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American Pinball is Failing...

Cary Hardy·video·25m 36s·analyzed·Nov 13, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

American Pinball facing collapse: poor sales, designer exodus, leadership failures, Cuphead as final gamble.

Summary

Cary Hardy presents a detailed analysis of American Pinball's severe financial and operational troubles, including poor game sales (740 Houdinis, 420 Oktoberfests, 31 Galactic Tank Forces, 150+ unsold Signature Editions), designer Dennis Nordman's departure over contract disputes and non-payment, and David Fix's poor leadership decisions. Hardy argues Cuphead represents American Pinball's last realistic chance for survival, contingent on superior game design and mechanics, while parent company Ametron continues funding losses and a potential new buyer is rumored to be in negotiations.

Key Claims

  • American Pinball sold approximately 740 Houdinis, 420 Oktoberfests, and only 31 Signature Galactic Tank Forces

    high confidence · Cary Hardy citing sources with access to sales data; explicitly states he cannot reveal exact figures or all information to protect sources

  • American Pinball has over 150 Signature Edition Galactic Tank Force units that need to be cleared from inventory

    high confidence · Cary Hardy, citing sourced information about inventory status

  • Dennis Nordman was laid off and subsequently offered an unacceptable contract; when he refused, American Pinball claimed they didn't have money to pay him

    high confidence · Cary Hardy quoting Dennis Nordman's Facebook post rebutting David Fix's podcast claims; Nordman's own words stating 'They said if I did not accept that contract, I would be terminated' and 'they didn't have enough money to pay me'

  • American Pinball spent six figures on proprietary board R&D but the boards were incompatible with their most recent game (Galactic Tank Force)

    high confidence · Cary Hardy describing American Pinball's board development strategy and failure

  • American Pinball went several weeks in summer 2024 without selling a single game

    medium confidence · Cary Hardy citing sources; clarifies uncertainty about whether this applies to all games or Barbecue specifically

  • David Fix stated American Pinball might end the year in the red financially

    high confidence · Cary Hardy recounting Fix's statements during a UK seminar with Pinball News

  • A new buyer for American Pinball is either interested or in negotiations, and AP licenses after Cuphead are supposedly up for grabs

    medium confidence · Cary Hardy describing this as 'grapevine talk' with no hard confirmation; explicitly states it is not yet confirmed

  • Barbecue sold worse than Galactic Tank Force

    medium confidence · Cary Hardy citing sources; context suggests sourced information but acknowledges uncertainty about specificity

Notable Quotes

  • “They said if I did not accept that contract, I would be terminated. I asked why, and they didn't have enough money to pay me... I walked out.”

    Dennis Nordman@ 10:39 — Direct evidence of American Pinball's cash flow crisis and the circumstances of Dennis Nordman's departure; contradicts David Fix's characterization of events

  • “Ametron looks at American Pinball as if like an adult still living at their parents' house... they're basically giving them money but they're really hoping at any moment now they're gonna like be self-sufficient”

    David Fix (quoted by Cary Hardy)@ 7:00 — Reveals parent company frustration with American Pinball's inability to achieve profitability and sustained financial dependence

  • “The person that is running American Pinball right now doesn't have the proper experience to be in the position that he's in. And this is not just me. I speak to multiple people across multiple different manufacturers who know what's going on and they basically state the same thing.”

    Cary Hardy@ 16:24 — Industry-wide assessment of David Fix's leadership inadequacy; indicates consensus among peers at other manufacturers

  • “We know that you love Barry Owsler and you wanted to honor him. The bad decision there is that you put too much weight on his name and the fact that you didn't have to pay any licensing fees.”

    Cary Hardy@ 22:39 — Identifies the core design strategy failure: using unlicensed themes as cost-cutting measure rather than gameplay appeal

  • “I really just don't know how much longer AIMTRON is willing to fit the bill for American Pinball. It's like there's only so many times that they can take a loss on their taxes and everything.”

    Cary Hardy@ 17:17 — Assessment of parent company's breaking point and the unsustainability of current financial arrangement

Entities

Cary HardypersonAmerican PinballcompanyDavid FixpersonDennis NordmanpersonRyan McQuaidpersonAmetroncompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Potential acquisition/buyer interest in American Pinball assets; licenses after Cuphead reportedly 'up for grabs'

    medium · Cary Hardy: 'I am told that a new buyer is either interested or things are being worked out'; 'their other licenses, meaning their AP, their other licenses after Cuphead are supposedly up for grabs'; explicitly notes this is 'grapevine talk' and 'nothing hard and confirmed'

  • ?

    business_signal: Parent company Ametron continuing to subsidize American Pinball losses but with finite patience; financial break-even or profitability no longer optional

    high · David Fix quoted: 'At some point, you can't do that anymore'; Cary Hardy: 'there's only so many times that they can take a loss on their taxes'

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball experiencing severe cash flow crisis: laid off experienced designer Dennis Nordman due to inability to pay salary; claimed they couldn't fund his employment despite contractual obligations

    high · Dennis Nordman's Facebook post: 'they didn't have enough money to pay me'; Cary Hardy notes pattern of non-payment to 'employees...vendors...contractors...media content creators'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: American Pinball losing market competitiveness against boutique manufacturers (Turner, Spooky) offering superior gameplay at lower or comparable prices

    high · Cary Hardy comparing Barry Owsler to Ninja Eclipse: 'They don't have licensing fees either but they've got a hell of a lot more underneath their glass at a cheaper price'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: American Pinball's strategic reliance on unlicensed themes (Barry Owsler, Dennis Nordman's game) as cost-cutting measure rather than gameplay appeal; conflicting with market preferences for licensed IP

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.077

0:00
We are creeping up on the next release from American Pinball, Cuphead. Are you excited about it? No? I didn't think so.
0:17
What's up guys, welcome back to the channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you, then hit the subscribe button down below. Now a shout out that I want to do right now is towards those of you out there that have purchased the 10,000 subscribers t-shirt uh i just got finished getting the summary of sales for the last month and i did not expect to sell as many as i did so thank you very much guys for the support it's very much appreciated so before i go talking about like american pinball's like potential future i i feel like i need to get everybody or a good chunk of you kind of like caught up on some of the highlights of American Pinball over the last couple of years. And now, granted, I've got bullet points, and not all of these are probably going to be in chronological order or anything, but it's merely the fact of pointing out some of these things that kind of helps put the puzzle together. Let's go all the way back to just Galactic Tank Force, okay? You know it, and I know it, that this game did not sell very well. There was a lot of known issues mechanically as well as just enjoyability among us pinball enthusiasts out there. There's those of you out there that own it, enjoy it, good. I'm glad you're happy with it. But a lot of us didn't like the idea of having to avoid up the middle shots in fear of losing our ball and among other things. But I digress. and i'm sure david if you're watching this which you probably are that you're probably going he doesn't know it didn't sell very well no one knows that that didn't sell very well you would be amazed at what i actually know and what information has been divulged to me and i obviously cannot give you exact figures and i'm definitely not going to give you all the information i know because that would definitely tell you what my sources are but i do have enough information here to let you know So just off the top of my list here, they've sold 740-ish Houdinis, 420-ish Oktoberfests, only 31 Signature Galactic Tank Forces, and they have over 150 Signature Editions that they need to dump, okay? And for those that don't know, the Signature Edition is their top tier with the tank treks and all that stuff on it that was priced... too high uh i don't even remember the price but it was at a point where i'm just like no it turns into a tank no one cares but anyways going back to around february of this year there was rumors circulating that dennis nordman was no longer working with american pinball now when this started to come around i even requested a comment from dennis and he didn't give me anything he i'm he just didn't comment on it he just didn't respond to me i saw that he saw it but he didn't respond i wasn't going to beg him for the information but by not responding it was almost a confirmation that he was no longer working with them i'm sure it was one of those things where he was like uh i'm i don't need to tell everything all that kind of stuff so but it wasn't until i'm guessing that dennis listened to a particular podcast where david fix pretty much kind of like threw Dennis underneath the bus and then Dennis decided to like come out and basically go bullshit and let all the truth come out but before I get into like discussing what Dennis's response was let me go over a couple of other little bullet points that kind of like point to American Pinball at least struggling so up here we have the fact that you know AP announced that they did their proprietary boards after Galactic Tank Force, and they spent in the six-figure mark on R&D to make these boards, so that way they would be able to have their own board sets. They wouldn't have to rely on a third party, and they wanted these boards to be backwards compatible with all their other games in case they decided to do another run and all that. But the only game that it didn't work with was their most recent galactic tank force and then it's also even more funny is that they wanted these boards to be compatible with their old games and we're about to get to it is that they no longer are going to be making their old games so they also made some new hires throughout the year they hired more reese as a service tech who has been since laid off uh let's here then they decided to release barbecue a game that would sell even worse than galactic tank force i mean seriously i have sources that have told me that they literally i say they i mean american pinball went several weeks this summer without selling a single game now if that was all games or barbecue i didn't clarify that but either way not good and then to add to this we also had the whole rumor that they were trying to look for an investor that american pinball was basically on the market like amtron was trying to dump them they're done with it. They want somebody else to buy them to take over. And this was confirmed later on that, yes, they were looking for an investor. But why else would somebody be looking for an investor?

  • Ryan McQuaid is American Pinball's only designer currently on payroll

    high confidence · Cary Hardy's direct assessment of current American Pinball staffing

  • Ametron treats American Pinball like 'an adult still living at their parents' house,' providing money while hoping for self-sufficiency that hasn't materialized

    high confidence · Cary Hardy quoting David Fix's characterization from a podcast interview

  • “American Pinball slash David Fix slash Antron slash potential buyer that may be in the works. This is more than likely your last chance. Cuphead is going to be a make or a break for you.”

    Cary Hardy@ 25:04 — Summarizes the stakes: Cuphead as final survival opportunity; frames situation as existential for the company

    • Cuphead
    game
    Galactic Tank Forcegame
    Barbecuegame
    Houdinigame
    Oktoberfestgame
    Hot Wheelsgame
    Jack Dangerperson
    Barry Owslerperson
    Pinball Newsorganization
    Pinball Expoevent
    Ninja Eclipsegame

    high · Cary Hardy: 'you put too much weight on his name and the fact that you didn't have to pay any licensing fees'; contrasts with Ninja Eclipse's success with similar unlicensed approach but superior playfield

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball game booth at Pinball Expo received minimal player engagement despite equivalent booth space to Stern; visible evidence of market rejection

    high · Cary Hardy: 'I never saw those games being played'; 'their games weren't really getting as much attention as other games were on the floor'

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball inventory clearing through aggressive discounting (Halloween $500 off sale) and mass game retirement (all games retired except Hot Wheels, Galactic Tank Force, Barbecue)

    high · Cary Hardy: 'every game in their catalog is discounted for a Halloween event'; 'every game is going to be retired. Except for Hot Wheels, Galactic Tank Force, and Barbecue'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Ryan McQuaid retained despite being entry-level designer while veteran Dennis Nordman laid off; likely due to salary cost differential

    medium · Cary Hardy: 'chances are they kept Ryan McQuade because he an entry designer...if you have more experience then technically more than likely you going to be getting paid more'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: American Pinball reduced to skeleton crew with only one designer (Ryan McQuaid) on payroll; previously employed multiple designers including Dennis Nordman

    high · Cary Hardy: 'they've only got one designer on their payroll, and that's Ryan McQuaid'; Dennis Nordman departed; Reese hired as service tech but laid off

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Dennis Nordman departure signals experienced design talent loss; Nordman characterized as veteran designer with multiple game projects in development at other companies

    high · Dennis Nordman departing in 2024; Cary Hardy notes Nordman has 'six or seven games at various companies' in development; retained only entry-level designer Ryan McQuaid

  • ?

    product_strategy: Development resource constraints: American Pinball prioritized Barbecue over Dennis Nordman's further-along game, delaying veteran designer's project

    high · Dennis Nordman: 'It was way ahead of BBQ in development, but Mr. Fix decided to put BBQ in front of it'

  • ?

    product_concern: Systemic pattern of mechanical/gameplay flaws in every American Pinball release; design decisions consistently miss market expectations

    high · Cary Hardy: 'every every game release there's one big major flaw in every single one'; specific examples include Galactic Tank Force center-shot issues, Barry Owsler insufficient playfield depth

    • 6:11
    Money. And then at some point, David Fix was in the UK doing like a seminar, I want to say, with the guys at Pinball News And I still remember him talking about this about how when he started in the company and how they were in the red or in the black and he was talking about you know how things were fiscally and then he was talking about you know by the end of this year we might be in the red we might be in the black it doesn't matter that still flabbergast me enough to where i'm like no it matters but along with being in the red or the black he mentioned and he said this himself that Ametron looks at American Pinball, and just for those that don't know, Ametron is the parent company of American Pinball. Ametron, they develop, you know, board sets and, you know, dealing with, like, semiconductor stuff like that. Anyways, Ametron looks at American Pinball as if, like, an adult still living at their parents' house. they're basically giving them money but they're really hoping at any moment now they're gonna like be self-sufficient and be able to go out on their own but that has yet to come to fruition at this point i said don't disturb you i'm cleaning my room and then at some point before pinball Expo of this year, we get this post from Dennis Nordman on his personal Facebook page, and he goes over the things that David Fix mentioned on a podcast, and basically this is his rebuttal to that. And a part of me wants to read this verbatim, but if you... Because Dennis basically does everything verbatim of what David Fix says on podcast and if you've ever listened to david fix on a podcast he does a lot of uh and uh you know and he kind of goes back and forth he's tiptoeing about on what he can and can't say and evidently after reading this not only is he tiptoeing around what he can and what he can't say he's also more than likely freaking lying so as much as i want to read this verbatim i i just it's going to be difficult so i'm going to try to put it into terms that's much more fluid so this is dennis norman reiterating what david fix said on a particular podcast his post begins like this i recently became aware of what david fix said about me in his interview with pinball news on may of 2024 this is verbatim you know dennis is a young guy he kind of came to us and was like you know i could be doing better by staying home and doing a little bit more being this and doing that the other things kicking it around a couple of times and then we he said hey this is what we want to do we want to lay you off we want to put you on contract basis we want to build your game it's not the hot priority now it's not shelved it's either it's other little things that can be done let's talk about this and have a contract made up and we'll contract base this and you are well open to come in and you know do what you need to do and let's do this but you know i gotta we gotta let kind of lay you off from the day to day and even me reading it just the way i did hurts my mind and i'm sorry guys if you couldn't follow that but basically in a nutshell david fix was like hey we gotta lay you off and we got other things that we want to get done but we want to keep you and bring you on on a contract basis that's basically the logistics of it and this is what Dennis Norman decided to say in response to this so here's Dennis saying this none of this is true I have no contract with American Pinball AP was not honoring my original contract so I told Fix I was going to work from home more days per week I wanted to see my game go into production It is an unlicensed theme, but it's a theme that everyone is familiar with. And it has an amazing play field. It was way ahead of BBQ in development, but Mr. Fix decided to put BBQ in front of it. They offered me a contract that was completely unacceptable. They said if I did not accept that contract, I would be terminated. I asked why, and they didn't have enough money to pay me. Do you mean if I don't sign this contract, I'm terminated? And they said, yes. I walked out.
    10:58
    That's where it stands today. I have nothing to do with American Pinball. Mr. Fix told other people at AP that he would be bringing me back to finish game number two in June or July. Of course, that didn't happen. I have six or seven games at various companies that will probably never be produced and he lists basically where the game's at what condition that they're in and he says currently I'm working on a new game of my own design with two other industry professionals and the goal is selling it to a manufacturer for production I'm not ready to quit yet I'm hoping all of that made sense guys I know I've happened to read things verbatim of what people said is a little bit difficult a little tricky sometimes but you know it's it's where you're gonna you're seeing this information as i'm giving it to you that obviously ap has a financial issue when it comes to paying their employees when it comes to paying their vendors when it comes to paying like contractors when it comes to paying their media content creators I'm staring into your soul there guy you know who I'm talking to there's always an issue when it comes to paying their bills on time and it's not a complete shock that you know with a company that is having financial problems that they're not going to keep a veteran designer like Dennis Norman on a salary basis or anything and they're gonna keep Ryan McQuaid because he an entry technician okay let just it just facts if you have more experience then technically more than likely you going to be getting paid more So chances are they kept Ryan McQuade because he an entry designer
    12:56
    But that's where it's at on that. So, then let's get to Expo, okay, guys? And Expo American Pinball, the real estate that they had at Expo was pretty much on par with the amount of space that Stern had, okay? not as much but they had a great deal of space and they had their galactic tank forces there they had some barbecues there and they spread them out and you had like three of their signature additions under one canopy and it might have just been the luck of the draw for me but i never saw those games being played and then you had like i said a bunch of their other games spread out and what this did was allow traffic to flow smoothly through there but it also highlighted the fact that their games weren't really getting as much attention as other games were on the floor so then expo ends and then we get told that they were going to be retiring octoberfest meaning they're not going to be making it anymore and it's not too surprising i mean it wasn't a really a favorite from what American Pinball created. I mean, you're going to find out, as I'm telling you, every game has an issue of some sort. Then as we creep around like the Halloween time, they basically advertise that every game in their catalog is discounted for a Halloween event.
    14:24
    By knocking off like $500 or whatever dollars on their MSRP, big sale for all of their games. It seems like they're really trying to dump their inventory. And then we get notified that every game is going to be retired. Except for Hot Wheels, Galactic Tank Force, and Barbecue.
    14:46
    That is a horrible lineup if you ask me, but that's subjective to an extent. So the question gets asked, you know, how did we get here? how is american pinball in the position that they're currently in and it's pretty easy guys angtron is paying their bills paying their labor paying pretty much for everything because they're making nothing on selling their pinball machines right now anything that they do sell is not profit because they're so far in the hole there's just no way when you have the numbers that i have there's just no way so along with aimtron paying the bills you have someone there making all the decisions and the majority of these decisions are just bad okay i mean every every game release there's one big major flaw in every single one and it's like really i i have to just kind of step back and go why again walk me through this but there's always something that just falls on its face and it's obvious to the rest of us but for whatever reason isn't obvious to the person that thinks he knows what us pinball enthusiasts want he thinks he knows what we want but he couldn't be more wrong it's like you almost have something so good guys and then you find a way to screw it up. The person that is running American Pinball right now doesn't have the proper experience to be in the position that he's in.
    16:35
    And this is not just me. I speak to multiple people across multiple different manufacturers who know what's going on and they basically state the same thing. He shouldn't be in that position. it if you look at his history that's not the position that he should have he's not worthless it's just that i don't feel like he's equipped i'm not the only one but he's not equipped with the proper experience to be running a pinball company manufacturing there's other roles and i'm pretty sure he could do great just not this one i really just don't know how much longer AIMTRON is willing to fit the bill for American Pinball. It's like there's only so many times that they can take a loss on their taxes and everything. At some point, you can't do that anymore. So I think it's only a matter of time. The writing is on the wall that AIMTRON needs to drop them. It sucks. I don't want to see any pinball company expire go bankrupt, go out of business I don't want that I don't I want them to do good I want them to create games that the rest of us want but if you go by their history and all the little bullet points and data that I've got right here it doesn't look good But I'm hearing also that AP does have a new buyer, and this is through the grapevine talk right here, so it's nothing hard and confirmed yet on that. But I am told that a new buyer is either interested or things are being worked out in this current point in time. I'm also told that their other licenses, meaning their AP, their other licenses after Cuphead are supposedly up for grabs. So here we are on the cusp of their next release, possibly their last release.
    18:51
    And it's like, do you think that Cuphead could be their saving grace? I doubt it. they've got a lot going against them and I have a couple of bullet points right here of what I think those are one I kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier their only designer they have at this current point in time that the thing also is that their staff is a very small team So, with that, they've only got one designer on their payroll, and that's Ryan McQuaid. And he's nothing against him personally, but he's not a veteran designer. He has created the Sonic Spinball Homebrew Pinball Machine. I really enjoyed the game, mainly for the nostalgia feel. It wasn't the greatest shooter. It definitely is more than what I've done, so I'm not judging that. I'm just saying that he doesn't have that much experience to basically say, oh, it's a shoe-in, he's good to go. Because we don't have any other information on him and what he's done. Even if he was to release Cuphead, and it shoots good, it's not going to be an immediate like oh he's a great designer i mean for instance jack danger i would say officially now after seeing x-men and playing it i would consider him a good designer i didn't consider him that after food fighters i figured like oh he did good but now after a couple of games under his belt i think we can officially say that jack has proven himself so even if you like he creates this game strikes oil all that he's still limited to his experience and along with being limited another thing against them is being limited on their bom their materials unless aimtron is willing to go here's all the money you need to make a game to pack it full of cool things and to make this something that the masses are gonna want i don't see that happening i kind of think that maybe aimtron should do this as one last hoorah like all right we're going to give you everything that you need to basically make yourself sustainable on this game. This could be their final, like, this is what we got to do in order to basically stay up and keep going, is by making a game that finally turns a profit. So in a way, I kind of hope that Aintron did give them everything that they possibly need to make this game amazing. I would love for Cuphead to be an amazing game. Now, not a lot of you know the theme and stuff like that, but what if Ryan does create something that's very fun to shoot? What if we have finally received some sort of mechanism inside there that works well and just is a great world underneath glass? do you think that's going to be enough to keep them going though? would one game be enough to save American Pinball? and again to finish this video off I do not want American Pinball to fail I don't they have made some great quality stuff when it comes to build quality I think you're going to have obviously some one-offs here and there with people having some issues with their games but I want to say majority of it has been great build quality. We know that you do care about what you make. It's just that you keep making a bad decision here and there on every game you release. We know that you love Barry Owsler and you wanted to honor him.
    22:45
    The bad decision there is that you put too much weight on his name and the fact that you didn't have to pay any licensing fees.
    22:54
    it's like no one outside of the hobby knows who Barry Owsler is. Yes, you care about him, David. Yes, you care about him. I get that in every interview that I've heard you with, and I understand that. That's awesome. We know that Barry was a great person, and you wanted to create a game to honor him and stuff. But you put all that weight and effort into a game with his name on it no one really wanted.
    23:28
    There could have been more underneath the glass. I think that's what that game was missing was some sort of nifty looking mech. Something. It just feels a little empty.
    23:40
    And then you have other games that get released that are cheaper like Ninja Eclipse for crying out loud. They don't have licensing fees either but they've got a hell of a lot more underneath their glass at a cheaper price. Now I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers with this video and that's fine. I wouldn't have it any other way. And again I have to reiterate I wish no ill will towards American Pinball. I wish them the best. I hope that going forward the decisions that get made are good ones. And I hope that your next game and potentially any other game that you make after that are good and that people actually want them that would be great we're just gonna have to wait and see what you've got going on so guys with all the information that i've given you here as well as your own personal experiences let me know in the comment section down below what your thoughts and feelings are with ap where they should go from here what needs to be done what could they do to improve to make it to where they can survive don't forget to check out my 10k subscriber t-shirt links will be in the video description down below guys and until next time peace out so this is where we're at american pinball slash david fix slash antron slash potential buyer that may be in the works. This is more than likely your last chance.
    25:13
    Cuphead is going to be a make or a break for you. Unless money just doesn't matter and you're just going to keep getting fed the cash from your parent company. Might as well be Jersey Jack at this damn point.
    25:34
    you