Welcome everybody, happy Monday, welcome to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, I'm your host Kaneda. We're going to talk all about these rumored titles that all these companies might be making. What are we most excited for? What does this mean in the world of pinball, right? At these prices, these companies are clearly planning to be around for the next five to ten years, right? Because most of these companies, they're basically making like one new game a year. So as we go down this list, like all these titles, are they going to see the light of day? Are they going to come to fruition? And there's a lot of exciting stuff happening in the rumor mill. So as all of us are looking at our wallets and wondering, are we safe from the pinflation world of today? I think the answer might be no if these titles get made. And there is a lot of juggernaut titles that I think would translate perfectly into the world of pinball. Now, before we go there, a quick update on this whole Haggis situation. You know, people keep coming at me. They're like, where did they say they were going to give money back? Are you able to find the actual clip? And look, I'm just here to tell you right now, I have multiple clips and multiple Discord conversations in which the distributor who is taking money on Centaur and Haggis Pinball is letting everybody know it's flipping out pinball. I'm not sure if Nitro also has the same Ryan Policky and RS Pinball in France. But here's the deal. If you gave money on a Centaur, that money went to Haggis. If Haggis Pinball folds and closes its doors, then they will refund you the money you gave them. And so I don't know how many people went in on Centaur. I think most of the deposits were $1,000. I can't imagine more than like 20 or 30 of those games sold, especially because everybody has knowledge now what a boondoggle the Fathom builds were. And now we have no real clue about what the next steps are with Haggis Pinball. And look, I hope it works out for everybody. History has shown us it most likely will not work out for everybody. And now it's just a waiting game because, you know, when are they going to fold? And if they do fold, it could take a really long time. We know things are not good. They clearly have money issues. They don't have like 20 people working over there or even 10 people working. I'm not sure how many games are being made but look if you gave money you knew the risk going in and I still don't think it's Zach's fault or Kerry Hardy's fault or anyone else's fault this is 100% Damien's fault he's the one who wanted to take Centaur money back in May of 2023 and so here we are now eight months later and they didn't build all the fathoms and they're not going to build Centaurs in Q1 2024. And once again, more misleading ETAs from the company and you have nobody to blame but yourself. All right, let's just forget about Haggis and let's get to what's exciting and what's positive in pinball. And that is the rumored games that are going to be coming out in the pinball world. Are these all going to come true? Absolutely not. Am I going to be wrong on some of these? Absolutely. I haven't seen almost any of these with my own eyes. I'm happy that Orbiter Albert took all of my hard work and made an hour and a half show and spent the first 10 minutes just justifying why he's working off of Canada's material. Albert, man, you just got to get over it, brother. You got to get over it. I mean, you spent 10 minutes making an apology to Don that you're doing something with Canada's information. It's getting really sad, brother. I mean it. Come back to the Canada Club. You'll feel more machismo and you'll have a good time. All right, so here we go. Stern Pinball. The rumors over at Stern are the following, and I left one off this list that I forgot about. John Wick, Pokemon, X-Men 97, Metallica on Spike 3, Indiana Jones, He-Man Masters of the Universe, Journey the Band, and Dungeons and Dragons. All right, that's a lot of rumored games coming out from Stern, and we know that Stern only has two more cornerstone games this year. Now, John Wick is going to be next. I think that is the safest bet. We are going to get John Wick. Now, at these pinball prices, here's my thing. I don't think John Wick is going to sell very well. Not if it's $13,000 for an LE. There is not a chance in pinball hell they are going to sell 1,000 John Wicks at $13,000. I think this could be the game that just blows up Stern's entire pricing model. Now, the next game on the list, Pokemon, would be much easier to command that much money. Now, who's making John Wick? I think it's going to be a John Borg or George Gomez game. Then we get to Pokemon, which is rumored to be a Jack Danger game. And then X-Men 97 is apparently supposed to be Keith Elwin's next title, which we might see at the end of the year. But I'm also hearing that Metallica on Spike 3 is also coming out this year. Here's what I think is going to happen. I think Metallica is going to be a remake of the old Metallica game with new artwork and on Spike 3. I don't see this Metallica being a cornerstone game. And so if Stern has two more cornerstone games coming this year, Here's what I think they're going to be. I think it's going to be John Wick, and I think it might be X-Men 97. Those are my two safest bets. And then I think Metallica does come out as a Spike 3 game, but I don't think Stern considers it a brand new game. I think it's a remake of an older game on a new platform. Now, look, what about Indiana Jones, He-Man, and Journey? Now, if we think about Stern's normal cadence, They usually like to throw in a music pin like every third game, and I think that's going to be Metallica. I do think they have the license to Journey. I don't think we're going to see it until next year. I think they also might have the license to He but then again I always hearing that American Pinball has the He license I don know who to believe If American Pinball did have the He license they must be morons for making a barbecue game in front of He What's going to be great this year is John Wick is going to be the ultimate test for Stern. As much as I love the John Wick movies, I don't think this theme is going to be executed right at Stern Pinball. I think you need more of Jersey Jack's atmospheric kind of light show to bring John Wick to life. It's basically a hitman movie that takes place in all these like rave and club environments and all the lights are going and the strobing and the mirrors and the samurai outfits and all the weird places John Wick ends up and kills all those henchmen. I don't think Stern Pinball is going to be able to create that kind of atmospheric energy in its pinball format. I mean, Stern's lighting system is so outdated and they just don't have it. Like, Jersey Jack has it. Like, they have the ability to make that John Wick atmosphere pop. Like, imagine Elton John with that light show, but it's actually John Wick. So it's going to be interesting. I mean, X-Men 97 feels exactly the kind of game Stern would make. So does Pokemon. So we'll see, but I think it's going to be a rough year for Stern. And I've also heard that the next Stern games are not that amazing. and people trust me when I say wait and see that Jaws LE with less than 100 plays. Remember, they haven't even made all the Jaws LEs yet. There's one sitting for $12.50 and it still hasn't sold. What does that tell you? There's way too many games. They've destroyed the collectability of everything. And even the mighty Elwin is not seeing his games go up in price. and this is not good for Stern. And I think they've oversaturated their market and I think they've overpriced themselves. All right, let's go over to Jersey Jack Pinball. Now, Jersey Jack has a lot of exciting themes. Now, the big question mark with Jersey Jack is will they do these themes right if they do these themes? Because Jersey Jack has a history of not getting all the assets, not syncing up the video with the voices. And I think if Jersey Jack does these themes right and they do these themes justice, I think Jersey Jack is going to have the greatest two years in the history of the company. I think Jersey Jack can actually beat Stern and create more demand for its products. And you know what I've been saying for a while? At these prices, it's a lot easier for you to justify spending it on a Jersey Jack machine because it's such a higher caliber machine. It is. The materials. The damn thing weighs 120 pounds more than a Stern. Why do you think that is, people? It's a much more solid build. And I think people realize that when you go from Elton John to Jaws, you are going from one of the most stellar, impressive games of all time to something that just looks like another cheap Stern game. And I know some of you out there ordered Jaws LE and you'll defend it because of the way the game shoots, but there's no getting over the fact. It's just cheap. Stern has not increased its bomb. They have not innovated. Their lighting is like 20 years old and outdated. They haven't done anything truly innovative. And the reason why they're making everybody go on to Insider Connected, you guys are all fools. The moment you're all on Insider Connected, guess what's going to happen one day? They're going to flip a switch and you're going to have to pay a monthly subscription fee to play your Stern Pinball Machine. They're going to start charging you every month for new modes and new this and new achievements, and you're going to pay for all that. It is not going to be free, people, and I don't like that. I want to buy a pinball machine. I want it to be finished, and I want it to be in my home, and I don't want it to be like Hulu and Netflix and Disney Plus and have to pay an additional amount every month to get the fullest out of my pinball game. All right, so Jersey Jack, let's go down these stellar themes, people. The Matrix, most likely Mark Siden's game. His first game in all of pinball on a commercial level. I'm super excited. Just picturing that Jersey Jack platform with the black and the green lights raining down that machine, and they got to do just the first film. If they do the latest Matrix movie, like Matrix 4, like Toy Story 4, it's game over. So Jack, if you have the Matrix license, just make the first movie. Harry Potter following the Matrix. What a one-two punch that is. We know that we heard all these years, J.K. Rowling will not allow a pinball machine to be made about her property because she sees it in bars and it's seedy. And maybe, just maybe, this is the Abbess family power. When you're a billionaire, you know the other billionaires. And I think they found a way to get through to her and they have the license for Harry Potter. Now, Harry Potter is probably going to be Eric Minier's next game. Now, that's super cool. Eric Minier, trust me, stop making it multiball heavy. If you and Keith P. Johnson make this another multiball madness mayhem game, I'm just done with it. You got to learn, brother. Make people earn those multi-balls and don't throw it at them every 30 seconds. And the big question with Harry Potter, is it going to be based on the movies or is it going to be based more on Wizarding World and inspired by the books of Harry Potter? We shall see. All right. After that, it gets interesting, right? Beastie Boys. Now I'm hearing that Steve Ritchie's next game is either going to be Beastie Boys or Top Gun. Now look, you could hard stop there. Steve Ritchie on either Beastie Boys or Top Gun is a take my money now thing. Look how good his Elton John game shoots, but most of you don't want Elton John as a theme. If he made that game, I mean it, the same exact layout as Elton John and that game was freaking Top Gun and on the right side of the game, if that wasn't the rocket man firing the ball out around that big loopy wire form, if that was the aircraft carrier firing Maverick's plane into the dogfight, we wouldn't be having a conversation about whether or not Jersey Jack games are overpriced. We would all be fighting to get our hands on a Top Gun collector's edition. So I think this is going to be huge And then Beastie Boys if they get Beastie Boys and they put Beastie Boys in pinball format it is the perfect music for pinball The big question mark with Top Gun is are you going to get Tom Antonio Cruz He's notoriously impossible to work with. He never licenses his likeness to anything. We tried to get him to work with us on Budweiser when the Maverick movie came out because Budweiser was all over the first movie and he wanted nothing to do with us. Like he doesn't do partnerships. Now, once again, maybe the power of the Abbess Billions can speak volumes to the Tom Antonio Cruz billionaire. We shall see. But how do you make a Top Gun game without Tom Antonio Cruz? Well, the way you could do it, though, if you have the music, then you got to get the rights to Danger Zone and the theme song and everything else has to be in there. And maybe you play as Iceman and maybe they do it that way. And Maverick's in the game, but you're just not seeing him. All right, rounding out the rumored titles for Jersey Jack Pinball is Avatar. I've been saying this for a while. I know the Abbas family are friends with the executive producer of the Avatar films, so there's a relationship there. You know, but do people really want another Avatar pinball machine? I don't think so. And then the last one on our list, we've heard this theme for many, many years, The Muppets. Now, it's going to be the 45th anniversary of the Muppet movie, and that's going to be in theaters this June, July. So there's a lot of people speculating that maybe the Muppets is next, and maybe Mark Siden's game is the Muppets and not Matrix. Now, if I had to choose between Matrix and the Muppets, of course I'm choosing the Matrix, but the Muppets would be great. I mean, if you put Animal on the drum set and that's the pop bumpers and you have the two old guys as the topper and they're antagonizing you as you're playing the game, I mean, I think it could be amazing. So, look, if you make the Muppet movie, I know I'm a grown adult, but sign me up for a Fozzie Bear Collector's Edition Jersey Jack Pinball. And we also know that Jack has a relationship with Disney and Disney owns the rights to the Muppets. So maybe it is the Muppets. All right, that's Jersey Jack Pinball, right? A lot of games. Let's just count them so far. We have just talked about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 games. I don't think I mentioned Dungeons and Dragons. That's the 14th game. So just between Stern and Jersey Jack alone, isn't this crazy? 14 rumored titles in the mix. And I bet at least half of these are in the works. So that's eight pinball machines that are coming out from these juggernaut companies that want to charge you anywhere from $7,000 to $15,000. They got to keep their lines moving and they got to find homes for all of these games. It's about to get crazy, people. All right, let's go to Spooky Pinball. The rumors over at Spooky are the following. The Evil Dead, Sonic the Hedgehog. Nobody's been talking about this. We know that American Pinball tried to get the Sonic license and they did not. We know that they lost it to somebody. And we know it wasn't Stern who got the title. That's what David Fix said. And I'm here to tell you right now, I'm hearing on good sources that Spooky Pinball has Sonic the Hedgehog license. That's amazing. Evil Dead is coming out. It is what Ben Heck's game is going to be. It is the next game from Spooky Pinball. So we go Evil Dead, a spooky theme. Then we go Sonic the Hedgehog, a much more fun sort of video game property from the 80s and 90s. I would love a Sonic game. I mean, the damn hedgehog is a pinball. He's going through that game like a pinball through loop-de-loops. He's hitting pop bumpers. You know, if you've ever played this game, it is like an animal acting as a pinball going through a fast-paced world. And it is perfect for pinball. And then we've got two more themes. The Goonies, did they get the Goonies from Deep Root? We know Deep Root doesn't have the license anymore. And maybe they saw that Deep Root had it and they went and grabbed it. And then we've got Beetlejuice. Now, I think between Goonies and Beetlejuice, I think Beetlejuice is the safer bet. The second movie is about to come out and they're going to make another movie, right? It's called Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, which means there's going to be a third movie that's called Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. And you know me, if they make this Beetlejuice pin, I think that's a take my money now game. It's also going to be a Tim Burton pinball machine, which is amazing. And the only thing they need to do, if Spooky Pinball is listening to this, if you make a Beetlejuice pinball machine and the way you turn it on isn't by saying Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, then you don't even deserve to be in business. You got to have an externally facing microphone and allow people to turn the game on that way. And you will break the internet and get my money. All right. So that's over at Spooky Pinball. And those are great themes for Spooky. I think we're going to see Spooky Pinball have a really great next two to three years. I know that Hilton is really excited about what they have. And I think half of these are going to be right. And I think everybody knows it. And it's good. And they earned it. And they worked hard. and they've got this company in a good place. Now, I think they just need to get more designers over there and coding over at Spooky is going to be a big question mark because they're losing their main coder. You know, people don't talk about that. Now, I don't have Barrels of Fun up on my list of companies making rumored games because I haven't heard a single rumor other than the Fifth Element and I know the Fifth Element is not happening. They 100% are not making the Fifth Element and I have no line of sight into what's next over at Barrels of Fun. Same thing with Multimorphic. They're not on my list because I have no idea what's after The Princess Bride. And if I heard a rumor, I would put it up here. All right, just a few more companies, people. So Dutch Pinball has Alice in Wonderland and Back to the Future. I'm just going to tell you right now, none of these are rumors. Both of these are happening. They're both going to happen this year. If I were a betting man, I think we absolutely see Alice in Wonderland this year. They're going to make around 500 of them. And Back to the Future, here's my guess. I think they're going to reveal this game on Back to the Future Day, which is October 21st. I doubt it's going to be on the line then. I could see them revealing the game and then the game going to go into production sometime at the end of the year early 2025 And look I don think Dutch Pinball is going to have a hard time getting orders for this but I really hope they have manufacturing going before they take any money on Back to the Future. And you know why, right? Like we haven't seen this company make more than one game. They've been making the same game for 10 years. They've reestablished trust. And I just hope they maintain that reestablished trust. We should be spending money on games. they're on the line and in a box. Like you should not be paying in full unless your game has been built. It's just that simple. All right. So Chicago Gaming Company, this is where it gets a little like, I don't know what these guys are really working on after Pulp Fiction. I put up here that they might have gremlins. And I heard that somewhere a long time ago that Mark Ritchie's game after Pulp Fiction was going to be gremlins. And that's all I've got. I've got nothing else other than that. I know they're going to make more medieval madnesses. They have parts to make another 500 run of medieval madness. So that's happening over at Chicago Gaming Company. But at the speed at which these guys make games, I mean, it's really hard to even care about a rumor over at Chicago Gaming Company, which is why Rick and Planetary Pinball have moved over to the new Pedretti Gaming and European Pinball Crew and Pinball Brothers. And that's why we're going to see more of these Bally Williams remakes come from those guys. And so the big rumors over there, right, the European Pinball Company built by Pedretti Gaming is that they're going to make the Twilight Zone. They're going to do a remake of the Bally Williams Indiana Jones. I'm also hearing Fishtails and Dracula. And then I'm hearing that the Pinball Brothers next game is going to be a music pin based on a European act. And I'm hearing it might be Scorpions. So those are all rumors people like I don't know I thought we were going to see the Bally Williams remakes by now I thought they wanted to bring these games to Texas Pinball Festival I still think they're going to I think they're going to be the one company that surprises us and shows up at Texas and pulls the curtain off a Bally Williams remake and I'm just going to say something crazy right now I actually think the first one might be Indiana Jones I mean it I think the first one might be Indiana Jones. And I think the crazy part is maybe Stern's going to help build them. Ah, that's nuts, Kaneda. How could you say that? I know. That is the crazy. I'm just making that part up, by the way. All right. Last and I think least on our list of rumored titles, American Pinball's Barbecue Game. It's not a rumor. It's going to happen. We're going to see it over the next week or so. After the barbecue game, they're working on Dennis Nordman's sequel to Whitewater 2. Is that still in the works now that Dennis Nordman has left AP? The thing is this, everybody, Dennis Nordman didn't leave AP. He was never a salaried employee at AP. He's always been an external vendor. They're just working with him like a contract worker. So you can't leave a job you never really had. And if they move on to Whitewater 2, he'll absolutely come back and finish that game with them. I tend to believe that they're kind of not happy with Dennis Nordman because they made his game and it didn't work. Galactic Tank Force has not sold well. And then we know Ryan McQuaid's first game is going to be Cuphead. I mean, you heard that here first from Canada's Pinball Podcast. A lot of these rumors I broke at some point or another. Jason Knapp's done a great job of breaking rumors and covering stuff. Whether I broke it or not, it doesn't really matter. You don't listen to Canada's Pinball Podcast for rumors. You listen to my show because of my take on this hobby, and I'm not a shill, and I'm not in the back pocket of any of these manufacturers, and I'm going to tell you how I feel about these games as they come out. To put a pin in this episode, there is a lot of great stuff in the works in these companies. The problem I see with all of this is you add up all the games that are available right now in the world. You add up all the new in-box games that are sitting as inventory at distributors right now. You add up all of that, and then you add in all of these new games about to arrive at the highest prices pinball has ever been, and it doesn't work. It just doesn't work. You can't have like 10 companies all wanting to sell us a product over $10,000 when you don't need any more. I don't know if all of you are like multi-millionaires, But man, it just gets to the point where there's too much. And knowing that all this stuff is going to come out. And knowing that you might love like eight of these themes. All of us are going to start to have to make tough decisions. And the only way you're going to go in on a game is if it's done right. Jersey Jack, you got to do the Matrix right. You got to do Harry Potter right. Stern Pinball, you got to upgrade, man. Your games are looking old. They're looking dated. they're looking empty. You're not going to fool us with like zombie Yeti artwork and 20-year-old lighting systems. You got to wake up and enter 2024. If I'm Gary Stern and you've got all these millions, how can you walk over to a Jersey Jack machine and then walk back over to yours and be proud of the product you're putting in the market? It just looks outdated. And Spooky Pinball needs to get their designs better. They need to get some mechs going that are more magical. And I think they're going to get there. I really do. And if they make a game like Sonic, they're not going to make it like AP made Hot Wheels. It's got to have a loop to loop. It's got to have something where it jumps up and grabs a gold ring. If it doesn't have that, what are we doing making pinball machines, right? Everybody, thank you so much for being a member of the Kaneda Club. I'm excited about what's coming out. It's going to be a bunch of great stuff and I'm going to be here to cover it. Unfortunately, the first game in all of these games that I'm going to have to talk about is this barbecue game. Are you ready to roast these guys? I've got the lighter fluid ready. Are you ready to light your money on fire with an American pinball barbecue game? I'm ready. Bring it on. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.