Pinball Industry News: March 2020 Re-cap

TL;DR

March 2020: COVID lockdowns halt most pinball manufacturing; Heist and Hot Wheels games revealed.

Summary

Key Claims

• Dutch Pinball was the only pinball manufacturer still producing games during March 2020 lockdowns

  high confidence · Jonathan and Martin confirm that all other manufacturers (Stern, Spooky, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Multimorphic, Deep Root, Homepin, Haggis) were shut down by state stay-at-home orders, while Dutch Pinball's facility in the Netherlands allowed small team work under distancing rules

• Heist is the best Multimorphic playfield module to date and addresses previous design criticisms

  high confidence · Martin states: 'I was completely blown away with it I was like this is really going to put hopefully Multimorphic on the map as a very serious pinball making company.' He notes the upper flipper and three-axis crane as significant innovations

• Stephen Silver led Heist game design as his first lead design role at Multimorphic

  high confidence · Jonathan: 'the design lead on that was Stephen Silver who's been working for Multimorphic for a long time doing their videos. I think this is his first game design or at least first time you see a letter game design'

• American Pinball Hot Wheels launch was disorganized with no press materials or pricing information provided at reveal

  high confidence · Martin: 'it seemed like they weren't really ready to reveal the game...There was no press information sent out. There were no press pictures available...they weren't going to do anything until we come back from the show'

• Hot Wheels street price is $6,295, lacks a full loop feature shown on backglass

  high confidence · Martin provides pricing and notes community disappointment: 'a lot of people are disappointed that there is no loop in the game people were expecting a ramp to make a 360 looping'

Notable Quotes

• “Dutch pinball, the only pinball manufacturer left actually cranking out games? Who would have thought that?”

  Martin Ayer @ ~12:30 — Highlights the severity of COVID-19's impact on pinball manufacturing, with only Dutch Pinball continuing production

• “I was completely blown away with it I was like this is really going to put hopefully Multimorphic on the map as a very serious pinball making company”

  Martin Ayer @ ~35:45 — Strong endorsement of Heist game design quality and potential market impact for Multimorphic

• “it's a strange way to launch a brand new game, you know, the third game from a relatively new company, and it just sort of almost leaks out that the game is available”

  Jonathan Houston @ ~47:20 — Criticism of American Pinball's chaotic Hot Wheels launch strategy and lack of professional PR coordination

• “I think there's a low barrier a low entry level so to speak for new players to start playing which is a good thing”

  Martin Ayer @ ~40:15 — Positive assessment of Heist's accessibility and potential appeal to casual players

• “It might be a blessing in disguise for them. It gives them an extra time for when they do actually launch to come up with even more developed games.”

  Jonathan Houston @ ~25:40 — Speculative optimism about Deep Root Pinball's postponed launch, suggesting delay could improve product readiness

Entities

Signals

• ?

  business_signal: Post-pandemic supply chain recovery expected to be prolonged due to manufacturing backlog and logistics disruption

  medium · Martin cites conversation with Mike Kalinowski of Homepin about Chinese factory staffing shortages and reduced production capacity affecting supply chains globally

• ?

  business_signal: Dutch Pinball sole active manufacturer during March 2020; all major US manufacturers shut down by state orders

  high · Multiple confirmations that Stern, Spooky, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Multimorphic under stay-at-home orders while Dutch Pinball operates with 2-3 person team in Netherlands

• ?

  event_signal: Deep Root Pinball's launch event postponed indefinitely; originally planned as hybrid in-person/online format at Texas Pinball Festival

  high · Event scaled back from original plans, moved to online-only, then cancelled entirely with no rescheduled date

• ?

  design_philosophy: American Pinball Hot Wheels lacks full loop feature despite being shown on backglass artwork

  high · Martin: 'a lot of people are disappointed that there is no loop in the game people were expecting a ramp to make a 360 looping'

• ?

  design_philosophy: Heist addresses previous Multimorphic design criticisms through modular approach allowing future game designers to reuse playfield

  high · Martin notes games already in development for playfield reuse; potential for sub-stories and variant games like Jurassic Park model