey, I'm not going to buy anything next year. I'm going to wait and see how all these games pan out.”

    Kaneda@ 28:29 — Calls for consumer restraint and delayed purchasing to correct pricing and inflation

  • “Christopher Franchi is going to be the most popular guy in pinball pretty soon because he has done five pinball machines. I think three of them are going to come out in 2023.”

    Kaneda@ 11:37 — Artist prominence signal; Franchi art appearing on multiple major 2023 releases (Godfather, Galactic Space Tank Force, others)

  • “If this game comes out and it is Baron and it is Godfather and it doesn't have much in it and it is $12,000 to $15,000, Jersey Jack Pinball's Godfather will be dead on arrival.”

Entities

KanedapersonGeorge GomezpersonEric MinierpersonPat LawlorpersonDennis NordmanpersonChristopher FranchipersonBrian Eddyperson

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Multiple major manufacturers (Stern, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Spooky, Pinball Brothers, Multimorphic) expected to announce/debut new titles at The Pinball Fest end of March 2023, creating unprecedented 'March Madness' release window.

    high · Kaneda's opening framing of March as convergence moment; specific games cited (James Bond 60th anniv, Godfather, Venom, Scooby-Doo, Galactic Space Tank Force, Queen Pinball); TPF timing stated as venue

  • ?

    product_concern: James Bond by Stern Pinball shipped with incomplete code; monthly incremental updates (0.84→0.86) rather than meaningful improvements; Stern conducting media interviews about plans instead of fixing the game.

    high · Kaneda: 'The game is incomplete. Every single month, we're just getting bread crumbs of code. We are not getting major code updates.' Also: 'For $10,000 premiums and $13,000 LEs, you should be embarrassed...'

  • $

    market_signal: James Bond LE models depreciating ~$4,000–$5,000 on day one; secondary market pricing $17,500–$17,500 (backdoor distributor deals) vs. $22,000 MSRP with tax; indicates poor post-launch confidence.

    high · Kaneda: 'If you bought this game directly from Stern Pinball for $22,000 with taxes, you just lost $5,000 on day one of buying this game.' Also: 'most of you are buying this game below map pricing because distributors are giving you backdoor deals at $17,500 or cheaper'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Day-one FOMO purchasing is dead in pinball market; games no longer sell out on pre-order; new benchmark is Godzilla quality standard; multiple 2023 pre-orders (Scooby-Doo, TNA, Toy Story 4) failed to sell out.

    high · Kaneda: 'The day one FOMO in pinball is dead. It is dead...Godzilla is the new bar.' Also cites failed sell-outs: Scooby-Doo, TNA, James Bond LE, Toy Story 4 'sales have been abysmal'

Topics

March 2023 Release Convergence ("March Madness")primaryJames Bond Code Quality and Pricing CritiqueprimaryJersey Jack Pinball's Godfather Design RiskprimaryAmerican Pinball's Galactic Space Tank Force as Breakthrough TitleprimaryBoutique Manufacturer Production and Staffing ChallengesprimaryFOMO-Driven Purchasing Decline in Pinball MarketprimaryPinball Game Pricing Inflation vs. Classic Game ValueprimaryChristopher Franchi's Rising Prominence as Artistsecondary

Sentiment

mixed(-0.15)— Kaneda expresses cautious optimism about upcoming releases (Galactic Space Tank Force, Venom, Scooby-Doo) but dominates with sustained criticism of Stern Pinball (James Bond pricing/code), Jersey Jack Pinball (Godfather risk, Toy Story 4 failure), and broader industry issues (inflation, boutique manufacturing unsustainability, FOMO death). Final segment pivots to philosophical acceptance and restraint, ending positively with TPF anticipation. Overall tone is skeptical and advisory rather than celebratory.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.089

0:00
If we were to pick a song that captures the vibe of 2022 pinball machines that we got put into the world, it would be this song. Love will abide, take things in stride. Sounds like good advice, but there's no one in my side. Oh my gosh, it was a bad year, but we're all hoping and praying that there's going to be some pinball madness in 2023 that brings our energy level to this.
0:38
Thunder! Thunder! Thunder! La Sera, Sera, Sera, Sera, Sera, Sera, Sera
1:16
episode, we're going to talk about March because March is shaping up to be pinball March madness. All of these companies, they're getting their games ready. They're sort of circling around the pinball world about to drop some bombs on top of all of us. And I don't think we've ever seen a month in years of pinball in which so much is going to collide all at once. And look, I hope I'm right because if we get to TPF at the end of March, I think we're going to see new offerings from Jersey Jack Pinball. We're going to see new offerings from American Pinball,
1:47
and we're going to see new offerings from Stern Pinball. Those are some heavy hitters in pinball all coming with new titles. We're going to see Queen Pinball from Pinball Brothers there. We're also going to see Scooby-Doo Pinball on the floor at TPF. What else is going to be there? Maybe there's going to be a Big Bang Bar remake or a Twilight Zone remake. We're going to see a lot of new pinball, and that's what we're going to talk about on this episode of Canada's Pinball podcast, is March going to be the definitive holy cow month in all of pinball of 2023? So let's talk about it right now, what's going on in the pinball world.

  • The day-one FOMO in pinball purchasing is dead; Godzilla is the new benchmark—games must match or exceed its quality to sell out immediately.

    medium confidence · Kaneda opinion based on recent sales data: 'Scooby-Doo did not sell out...TNA remake did not sell out...James Bond LE did not sell out...Toy Story 4 sales have been abysmal'

  • Cactus Canyon LE production by Chicago Gaming Company is proceeding at approximately 50 units per week, with over one year elapsed since pre-orders.

    low confidence · Kaneda estimates: 'I think they're making at best 50 a week'; explicitly framed as estimate

    • Kaneda@ 13:02 — Critical prediction: flags JJP Godfather as high-risk if mechanically sparse; threatens company credibility

  • “The fact that Brian Eddy couldn't use magnets in the Mandalorian to give us the use of the force in the Star Wars universe is the biggest miss and the saddest element of that game.”

    Kaneda@ 17:31 — Design critique: questions Brian Eddy's recent mech innovation; links to licensing constraints

  • “I'm not buying any of this stuff. Like, look, I know I just bought a Batman SLE. There's only 80 in the world. I spent $25,000 on it.”

    Kaneda@ 27:14 — Personal purchasing behavior; ultra-limited collectible (Batman SLE 80 units) justifies premium pricing vs. mass-produced titles

  • “When you try to set up your independent pinball manufacturing facility and you can't even make 500 games a year, that you are basically losing money.”

    Kaneda@ 24:26 — Manufacturing economics critique: suggests boutique model is unsustainable at current production volumes

    • Scott Deniseperson
    David Fixperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    American Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Multimorphiccompany
    Haggis Pinballcompany
    The Pinball Festevent
    James Bondgame
    Scooby-Doogame
    Godfathergame
    Galactic Space Tank Forcegame
    Venomgame
    Queen Pinballgame
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Tension between minimal, flow-focused design (Toy Story, Guns & Roses, rumored Godfather) vs. feature-packed, toy-heavy design (Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, Dialed In). Jersey Jack pivot to sparse designs correlates with designer turnover and Pat Lawlor's influence.

    medium · Kaneda: 'If you lift the hood on Guns and Roses and Toy Story 4...look how little is underneath those play fields compared to The Hobbit and Dialed In...Jersey Jack Pinball's...at a crossroads.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Pat Lawlor's departure from Jersey Jack Pinball noted as positive change; however, Kaneda speculates Lawlor's influence persists on Godfather design, constraining mechanical complexity despite Eric Minier's reputation.

    medium · Kaneda: 'I'm super happy he's gone.' Also: 'I just worry that Pat Lawler got to him on this game, right? In some mafia way, Pat Lawler whispered in Eric's ear...'

  • ?

    content_signal: Christopher Franchi's artwork appearing on at least 3 major 2023 releases (Godfather, Galactic Space Tank Force, potentially others); his prominence expected to rise significantly within community.

    high · Kaneda: 'Christopher Franchi is going to be the most popular guy in pinball pretty soon because he has done five pinball machines. I think three of them are going to come out in 2023.' Also notes 'Franchi versus Franchi' conflict between his two March releases

  • ?

    product_strategy: New 2023 games priced 40–50% higher than classic top-20 pinball games; fully-loaded premium versions exceeding $13,000; pricing diverging dramatically from secondary market used titles; creating affordability crisis for collectors.

    high · Kaneda: 'every new in box game coming out is competing against those games...every single new game coming out in 2023 will come out with a higher price tag than those top 20 games...40 to 50% more.' Scooby-Doo fully loaded $13,000 vs. used GNR LE $8,000

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Boutique manufacturers (Multimorphic, Haggis, Dutch Pinball, smaller shops) struggling with production capacity; long lead times (1+ year for Multimorphic P3); understaffed operations (<10 employees estimated); unable to sustain consistent labor due to parts delays.

    medium · Kaneda: 'Jerry, how many employees do you have at Multimorphic?' and 'when you try to set up your independent pinball manufacturing facility and you can't even make 500 games a year, that you are basically losing money. Like, how do you make money like that? And it all comes down to labor.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Distributors holding excess Toy Story 4 inventory; risk of inventory write-downs; distributors reluctant to buy additional stock from Jersey Jack Pinball after Toy Story 4 underperformance; cash flow impact on boutique manufacturers.

    medium · Kaneda: 'distributors who are sitting on all of these toy stories are not going to buy more games from JJP...you can't have two whiffs in a row because distributors just won't take more inventory from you'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Chicago Gaming Company (Cactus Canyon LE manufacturer) criticized for extremely poor communication with pre-order customers (1+ year delay); estimated production rate only 50 units/week; represents operational management failure.

    medium · Kaneda: 'it's been over a year since they took people's money on Cactus Canyon LEs...they're still not communicating how many they're making. I think they're making at best 50 a week...You can't move on to the next title, CGC, until you've made everybody whole here.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Rumor that Big Bang Bar trademark refiled by Planetary Pinball (works with Chicago Gaming Company); potential Big Bang Bar remake in development; unconfirmed speculation about other remakes (Twilight Zone, Dark Tour rumored).

    low · Kaneda: 'there's a rumor that maybe it's Dutch Pinball that's remaking Big Bang Bar...Maybe there's going to be a Big Bang Bar remake or a Twilight Zone remake.'

    • 2:19
    But before I talk about what's coming, we have to bring up what's not coming out in the pinball world anytime soon, and that is more Elvira games. George Gomez on an interview yesterday said that they are indefinitely delaying the next run of Elvira. He said it's not a priority and they have a lot more going on and he gets asked when there's going to be more Elviras and he does not have a date. And I know there are many of you out there who have Elviras on order and you've been waiting a really, really long time. The other part
    2:50
    about the Gomez interview that I really don't understand, and I love George Gomez, I respect George Gomez, but I'm just tired of hearing Stern Pinball and George Gomez talk to us about what they're planning to put into James Bond. I mean, how many times are we going to talk to George Gomez about James Bond. The game is incomplete. Every single month, we're just getting bread crumbs of code. We are not getting major code updates. And I would rather them just hit the grind, get the thing done, and stop doing all these micro code updates. Look, this is another
    3:25
    example of a game that's going to take a very long time to be code complete. And by the time the code is complete, trust me, by the time James Bond is done, I bet you Stern Pinball will have two more new games out in the world. It's probably going to be Venom and Foo Fighters, but please, Stern, enough with the media tour around James Bond. I don't need to hear any more about what your plans are. Get it done. For $10,000 premiums and $13,000 LEs, you should be embarrassed that you're putting a game out into the world that is this incomplete. You know what's not this
    4:00
    incomplete is Scooby-Doo. So hats off to Spooky, who has more code in Scooby-Doo than Stern does inside of freaking James Bond. Now, we're probably going to see James Bond's 60th anniversary editions hit the millionaire row this week, right? All you multi-millionaires who jumped into this game, congratulations. You are not better endowed because you bought this game. Nobody thinks you're cooler now. You simply showed Stern Pinball that they can give us an absolute joke of a pinball machine for $19,000, even though we know most of you are buying this game below map pricing
    4:36
    because distributors are giving you backdoor deals at $17,500 or cheaper. If you bought this game directly from Stern Pinball for $22,000 with taxes, you just lost $5,000 on day one of buying this game. And here's the craziest part about this game, and then we're going to move on to the March Madness stuff. Here's the craziest part. For $20,000, Stern Pinball will not show you a gameplay video of the game. They are not doing a dead flip stream before they took your money. And I mean this when I say it. For those of you who jumped in on this game and spent 20 grand
    5:10
    on a game in which you don't know what the gameplay really is like, you don't know what the code is, you don't know how many musical songs are going to be in the game, I think you were foolish and I think you sent a message to Stern Pinball that we do have a bunch of suckers that will buy Pinball Machine without requiring much value. Ed Robertson, put the phone down. Don't text me that fun equals value. We're not as wealthy as you. I wish when I looked at my checking account, it looked remotely, remotely similar to Ed Robertson's checking account. Ed,
    5:43
    we love you. We're so happy you're a club member. All right, let's talk about March Madness though, right? Let's get past the negativity. Kaneda, you're too toxic. How did you win five Twippies being so toxic? Let's talk about what we think is going to happen in March. What's going to be the winning predominant game? And here's the crazy part. Let's start with American Pinball because when I talk to people and I ask them, what pinball machine are you most excited to see? I actually hear a lot of people say the game they can't wait to see is this Dennis Nordman game from American Pinball.
    6:13
    And this game has been shown to people and I've heard that the game is pretty packed and loaded. I heard that the back of the playfield is loaded. Like it's like a 3D world that's shooting up towards the glass. I hear there's a big ramp that goes up the middle of the game. I hear that the cabinet is unique. I hear the artwork by Christopher Franchi is absolutely killer. So look, this game has a lot of people excited. This is going to be the moment in which American Pinball unveils a new game that I think they're finally, finally going to get the reception they've wanted
    6:46
    that they never got on any of their previous titles. Now, look, American Pinball is a company. For those of you who are new to the pinball scene, you don't remember this, but American Pinball started their company with John Papaduke, with J-Pop. And they finished the J-Pop Magic Girls, which they shipped to people in non-working order. It was an absolute joke of a build. But American Pinball partnered up with J-Pop. They gave him $350,000 to finish like 25 Magic Girls. And J-Pop was then going to do Houdini.
    7:19
    They showed the Houdini at a show. And everyone realized that none of the shots would work And it was another art project by J Then they got Joe Balser to fix Houdini Then they came out with Oktoberfest arguably the ugliest game in pinball history Then they came out with Hot Wheels that didn't have any loop-de-loops or jumps or car washes. And it just had a car that spun around and did absolutely nothing. And that game shot well, but it was an absolute empty, barren game. And then they came out with Legends of Valhalla. So American Pinball, as a pinball company, hasn't really had an exciting game ever.
    7:54
    And the only people that will tell you their games are exciting are distributors who need to sell them or David Fix himself. So here's why I'm excited for this Galactic Space Tank Force game. Because I think this game is going to be a more Bally Williams, Dennis Nordman kind of game. And I think it's going to have major mechs. I think it's going to have toys. I think it's going to have color. I think it's going to have like really fun call outs. I think it's going to be really campy. Because remember, this game is based on a 1950s era sort of sci-fi space battle thing.
    8:30
    So go back and look at 1950s like sci-fi movie posters. And I think that's what this game is going to look like. And I think when we see it, when they unveil this game, I think our eyes are going to go wide open. And I think we're all going to be open to possibly putting this into our pinball collection. And I mean it because some of these larger IP games, and I mean it when I say this, like James Bond and Toy Story, I think so many of us deep down, even though we want licensed themes that we love, we're so tired of getting these IP games that don't have the assets
    9:04
    we want. We're so tired of these compromises like Toy Story 4, total compromise on the license. James Bond, a licensing nightmare. They can't even get the code out because the license holder won't let them stack movies in the game. And it's all just a mess, right? We can go on and on and on on these IP games that often come up short. And when you work with an original game like this, there is no restrictions. There are no approvals you need to get. You can get as crazy and as zany and as campy and as crude and as rude as you want.
    9:38
    So I expect this game to have a ton, and I mean this, a ton of personality because they can go nuts. And we know Franchi's got a big personality. We know Dennis Nordman wants to make a statement with this game. So I am super excited to see this game. This is one of the most exciting games I'm waiting to see in a very long time. And I really hope American Pinball knocks it out of the park. I also think they're going to give this game for below $10,000. And I think they're going to give us a lot of value. Everybody, I hope you're sitting down. Do you know how much Scooby-Doo is? If you check every single option box on a Scooby-Doo, you get the butter cabinet, you get everything they offer for the game. It is coming in at an invoice price with shipping and tax. Scooby-Doo from Spooky Pinball is going to cost you over $13,000 for a Spooky Pinball machine. Total cost of ownership, right?
    10:34
    We have to start looking at these because I pay taxes on my games. I have to pay for shipping. And so these games are getting really, really expensive. I think people are sometimes forgetting that, right? The more expensive a game becomes and you add on that tax and you add on that shipping and all of a sudden you're half the price of a car on a single pinball machine. So that is why if we're going to spend this much money, the game has to blow us away. I really love the fact that pinball is this expensive now because there is absolutely zero room for mediocrity. All right, let's talk about what else might be coming in in Pinball's
    11:07
    March Madness. Jersey Jack Pinball, number eight, the worst kept rumor in all of pinball. It's going to be Godfather. It's going to be Eric Minier. It's going to be Christopher Franchi on artwork. Isn't this crazy? It's going to be Franchi versus Franchi, his Godfather versus his Galactic Space Tank Force game. And look, it wasn't supposed to be this way. Galactic Space Force was supposed to come out like in October and the fact that it's being delayed and now it's coming out at the same exact time as another Christopher Franchi game. I mean, Christopher Franchi is going to be the most
    11:42
    popular guy in pinball pretty soon because he has done five pinball machines. I think three of them are going to come out in 2023. All right, so Godfather is coming out from Jersey Jack pinball. Now, I have some bad news for each and every one of you. I've heard a rumor from someone who says they've played the game and they said that the game is more like a toy story than it is like a Wizard of Oz, than it is like a Pirates of the Caribbean. And so as I feared, and I don't know if this is true or not, so don't take my word for it. As I'm fearing, I think Pat Lawler still had
    12:16
    his thumb down on the design of this game. He was still in charge over at JJP when Godfather was developed. And so here's what I expect from this game. I expect one major mechanism in the game. I expect this game to be very flowy. I think Eric wants to prove he can make a fast game that flows very well, but I don't expect a ton in this game. And if you lift the hood on Guns and Roses and you lift the hood on freaking Toy Story 4, trust me, lift the hood on those two games
    12:47
    And look how little is underneath those play fields compared to The Hobbit and Dialed In and Wizard of Oz and their previous titles. So this company is now at a crossroads. And if this game comes out and it is Baron and it is Godfather and it doesn't have much in it and it is $12,000 to $15,000, Jersey Jack Pinball's Godfather will be dead on arrival.
    13:17
    And if this company comes out with two flops in a row, it is going to be a tragedy for them. And here's why. It's not because of you and me. It's because distributors who are sitting on all of these toy stories are not going to buy more games from JJP. I think that's the part everyone doesn't realize is you can't have two whiffs in a row because distributors just won't take more inventory from you. let alone the consumer and the pin side crowd that's going to come after you if you with a straight face try to sell them a barren Godfather for $15,000.
    13:54
    I am really curious how Jersey Jack's marketing is going to approach this game because Ken Cromwell is not listening to me. If this is in fact Godfather, they need to slowly release and tease this game. If they try to do another video where like a father and a son or some mafia video where they try to get us excited and then take our money non-refundable in one day. It's not going to work anymore, JJP. You need to stop thinking everything you have is just going to sell out on day one.
    14:26
    Trust me, the day one FOMO in pinball is dead. It is dead. And I know people are like, well, if it was a hot title, it wouldn't be. Sure, that hasn't been the case since Godzilla. So Godzilla is the new bar. Your game better be as good as Godzilla or better, or nobody's going to be throwing your money day one. Scooby-Doo did not sell out. It is still not sold out. TNA remake did not sell out James Bond L Lee did not sell out And we all know that Toy Story 4 sales have been abysmal Absolutely abysmal And so this is a big moment for Jersey Jack Pinball
    15:01
    And I will say this. There is one great hope I have and that is Eric Minier. I believe in Eric Minier. I think he's capable of magic. I just worry that Pat Lawler got to him on this game, right? In some mafia way, Pat Lawler whispered in Eric's ear, you're not putting that stuff into my company's game. And that's the vibe over at JJP when Lawler was there. And I'm super happy he's gone. And I think the game we're really going to see another loaded JJP game is going to be Steve Ritchie's first game. It is rumored to be Elton John.
    15:32
    I hope it's not Elton John. I think we need something with more action like a Top Gun or a Fifth Element or a Karate Kid. I just don't think Elton John is what people want. All right, so that's Jersey Jack entering the ring in this March Madness. Let's talk about Stern Pinball and Venom. Venom is coming out. Venom is Brian Eddy. Venom has been done for like over a year. It's going to be code complete. There's not going to be any of this James Bond shenanigans like every month we're at 0.84, 0.85, 0.86. No, it's going to be code complete and Venom is going to look absolutely stunning.
    16:06
    Zombie Eddy on artwork. It will look incredible. I don't consider Venom to be in a theme. I am curious how much Spider-Man makes his way into the game, which could be very, very cool. I also am curious, like, what the music is. Is it going to be Ozzy Osbourne? Is it going to have his music in the game? If it does, right, if Ozzy's music is throughout the Venom game, I think this game then starts to look a lot more appealing for a lot of people. So we shall see. Now, this game is coming out in March.
    16:38
    Stern is going to drop it on us by TPF. And the big question mark I have for Venom is like, what's the major mech going to be? I'm assuming it's going to be a big Venom head that like eats the balls and his tongue comes out. We shall see what Brian Eddy does. I will say this. Since Brian Eddy has been at Stern Pinball, the man who made Medieval Madness, right? The greatest mech in all of pinball, the Medieval Madness castle. I have not seen Brian Eddy do a mechanism yet while he's been at Stern that has been super impressive or super magical.
    17:11
    He just hasn't. Like, you could argue that maybe the projector on Stranger Things and the upside down UV kit, but that's not really like a mechanism that he engineered. He just dropped the projector into the game. They make those little mini projectors. So I am hoping this game has something more impressive. Then you look at Mandalorian, same thing, nothing really impressive. The fact that Brian Eddy couldn't use magnets in the Mandalorian to give us the use of the force in the Star Wars universe is the biggest miss and the saddest element of that game. I know
    17:44
    Mando shoots well. I know the geometry is great, but the Star Wars magic is not engineered into that game. The upper play field makes no sense. Why am I bashing the Mandalorian helmet? It doesn't connect at all to what goes on in this show. This is Brian Eddy's chance to give us something exciting in the Venom world. And because it's based on Venom comic book, I think the bomb is going to be higher for them to put into the engineering, right? Because they're not paying for movie rights. They're not paying a movie studio for like professional actors and all
    18:17
    their voices and likenesses. All of that money hopefully is going into the engineering of the game. All right. So we got Stern, we got Jersey Jack, we got American Pinball, and we got Spooky pinball all battling it out this March. Now, what about the outliers, right? We're going to have pinball brothers show up with Queen Pinball. And we know Queen Pinball has been on the line for a while and they're going to start making more of them. I just don't know. When we just talked about those other three games or four games coming out, I don't know how you look at Scooby-Doo, Venom,
    18:50
    you know, you can throw James Bond into the mix. How do you end up spending $10,000 on a Queen pinball machine. This game to me, when I look at it and I've seen gameplay and I look at the game, I just don't understand how you, with a straight face, write a check for 10 grand for this machine, especially when you can go get a used Guns N' Roses LE people for like $8,000. Like GNR LEs keep going down in price because they just made so many of them. I still think it's a better game
    19:23
    than Queen Pinball. Like it's far better executed on every single level. I mean, the answer is this. The only way you're going to buy Queen Pinball is if you're a humongous Queen fan. I mean, that's it. Here's my thing with Queen Pinball. I think the Pinball Brothers are going to have to make a certain amount of them. And I think if you wait, I would just pick this game up used. We all know that Queen Pinball in six months is going to be an $8,000 pin because it's just not going to last long in people's collections. Uh-oh, Canada, you can't tell people to wait and see. You're hurting
    19:55
    the livelihood of the distributors. What are you doing? So we've got Queen Pinball coming out. I think that game's going to be a miss. I don't think they're going to sell a lot of them. Dutch Pinball, nothing new. We know they're making more Lebowskis. They're working on the playfield issues with Mirko. They are most likely probably going to end up doing something. I don't know, maybe they remove the art from the post. Who knows? Like, it's really frustrating. We're here again with Mirko Playfields. I can't believe they're still in business. You know, there's a rumor that maybe it's Dutch Pinball that's remaking Big Bang Bar. So we saw on Naps Arcade
    20:27
    that Big Bang Bar, the trademark, was refiled by Planetary Pinball. Now, Planetary Pinball works with Chicago Gaming Company on all of their games, but I hear they're not happy with the delays over at Chicago Gaming Company. Is anybody happy with Chicago Gaming Company? I mean, the real question is this. Ryan White, are you guys even happy with yourselves? Like they should be really embarrassed how bad the communication is, how lame it's been since it's been over a year since they took people's money on Cactus Canyon LEs. And they're still not communicating how many they're making.
    21:02
    I think they're making at best 50 a week, which is a decent number. It's not a great number. And people are still waiting. Now, here's where people are going to get upset. If CGC announces they're making another game, if they're going to make Pulp Fictions as a Raw Thrills release, I think people are going to be so pissed off if they announce anything else at TPF before all of those freaking Cactus Canyon LEs are made. You can't move on to the next title, CGC, until you've made everybody whole here. Now, this is a big problem, right? Production is a big problem for
    21:35
    some of these boutique companies. I mean, let's look at Multimorphic. We now know that another game coming out is going to be Scott Denise is the creative director on the Multimorphic P3's next title. Are they going to reveal that at TPF, right? Could that be another game that's going to come out this March? The March Madness Canada's Pinball Spectacular. Anyway, and Scott Denise, you know, maker of TNA, maker of Rick and Morty Pinball, you know, Scott Denise, what's he going to do with Jerry's platform? You know, Scott's great with lights. He's great with music, but I'm
    22:08
    just curious what the theme is going to be, right? Like, what's he going to make this game that going to pull people in from a theme standpoint Now look P3 Multimorphic it still another scenario Multimorphic where it delays delays delays Like I think if you order a new system today like Jerry I want to give you or for your platform. The wait to get it is one year. One year. Jerry, do you even have anybody working on these games?
    22:38
    I bet the Multimorphic staff is like 10 people or less. Jerry, I'm going to challenge you right now. Somebody send this sound clip to Jerry. How many employees do you have at Multimorphic? Why is this all a mystery? I don't want to see photos of an empty factory with no people and just parts. It's what these companies always do. It's like, look how great production's coming along, and it's a bunch of boxes in playfields, and there's no people. At least Haggis showed us
    23:09
    a pair of shoes, like someone was hiding in the corner over at Haggis Pinball, like that's better than nothing. We know there's like 10 toes over at Haggis doing something, but these companies, it's like, how can you, when you know you have customers, when you know you have demand, how can you not afford to hire people to build the games? Now the answer is clearly this, the margins are not good at all. These tiny boutique companies can't survive and they can't pay people's salaries five days a week because there's too many delays in getting the parts.
    23:42
    And it begs the question, when are these boutique companies going to stop playing these silly games that they all want to set up their own manufacturing? It's about time these boutique companies got together. And I mean it, these tinier companies that are making 500 games or less a year. It's about time they got together and combined their efforts and made a single manufacturing facility that could have different products on different lines, but at least you can streamline the efforts a little bit more. Then you can have your employees doing work nonstop.
    24:16
    So you could have employees build some weird owls Monday through Wednesday and then build some like Legends of Valhalla Thursday and Friday. I don't know, but it just seems to me that when you try to set up your independent pinball manufacturing facility and you can't even make 500 games a year, that you are basically losing money. Like, how do you make money like that? And it all comes down to labor. They can't hire consistent labor because when there's a single delay, then what do you do? Your employees are sitting there
    24:47
    with their hands in their pockets and the money's going out the window. Like, I bet the same thing is happening over at Haggis. I bet they have less than 10 people making these games. I mean, they are trickling out. All right, do we miss anybody? We got American Pinball. We got Stern. We got JJP. We got Dutch. We got Pinball Brothers. Who are we missing? We got Multimorphic. Everything is about to happen. And all of a sudden, everyone's also realizing there is a global recession that is hitting. I hope all of us out there, by the time we get to March, April, I hope we all still have our jobs. I hope we all still have our income. I hope your housing
    25:22
    prices don't plummet. I hope everything remains somewhat steady so we can spend our hard-earned money on another pinball machine that you know you don't need. See, this is what I love. This is not a negative message. We don't need more pinball machines. We need more great pinball machines. That is my point of view. If you're not making a magical game, if you're not making a game that raises the bar somehow, then just stop with all of it because it makes no sense. Why would I spend
    25:54
    $10,000 to $15,000 on a game that's not as good as the tens of thousands of games that are available out there for sale at any time that we know are good, right? I see more and more people trading games, doing deals for old games they know are great. Like, Metallica's not going to stop being a great game. Lord of the Rings will always be great. Like, people know this. You know what I'm saying? Like, a great pinball machine is a great pinball machine forever. It's like when a movie is great. There are just so many classic pinball machines. And if you go on the pin side, top 20
    26:29
    games, right? If you look at the top 20 games in all of pinball history, they're all phenomenal games. And every single new in box game that comes out is competing against those games. And here's the scary part. And this is the part that is making some of these distros very triggered and very angry at Canada. Because if you look at every new in box game coming out, every single game coming out in 2023 will come out with a higher price tag than those top 20 games and not
    27:01
    just by a little, a lot. Like some of these games are going to come out at 40 to 50% more than those games cost us just a few years ago. And that is why, and I know some of you listening to this are feeling this way. That is why a lot of us are like, I'm not buying any of this stuff. Like, look, I know I just bought a Batman SLE. There's only 80 in the world. I spent $25,000 on it. But think about it like this. If Scooby-Doo fully loaded, right, is $13,000 and there might be 1969 of them
    27:36
    available, you're telling me that Batman is not worth twice as much as that? When you look at it through that context, Batman feels like a $40,000 pinball machine because there's only 80 on planet earth. And that's how collectability works. And look, I think a lot of us are realizing this. The collectible pinball space is not as fun as it used to be. And a lot of us are getting a lot more enjoyment now in pinball by simply playing our games, going over to friends' houses more,
    28:06
    going to bars and locations that have pinball, and listening to pinball podcasters, and hanging out with pinball personalities on social media like Facebook live chats. I think a lot of us are getting our pinball kicks now without diving into our wallets and spending $10,000 to $15,000 every few months. And this is the message that I know the salespeople don't want you to hear, the manufacturers don't want you to hear, but what if all of us collectively woke up and said, hey, I'm not going to buy anything next year. I'm going to wait and see how all these games pan out
    28:38
    because imagine this, come 2024, all of those games that come out this year, they will be available in 2024 for less money than they are new. And I know the tide has shifted and people don't want Canada to tell you this stuff, but you know how liberating it is in life when you wake up and you say one simple thing to yourself. I'm extremely happy with what I have. I don't need any more. The only way I'm going to add more to my life, if it's truly, truly worth it. Everybody,
    29:13
    Thank you for being a member of the Canada Club. More great shows coming. I can't wait to go to TPF in March. I can't wait to hang with you guys. We're going to drink beers. We're going to have a good time. And we're going to win that six Twippy for favorite pinball podcaster. Later.