#23 - Guns N' Roses Reveal Reaction

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·21m 19s·analyzed·Oct 6, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Jersey Jack's coordinated Guns N' Roses reveal generates strong sales momentum through professional production and personal storytelling.

Summary

Host praises Jersey Jack Pinball's Guns N' Roses reveal strategy, highlighting the coordinated marketing effort including professional trailer production, behind-the-scenes interviews via Straight Down the Middle, and Eric Miner's elevation as the creative lead. Host reports anecdotal evidence of the campaign's sales impact—four people he spoke with all committed to Collector's Edition purchases totaling $50,000 in potential revenue. Host notes the game appears designed for accessibility to below-average and average players, with stop-and-go gameplay driven by HD video and concert footage integration, and plans to deliver full gameplay impressions after seeing Buffalo Pinball's debut.

Key Claims

Four people the host spoke with committed to Collector's Edition purchases ($12,500 each) totaling $50,000 in revenue that likely wouldn't have occurred without the coordinated reveal campaign
medium confidence · Host's anecdotal sample of personal conversations; not verified data but directly observed sales behavior
Jersey Jack's trailer has ~22,000-23,000 views in less than a day without YouTube optimization
high confidence · Host directly states view count observation at time of recording
Straight Down the Middle's featurette has ~15,000-16,000 views
high confidence · Host directly states view count at time of recording
Guns N' Roses pinball is designed to be accessible to below-average and average players with wide ramps, prominent spinners and scoops, non-flowy gameplay
medium confidence · Host's observation from video materials; not confirmed by gameplay footage or designer statement
YouTube is superior to Twitch for pinball livestream discovery; Twitch users aged 35-64 comprise only 27% of platform user base
medium confidence · Host cites 'statistical data' but does not provide specific source; claim is plausible but unverified
Jersey Jack's reveal strategy elongates game lifecycle by showing experience and theme integration without revealing full gameplay mechanics
high confidence · Host's analysis of the intentional reveal sequencing strategy
Professional trailer production with color grading and proper framerate selection is expensive and not typical in pinball industry
high confidence · Host's industry observation based on production quality comparison
Slash was involved early in game development and helped with theme integration
high confidence · Host heard about this from reveal materials; aligns with Jersey Jack's messaging
Buffalo Pinball is set to debut gameplay on YouTube tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern

Notable Quotes

“That shows you how powerful these videos are. The fact that you able to feel like you gaining a personal connection with the people that are behind these pins... it almost as if it it really it a weird instance that for some of us this is going to make it to where they kind of transcend above what the theme is”
Host @ ~10:00-11:00 — Core thesis about the reveal strategy's power—personal connection transcending theme limitations
“I talked to four people as of last night and as of this morning. Four... all four of them ended up going in on a CE. that's a $12,500 pinball machine. That's $50,000 right there of revenue generated that probably would not happen without all this”
Host @ ~14:00-15:00 — Direct evidence of sales impact from reveal campaign
“The way that they did it, what's so intelligent about it, is it really elongates the game life process. I don't feel like, right now, that I saw everything. It feels like that we were given so much, but we didn't see everything.”
Host @ ~21:00-22:00 — Analysis of intentional pacing strategy in reveal sequence
“I mean, unless there's other companies out there that are willing to shell out some serious money. I mean, that type of production, I'm telling you guys, it is not cheap.”
Host @ ~35:00-36:00 — Observation about production value as competitive advantage requiring significant investment
“And you got to ask yourself when you're comparing this to how the rock themes have been for, you know, for Stern. I mean, hell, I got an Iron Maiden back there... nothing looks like it compares to this. So it makes you wonder, does that mean in the future that if you are a band or you're representing a band, who do you want making your game?”
Host @ ~44:00-45:00 — Signals competitive positioning implications for future music IP licensing decisions
“And while I don't think, I'm not going to sit here and announce to everybody that this is just industry changing. Because I'm not sure that other companies are anywhere near in a spot to be able to do something like this.”
Host @ ~32:00-34:00 — Tempered optimism about industry-wide impact due to production/financial barriers

Entities

Jersey Jack Pinballcompany Guns N' Rosesgame Eric Minerperson Ken Cromwellperson Keith JohnsonpersonStraight Down The Middleorganization

Signals

?
business_signal: Jersey Jack's reveal strategy may not be replicable by other manufacturers due to production cost barriers and access to A-list talent/resources; industry change potential limited
high · Host states: 'I'm not sure that other companies are anywhere near in a spot to be able to do something like this... unless there's other companies out there that are willing to shell out some serious money. That type of production is not cheap.'
?
competitive_signal: Guns N' Roses sets new standard for rock-themed pinball vs. Stern titles (Iron Maiden, Metallica, Kiss); raises question of which manufacturer music artists will prefer for future licensing
high · Host compares: 'nothing looks like it compares to this. So it makes you wonder... who do you want making your game?' and suggests bands are now comparing Jersey Jack vs. Stern quality
?
event_signal: Buffalo Pinball scheduled to debut live Guns N' Roses gameplay on YouTube tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern; deliberate platform choice for algorithm discovery advantage
high · Host discusses YouTube's demographic advantage (35-64 age group represents 27% of Twitch users vs. higher discovery potential on YouTube) as reason for channel selection
?
licensing_signal: Slash's direct involvement in early game development and theme integration; suggests strong artist collaboration on musical content and authenticity
high · Host states 'slash himself was willing to help with the game and did help with the game early on' and notes this proves 'their theme integration is second to none'
$
market_signal: Jersey Jack's coordinated reveal strategy—professional trailer ($22-23k views unoptimized), behind-the-scenes featurette, podcast interviews, and deliberate gameplay reveal sequencing—generating measurable sales impact

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.064

0:00

All right, welcome back everybody to another episode of a pinball podcast. I appreciate you guys being here and man, it is Tuesday morning and we had quite the day yesterday. It was a fantastic rollout by Jersey Jack and honestly, I recorded a podcast yesterday and I went over everything and I just quite frankly, I decided just to redo it all over again because I want to take more time to really think out what all I saw and to really figure out what my thoughts are in general. And so first and foremost, I want to say congratulations to everybody at Jersey Jack. It is outstanding. Eric, you did a fantastic job. Really great. I mean, everybody, the way that the debut was rolled out, Ken Cromwell, that was excellent as well. I mean, everything about this just came together and we're definitely going to go over some of the things. I will definitely give my overall first impression later this week. I'm not going to do it this podcast simply because I have not yet seen actual gameplay as pretty much nobody has. I've heard about it. That's about it. But I want to definitely see it for myself. I've watched the videos over and over and over again, trying to see what I can see. And I do have some initial gut reactions in terms of what my instincts are telling me, but I want to wait until I see the full gameplay to really flesh it out. I mean, just offhand, just gut instinct on it is I think that this pen is going to be a long player. I'm talking specifically about the limited edition and the collector's edition. Obviously, the standard edition is more flow-based, and it's very stripped down. I'm sure we'll hear all about that. But staying on topic, pretty much we know that this pin, I think it's going to be a long player. And I think it's going to be a lot of stop and go. And a lot of that is because of the way that this theme is integrated. When you have so much HD video and concert footage, you have all the lights, you have all that in mind, you've got to have moments built into the pin. And the only way to really experience those moments, the only way to really, really experience it is when you do have moments that stop that make you be able to look up at the screen or make you really sit back and let the light show breathe a little bit. So I can see that. And just watching video for a little while, the layout, honestly, I mean, I'm still very partial to Elwynn layouts. I don't think that this layout is on the level of Elwynn, but it doesn't have to be. I think that this layout is insanely accessible. If you are a below average player to an average player, rest assured, this pen, it doesn't look like it's going to punish you. It does not look like that. And that's great. That's exactly what it needs to be. And I personally think that's probably how it was designed. It was designed with that in mind. Now, obviously, if you're above average or you're world class, you're probably going to chew through this pen, in which case you're going to become very reliant on Keith Johnson putting in a deep code, which I have not had the opportunity to look over that. I'm sure he's done great because he's done great coding in the past. So I'm still, I'm very fascinated about this pen overall. And I think all these things come together really well. I think that this pen is designed in a way that will speak to the majority of people that play it, which is very important. I think that's very important for something like this. And for that reason, it looks like a home run all around for that simple reason. All right. So let's pretty much discuss now, what does this mean for pinball? Well, it's obvious. Like, bar none, that whole debut, the rollout, everything, it was an obvious coordinated strike, and it was done fantastic. It was done fantastic. And, yes, I am sponsored by Flippin' Out with Zach, but come on. Just being objective about this, everything about the way that they did their, what's it called, a featurette, straight down the middle with Greg Bone and Zach. That was done fantastic. That's exactly what I have been searching for and looking for out of these pinball debuts. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go over to straight down the middle, their YouTube channel. They have a featurette about Guns N' Roses pinball, and it's around 25, 26 minutes long, but they go into detail, or they don't go into detail. They film it because it's not about them. It's not about them. They film like everybody at Jersey Jack that had to do with the pen and they give the background instances or the background stories on what was going on with this pen. And that is, that's so damn exciting because I'm watching this and I'm watching it with my wife. And again, we're not even Guns N' Roses fans. And she looks over at me halfway through it and she said, I feel like we need to get this pen. Literally said that. Now, still on the fence. I'll admit, still on the fence. I need to play it. I need to see because the theme doesn't speak to me. But that shows you how powerful these videos are. The fact that you able to feel like you gaining a personal connection with the people that are behind these pins and it almost as if it it really it a weird instance that for some of us this is going to make it to where they kind of transcend above what the theme is now the theme for guns and roses it will speak for itself again i know i keep reiterating i'm not a fan of it but I understand other people are fans of it, huge fans, which is awesome. But this goes to show you, too, the way that this was handled. The trailer, which was excellent, our Jersey Jack, which as of right now has around 22,000, 23,000 views in less than a day. And that sucker isn't even optimized for YouTube. It's not even optimized for YouTube. That shows you how many people are truly trying to find that. They're not finding it organically. they are going straight to that, which that's amazing in itself. And I think the straight down the middle one has around 15 or 16,000 views at this point, somewhere right around there. But going back, it goes to show you how important all that is, because it draws people like me and other people like my wife, and I've heard it from several other people as well, that getting that personal connection draws people in. And that is a huge deal. That is a massive deal. I mean, just the fact that, like, for instance, let me tell you guys something. I talked to four people as of last night and as of this morning. Four. Now, I'm not going to name them out of respect to their privacy, but all four of them indicated to me that they, there was one of them planned on getting a Guns N' Roses, but the other three, they were not planning on getting one. Right? All four of them ended up going in on a CE. that's a $12,500 pinball machine. That's $50,000 right there of revenue generated that probably would not happen without all this, without the way the debut was, without the way the trailer was, without the way that Zach and Greg filmed their featurette, without the podcast that Eric did with the Super Awesome Pinball Show, without all this put together. And it was done so fantastic that it gets people off the bench and into the game. And that is so important. That is huge. And that's just a small sample size. There's no telling who all decided to do that with an LE, who decided to step up and get the LE. It blows my mind that people are doing that with the CE. More power to them. If you want to do that, go for it. If this is the pen for you, go for it. But, you know, that is fantastic that Jersey Jack was able to, and the people that were doing all these reveals and all this debut and the editing and everything, it's fantastic they were able to do that. And, you know, that's the thing that I was telling Zach about that. One of the things that I loved about the Guns N' Roses thing, or about the video that he did, was the fact that the people behind the pen were highlighted. And you could tell the passion and the enthusiasm coming out of them. I can already tell you straight up, they were asked the right questions that enabled them to be able to tell you directly, tell you the viewer, this is what I feel. And you could sense it. You could feel it. And you find yourself cheering these people on. You find yourself rooting for them. You find yourself realizing that this isn't just a pinball machine. This is an experience. There's a reason why that they are taking the talking point of number one in the pinball industry. Or how are they calling that? Number one industry standard. I think that's what they were saying. But either way, it made total sense. I mean, you can't argue it. After seeing that, you cannot argue it. And like I said, it's fantastic. The other thing that I'm really excited about for them that I think is a highly intelligent move, they have Buffalo Pinball is set to debut gameplay on their YouTube channel tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And the reason why I think that this is an incredibly smart move is because the demographics are over there. Now, I know a lot of people stream on Twitch. Everybody pretty much streams on Twitch. But the fact of the matter is, Twitch is the most inferior place to live stream pinball. It just is. If you look at the statistical data, it indicates that people between the ages of 35 to 64, which are primary age group demographics of pinball, it shows that they make up 27% of the users on Twitch. And it's not even a guarantee that a large percentage of that demographic is even watching pinball. So the ability to get discovered, especially if it's tagged correctly and all that, we're getting into the weeds here. But the ability to be discovered on YouTube is so much higher So I think that that is an intelligent move And I curious to see how it goes for him I don know whether what I haven been able to confirm is this live gameplay or is this pre gameplay That's the one thing I don't know. But again, I'll be able to follow up on my overall first impressions of everything, gameplay and the whole shebang once we see that. And I wanna be able to really, really formulate an opinion more than anything, but overall, my opinion starting up, or first, very first get reaction, it's good. And so, excuse me for one second. Okay, and so, why do the reveal this way? What made this so much better than anything that we have seen in the history of pinball releases, like anywhere? Not calling out any one particular company. Like, I'm talking the whole industry-wide.

high confidence · Host states this as confirmed information from the reveal schedule

“They made it about him you got you felt that connection and you look at the way that the teasers were built up, you could see that it was a process.”

Host @ ~29:00-30:00 — Recognition of Eric Miner's elevation as marketing strategy centerpiece

“I think that this layout is insanely accessible. If you are a below average player to an average player, rest assured, this pen, it doesn't look like it's going to punish you.”

Host @ ~6:00-7:00 — Design assessment based on video analysis—intentional accessibility focus

Super Awesome Pinball Showorganization

A Pinball Podcastorganization

high · Host reports four people he spoke with all committed to $12,500 CE purchases ($50k total) specifically driven by reveal campaign execution, not theme alone

community_signal: Eric Miner elevated as face and creative lead of Jersey Jack Pinball through reveal campaign, receiving singular credit and personal connection emphasis in marketing materials

high · Host notes 'They made it about him you got you felt that connection' and praises Jersey Jack for 'elevating eric... that was genius'

market_signal: Guns N' Roses CE priced at $12,500; host's anecdotal evidence suggests threshold is achievable for premium collectors when marketing and personal connection are strong

medium · Host notes all four people he spoke with committed to $12,500 CE purchases despite only three originally planning purchases, suggesting marketing overcame price objection

product_concern: Host notes Guns N' Roses layout is 'insanely accessible' and designed for below-average to average players, with stop-and-go gameplay requiring moments to experience theme (video/lights), suggesting design compromise between flow and spectacle

medium · Host observes layout 'doesn't have to be' on Elwin's level but is intentionally accessible; 'I think that's probably how it was designed. It was designed with that in mind'

sentiment_shift: Host's wife—not a Guns N' Roses fan—felt compelled to want game after watching behind-the-scenes featurette; indicates personal connection strategy transcending theme limitations

high · Host reports: 'we're not even Guns N' Roses fans. And she looks over at me halfway through it and she said, I feel like we need to get this pen.'

business_signal: Jersey Jack deliberately elongating game reveal lifecycle—showing experience/theme integration without revealing full gameplay/code/rule depth—to maintain hype across multiple content drops

high · Host analyzes: 'they were totally focused on theme integration on showing off cool mechs... nearly 24 hours later and we still haven't seen true gameplay yet yet the hype has just peaked'

11:38

And really, the way that they did it, what's so intelligent about it, is it really elongates the game life process. I don't feel like, right now, that I saw everything. It feels like that we were given so much, but we didn't see everything. We saw the experience, but here we are. it's nearly 24 hours later and we still haven't seen true gameplay yet yet the hype has just peaked and that's the exact way to do it they were totally focused on theme integration on showing off cool mechs they really got through to us that slash himself was willing to help with the game and did help with the game early on so they really got through to us that their theme integration is second to none compared to anything else that we've seen. They sold that story and that narrative, and that's completely awesome. I mean, that's how it is. And with all the behind the scenes interviews, it's great. That's great. So you can tell that that's where their focus is. And now their focus is obviously going to shift to manufacturing. And then hopefully, hopefully we see games showing up in people's homes. And I would love to see testimonials from people. I'd love to see what other people are experiencing. And I think naturally from there, we'll start seeing more gameplay play out, you know, and you're going to get a lot of positive feedback, I believe from that. And you're going to get positive feedback from people that are actually personally invested in the game. And that's so important, especially when you're talking about the lifespan of a game. And then from there that we haven't even dove into code or rule set or anything else. We have not. We just haven't.

13:28

And that's something that can still come along, and that's something that will come along. It just will. All right, one second, guys. I got to take a quick green tea drink.

13:43

I'm still trying to defeat my allergies, by the way. I've nearly won. I've only been fighting it for three weeks, but I've nearly won. but yeah so let's even examine how jersey jack did their rollout on facebook now obviously what they were really attempting to do was elevate eric they really did they shined a light on him and that was genius that was genius we they made it about him you got you felt that connection and you look at the way that the teasers were built up, you could see that it was a process. You know, they showed a blank play field. Then they showed populated play fields. Then there was one in the box. Then there was a bunch in the box and you see all this momentum built up. And yeah, there were some people in the comments that were like, just show the game, just show the game. And it's like, just wait, they're getting to that. And they did. And they crushed it. They absolutely crushed it. And you know, I'm so damn happy for them. I'm so damn happy for the industry. And while I don't think, I'm not going to sit here and announce to everybody that this is just industry changing. Because I'm not sure that other companies are anywhere near in a spot to be able to do something like this. Because understand, Jersey Jack has a lot going for it in terms of you could tell that the trailer was done by a big time professional production. I mean, it had color grading, which you never see. If anybody knows what that means, it basically means that everything you see here, because we're not doing it, makes those colors pop. They obviously had that. They were obviously filming in a certain frames per second. That was the correct vibe to give for that. They were obviously hitting the right B-roll shots. They were hitting the right cuts, the right jump cuts, the right everything. I mean, it was great. And I mean, I'm sorry, unless there's other companies out there that are willing to shell out some serious money. I mean, that type of production, I'm telling you guys, it is not cheap. That is not cheap at all. And then on top of that to get people that are so passionate about pinball like the guys that straight down the middle are to do something that like a passion project I telling you like anybody that doesn keep those two on and says Hey we need you guys to do the same thing would be crazy. Absolutely crazy that, I mean, that right there is, that was a huge selling point for people, the personal connection, such a huge selling point. So I don't know if it's going to be industry changing? Because I don't know if other companies are even capable of doing something like this. Obviously, Jersey Jack is. And moving forward, why I think that this has long range implications for how they do things. Obviously, we've still got to wait and see how the dust settles in terms of how sales are going. What revenue are they bringing in? Are they finally turning a profit? We're not going to know any of that anytime soon. It's going to take months at a time, not even this quarter of sales. It's going to take a while. But what we do know is if they keep this type of marketing up and they can repeat this process for two to three years at a time, they will be a major, major player in the game. And they don't need to catch lightning in a bottle again. Obviously, Guns N' Roses is a special case. When you have a band that is that accessible to you and you have that many assets, I mean, that's rare. That is incredibly rare. And we've seen all the themes, how things are. That's incredibly rare. The fact that they're doing the call-outs, they're giving the music, they're giving all the types of concert footage that they're giving, it's very rare. So I would not expect future pens from Jersey Jack to necessarily meet the same type of integration that this one did. And that's okay. you can knock out like a moonshot home run, and then you can still come back with some line drives in the future. As long as your marketing is on par, as long as you have that momentum going and that ball rolling downhill, they're going to have a lot of winners. And honestly, if you are any type of rock band that's out there, any type of music act, right, I guarantee you they're paying attention. I guarantee you there's ones out there, there's agents out there, there's record labels out there, there are people paying attention. And you got to ask yourself when you're comparing this to how the rock themes have been for, you know, for Stern. I mean, hell, I got an Iron Maiden back there. Had a Metallica on loan for a little while. I've played plenty of Kiss. I've played all those and nothing looks like it compares to this. So it makes you wonder, does that mean in the future that if you are a band or you're representing a band, who do you want making your game?

18:45

Who can bring your product to life? Who can bring the atmosphere? And I mean, I'm sorry. It just obviously Jersey Jack just blew everything out of the water with how they did it. And it's just, it's an amazing, it's an amazing looking pin. I'm very excited to see how it shoots. Like I talked about earlier, my gut instinct is it'll shoot pretty favorably. I think it'll be very accessible to people. I think that the average player to below average player will be able to step up to this and not be frustrated by it. I mean, if you slow it down and you look, the ramps are wide, spinners right in front of you, scoop right in front of you, and because of the way that the design is, it's not really a flowy game, so you don't have to worry about it playing fast necessarily. I think that people will be able to handle this pin pretty easily, as a matter of fact, which is great because it just means you can experience more of the pen. But we'll get more into that in a future podcast in a future video. I will definitely have just a big rundown of everything. What I'm going to do is tomorrow, I plan on going live around 9 p.m. U.S. Central Standard Time. That's the plan. However, if they're still going on Buffalo, I might wait a little bit. I have no idea how long they're going for. It's happening about two hours before. I usually go live on Wednesday nights. So I might go on a little bit afterwards, but I will be on. We'll be talking about Guns N' Roses. We'll be going over a lot of stuff, and then I'm ready to take a deep dive into that later this week. But other than that, I did get my Avengers in. I got to play it a little bit last night, and oh my God, that game flows. I'm telling you, it's a flow monster. I'm having so much damn fun on it. That is my dream theme. I can't wait to tell you guys all about that. have my review on that pretty soon, but I'm going to wait until I have at least 75 to 100 games on it. So I still got a little ways to go. But outside of that, I think that about wraps it up. You guys, whoever is buying Jersey Jack pins today or Guns N' Roses, congratulations. If this is your dream theme, I'm happy for you. This is a great day to be a pinball fan. It's a great day to be in the hobby. And again, congratulations to everybody at Jersey Jack. Congratulations for sure. It's fantastic, and I hope they sell a ton. But other than that, though, guys, I'm heading out. Allergies are kicking up again. I'm about to lose my voice, so I'm just going to head out and go. I'll see you guys later. Thank you guys for listening. See you.