I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn't even matter. I had too far to lose it all, but in the end, it doesn't even matter. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Ah, it doesn't even matter. You know, we're living in a new world, people. If you have an opinion about something, you probably will formulate it way too early. You'll make big proclamations. Other people will have strong opinions about these pinball machines, and it doesn't even matter. You're not going to change their opinion, and they're not going to change your opinion. I've never seen such a crazy community as I am right now. I think I've been pretty fair on Harry Potter. I've been saying it looks like the game shoots really well. It does. I think Jersey Jack fanboys finally, finally don't have to apologize for gameplay. And when the gameplay is on par with the Stern machine, then Jersey Jack just clobbers Stern because everything else is so much nicer. Everything else is so much nicer. You cannot even think that's a subjective thing. And we're going to talk about Harry Potter and King Kong and Empire State Buildings. And Predator is going to be out in like eight or nine days. In eight days, we're going to see Predator without Arnold. We're seeing Barrels of Fun is adding accessory packages to Dune Pinball. Will that move units? I just want to say I love this hobby. You know, who was that politician that said this? I love, no, it was Steve Ballmer. I love this company. That's what I feel like when Harry Potter came out this week because I love this hobby. It gets everybody so fired up. I've got Billy Boeing Brandis right now in my WhatsApp chat blowing up, telling me how he ordered two Harry Potter machines, one for each of his homes. And he's trying to get it earlier. And he's like played it half the day. And he's never played another machine before in his entire life that made him want to come back for more. Really, Bill? Really? You've never played another machine that made you want to come back for more? And he's funny because he's like, I'm playing Harry Potter, Chris. And the world just keeps changing under glass. And then I write back to him. I'm like, Bill, what's changing under glass? And then I don't get any response that's answering that direct question. And then he's telling me how they're going to have all the assets. You're going to be able to play all the movies. If you want to watch the movies, this game will let you do that. and then he's ragging on King Kong saying how it sucks this and that and I love this I love these extremes somewhere in the middle right is where truth lies and maybe there is no truth in pinball but it sure is exciting to watch these new games come out so here's my thing I think overall King Kong is not as bad as people are saying it is right now and Harry Potter is not as incredible as everybody is saying it is right now. Now, let's start with King Kong, for example, because I saw on Naps Arcade, there was, I think it was like a seminar or something about the making of King Kong. Maybe it was at the Northwest Pinball Show. And I am absolutely shocked that they revealed to everybody in the world that Stern Pinball decided not to license the Empire State Building. why would they in a million years ever say that to the pinball buying community which right now is very skeptical that stern pinball is cutting corners stern pinball is overpriced and stern pinball doesn't go the extra mile to put everything they need into a game why would you say that attached to a King Kong game in which you licensed nothing but the name. You didn't license the image of King Kong. You didn't license any of the movie clips of King Kong. And yet you're charging us $13,000 for a King Kong machine. Meanwhile, we bought a Star Wars machine from Stern Pinball just a few years ago that had all the assets, all the movie clips, the theme song, and it was much cheaper than King Kong. This is the problem now at Stern. They have a bullseye on their back. And people are looking at their games now, and they're scrutinizing them in a way in which they didn't normally do it. And I think Stern was foolish, right? I do. I think they were foolish. I think over the years, they should have acquired some of their competition. They didn't. I think over the years, they should have been more aggressive on securing the licenses people want. They didn't get Harry Potter. They didn get Back to the Future They got John Wick and Venom What happened What happened in the licensing and merchandising department And then you gonna make King Kong and get absolutely no assets And then you're gonna tell people that. This is really the sign of a company that does need a little bit of a reset. And it's not happening at a great time because I'm hearing the price increase is gonna be $500 on every single Stern game moving forward. And I hope it's Star Wars, But still, $13,500 for a Stern machine without a topper, without accessories. Really bad sign over at Stern. And hey, Harry Potter, people. Harry Potter for $10,000 and it's the entire game mechanically is the best bang for the buck in all of pinball right now. They spent millions on the license. It's got a lot in it. I think it maybe has too much in it. But you can't look at Harry Potter for 10 G's and say you're getting more in a Stern premium. You can't say you're getting more in a barrels of fun Dune machine. I mean, David David Van Es was hitting hard on how we're giving you the most value in all of pinball right now. I don't know, David. Harry Potter is thousands of dollars cheaper than your game. It's a more expensive IP than Dune. it's a way more popular theme than Dune and the way the game shoots I think people are gonna say that Harry Potter has a lot more in it I get you got the worm mech which is more magical and wow than anything in Harry Potter but again I think Harry Potter is the sum of its parts and I think the sum of its parts are making people feel more wow when they stand over the machine than people will feel when they stand over Dune. And I would just hate to be any game trying to sell me on value now with Jersey Jack giving you this game for 10 Gs. The one thing I'm curious about with Jersey Jack is unlike Stern, when are they going to get to these games on the line, the $10,000 versions, I have to assume that Jersey Jack is now sitting on thousands of orders for Harry Potter. Even without playing it, this game is bringing a lot of orders. Now, how many games a week can Jersey Jack make? It feels like if I were them, they need to have like two shifts during the day, a day shift and a night shift. Just keep the factory on. Keep them cranking out these games because I think on a good week, it's like maybe 100 to 150 games. It's not nearly as many as Stern Pinball cranks out. And so they're going to make collector's editions first. Then when are they going to get to wizard editions? Then when are they going to get to the arcade editions of the game. So I think the wait for Potter is going to solidify a lot of short-term value in these games. And I almost feel like if you bought a CE for 15 and people want it really bad right now, they probably will pay over to get the game right away. But I'm noticing a real sort of shift right now in pinball. And I can't tell which way it's going to go. I really can't. Now, I do think that we're going to redefine what we mean by a packed game. I don't think it's just about the mechanicals. I think it's about the total package, assets, music, lights, mechs, diverters, because Harry Potter does prove to me that you don't need to load a game up with a lot of complex wow mechanisms because there's nothing in the game mechanically that is really a wow. There's not. There's not even like a light show that's a wow like Guns N' Roses and yet people are standing over the game and saying it's packed. Now is that a subjective thing? I'm asking you guys directly is that a subjective thing? Is this game packed and what is our new definition of packed? And I think this is the end result of what's been brewing in pinball for many many years. I think Zach Many coined this like years ago. Shots are the new toys in pinball. And if people are standing over this game and saying it's packed because there's a lot of different ball paths and the ball can go in a lot of different ways. And as Bill Brandis was just saying, the world is constantly changing under the glass. And I'm like, nothing's changing under the glass other than a diverter. I mean, have we forgotten games like Doctor Who? Have we forgotten games like Godzilla where there's actually physical things changing in front of your eyes. And it's not really happening here, but just enough of it is happening. The one question I still have, though, when I'm looking at Harry Potter gameplay, where is the wow? Like, what does the ball ever do that makes you go, wow, that's magical. I don't see it. I don't know. Am I being too critical? People are mad at me, by the way like these harry potter fanboys you know a lot of them don't listen to my show and i think what's happening is they're seeing the title of my podcast and my titles are meant news flash to be a little clickbaity i trying to get new people to sign up for the show so i be like Harry Potter polarizing pinball machine And then you listen to my show and I not slamming the game I'm not indicting it. I'm giving a very thought out opinion about what I like and don't like about the game so far. I'm very honest about the fact that I haven't played it. I'm hoping to play it today. I hope Mike at Automated gets it. But I'm not coming out and saying, hey, the game shoots like crap. Hey, the game's no fun. I haven't said any of those things. And so it's real easy to put like words in my mouth and try to say Kenaid is the negative Nancy. But the reason why you're here, the reason why this is the most fun place to be, it's still the only place that's somewhat balanced around this game. And so I look forward to playing it. I know it's going to be fun. When you stand over a Jersey Jack machine, just standing over one, it's an occasion. And the reason why it's an occasion is everything else in pinball just looks really cheap in comparison. everything else. Nothing can hold a candle to how nice a Jersey Jack platform is. And it's weird that no one else can even get close. Like they don't really even get close to how beautiful a Jersey Jack machine is. Everyone's prices have got real close to Jersey Jack pricing, but still no one else delivers a total package like JJP. My biggest fear always with Jersey jack machines. It's never that they're not beautiful. It's never that they're not stunning, but they're just a little soulless at the end of the day. It's why I don't trust people's opinion after playing it for the first time, because Kerry Hardy has no idea what he's doing when he's playing it yet. He's just taking in the gameplay and the overall stunning nature of the game. Bill Brand is same thing. Nobody's really spent an intimate week or two with the game. All right, That's going to come later on. So everybody's in the honeymoon phase. And in the honeymoon phase, it's like I said, Jersey Jack is the sexiest woman on the planet, right? You just married a bombshell and you want it to be amazing and you think she's going to be the best in bed. And sometimes maybe it works out. But historically speaking, Jersey Jack machines have been beautiful women that are horrible in the sack. And that's just the way it's been. So hopefully this changes that. But I don't think most people would disagree with that. And if your kids are listening, I'll leave it to your parents to explain what that metaphor just meant. All right. So more to come as the Potter debate rages on. It doesn't matter. They're selling a million of these things. I do think Jersey Jack should make a new topper for the CE. It's atrocious. I also think it would have been awesome if the artist that did the cabinet for the CE also did the art package on the CE playfields. So the whole thing captured the magic of that artistic style. It looks a little, you know, it looks a little off. You know, the arcade and wizard editions are much more cohesive. But man, they all look good. They all look good. They all look good. And they're going to sell a ton. The topper is atrocious. Eric should be embarrassed. He was known for his toppers. I don't know what Eric was doing, how he guided the topper. Like, what was the brief to make that topper? who even made it. It is absolutely terrible. High school students could have came back with a better topper after a month. And I think it's like putting the ugliest spoiler on a beautiful Porsche. Like what the heck were you thinking, guys? I think they should not make these toppers. Only a handful have gone out. I would not ship any future CEs with them. And I would let people know that we are going to make a nicer topper. We heard the feedback. Do you really want this game's going to be in people's homes for decades? Do you really want that always to be the rod and cherry on top of your beautiful Sunday? What an atrocious thing that is. I don't think I've seen a worse topper considering the subject matter than that Harry Potter topper. It doesn't even look like the damn castle. All right. So we've got these accessories for Dune that are coming out. It's a shooter rod. It's also all these plastics. They're sort of copying what Alice did with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where Melvin got Leor to make those sculpts. Very similar, adding world elements and 3D sculpted stuff on top of the plastics. We're also going to get a shooter rod handle that looks like the knife from the Dune movies. How much is all of this going to cost? Because remember, like, we still don't have the Dune topper either. So how much all in will Dune be with the topper, these accessories, and when will Dune be finished? You can't say you've got the best value in pinball until we're done tallying up how much everything's going to be when all is said and done. For Jersey Jack, there's nothing to add. You get everything for this edition for 15, everything here for 12, and everything here for 10. That's it. They're not going to sell you anything additional. There's nothing to be added coming from Jersey Jack Pinball. Barrels of fun. They're building this game after it's already been out. I don't know. I don't know. I really don't know what happens next. It going to be hard especially we got another game coming out in just a few days Predator The worst slowly teased game maybe in history We now see the cabinet of the machine It going to be released not on June 12th like I thought which is the day the movie came out. It's going to be released June 18th. So we got eight days to go. Here's what I know. Arnold is not in the game. We can tell. He's not in the artwork on the cabinet. I've shared with you the underside of the game. I feel like this is going to be another game that didn't need to be a wide body. It's not going to be as loaded as you think. And without Arnold, I think they're going to have clips from the movie, but all the clips where Arnold isn't in it and you're going to play as Dutch hunting the predator. We shall see. I'm just tired of like looking at little like four inch teasers of the play field. Nothing there is like wowing me. I'm just tired of the whole launch of this game. I feel like what was the point? We all know it's Predator. The game is done. It's June 10th. Just show it. Just show it. It's just the next eight days. All that's going to happen is more people are going to play Harry Potter and order Harry Potter. And that's going to be Predator orders you don't get. And even though Predator is more within this demographic than Harry Potter, maybe. It's not really. It's not really. It's easier for people to warm up to a Harry Potter than it is for them to accept a Predator game without Arnold. And I think being Arnold-less is gonna kill like 80% of potential sales on this game. I said it to you. If Arnold's in this game, I'm ordering it. If Arnold's not, I'm not ordering it. It's that simple. Because I only wanna support stuff that has what I think needs to be in it. King Kong, same thing. No Empire State Building, no iconic Kong movie clips. I'm out, I'm out. I don't want this all original, cheap cutting corners King Kong game. That's how I feel. So I think Predator is gonna be dead on arrival. I do. We shall see. How are you gonna give the most iconic scene ever without Arnold in it? The handshake between Carl Carl Weathers and Arnold. Like you can't even show that. Everybody look, it's a great time to be in the hobby. You got to go play everything and everyone's going to have opinions. It's funny. I love these dudes that just come at me and I'm like, bro, pick up a microphone. Tell me how you feel. Instead of wasting time on Pinside and arguing with people on Facebook, at least just like tell me over 20 minute podcasts what your thoughts are on Harry Potter. I think it's way too early to be proclaiming Harry Potter, this masterpiece. I think it's also way too early to indict this machine. I do. What's happening is as long as Jersey Jack games are rewarding to play, that is all they need. That is all they need for the people that love JJP to justify it. Remember, these people have been beaten down by the Stern army for 12 years. For 12 years, they heard that they owned soulless games that were floaty, that were overly complex, that just were not good pinball machines because of gameplay. That is why they were not considered good pinball machines. The shot geometry was bad and there were too many multi balls and every game was floaty. And so now they potentially fix those three things. they've got one of the biggest themes in the history of all of pinball and everything looks really good the overall package and platform looks twice as expensive as a stern machine and so yeah this is like the moment jersey jack fans have been waiting for even if the game isn't loaded or packed like a wizard of oz or pirates they feel like enough already and the fans can put this next to king kong and just say look you tell me which company is trying to go the extra mile and which company is mailing it in and you put a King Kong LE next to a Harry Potter CE and Harry Potter CE looks like it should cost $10,000 more. Stern's got to wake up. Jersey Jack has to just put more soul into its games. Start dialing down the rainbow bright light shows on everything and you know and maybe don't give us 96 modes. Maybe make it a little bit simpler but make us feel like we're going through the Harry Potter movies, we will see. And take out the boing sounds from the slingshots. They gotta do it. Until they do it, Bill Brandis' nickname is now Billy Boing Brandis. Bill, I love you. Everybody, have a great day. Kaneda out. guitar solo you