All we need is just a little patience. Just a little, just a little, just a little, just a little, just a little, just a little. Ah, just a little patience, everybody. We're going to see X-Men this week. It is most likely going to be a Tuesday teaser into a full Thursday reveal of the game. Stern's been doing this. Sometimes they do the Friday teaser into the Tuesday reveal. sometimes they do the Tuesday teaser into the Thursday reveal I think Jaws was a Tuesday Thursday and so look I think everyone's forgotten that who told you it was not gonna be X-Men 97 who told you it was gonna be X-Men comic book edition I haven't seen one single pinball media outlet give Kanae credit for once again telling everybody what's gonna happen I know people are like where are leaks of the game, Stern hasn't had a leak. I mean like a physical image leak of a game since Christopher Franchi was over there at Stern Pinball. It just doesn't happen anymore. They do a really good job of keeping a lid on the actual images of the game. We will get leaks once the dealer call happens. We're going to get the crappy grainy cell phone images as people take pictures of the computer screen. And so look, this is going to be a very interesting week for Stern Pinball. This is going to be the moment in which we see if the pinball buying community is going to absorb a new game at these prices. Remember, we've never had other than Jaws LE, which is an Elwynn game and based on a property that people have waited for for a long time. And man, they're making this Jaws game so damn good. we're going to talk a little bit about this jaws revenge code it's like stern pinball has like the greatest software teams going now maybe ever in the history of pinball and as buyers of some of these games you're going to get rewarded with some of the most amazing code and like new ways to play the game and again it always makes me feel like as i see them make these games so well rounded and give you so many different layers and new games within the game to play, it even makes it more ridiculous that you need a lot of pinball machines. Because these current games are so deep. There's so many ways to tackle them. Why do you need like 15 games? Like, yeah, back in the 90s, if you had a Monster Bash and an Addams Family and a Twilight Zone, Tales of the Arabian Nights, like a lot of the older games, they weren't that deep. you could get through the entire game pretty quickly. And nowadays, if you buy one of these modern games with these deep rule sets, why do you need like 10 of them? So many of these guys who buy these LEs, they don't even scratch the surface of what's inside these games. All right, so that's what's going on. But this is gonna be all about X-Men. This is gonna be the week about Jack Danger's sophomore title. I'm hearing rumors that there are gonna be mechanisms in this game that are as impressive as Godzilla. We shall see. I'm hearing that there's going to be stuff that happens in this game that we've never seen before. Now that's a funny statement because everything that goes into any pinball machine that's brand new is something we haven't seen before because we haven't seen that game before. And everything done in it is for the most part new and original, even if you're using off the shelf parts. So what is it going to be? Now, if I had to guess what's going to be in this game, I mean, let's think about it. Like, Venom allowed people for the first time ever, I think, in a Stern machine to save your progress and to go through the game and it knows what you did prior in the game. Now, look at X-Men, for example. I think what they might do is we finally might get a way to do co-op play through a game and you get to select which X-Men character you are. So you could be playing with your friends as Wolverine. One of your friends might be Cyclops. The other might be Storm. And maybe they're going to do something like that that we've never seen before. I also think we're going to get something physically in a game that we haven't seen done before. So look out for some mechanism, some interesting way to lock the ball, something going on in this game that we have not seen or witnessed in pinball. Now, look, we all know this. Stern needs to do this. At this price point and at this much money, Stern needs to bring the magic. They need to bring stuff that really wows people. These games need to have pinball moments like never before, because here we are in 2024. And this is the first time, people, I mean it. This is the first time where we now have like three plus years of data that shows everybody. If you buy a new in-box Stern machine at these current prices, you have a 90% chance of losing thousands of dollars within the first six months. We didn't know that when Foo Fighters came out. We didn't. We didn't know that when James Bond came out. We now know that. And that information, I think, even if this game has beautiful Yeti artwork, even if it has some mechanism we haven't seen before. I just think still a lot of people are going to wait on the sidelines. And I think the reason they're going to wait is there's not going to be FOMO to get your hands on an X comic book edition This is not a theme that has that level of pull with the pinball buying demographic The Matrix does Back to the Future Pokemon Harry Potter I do not put X comic book edition on that realm of a game that like you're going to want it at any cost, regardless of how the game plays, regardless of what mechanisms are in it. I think this is going to be a game where a lot of people exercise patience. I think it's going to be a game where everyone waits and just sees how the market goes on it. Because think about it. This game is going to come out basically at the beginning of September. LEs are not going to ship until October. And so why would you go in on an LE now knowing they're not going to be on the line until October? And in October, we're going to be able to see Jersey Jack's new game. You're going to be able to see Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. You're going to see more stuff from other companies as we head towards Expo. And so if you wait until October and don't run at this game this week, here's what's going to happen. You're going to be able to get an X-Men comic book edition in October for less than $13,000. Mark my words, people. There is no such thing anymore as a Stern LE that you will ever, ever, ever have to pay more than $13,000 for. It will never happen. There's too many of them. Stern does not make a game that's worth anywhere near $13,000. And so if you just wait, the worst case scenario is this. You'll be able to get one for Newsflash $13,000. And the best case scenario, if you wait, you'll be able to get one for $12,000 or $11,000 or maybe even $10,000 depending on what the reception to this game is. The world's changed, everybody. The world's changed, you know, and other content creators don't really want to talk about it too much, but I hear it on Pinside. The vibe has changed so much in this pinball marketplace, and people are just over these high prices, and I really do believe that Seth Davis has hurt Stern Pinball in a way that's almost immeasurable. He has done to Stern Pinball what he never should have done, and now they're never going to go back. Like they are not going to go back. And something that George Gomez said to me, it continues. I won't say keep me up at night, but it's just been hanging over me like a dark cloud. And he said to me, he's like, Chris, the market I want for pinball is not the market I have. And when he said that and he was serious about it, he sees pinball as being broader and having more popularity than the current buyers who have been buying his products all these years. And I don't understand that. Do you really think you're going to attract new people in a world in which everything is so expensive? You're going to attract new people at these prices? The only people that would even consider buying pinball at these prices have been fans of pinball for like at least a decade or more. Yeah, sure. There's going to be a handful of newbies that come in and buy these games and lose all this money. And then they're not going to be newbies anymore because they're going to get burned quickly. Like, think about it. For all of us out there, we never really got burned badly, right? We never really had to learn a terrible lesson about rushing in with FOMO and buying these games. Now we know. Some of us have friends who lost $10,000 on a James Bond 60th. I have a friend who lost $14,000 on an Elvira 40th anniversary edition. And there's more of those people than people who doubled up on a Batman SLE or people who doubled up on a Pirates of the Caribbean collector's edition. Now, look, a lot of us made some money on the games we bought like five, eight years ago, and that's good. But nowadays it's just inane, right? A premium is almost $10,000. So this is gonna be the week We're going to see whether or not this game sells out or sells through to distributors. We're going to have a lot of commentary around this game. I'm super excited. It's new pinball week. The other reason I'm always really excited now whenever a new game comes out, because I know I'm not buying it. My money is safe. I don't care what's in this game. I just will never buy an X-Men comic book edition game. It just is not what I'm into. I don't collect X-Men comics. I'm not really deep into the comic version of the property. Now, look, if it was Deadpool and Wolverine, I would be much more likely to buy the game. If this was based on the X-Men movies, I'd be much more likely to buy the game. And I think Stern going after the comic book edition of these Marvel properties in which the stuff that's really hitting in culture are the films and they don't want to invest and spend the money necessary to get the licensing for those movies, I think this is a cheaper cop-out, and yet the prices are not a cheap cop-out price. And that's why, again, I just don't think it's going to work. I think we're going to see a lot more people on the sidelines. All right, speaking of something that is working in pinball, did you all see this Jaws Revenge mode that they put into this Jaws machine? It's like this awesome 8-bit way to play the game. That's a whole separate mini game within the game and man. Oh man. It's awesome. There's nothing else to say other than I love it I want to see more stuff like this in pinball machines It absolutely shows us all that the software is really what wakes up the hardware And I think there needs to be way more creativity like this in the software department of pinball machines I been saying this forever. For some reason, all these tournament players like hijacked how games are made and tournament players don't care about moments. They care about scoring and multipliers. And what this thing shows us is that what makes pinball magical are the moments and we need to code into every game magical moments that we won't forget. Some games have it, some games don't. And when a game doesn't have a lot of magical moments that you want to keep getting back to, you're going to sell that game very quickly. Jaws is shaping up to be one of the bolt to the floor stern machines I've seen in a long time. I don't see any LEs for sale. I don't. And now they added this mode to the game. This game is really beginning to establish itself as maybe one of the best Stern machines of all time. Now, look, I still think the fact that they made a Jaws machine in which the shark doesn't eat the ball is pathetic. I don't care what you do with the software. That will always be to me One of the biggest laughable, lame excuses, oh, we tried to do it, but it wasn't fun. Get out of here, Keith Elwin. You really believe that Keith Elwin had a version of Jaws where it ate the ball and it was not fun? You know, I challenge Keith Elwin to show us then a video of the whitewood in which the Jaws mechanism eats the ball. Guess what? He does not have it. There is no example of a Jaws that eats the ball that is not fun to interact with as a pinball player. They went cheap and they made it this way. It looks like a little rubber toy for a kid's bathtub. And yet still, the reason why this game is winning is the theme integration is incredible otherwise, right? I would have loved a little bit more of a World Under Glass, but it's an L1 game. It shoots great. The combos are great. And the damn game has moments that are memorable. And that is why I believe Jaws LE is going to hold strong around $13,000. It is. If you have a Jaws LE, I wouldn't sell it. I don't think they're going to make another anniversary edition of Jaws. I don't. If they do, what would they do, right? There's no reason to make an anniversary edition of Jaws, right? There's no like black and white thing they can do. So I really think Jaws LE is going to be the thing that people point at when they say, look, Stern can charge $13,000 for Oles because look at Jaws. And I would say to them, yeah, look at Jaws. Look at everything Jaws brings to the table. It's everything that John Wick does not. It's got more than Foo Fighters, right? It's got much deeper code and it's got a theme that's much more appealing to most of the pinball buying demographic. Speaking of pinball buying demographic, there's a lot of conversation around Pokemon. And would Pokemon do well for pinball? Of course, it would do well on location. But I don't think Pokemon, from a home use standpoint, would be a theme that most home buyers would put into their houses. Again, unless I've been somewhere else and all these 30-year-old people are making so much money that they can drop $10,000 to $13,000 on a pinball machine, where are these people? Because last time I checked, I mean, I'm in my 40s and I make a good salary and it's still now challenging for me to justify the prices of these games, let alone Pokemon fans who are used to engaging with that property. Unless, you know, there are these millionaires buying the rare Pokemon cards. For the most part, Pokemon people are used to having fun with Pokemon and they're not spending anywhere near six to thirteen thousand dollars to engage in the property they love. So let's be honest about that. But again, we'll see. And look, here's the thing I'm going to tell you right now, here's a new rumor. You haven't heard it. I'm hearing right now that the order of Stern Machines is going to be as follows. We're going to get X-Men comic book edition, Metallica remastered, and then the next game is not Keith Elwin's King Kong. If you think about it, Keith Elwin is not up next after Metallica. It is Brian Eddy. So I am here to tell you right now that I think after Metallica Remastered is going to be Brian Eddy's Dungeons and Dragons with Dwight Sullivan on code. I mean, if you're going to have anybody code D&D, it's going to be Dwight. You know why? Because that guy's been coding D&D in every single game he's ever coded. He makes every single game so complex and like a role-playing game. And now his dream is going to come true because he's actually going to be able to code something where that makes sense where all the multipliers and rolling of the die it's going to make sense when he does dnd and then i think after dungeons and dragons we're gonna get Keith Elwin's king kong and then who knows maybe jack danger's next after this one is pokemon but man doesn't it start to feel like a year a year and a half from now feels like an eternity at these prices and if you think that what happens in the White House is not going to affect pinball buying, I think everybody needs to wake up. I mean, stuff's going to happen with the economy. Stuff's going to happen with our money and our savings and our investments. And I'm just going to say, you know, it could get really difficult for a lot of us to justify buying these pinball machines in the current global economy state of affairs It just going to happen people All right so we also saw a teaser from Cary Hardy for Alice Adventures in Wonderland We saw the spinning disc by the outlanes that are controlled by the second flipper button that's on the side of each cabinet. And what's cool about that spinning disc, it actually works. Unlike the J-pop one from Magic Girl, I know that Melvin 3D printed those spinning discs so that they have some texture to them and that is what grabs the ball and throws it back into play. Super cool. It's funny to me because some people are like, Chris, Cary Hardy has the scoop on you. Like, how did you let him do that? No, Cary and I both have exclusive content that we're getting from Melvin and we're going to stagger them. So Cary had this one this week. Next week, I'm going to get you the first ever video of the animations that are in this game. So look out for that. We're not competing. I am a subscribing member of Cary Hardy's Patreon page, as should you be. I love that he has this exclusive. I wasn't going to videotape it and upload it to my channel, which I easily could have done. I think it's great that Melvin realizes that Cary and I both tell it like it is. And Melvin told us, if you don't like something, say it. Like, just let people know. And Carrie and I both do not know how this game shoots. I know how it looks. And I'm going to tell you right now, it looks really cool. There are some elements of it I would not have done. There might have been some color choices I might not have chosen. But I also haven't seen it in person. So it's kind of hard for me. I mean, I saw it through a cell phone video, you know, and it was hard for like Melvin just to like step back and show me it in all of its glory. So much of it was like zoomed in. So I can't wait to see high-res images of it to give me a much better sense of what this game looks like when you just walk into a room and see it. But man, it's about to get really competitive. It's going to get competitive for Dutch Pinball X. And we don't even talk lately about Jersey Jack. I mean, they're well past the due date of getting the next game out into the world. Elton John sales are over. As much as I keep getting these emails, like they spammed us. I don't know if you're on Jersey Jack's email list. I got about like five different emails to all my email addresses that Elton John is a hit. Now, when you have to keep telling people that your game is a hit and the rationalization they use is how much it's sold for at the Elton John charity auction. It's so silly to me. This game is not a hit. They have not sold more Elton Johns than they sold of Guns and Roses. They didn't sell more Elton Johns than The Hobbit. They didn't sell more Elton Johns than Wizard of Oz. Elton John did not sell as many as Toy Story 4. It's just not as successful as they would like you to believe. And now that we're starting to see Elton John's CEs sell for around $13,000, $14,000. And look, you can order one today from Jersey Jack. What does that mean? That means this game did not sell out, not even close. And if they made all 1,000 CEs, I bet JJP is sitting on a few hundred of them. And then they know, they know if the next game comes out and it's the Matrix, that sales of Elton John are just going to flatline. So we shall see what happens there. But that's also going to happen in the next like six to eight weeks. So trust me when I say this, there's no better time to wait and see. There's no better time to turn the FOMO off. Let's let all these companies reveal their cards to us and let's wait and see how it all plays out. Nothing is going to be hard to get. When you make a thousand of anything now in today's world, that's $13,000 or $15,000. there are not enough men who want to spend $15,000 on a pinball machine at these prices. It's just stupid. Like that used to be what we would spend when they only made 80 Batman SLEs, right? With a theme like Batman, only 80. It had exclusive code, exclusive artwork. now they want to make a thousand of these things with nothing really exclusive for the owner it's just a different world people so be patient listen to Kaneda and trust me there's not going to be any game that's going to be hard for you to get if you just turn the FOMO off and if you ever have a hard time getting a game just hit me up and I'll help you get one everybody have a great Monday lots of shows coming this week as we get X-Men comic book edition into the world in just a matter of hours later. A little more than time