Here's What Happened In 2025 In Pinball

Tim Sexton·video·19m 22s·analyzed·Jan 5, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

2025 marked industry consolidation around quality, JJP's Harry Potter breakout, Spooky's resurgence, and American Pinball's collapse.

Summary

Tim Sexton provides a comprehensive 2025 pinball industry retrospective covering major releases, manufacturer developments, and community trends. Key themes include American Pinball's collapse and staff layoffs, Spooky Pinball's successful Evil Dead launch and FOMO resurgence, Jersey Jack's breakthrough with Harry Potter becoming the de facto game of the year, Stern's mixed performance with Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, and Barrels of Fun's emergence as a serious competitor with two strong releases (Dune and Winchester Mystery House). The video emphasizes code quality as critical to game success and highlights shifting manufacturing dynamics with Texas becoming a secondary development hub.

Key Claims

American Pinball laid off its entire development team in 2025
high confidence · Tim Sexton opens the video with this as the first major industry event; describes it as part of American Pinball's broader business challenges after a string of mediocre games
Evil Dead shipped in 2025 and secondary market values climbed as more machines arrived
high confidence · Tim Sexton detailed account of Evil Dead's shipping cycle, noting pre-order spots began selling above MSRP instead of below—a reversal of typical Spooky pattern
Harry Potter is the likely game of the year for 2025
high confidence · Tim Sexton explicitly states: 'If there wasn't a front runner for game of the year in 2025, this is it' and calls it the #1 game pinball players wanted
Winchester Mystery House sold out within 48 hours at Pinball Expo
high confidence · Tim Sexton reports the 525-unit limited production was entirely sold out within 48 hours of announcement at Expo
Star Wars: Fall of the Empire felt underdeveloped at launch
medium confidence · Tim Sexton compares it to King Kong, noting both games 'felt a bit underdeveloped when it launched' and references his policy of not streaming unfinished games
Dungeons & Dragons features Stern Insider Connected progress tracking that can be viewed in the app
high confidence · Tim Sexton initially says the app feature wasn't available, then re-records to confirm it exists but is difficult to find (in Trophy Room > Progress tab)
Portal Pinball introduced two major innovations for the P3 platform: screen-based simulated inserts and shots above the screen
high confidence · Tim Sexton explicitly describes these as 'two massive innovations' addressing P3's design limitations
Texas is becoming a secondary geographic hub for pinball development with companies like Turner Pinball and Barrels of Fun
medium confidence · Tim Sexton humorously notes 'a little-known state called Texas' is hosting emerging pinball manufacturers beyond the traditional Midwest centers

Notable Quotes

“If you have a monster game, you can then absolutely ball out and build yourself the second largest shiny sculpture in Cook County, Illinois. But if you have a game that's not so great, let alone a string of mediocre games, then it can be challenging to get your business going.”
Tim Sexton@ 1:01 — Frames the economics of the pinball business and explains why American Pinball failed despite existing infrastructure
“The game feels solid. It's held up through constant play in multi-day tournaments. There are a few awkward return angles, especially off the left orbit... The game is genuinely fun to play, and it has very good lighting and shaker effects.”
Tim Sexton@ 4:25 — Personal assessment of Evil Dead's quality and reliability, establishing it as a technical standout for the boutique manufacturer
“It's Harry Potter. It's like the number one game that pinball people wanted since Harry Potter came out was Harry Potter and then Jersey Jack did Harry Potter and it's Harry Potter and it's fun.”
Tim Sexton@ 11:40 — Comedic but pointed summary of the Harry Potter phenomenon and the pent-up demand for this specific IP
“If there wasn't a front runner for game of the year in 2025, this is it.”
Tim Sexton@ 13:30 — Explicit declaration of Harry Potter as GOTY frontrunner despite launch controversies
“It turns out that the difference between a game being fun and not comes down to the code.”
Tim Sexton@ 16:46 — Key industry insight about code quality as critical to game success; references Lyman Sheets improvements

Entities

Tim Sextonperson American PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyBarrels of Funcompany

Signals

?
business_signal: American Pinball laid off entire development team in 2025; business model and production status now unclear despite claims of continued operations
high · Tim Sexton opens with this as first major industry event; notes team was forced to abandon tools they hadn't developed; company showed up to Pinball Expo with non-pinball product
?
product_launch: Evil Dead shipped throughout 2025 creating reverse FOMO cycle where secondary market values climbed instead of depreciated; pre-order spots sold above MSRP
high · Tim Sexton detailed account of typical Spooky launch patterns being broken; wanted ads appeared across community for Evil Dead machines; limited 888-unit production and shipping timeline
~
sentiment_shift: Jersey Jack elevated from 'bridesmaid' position to market leader status based on Harry Potter breakthrough success
high · Tim Sexton uses bridesmaid-to-bride metaphor; notes this is 'the bride this year' with hit game; Harry Potter positioned as de facto GOTY
?
design_philosophy: Portal Pinball introduced screen-based simulated inserts and above-screen shot capability as major innovations for P3 platform design constraints
high · Tim Sexton describes these as 'two massive innovations that changed everything for P3'; explains how they address P3's back-of-machine-only design limitation
$
market_signal: Texas emerging as secondary geographic hub for pinball development with Turner Pinball, Barrels of Fun, and others decentralizing from traditional Midwest manufacturing centers

Topics

American Pinball's business collapse and staff layoffsprimaryEvil Dead's exceptional secondary market appreciation and FOMO cycle reversalprimaryHarry Potter as game of the year and breakthrough IP success for Jersey JackprimaryCode quality and remasters as critical competitive factorprimaryBarrels of Fun's emergence as serious Texas-based competitorprimaryStern's mixed 2025 performance across multiple releasessecondaryAI art controversy in Harry Potter launchsecondaryTexas as emerging secondary pinball manufacturing hubsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.75)— Tim Sexton frames the video as 'positive' and maintains optimistic tone despite documenting American Pinball's failures and problematic launches. Critical observations are tempered with humor. Strong enthusiasm for Evil Dead, Harry Potter, and Barrels of Fun's success. Some skepticism about Star Wars and King Kong development quality, but contextualized as industry growing pains. Closing remarks emphasize exciting future ahead for 2026.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

This is a positive video about the interesting and exciting developments in the pinball industry in 2025. Starting with the laying off of the entire development team at American Pinball. All right, so nobody thinks pinball is easy. Well, except for one guy, and he's on trial right now, but that's a separate video. So, pinball is easy is just everything that goes into pinball's complex and hard. What everyone else thinks is that designing pinball is an expensive and timeconsuming and often risky process that involves investing millions of dollars in the design and development of games, let alone building out a factory, ordering the parts, and getting a team in place to actually sell them. Now, if you have a monster game, you can then absolutely ball out and build yourself the second largest shiny sculpture in Cook County, Illinois. But if you have a game that's not so great, let alone a string of mediocre games, then it can be challenging to get your business going. So, when it came to American Pinball, this was a company that had been around for quite some times and released a handful of games, but this team was really American Pinball 2.0 as the original team that put together games like Houdini and October Fest and their best game ever, Hot Wheels, which sits at 120 in the pinside top 100. But after this team departed, a new team came in and had to inherit tools that none of them had developed. This American Pinball 2.0 team got games like Galactic Tank Force and Barry O's Barbecue Challenge out, but for some reason or another, the leadership team at American decided they would get rid of them, but keep pinball going. It's a bit unclear. But this year, American Pinball showed up at Pinball Expo with something that clearly was not a pinball machine and wasn't even really a ski ball machine. Now, your guess is as good as mine for what the business plan of American is going forward without anyone actually working there in developing pinball machines. They claim they're still around and producing games, but it doesn't look like anything new is on the horizon. At the end of 2024, Spooky Pinball announced a horror themed game, surprise, surprise, based on Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. And those of us who have been around in the pinball industry for a while kind of know how the spooky launch cycle usually plays out. Their game launches are often met with lots of praise because their games look packed with sculpts and upper and lower playfields, extra flippers, and all the innovative mechs you could ever dream of. Typically, the games sell out instantly. The website crashes. People have to phone squirrel and try to get their spot in line only to be met with dial tones. [music] But as the year progresses, people who have paid for their spooky deposit spots often get cold feet and start trying to sell these spots for a discount. This usually means that people can jump in line, grab a certain spot for a little undercost, and save a bit of money when buying the pinball machine. But this time it was different. As Evil Dead started shipping throughout 2025, people were selling their pre-order spots for more than they had paid. And as more and more people receive their games, they were starting to say that it was actually really good. Limited to only 888 machines, FOMO started rocketing off the charts as more and more people who had patiently waited with their pre-order spot got their games. And as we got through the year and those people were no longer selling their spots because the secondary market value of their Evil Dead games was climbing higher and higher, wanted ads started to appear all over the place for Evil Deads. Now, I've played this game a couple times, and let me tell you, it's actually pretty good. The game feels solid. It's held up through [music] constant play in multi-day tournaments. There are a few awkward return angles, especially off the left orbit, to try to cram as much in as possible. And yes, some of the shot angles are a bit awkward and unconventional. After all, they've replaced the right slingshot with a flipper. The game is genuinely fun to play, and it has very good lighting and shaker effects. [music] And then we had Stern's early 2025 release of Dungeons and Dragons. A choice that made perfect sense because the Ven diagram showing the group of Dungeons and Dragons players is a gigantic circle with the group of pinball enthusiasts being a small tiny circle that fits almost entirely inside it. And while there was a previous Dungeons and Dragons game that was a huge flop for Bali, this game came out really solid out of the gate with a massive lineup of speech talent and artists and a development team that was genuinely super enthusiastic and passionate about the title. and they delivered a truly innovative experience by merging the world of Stern's Insider Connected with progress that players can carry over from game to game. The Dungeons and Dragons game randomizes the dungeons every week, giving you a fresh play experience every week you play. Plus, your progress carries over on your characters, allowing you to level up your characters, gain trinkets, and unlock new characters that you can play in the game. And the cool thing is you could actually see this on your Stern Insider connected app. Just open up the app, navigate to games, view all games, head to Dungeons and Dragons, and then scroll down until you see your go to view all scores, and then go over to Okay, so when I was making this video, I genuinely thought that this was part of the app. And I figured out why. because I had actually seen a video Stern put out in August that advertised that these features were coming, but it looks like it's still not out. I believe Stern will deliver this one day on the Insider Connected app, but as of right now, the end of 2025, it's not available yet. It'd be cool if you could see it. It still works in the game. It works fine, but yes, the app part of it does not work. The game part works. The app part does not work. All right. So, I'm actually re-recording this part because it turns out it's actually in the app. It's just almost impossible to find. So, you do go to the Dungeons and Dragons page. You do go to view all scores. The four tabs on the top. When you click on trophy room, suddenly this progress tab appears. You click on that. And hey, look, I have my character. But, uh, there's no other way to navigate other than exit and start over. It's in there. You can see it. I don't know if anyone knows this, but I found it. So, yeah. There you go. It's in the app. Moving on to our first video game license of 2025. I wonder if that will become a trend. Anyhow, it's Portal Pinball based on the Valve firsterson platforming franchise. Yes, it's a franchise if Valve releases two games. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with the P3 platform, basically the idea is that you can design a new game by designing just the back of the game. Now, shoving all of your shots to the back of the game can be quite limiting for a game designer. But luckily, Portal Pinball had two massive innovations that changed everything for P3. First, they used the screen to put inserts, well, simulated inserts on the playfield. And then, they added a kit that allows you to put shots above the screen. I know what you're thinking. This is what all pinball machines already had. But for P3, I would call this a cool step in the right direction of making pinball more like pinball. Secretly, a second geographic hub of pinball development is forming in a littleknown state called Texas. [screaming] And slowly but surely, more and more pinball companies have emerged in this state, [music] including Turner Pinball, who have announced their second game, Merlin's Arcade. That's all I have on that. Also, there's this little company called Barrels of Fun, who following upon their freshman effort with Jim Henson's Labyrinth, have gone with a more contemporary Hollywood theme of Dune. [music] Now, Dune plays and looks much better than Labyrinth, but there wasn't as much hype around this game, it seemed. I have a theory that this is because the pinball community is not ready to forgive Timothy Shalomé for his alleged role in creating a chlamydia outbreak on the campus of NYU in the early 2010s. But overall, the game is fun and it's got some really great lighting in the cabinet. But little did the pinball community know that [music] at this point this game would not be Barrel's only release in 2025. But we'll get to that later. Who likes talking about unlicensed pinball machines? Show of hands. [cheering] Who likes buying unlicensed pinball machines? Show of hands. Yes, that's right. Stern's second game release of 2025 was King Kong. Not the 1933 version, not the 1976 version, and certainly not the 2005 version. It was actually based on, well, [music] none of those. just the story of a found giant primate that gets shipped to Manhattan and reres havoc. And this was the Elwin game of 2025. [music] Team Elwin had just made Jaws in 2024, which was easily one of the most desired pinball licenses according to the community. So, what better way to follow up on the success of doing a major franchise with tons of sequels than by doing something that didn't have anything to pull from? And this certainly got a lot of people talking about who is making these game title decisions. Um, yeah, I wonder. Yeah, that's crazy, man. I don't know who is making those decisions. This is a positive video. So, there's a lot of cool stuff about this game, namely the layout and mechanisms. There's a flipping subway [music] car. There's a big Kong in the corner of the playfield. But, it also felt a bit underdeveloped when it launched. So, back before my ongoing 8-year stint in the pinball industry, I used to stream games. And when I did, I refused to stream games that weren't done. I just felt like it wasn't fair to the community and the design team to put out an incomplete vision of the product. That's where I'll leave this section. It's Harry Potter. They did it. Jersey Jack did. They did Harry Potter. It's Harry Potter. It's like the number one game that pinball people wanted since Harry Potter came out was Harry Potter and then Jersey Jack did Harry Potter and it's Harry Potter and it's fun. Like it's a good game, but it's Harry Potter. Like, it's got Harry Potter. It's got the movies. It's got everything. It's Harry Potter. It wasn't super smooth sailing for Jersey Jack. The release of Harry Potter was marred by two controversies. Now, the one is obvious. It's the controversy surrounding the comments JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, has made online and in person. These statements have marred the release of all kinds of Harry Potter products, not least of which are the massive Harry Potter theme parks they've built around the world. But they keep building them because I mean it's Harry Potter. It's still, you know, it's a cool story. It's like it's a whole wizarding world that no one knows about. It's like under our noses and you just run straight into the wall and then you're on a train. It's it's cool. You know, it's Harry Potter. The second acute controversy of this launch was the alleged use of AI in creating some of the art for the game. People with a keen eye notice some inconsistencies on the playfield, like a dragon with too many eyes and a ribbon that emerged from Ron Weasley's number two. Ultimately, neither of these things seemed to have affected the game launch too much because I mean, it's Harry Potter. People have wanted Harry Potter since there's been Harry Potter and now there's Harry Potter. It's finally Harry Potter, guys. There's a Harry Potter game. Like, it's it's Harry Potter. You can go play it. You can play Quidditch. You can hit the Death Eaters. You can do potions class. You can go through the semester. There's lots of footage, lots of music, lots of great sounds, lots of great graphics. It's Harry Potter. It's a pinball Harry Potter. If there wasn't a frontr runner for game of the year in 2025, this is it. This is It's Harry Potter. But then if there's one franchise that could be bigger in pinball than Harry Potter, well, it could be Star Wars. And as rumors swirled that Stern was working on another Star Wars game, people got very excited. Lots of people hoped it would be kind of like while other people were hoping it would be a lot more like but it turns out that Star Wars was a lot more like this launch was a launch of a Star Wars game that had Star Wars stuff in it and Spike 3. Who's Spike 3, guys? [music] So, Star Wars: Fall of the Empire was set to be the feature game at Pinball Expo in October until suddenly out of nowhere, Barrels of Fun announced a brand new game, Winchester Mystery House. Now, it was news to me, but the Winchester Mystery House is a real house, a big house, and a weird house in San Jose, California, owned by the Winchester family, who you may know from the Winchester line of rifles and firearms. The game leans into a haunted house theme where the player explores different rooms and mysteries around the house. Our tour begins here in the foyer. But don't take it from me because for the rest of this section I will do the facts about this game in the voice of the narrator of Winchester Mystery House. This game designed by Carl D'Python Anghelo, a top tournament player from Southern California, who is known for running in disk with Jim Belto and Jay Collins. This game was limited to 525 units and it sold out within 48 hours. And yes, it is now impossible to get one unless you can buy a spot from someone else or organize a deal to get one when it's shipped. The game received extremely positive reception over the Pinball Expo weekend and looks to be a huge winner for Barrels of Fun. On the heels of the exciting news that Barrels of Fun had not one but two new game announcements in 2025, Play Mechanics and Chicago Gaming Company teamed up to announce absolutely nothing new. All right. Well, that's not entirely true because in 2025, Chicago Gaming Company finally started shipping the Cactus Canyon Lyman Sheets kits. Yeah, I know this was announced in 2021 and this is ancient history as far as pinball announcements go, but hey, it finally was playable in 2025. And sure enough, this code makes the game way better. But it was a pretty low bar to clear when it came to Cactus Canyon. So yeah, it turns out that the difference between a game being fun and not comes down to the code. Who would have thought? Winning Expo seems to be a big theme among pinball buyers and pinball companies right now. Everyone wants to go to Pinball Expo in the Chicago area with a really cool game and win the show. Now, you don't actually win anything of material value. You just get a lot of kudos. And Stern got those kudos in 2024 when they brought out Metallica Remastered to Expo, featuring beautiful handdrawn artwork by Ree Cooper, tons of new songs, new concert footage, and all new animations. Stern seemed to decide to continue their remastered line by once again C andVing Lyman Sheets code in The Walking Dead. But this one didn't go over so well. It is new and I'm sure there's plenty of time for this game to become more like the existing game, but Stern did not get this out for expo. And had they gotten it out for expo, well, they still would have been trounced by Winchester. So, what happened with this release? You know, if only I happened to know someone who used to work at the company and might have some insight into the process and the decisions being made there. But guess there's just no way to know because this is a positive video. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Everyone's talking about Beetlejuice. The latest announcement from Spooky Pinball. And Spooky's hot right now. They're coming right off of Evil Dead. And they've unveiled this game that is packed with sculpts and miniatures and it's the spooky plan. It's sold out. A thousand games, spots, all gone instantly. So, we're just going to have to see over the year what happens. Is this going to be another hit game following up on Evil Dead? Is Spooky really getting ahead? Or are we going to see some pre-order spots start to go for a little bit under MSRP? No matter what, we can see that 2026 is going to be an exciting year for pinball. We have lots of pinball companies right now releasing lots of different products. And there have been some big changes around quality and what people want. Jersey Jack, along the bridesmaid, looks to be the bride this year with the hit Harry Potter game. While everyone's favorite pluckucky upstart darlings at Spooky have a winner on their hands right now. And then there's like a bunch of other companies trying to make stuff. So yeah, we'll see what happens.