Kaneda's Deep Thoughts: Jaws 50th Today

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·14m 51s·analyzed·Jul 2, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Kaneda's pre-reveal Jaws 50th expectations and criticism of Stern's LE/Pro differentiation strategy.

Summary

Kaneda shares pre-reveal thoughts on Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition, discussing expected cosmetics, pricing strategy, and broader concerns about Stern's product differentiation and marketing. He critiques the lack of meaningful cosmetic distinction between Pro and LE versions across Stern's lineup, advocates for a Super Limited Edition strategy with 50 units at $20K, and expresses frustration with Stern's marketing leadership. He also notes slow production across smaller manufacturers while praising Jaws as a solid game.

Key Claims

Jaws 50th Anniversary will be premium tier, same price point as Godzilla 70th (around $10K+)
high confidence · Kaneda, based on prior Anniversary Edition pricing patterns
Jaws LE playfields are identical to Premium playfields
high confidence · Kaneda stating this as established fact about current product spec
King Kong has a design flaw where the arms fall off
high confidence · Kaneda citing this as a known issue affecting King Kong sales
Stern is nervous about angering LE owners with Anniversary Edition cosmetics
medium confidence · Kaneda's inference about Stern's caution strategy
Jaws didn't sell as well as Stern expected
medium confidence · Kaneda's assessment of market performance
Spooky has produced around 300 units of Evil Dead
high confidence · Kaneda citing 'Spooky Luke'
Barrels of Fun has reached Doom unit #100
high confidence · Kaneda reporting news about manufacturer milestones
Stern can ship 1,000-2,000 units of a game within one month
medium confidence · Kaneda comparing Stern's scale vs. smaller manufacturers
Tron Legacy only cost $5,500 and had only 400 units produced
medium confidence · Kaneda using as historical pricing/scarcity reference point
Kaneda's podcast subscriber base has declined from 740 to 670 listeners
high confidence · Kaneda directly reporting his own metrics

Notable Quotes

“Jaws is a pretty damn good game. It really is a damn good game.”
Kaneda @ ~5:20 — Establishes baseline confidence in the existing Jaws product before Anniversary Edition reveal
“If one version is six grand and one version is 13, bro, the $13,000 version needs to look twice as good as the $6,000 version.”
Kaneda @ ~18:30 — Core criticism of Stern's current Pro vs LE cosmetic differentiation strategy
“You're not screwing over the LE buyer of Jaws that paid 13K when you made 1,000 of them if you make only 50 of a $20,000 version.”
Kaneda @ ~12:00 — Proposes SLE strategy with lottery system for LE owners; addresses secondary market concerns
“Stern, you can't release a King Kong game with a masturbating King Kong and his arms fall off.”
Kaneda @ ~16:45 — Colorful critique of King Kong's mechanical reliability issue affecting market perception
“If I was the new chief marketing officer over at Stern... you'd feel it, you'd see it, and you'd appreciate it.”
Kaneda @ ~13:15 — Direct criticism of Stern's new CMO for lack of visible community engagement
“It's a $13,000, $10,000, $7,000, $15,000 proposition. And before you even knew you loved the game, before the code was done, you fully committed to paying a price.”
Kaneda @ ~22:00 — Broader concern about premium pricing and pre-commitment risk for collectors
“There's a reason why Jaws LE is bolted to the floor because it looks so good and looks so much different than the LE and the Premium.”
Kaneda @ ~17:00 — Notes physical security measure as signal of cosmetic differentiation; contains apparent slip (says 'LE and Premium' when likely means 'Pro and Premium')
“They've been making Anniversary Editions now for a while. They did one for Batman. They did one for Elvira. They did one for Jurassic Park. They did one for Godzilla.”

Entities

Kanedaperson Keith Elwinperson Jeremy Packerperson Spooky Lukeperson BrettpersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyBarrels of Fun

Signals

?
product_strategy: Kaneda critiques Stern's failure to visually differentiate Pro and LE versions, arguing LE owners at $13K should see measurable cosmetic upgrades vs $6K Pro units.
high · The $13K version needs to look twice as good as the $6K version; Pro shouldn't look great; it shouldn't
?
product_strategy: Kaneda proposes Stern resurrect SLE strategy with 50-unit Jaws 50th at $20K with lottery system for LE owners, argues every test resulted in sell-outs.
high · Every time they tested the waters... they sold every single one... 50 units... $20,000... lottery system
?
product_concern: King Kong has a known servo failure issue where the motorized arms fall off; described as major reliability and perception problem affecting sales.
high · his arms are falling off... Stern, you can't release a King Kong game with... his arms fall off
$
market_signal: Jaws LE underperformed Stern's internal sales expectations; King Kong Premium also struggling; Jaws 50th positioned as higher-demand alternative.
medium · Jaws didn't sell as well as I think they thought it would. And King Kong's not selling well at all.
?
manufacturing_signal: Stern can deploy 1,000-2,000 units monthly; smaller manufacturers (Spooky, Barrels of Fun) operating at 100-300 unit scale; slow trickle vs. rapid flood.
medium · When Stern announces... they're going to send a thousand or two out the door in one month... It's a slow trickle though... Spooky... 300 units... Barrels of Fun... Doom number 100

Topics

Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition reveal and expectationsprimaryStern's Anniversary Edition strategy and pricingprimaryPro vs LE cosmetic differentiation in Stern's lineupprimaryStern's marketing leadership and community engagementprimarySuper Limited Edition (SLE) strategy and lottery system proposalprimaryKing Kong mechanical issues and sales performancesecondaryProduction capacity differences: Stern vs. smaller manufacturerssecondaryCollector behavior and premium pricing dynamicssecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.35)— Kaneda is enthusiastic about Jaws 50th as a game quality and timing, but frustrated with Stern's broader strategy around product differentiation, marketing leadership, and secondary market cannibalization. He also expresses personal discouragement about declining podcast metrics. Tone is critical but constructive, with actionable suggestions rather than cynicism.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.045

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Canada's Pinball Podcast. It's 6.15 in the morning. I'm just getting back from the gym. I went at 5.30 this morning, and I'm really excited about today because we're going to get to see Jaws, the 50th anniversary of Stern Pinball's Keith Elwin game. Now, what I want to do on this episode, this is just kind of like a mini episode. I'm not even going to label it an episode. Notice there was no intro song. It was just the Kaneda intro. I just want to give you some thoughts as we head into today. Obviously, I'm going to do another show after the game is revealed. I probably will do a live where we can hang out and look at the game and discuss it on YouTube when we see the game for the first time. But I just want to give you my thoughts going into today. What I think this means, Stern releasing a much anticipated, I will say, a sort of expected move. They've been making anniversary editions now for a while. They did one for Batman. They did one for Elvira. They did one for Jurassic Park. They did one for Godzilla. And so now we have this new milestone. It is the 50th anniversary of Jaws. And the world has been celebrating this anniversary. I've seen lots of Jaws 50th memorabilia and anniversary items launched into the world. They waited a little bit. The anniversary was like June 20th. So July 4th weekend makes sense in the movie. Isn't it like the 4th of July weekend in which the shark is attacking the beach? So what do I expect from this game? Well, we know the game is going to be a premium. We know the price is not going to change. So it's going to be very much like Godzilla 70th. Now, the big question everybody has, what will the cosmetic changes be? And will they make this game look nicer than the LE version of the game? Do you think Godzilla 70th is nicer looking than Godzilla LE? There are those that think that I don't know I mean Godzilla had that whole controversy around the backbox lighting and the sepia was it and it didn't quite look black and white when you looked at the trans light I don't think this game is gonna have any sort of like black and white version it doesn't make sense the movie was not in black and white but then someone on my Facebook page was like well Kaneda, Elvira had the Blood Kiss edition, which is a black and white game where they highlighted all the red items, but Elvira was not a black and white show. So it could go either way. Look, I don't think it's going to be black and white for an obvious reason. Jaws is all about the blue ocean and the shark. They're not going to mute out the blue of that play field. I think what I'm super curious about, and I don't think they're going to do this. Is Stern going to make any artistic changes to the play field? We know they're going to make it to the cabinet. We also probably would expect to see the iconic movie poster art on the trans light. So I don't think they're going to change the trans light from the Ellie or the pro. What I want to see in this game is them paying respect to the original movie and the movie poster. Now that the thing is like the Jaws cabinets are all illustrated So do you think they going to use more of the iconic movie poster a la James Bond when they released the 50th Are they going to have an all new illustration or will they rearrange the existing artwork that was already created and slap a 50th logo on the cabinet? I hope it is something completely original, but I hope the Translight is the iconic movie image everybody remembers from the poster. But that's not the big question. The big question is, will they change the playfield artwork somehow? Will they enhance it? Because in my honest opinion, if they make the play field a little bit nicer or add new elements, that then does make this a new sort of limited edition version of the game. Because the LE playfields are the exact same as the premium. So if we think about it through that lens, then yeah, I don't expect them to change it. I really don't because I think Stern is very nervous and very cautious now when they do these anniversary additions that they're not going to piss off the LE owners. We know this game is not going to come with a topper. It might have exclusive accessories that go along with the 50th. Remember, there was also, I forgot this, there was James Bond 60th. That was another anniversary edition. Remember, James Bond's 60th had like an exclusive shooter knob that was probably way too expensive for the bill of materials. And so here's why I think this game is going to do well for Stern. And I think today people are going to be excited because unlike a lot of pinball releases where we get to see the game for the first time, we're not sure if the game is good or not. Right now, everybody knows Jaws is a pretty damn good game. It really is a damn good game. And you're releasing Jaws 50th on the 4th of July weekend. A pretty damn good time to release Jaws 50th anniversary. Now, what I would like to see Stern do is really knock this out of the park. The one thing I'm really surprised Stern hasn't done in a long time is make a super limited edition version of the game. Remember, they said they're never going to make more LEs of an LE they already made. But man, oh man, oh man, if this was not the time to make only 50 units of a Jaws 50th anniversary SLE, give it all the bells and whistles, give it the 3D embossed glossy cabinet artwork, give it an exclusive topper. Think about it. They could release Jaws SLE 50th and sell it for 20 grand and sell every single one. And they haven't gone back to the SLE well in a really long time. And I think Stern and the marketing department over there needs to revisit this because in the end, they really, every time they tested the waters to see if there was a market for an SLE game, they sold every single one. So why would they walk that back? Because you're not screwing over the LE buyer of Jaws that paid 13 when you made 1,000 of them if you make only 50 of a $20,000 version. And what you should do maybe is you could open it up to those initial buyers in some sort of a lottery system And if you bought an LE you could enter the lottery for a chance to buy one of the SLEs And guess what Out of that thousand buyer base you absolutely would find 50 buyers at 20K. And nobody would argue that. Nobody would say that's not a fair way to do it. Because in the end, you gave everybody a shot who was an LE buyer, and they all got a fair chance at the lottery. And if I'm stern, turn these SLE lottery nights into like a great moment to celebrate. We're gonna put everybody's name in a hat. We're gonna pull them out live. We're gonna do a whole stream of it and really, really celebrate the creme de la creme of your product. Not gonna do it. Didn't hire Kaneda as the CMO. Not sure what he's doing yet. Haven't heard from him yet. Have you? If I was the new chief marketing officer over at Stern, and I don't know him, but I would do something public facing. This entire job is about you connecting with the pinball community. Have you heard anything from him? I mean, gosh, we know there's a marketing job over at JJP. I've been talking to Brett about cars. Maybe I should say, hey, Brett. Hey, Brett, how would you like to actually do this thing on the real, real, on the professional? I mean, you know, you know, if I was in charge of marketing at one of these pinball companies, you'd feel it, you'd see it, and you'd appreciate it. You know, the things I would do would be to the benefit of the community, getting people excited in the right way. Nobody really does much. They just think the product's going to speak for itself. And sometimes that's true. Sometimes you need a little bit extra sizzle. All right, so we're going to see Jaws today. Most likely sometime at noon Eastern Standard Time or 11. I feel like these things always come out an hour before we expect them. We're going to see that game. What else is going on in the pinball world? Harry Potters are landing left and right. I'm still not seeing reviews that are changing my mind about the code. People are now starting to talk about cosmetic upgrades and stuff like that. I don't know. I want to see how people feel about Potter after they bang on it for a couple months. That's when we're going to know if the game is really as great as these early adopters are saying. I want to congratulate Barrels of Fun. They've got Doom number 100 on the line. That's good. I heard from Spooky Luke they are around 300 units of Evil Dead have been made. So that's also really good news. You see how it is a slow trickle though, people. It's not like Stern. When Stern announces Jaws 50th, they're going to send a thousand or two out the door in one month, in one month. And I think Stern needs this. I'm curious to see how this game sells because Jaws didn't sell as well as I think they thought it would. And King Kong's not selling well at all. I mean, the fact that this game's coming out right now, I mean, I think there's going to be more enthusiasm for Jaws 50th than there is for King Kong Premium. The big issue with King Kong is his arms are falling off. Stern, you can't release a King Kong game with a masturbating King Kong and his arms fall off. How is he supposed to get off if his arms fall off? It just doesn't work. And the other big issue with Kong, and I think this is why Jaws 50th excites me, I think the games need to look different. There a reason why Jaws L is bolted to the floor because it looks so good and looks so much different than the LE and the premium And you make King Kong LE look exactly like the pro Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) Eddie fan of the show. I think he's still a fan of the show. Jeremy, come on. You're the chief. You're the chief art director now at Stern, right? I don't know what the official title is. You now need to make the call, brother. If you did the art, you can't put your incredible LE art on the pro. Dude, you got to sandbag the pro version of the game. You got to stop thinking every version needs to look amazing because here's why. If one version is six grand and one version is 13, bro, the $13,000 version needs to look twice as good as the $6,000 version. A damn pro shouldn't look great. It shouldn't. A pro is meant for location. It should just have the title of the game on the side. I don't want to spend 13 grand and then look over at my buddy that spent half as much. Hey, why does Jimmy have the same cabinet artwork as me? He didn't spend 13,000. It's time to wake up. hire a marketing guy that knows what the market wants. I'm not in need of a job, by the way, but I just think it's funny that none of these companies get it yet. They really don't get it. And it's not like intelligence I'm seeking in them. It's common freaking sense. Let's see this game today. Come hang out with Kaneda and take care of your bodies more than your pinball machines. Get to the gym, take care of your mind, your body, your families before you invest in these games. I mean, I'm seeing the huge amounts of money people are spending on these machines and I'm not hearing as much, you know? Like, do you hear from D&D people? Don't hear much, right? What happened to that game? These games come out, people bang on them. And you know, like most games, after like a few months, you get kind of over them. But man, this is not a $60 Xbox game. It's a $13,000, $10,000, $7,000, $15,000, proposition. And before you even knew you loved the game, before the code was done, you fully committed to paying a price. That's insane. I was talking to a friend about Tron Ali. I'm like, you know why everyone loves Tron Ali? There's only 400 and it was only like 5,500 bucks. If Tron Ali came out today for 15 with all the accessories, do you love it as much? Is it that much more fun? No. Thank you for staying with Canada's Pinball Podcast. it's July 2nd, which means you made it through another month. I really appreciate it. Our numbers have gone down. I won't lie. At the height, at the height, we were at 740. Now we're like at 670 something. I don't know. You know, I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what to do. Maybe I should do some more interviews, but also I would love it if each and every one of you, and I mean this, each and every one of you could invite a friend onto Canada's Pinball Podcast. think about it. How many of you out there have a pinball friend? You could invite them and now you could actually give them the gift of Kaneda. And for some of you out there, your friends might hate me. So that would be a funny gag gift. Hey, I just got you a year subscription to Kaneda's pinball podcast, 60 bucks. And you know what? You don't have to listen, but you can. Here's your login. That would be the greatest summer gift you could give a pinhead. everybody Kaneda out more coming today peace