Episode 815: "Kaneda's Candid Take on American Pinball"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·20m 36s·analyzed·Jun 23, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Kaneda gives American Pinball a D grade, calling it a failing company with no hit games.

Summary

Kaneda delivers a scathing critique of American Pinball, assigning the company a failing D grade. He argues the manufacturer has failed to produce a single hit game in six years, with none of their titles (Houdini, Oktoberfest, Hot Wheels, Legends of Valhalla, Galactic Tank Force) selling even 1,000 units. Kaneda claims the company lacks creative vision, is propped up by Ametron's money, and has made poor strategic decisions including financing John Papaduke's failed Magic Girl project and designing Galactic Tank Force with a broken central mechanism.

Key Claims

American Pinball has not sold 1,000 units of any single game (Houdini, Oktoberfest, Hot Wheels, Legends of Valhalla, or Galactic Tank Force)
medium confidence · Kaneda, throughout the episode, repeating this assertion multiple times as core evidence of failure
American Pinball gave John Papaduke over $300,000 to finish Magic Girl Pinball machines
medium confidence · Kaneda, referencing company history and past financial decisions
Galactic Tank Force has a major design flaw where a central mechanism causes the ball to jump over the flippers and targets bend backwards, which the company didn't realize until public release
medium confidence · Kaneda describing specific gameplay issues with Galactic Tank Force
American Pinball operates with a skeleton crew and would be out of business without Ametron's financial backing
low confidence · Kaneda citing 'word on the street' about minimal staffing levels
David Fix told distributors the next game will be based on a video game license and pressured them to order Galactic Tank Force for allocations
low confidence · Kaneda reporting unverified rumor about Fix's distribution tactics
David Fix claimed Galactic Tank Force earns more revenue on location than Foo Fighters machines
low confidence · Kaneda questioning the veracity of Fix's claimed earnings comparison
Josh Kugler (Coogler) was let go by American Pinball despite his efforts to improve Houdini and Oktoberfest code
medium confidence · Kaneda discussing Kugler's departure and lack of company appreciation
Joe Balser designed Houdini without a whitewood playtest, resulting in overly tight shots
medium confidence · Kaneda explaining technical reasons for Houdini's poor shot design
Galactic Tank Force is not selling well and is easily available on Pinside marketplace

Notable Quotes

“American Pinball is a company that is being run by people that have absolutely no clue what people want in pinball.”
Kaneda @ early in episode — Core thesis of the critique—lack of market understanding
“They came out with a game that had a major mechanism in the middle of the game that your entire objective as the player is to avoid the damn mechanism because it sends the ball straight down the middle.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Specific technical criticism of Galactic Tank Force design flaw
“American Pinball is a company that has never made a hit game. And the reason why they've never made a hit game, the reason why nothing they do has ever been successful is they have no creative visionary over there.”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Restatement of central failure argument
“This company would be more successful if they connected with Rick over at Planetary Pinball and they should remake Big Ben or similar name bar. They should remake Twilight Zone.”
Kaneda @ late episode — Suggesting alternative strategy: remaking classic titles instead of original games
“Galactic Tank Force LE is sitting on Pinside marketplace embarrassingly easy to get any single version of the game you want. Nobody wants this game.”
Kaneda @ late episode — Evidence-based observation of secondary market oversupply indicating poor demand
“If you're gonna make a game, then you need to make a game better than what the competition is making. And American Pinball is not making anything better.”
Kaneda @ closing — Competitive positioning argument—American Pinball fails to differentiate
“They did this whole victory lap with Dennis Nordman and Zofia Ryan. Look at Galactic Tank Force. There's nothing engineered in that game that's very interesting at all.”
Kaneda @ mid-late episode — Criticism of hype-to-reality gap; designer failings

Entities

American Pinballcompany Kanedaperson David Fixperson John Papadukeperson Josh KuglerpersonJoe BalserpersonDennis Nordman

Signals

?
product_concern: Galactic Tank Force has a critical central mechanism flaw where players must avoid the mechanism, causing the ball to jump over flippers and targets to bend backwards; issue discovered only after public release
medium · Kaneda detailed description: 'They came out with a game that had a major mechanism in the middle of the game that your entire objective as the player is to avoid the damn mechanism because it sends the ball straight down the middle. The ball jumps over the flippers. The freaking targets bend backwards. And they didn't realize this until they released the game to the public.'
$
market_signal: Galactic Tank Force is readily available on Pinside marketplace, indicating weak demand and unsold inventory; described as 'embarrassingly easy to get'
high · Kaneda observation: 'I look all over Pinside. You can get this game easily, easily. They're not sold out.' and 'Galactic Tank Force LE is sitting on Pinside marketplace embarrassingly easy to get any single version of the game you want.'
~
sentiment_shift: Loss of community trust in American Pinball due to repeated unfulfilled promises (four production lines, Hot Wheels upgrades, inflated order numbers, revenue claims)
high · Kaneda cataloging broken promises: 'He said he got twice as many orders for Legends of Valhalla Standard Edition as he did for LE. That never happened. And then the rumor was they got 2,000 orders of Galactic Tank Force, which also did not happen.'
?
business_signal: American Pinball appears financially non-viable without Ametron backing; no single game has generated sufficient revenue to sustain operations or fund subsequent titles
medium · Kaneda: 'If you remove the Ametron money, there is no way this company has ever made enough money off of its pinball games to support its future pinball games.' and 'If the pinball division were left on its own accord and there was no ancillary money supporting the pinball division, this company would be out of business.'

Topics

American Pinball company performance and market receptionprimaryGalactic Tank Force game design flaws and sales performanceprimaryCompany leadership decisions and strategic failuresprimaryFinancial sustainability and Ametron backingprimaryDesigner and staff departures (Josh Kugler, Jack Hager implied)secondaryCompetitive positioning vs Stern, Jersey Jack, Spooky, Chicago GamingsecondaryFuture prospects and Ryan McQuade's unreleased video game license titlesecondarySecondary market pricing and game availabilitymentioned

Sentiment

negative(-0.92)— Kaneda is extremely critical throughout, using harsh language ('disaster,' 'joke,' 'dead on arrival,' 'finito'), assigning a failing grade, and expressing strong personal disappointment. Minimal positive remarks except acknowledgment that David Fix is 'a good person personally' and recognition of Josh Kugler's effort. The tone is strident, frustrated, and condemnatory of nearly every aspect of American Pinball's operations, strategy, and output.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.062

I am a real American, fight for the rights of every man. I am a real American, fight for what's right, fight for your life. Welcome everybody to day four of Canada's candid take on the pinball industry. This day is going to be really easy and it's going to be really strident. And I'm going to start today with the letter grade of this company, American Pinball. What grade would you give American Pinball? A company that has made Houdini, Oktoberfest, Hot Wheels with no ramps, no jumps, no car washes. A company that made Legends of Valhalla, a game that nobody wanted when they could have it. Like when Riot Games said, who wants a hundred of these games? Nobody wanted it. And now they've made Galactic Tank Force, Dennis Nordman's game. He wanted to make a game based on a tank. Look, I'm just going to say this right now. American Pinball is a company that is being run by people that have absolutely no clue what people want in pinball. And that is why Canada's Pinball Podcast is giving American Pinball a D grading. D, right? Not a C, not a B, not an A, but a D. Is a D a failing grade? I think it is. I'm going to give this company a failing grade in pinball. This company has now been around for like six years. And after six years and after all of their attempts to make a hit pinball machine, they still have not made a single game that a thousand people want. They have not sold a thousand of any game. They have not sold a thousand Houdinis. They have not sold a thousand Oktoberfest. They have not sold a thousand Legends of Valhalla. They have not sold a thousand Hot Wheels or Galactic Tank Force. And now look, this whole company, when it got taken over by David Fix, that was the moment. Remember when David Fix went on like the super awesome pinball podcast? He talked about Dennis Nordman, Zofia Ryan. and they were going to come back with a game that was going to win everybody over. And then what happened? They came out with a game that had a major mechanism in the middle of the game that your entire objective as the player is to avoid the damn mechanism because it sends the ball straight down the middle. The ball jumps over the flippers. The freaking targets bend backwards. And they didn't realize this until they released the game to the public. but I don't even want to talk about Galactic Tank Force because I think it's a galactic tank disaster. I just want to be completely candid about this company right now. American Pinball is a company that has never made a hit game. And the reason why they've never made a hit game, the reason why nothing they do has ever been successful is they have no creative visionary over there. They're being run by somebody who has no idea what pinball wants. And I'm not saying it's David Fix. They're being run and they're being financed by Mukesh, who's a guy that makes chips for like the U.S. government. Like Ametron is a chip company. And if you go back and look at the history of this company, who ran American Pinball? It was like Duval. He's no longer there. And guess who Duval hired on day one? He hired John Papadiuk. Do people forget the fact that when John Papadiuk couldn't find another sucker in pinball to finance his operation, guess who's the one sucker he could find to finance his operation? He found American Pinball. And this company has never really recovered from that decision. They gave John Papadiuk over $300,000 to try to finish his Magic Girl Pinball machines. And for a lot of you people who have not been around this hobby for the last six years, you need to go back and look at the history of American pinball and who was calling the shots. Because back then when Duvall and all those people, it was like Scott Goldberg was involved with the company and John Papadiuk. And then they had like Matt Andrews make the artwork on the Houdini machine. And they brought that whole play field to like Texas pinball festival. Do people forget the history of this company? And then they brought on Joe Balcer to fix John Papadiuk's Houdini. And then Joe Balcer made the game without even a whitewood. And that's why Houdini shot so poorly. Because the shots were so damn tight Because they didn even test the game out It been a never sequence of bad decisions by American Pinball The only good thing that American Pinball ever did was get Josh Kugler on board, and Josh Kugler gave his heart to this company. He tried to code Houdini and Oktoberfest in a way that was exciting for users, And then what did American Pinball do to Josh Coogler? How did they pay back Josh Coogler? They let him go, right? They let him go. They let him go. He's no longer with American Pinball. And look, this company gets a D rating because everything they do, they seemingly do with absolutely no market research in mind. I mean, Galactic Tank Force is easily. the worst move a pinball company has done in 2023. It's worse than the Godfather. It's worse than Spinal Tap. I mean, how many people out there are actually buying this game? I mean, it's one of these games where like certain people want to defend it. Certain people want to like make excuses for it. But how many people out there are actually plunking down 8,000 to freaking $11,000 for the LE and then take this $17,500 for the signature edition of this game. I mean, this game is an absolute joke. I'm going to be candid right now. I'm going to be very strident right now. This game is a joke. Does it shoot all right? Sure. There's nothing really terrible about the layout, but in 2023, American Pinball, do you really think there is anybody out there in the pinball buying world that wants this game. There is nothing about this game that is creative. There is nothing about this game that is interesting. There is nothing about this game that is unique. And this game is already dead on arrival. I've been speaking to distributors. Nobody is buying this game. They are not going to sell 250 LEs of this game. They are not going to sell the signature editions of this game. This game is going to not sell even close to 1,000 units. And then what's going to happen, right? How are they going to spin it? What are they going to do? And the only thing you need to know about this game is this. Have you seen Dennis Nordman, the game's designer, even try to do anything to get anybody in pinball excited about this game? Where is he? Where's Steven Bowden? Is he doing anything? Is he streaming this game every single week trying to get people excited about this game? They are doing absolutely nothing. And the other thing, people, I'm just giving you the honest truth. The reason why American Pinball is not doing a factory tour and walking you through production of this game, it's a skeleton crew over there. So I hope all of you get your game. But the word on the street is there's not many people left over at American Pinball. I heard Steven Bowden is going in every day and watching YouTube videos. And Ryan McQuaid, I know he's really smug. He thinks he's somebody important in pinball. But I'm here to burst his bubble a little bit. Ryan McQuaid, you've done nothing, my friend. You made Sonic the Hedgehog pinball. And American Pinball didn't even secure the license. and I don't have much faith that Ryan McQuaid's going to be the next answer in the pinball designing space like what's he gonna do like this game's not selling you know what I heard is happening is David Fix is going around to different distributors and telling them like our next game is going to be based on a video game license and you're going to want to get in on it and you need to order Galactic Tank Force if you want to get allocations of Ryan McQuaid's video game game. You know what? It's a day late and a dollar short. This company, in my mind, if it did not have Ametron's money, this company would have gone out of business after Houdini. They would have gone out of business after Oktoberfest. They would have gone out of business after Hot Wheels. They would have gone out of business after Legends of Valhalla. And they absolutely would go out of business after freaking Galactic Tank Force. And if you remove the AIMTRON money, there is no way this company has ever made enough money off of its pinball games to support its future pinball games. And I'm going to be very strident right now. What is the point of a company like this. David Fix says a lot. He makes a lot of promises. He said something like we going to have four lines going at American Pinball Four lines going To make what Who ordering games where they need four different lines You know what he also said? We're going to be able to implement into Hot Wheels additional items into the game, like a ramp or a loop-de-loop or a jump. Remember when he said that? we might be able to actually add accessories that bring the Hot Wheels fun into the game. Has that happened? Absolutely not. He says all of this stuff. He said he got twice as many orders for Legends of Valhalla Standard Edition as he did for LE. That never happened. And then the rumor was they got 2,000 orders of Galactic Tank Force, which also did not happen. And then David Fix recently said that Galactic Tank Force earns more on location than the Foo Fighters. I don't know what location that is. I don't know where he's getting this information. But I find it hard to believe that anything coming from American Pinball is getting more plays out in the world than the Foo Fighters or any Stern machine. This company is misguided. This company has no vision. This company has no direction that seemingly connects to anything the pinball buying community wants. Now, look, I don't want American Pinball to fail. I think David Fix is a good person personally. When it comes to the professional decisions that are being made over at American Pinball, how could anybody say this is what I would do to make a successful pinball company? nothing they've done to date has been successful there are some fanboys that will argue that american pinball makes a great product that the quality is their quality who cares about quality if the freaking thing is not great right like it's built great but nobody wants it like what good is that you're gonna build something to a high standard but it's something that nobody really wants. And this is where I'm at with American Pinball. You got us all excited about Galactic Tank Force. You went all in on this Dennis Nordman tank game, and then you did not deliver a product that people want. I look all over Pinside. You can get this game easily, easily. They're not sold out. There's no way they're going to ever sell these games out. and we're not seeing many of them even get out the door to customers. Like what's up with American Pinball? What is up? Is this it? Is this the best you got? Because if Galactic Tank Force is the best you got, we don't want it. If Houdini is the best you got or Oktoberfest or Hot Wheels or Legends of Ahala, the majority of the pinball buying public says we don't want it. This company would be more successful if they connected with Rick over at Planetary Pinball and they should remake Big Bang Bar. They should remake Twilight Zone. Like, why does an American pinball just actually use its manufacturing ability and make games people actually want? But they're making games that nobody really wants. And there's absolutely no enthusiasm around this company. And out of all the pinball companies that have been out there over the last four to five to six years, American Pinball is the one single company that has really dropped the ball more than anybody because they have the money. They have the manufacturing know-how. They know how to make pinball machines. They know how to build a quality pinball machine. But they're building a quality pinball machine that nobody freaking wants. And so American Pinball, Canada's Pinball Podcast is giving you a D. I would not own any of your games. I don't want any of your games. I don't want any of your rhetoric. I don't want any of your excuses. I don't want any of your podcast interviews. What I want you to do, American Pinball, is actually make a game that people want. I want you to make a game where you can sell 2,000 units easily. You've never done it. You made decisions like Galactic Tank Force that show me that not only do you not have a George Gomez over there, but you absolutely have no idea what the pinball buying public wants. And I think the jig is up. I think there's no more excuses. I think Mukesh gave David Fix a mandate to make their company sing And I think David Fix has failed to deliver on Mukesh mandate to make a product people want Where is the magic I mean think about this They did this whole victory lap with Dennis Nordman and Zofia Ryan Look at Galactic Tank Force. There's nothing engineered in that game that's very interesting at all. There's more interesting mechs in Houdini and Oktoberfest. There's more stuff in both of those games than Galactic Tank Force. Same thing with Jersey Jack. It's another company where the games have not gotten better. And here's the thing. If you're going to continue to make pinball machines, and you want people to spend money on your pinball machines, and your pinball machines progressively keep getting worse and not better, then you are going to go out of business. And I I think American Pinball is a company in which one day Mukesh is going to wake up and get tired of the pinball division. If the pinball division were left on its own accord and there was no ancillary money supporting the pinball division, this company would be out of business. And so Galactic Tank Force dead on arrival. Nobody wants more Legends of Valhalla. nobody wants more Oktoberfest or Houdini's or Hot Wheels and so the ball is in your court will we see if Ryan McQuaid's smug attitude is going to pay off with a hit video game or arcade version of a pinball machine but I'm just here to tell you right now I think a year from now if American pinball doesn't get something out by the end of the year that's better than Galactic Tank Force This company is done. They're done. They're finito. We don't need any more American pinball games if this is what they're going to bring out into the market. And look, I would love for you to disagree with me, but I really don't see a bunch of people saying like American pinball is doing anything right in the pinball space. And again, they've been around for a long time. They've got multi millions of dollars backing them. They've worked with some iconic designers. They've had enough on the plate to make it work, and they haven't made it work. They don't have a single hit game. They don't have one game that sold more than 2,000 units, not even 1,000 units of any game. Canada's Pinball Podcast is giving American Pinball a D rating. I wouldn't buy any of their games. I would never buy any of their games new in box. if you wait on their games you'll be able to buy them for thousands of dollars less than brand new galactic tank force le is sitting on pin side marketplace embarrassingly easy to get any single version of the game you want nobody wants this game nobody wants this game and how are they going to get excited about this game what are they going to do to reignite people's excitement about this game. This game was launched in one of the worst possible ways. They did not make a good launch video and now they've got nothing left. I know they're going to give this game to Zach Manning and straight down the middle. That's not going to solve the problem. It's dead on arrival. They never should have made this game. If they've got Ryan McQuaid with a video game license, they should have made that game. But American Pinball, I don't think you've got much of a future unless you can make a hit game in the next six months. And this game is dead on arrival. And that's my take on American Pinball. They've never made a game that anybody really, really wants. And why would you buy one when we've got all of these games from Stern, from Jersey Jack, from Spooky, from Chicago Gaming Company. What is the need for American pinball, right? And I know there's some people in this hobby that just think everything is awesome and every company is awesome, but no. If you're gonna make a game, then you need to make a game better than what the competition is making. And American pinball is not making anything better. In fact, they're making a game that almost nobody wants And it's not me who's saying that. It's the consumers. A D rating. They get a D. They don't understand this market and they are failing at it horribly. Canada out. Hit me up, David Fix. Ban me from Expo. But this is the truth. Later. Bye.