Episode 739: "Is Ritchie The Rocketman?"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·21m 47s·analyzed·Nov 7, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Kaneda speculates on Ritchie's next JJP game and criticizes Stern's Bond pricing strategy.

Summary

Kaneda speculates that Steve Ritchie's next Jersey Jack Pinball game could be Elton John or Top Gun, discussing why Elton John is underestimated as a theme and exploring JJP's production delays and pricing challenges. He also critiques Stern's Keith Elwin James Bond machine as potentially overpriced (~$25K) and poorly timed, while expressing concerns about both manufacturers' ability to deliver value in an economically uncertain period.

Key Claims

Jersey Jack Pinball has an 18-month to 2-year production cycle and has never delivered on their promise of two games per year despite claiming it multiple times
high confidence · Kaneda's direct analysis of JJP's track record; states he could retrieve 15 sound clips of Jack Guarnari making this claim
Toy Story 4 demand has collapsed more severely and quickly than Dialed In, with secondary market prices at ~$10K while distributors are listing at $12-13K
high confidence · Kaneda citing Pinside marketplace observations and pricing data
Steve Ritchie's next game is likely a music-themed pinball machine, possibly Elton John
medium confidence · Kaneda states 'I heard Steve's Next Game is a music pin' but source is unattributed
The Keith Elwin James Bond machine may be priced at $25,000
low confidence · Kaneda references hearing this from 'someone on my Saturday morning spectacular' - unconfirmed third-hand
Jersey Jack Pinball only allows customers to purchase one new in-box game model at a time (currently only Toy Story 4), unlike Stern which maintains multiple active titles
high confidence · Kaneda's direct observation of JJP's business model and its impact on new customer acquisition
Elton John has stronger visual identity and more fans than Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Motley Crue, Kiss, Rush, and Guns N' Roses combined
high confidence · Kaneda citing sales records: 300M+ records, 30M+ copies of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, top 10 singles across 6 consecutive decades
Stern has never released two games on the same theme by different designers before the current James Bond situation
medium confidence · Kaneda's assertion; not independently verified in content
If Godfather (allegedly Eric Minier's next game) flops, JJP's main pivot option would be to remake Pirates of the Caribbean
medium confidence · Kaneda's speculation based on market demand patterns

Notable Quotes

“Jersey Jack unlike Stern makes one big colossal mistake. And you know what the big colossal mistake is with Jersey Jack Pinball? They don't give you the ability to buy any other new in box machines other than the single game that is on the line today.”
Kaneda @ ~15:00 — Core critique of JJP's product availability strategy limiting market reach
“I've never seen a game lose this much demand this quickly. Like this is worse than Dialed In.”
Kaneda @ ~22:00 — Strong sentiment on Toy Story 4's market collapse
“I heard Steve's Next Game is a music pin. For those of you thinking Steve Ritchie is more of a badass rocker and wouldn't do Elton John. You guys are nuts.”
Kaneda @ ~24:00 — Supports speculation that Ritchie's next game is music-themed and addresses skepticism
“This isn't the time to be greedy. This is the time to give people value. The world economy is about to go through a rocky few years.”
Kaneda @ ~38:00 — Broader macro critique of pricing strategy in uncertain economic climate
“Nothing about this James Bond release feels special. It doesn't feel like they connected to the 60th anniversary in the right way... It feels really like a greedy move.”
Kaneda @ ~36:00 — Scathing assessment of Stern's Bond launch strategy and perceived pricing overreach

Entities

Steve Ritchieperson Jersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyKeith ElwinpersonEric MinierpersonJack GuarnaripersonElton Johngame Top Gungame

Signals

?
rumor_hype: Speculation that Steve Ritchie's next JJP game is Elton John or Top Gun; Kaneda cites unattributed insider source
medium · 'I heard Steve's Next Game is a music pin' but source unclear
?
product_concern: Toy Story 4 experiencing unprecedented demand destruction with secondary market prices collapsing to $10K vs $13K distributor list
high · Kaneda's Pinside marketplace analysis; compares unfavorably to Dialed In collapse
$
market_signal: Keith Elwin James Bond machine rumored at $25K; creating significant buyer resistance and market polarization
low · Unconfirmed report from 'someone on Saturday morning spectacular'; Kaneda hopes it's false
?
product_strategy: JJP restricts product availability to single in-box SKU (currently Toy Story 4), preventing new customer acquisition unlike Stern's multi-title approach
high · Kaneda's direct critique of JJP's refusal to manufacture Dialed In, Pirates, Wizard of Oz, Hobbit despite demand
~
sentiment_shift: Community beginning to question premium pricing and value proposition; Pinside poll started asking where JJP prices should be
medium · Kaneda references Pinside poll and notes community debate is healthy but unwanted by distributors/manufacturers
?
business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball unable to meet stated goal of two games per year; maintains 18-month to 2-year cycle

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.065

0:00

Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, the only pinball podcaster with the bravado to do lives every week and All right, everybody, thank you for joining the show. We're going to talk about Elton John as the rumor of Steve Ritchie's next pinball machine. Now, look, I think there's two themes that Steve Ritchie is working on. I'm going to tell you what I think they are and we're going to talk about the timeline with Jersey Jack Pinball. And when would we see this game, right? Because this is a company that has said we are going to get two games out a year. Guess what they've never done? Gotten two games out a year. And we're almost at the end of the year and once again, Jersey Jack Pinball. We are here to talk about the weight for this Elwyn version of James Bond. But before I do that, I want to welcome our new club members. Welcome John K., Wade, FishtailsBally. Let's welcome Trey King. And there's someone else who joined who made the weirdest name ever that has a lot of expletives. But I'm not going to say that because this is a family-friendly show. And I want to give an extra special shout-out to a man that's been on the fence about joining I'm going to give you a shout out Mr. Dave Howard. All right, let's get right to it. So Elton John, what do we think about Steve Ritchie making an Elton John pinball machine? Now look, Elton John is one of the greatest artists ever. The man has sold over 300 million records worldwide. He has sold more than 30 million copies of his one album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. He is also, this is crazy, is also the first artist to achieve top 10 singles across 6 consecutive decades. So if you think about a man who's got a portfolio of music that has more fans, almost as many fans, right, as groups like the Beatles, more fans than Guns N' Roses, more fans than like Motley Crue and Foo Fighters, he's got more fans than Kiss and like Rush and Guns N' and Rose's combined and yet when you ask people in the pinball space do you think Elton John is a good theme for pinball you get this weird like resounding no it's not and I'm just wondering why people think in Elton John pinball machine is not a good choice for pinball here's why I do think it's a good choice for pinball I'll tell you right now the man's got amazing music the man's music would be great in pinball form and here's the other thing about this pinball machine Elton John is very tel quality Nai you there day of clipantom feedsысervices, I think Eltan John, the Rocketman, under glass if done right will look absolutely spectacular. He has such a stronger visual identity then like most of the other bands I've been hearing about. He had stronger visual identity then Bruce Springsteeen then like Foo Fighters than Motley Crue. and so look it's going to be really interesting and here's why I think there's a lot of hesitation I think a lot of people out there are tired of acts that are very old and Sir Elton John is very old like he is very very old I think he's in his late 70s early 80s right now so a lot of people out there are probably hesitant because they're like why do we need to make another musical pin based on someone who was like born in the 50s like when are we gonna get a game for bands like Nirvana when are we gonna get Red Hot Chili Pepper What is disiste cast by Pimp rage Mhm235 prison Max, KlickSat and Oi A 48,000439 Not五十三百万五十五百万光 ernt 五十平翻我见一 closer and not award Him me there was a drum round right linku Ho City White recollect ou love dem Canvas n plane law This has been one of the most myopically developed genres in all of pinball. At least the movies will span the spectrum of like sci-fi and action and cartoons and all the different things that people grew up loving. But for some reason, we're not really capturing the variety of music that people who buy pinball machines love. And I'm speaking to each and every one of you. You can't tell me that all of you guys only listen to like dad rock. You have to let other music into your lives. I think most of you out there who are in the pinball buying public would absolutely buy an M pinball machine Now let get back to this pinball machine When do we think we going to see the next Steve Ritchie game This is the big thing right Because JJP is in trouble right now Everybody knows they in trouble right now They can spin it They can find new buyers for these Toy Story games Everyone is looking at this company saying look when are we going to get the next Jersey Jack game And we know the next game is Eric Minier and then we going to get Steve Richie game after Eric Minier game But here the dilemma and the problem for Jersey Jack Pinball They are basically on something like an 18 month to two year cycle which means when they reveal a game and put a game on the line the next game does not even get revealed for like 18 months And so that means if we got Eric Minears Godfather Next, we are not gonna see Steve Richie's Pinball Machine anytime in 2023. Now, they will tell us we're wrong and we shouldn't speculate because Jersey Jack Pinball is a company that's gonna get two games on the line in one year. I could go back and grab about 15 sound clips in which Jack Guarnari himself said they will be able to reveal two games in one year. He's said it every year now for like the last five or six years. So, is Can you see the difference? Is he lying? No. Is he misleading us? I don't know. Does anyone care? I don't really know. All I know is this, is that the Jersey Jack fans out there are pretty deflated. I mean for the most part they are very very deflated right now because Jersey Jack unlike Stern makes one big colossal mistake. And you know what the big colossal mistake is with Jersey Jack Pinball? They don't give you the ability to buy any other new in box machines other than the single game that is on the line today. You can only buy a Toy Story 4 and that's it. They won't make you another Dialed In or Pirates of the Caribbean or Wizard of Oz or Hobbit. There are so many people who are just getting into pinball today and guess the one thing they can't do. They can't give Jersey Jack Pinball their money unless they want to buy Toy Story 4, unless they want to buy a Guns and Roses right now because there's distributors sitting on GNRs. But that's a huge issue with this company. I don't understand why they don't follow the All right, so this is the end of the show. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe. I'll see you next time. Bye. Here's the good news for Top Gun fans out there if they have this franchise. Unlike Toy Story 4 which is the movie nobody wanted, if they make either of these Top Gun movies, people will be happy because both movies are phenomenal. I would argue the second movie is even better than the first. But it's only better than the first because we had the first. There's so much emotional connection to that first film and waiting all those years to make a sequel to Top Gun and paying it off the way Tom Cruise did made all of us feel so satisfied. It is so rare that this happens. That something comes out and actually is better than the original and we waited decades for it. And we know that Steve Ritchie has a knack for making airplane themed games when F14 Tomcat I believe was supposed to be Top Gun but they didn't get the license. Now look that's a really weird sort of two titles to think about. Elton John or Top Gun. farm Now the question for JerseyJackPinball is this, can this company absorb two flops in a row? Guns and Roses was a huge success, Toy Story has been a flop. Godfather, I just can't imagine a scenario in which Godfather Pinball Machine gets people excited. I'm hoping, I'm really hoping Godfather is just a rumor that is false. I'm hoping that Godfather is a fake rumor. I'm hoping that Eric Minier's game is actually Avatar. In the next segment, we're gonna be talking about the new Avatar, the new Avatar way of the water movies. I'm hoping that it is that. It would make perfect sense for them to come out with a new avatar game as that humongous franchise gets rebooted. There's four more avatar movies coming out, one every two years. And I bet even though there's already been an avatar pinball machine, so many of you would rather have avatar than the godfather. And look, Jersey Jack Pinball has shown us that they can remake older themes and be great. Out of the box, the game is a great add it. Hello, Guns and Roses, the new one is much better than the old machine. But here's the thing about Jersey Jack. It's like at these prices, right? Are they going to go back and remake Pirates of the Caribbean? Are they going to go back and make more wide body games? See, I think for $12,000 or $15,000, this company might need to start thinking about going back to wide body games that are packed. The problem with JJP now is they have priced themselves so far above where their prices used to be and even though their marketing department told us they stuffed everything they could into Toy Story that wasn true They at a real crossroads right now And I think the next six months are going to be so interesting as we look at Jersey Jack Pinball because Toy Story demand is over Like it is over It so weird to me that you can go on the marketplace on pin side and see all of these toy Story LEs for sale for around ten thousand dollars right and then the distributors have to list their games for twelve thousand dollars like who is buying a game from a distributor right now almost nobody like you would absolutely be foolish because if you buying a game secondhand with low plays for ten thousand dollars a new in box distributor game with tax is thirteen thousand dollars so why would you Can you spend $3,000 more when you can go get the game in brand new condition? It's unbelievable. The demand is gone. I've never seen a game lose this much demand this quickly. Like this is worse than Dialed In. This is absolutely worse than Dialed In because Dialed In was at least a packed Game. You could at least look at Dialed In and see where the money went. And also Dialed In was so much cheaper than Toy Story. Right? And so where they go now, like it's like GNR, where do we go now? Where do we go now? Can you get Eric's next game out in the next couple of months? Or are we going to keep making toy stories because every week they put more toy stories into the marketplace, the price is going to keep going down and down and down. And I'm loving the fact I was on Pinside and someone started a poll and they said, where do you think the Jersey Jack price should be? And I'm just glad as a community, we're all starting to ask these questions. Like this is a good debate. This is not a debate that distributors want you to have. It's not a debate that these companies want you to have. fromื่ Derekko привет everyone anyand 1ismo, Chris Lee, USleby3, Sean KatrodTRютtryые .....

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and I think that's it. It's like for this much money, everybody wants it all. James Bond has all of the assets you want. They sync up the voices between Sean Connery and the movie clips like we're actually going to feel like we're watching the movies when we play the game. And that's my point is you just can't get away anymore with this sort of kind of integrating the theme into the machine and can I please get $13,000 from you or $16,000? Again, you notice how Kaneda is talking about these prices with tax included. because that's the all-in cost for these games. But I think they're going to reveal the Steve Ritchie pin at the end of the year, but if Godfather flops, it's going to be a very, very interesting year for JJP. I think if Godfather flops, there's only one thing they can quickly pivot and do, and that's make more Pirates of the Caribbean. It is the silliest thing I've ever seen in the history of pinball marketing, where you know there is huge demand for Pirates and you won't satiate it. All right, let's switch gears now and talk about this Keith Elwin pinball machine. Is Stern stalling? Of course, they're stalling. I keep wondering when they're finally gonna pull the curtain off of this game. Now, we were hearing from someone on my Saturday morning spectacular that they're hearing this Keith Elwin game might be $25,000. I kinda hope it because it makes it super easy for almost all of us to say no thank you I not spending 25K on a single level street level game I don care who made it I don care if like Zeus himself came down from the heavens of Mount Olympus and made this game How could you spend on a single pinball machine How could this thing have more in it than like Batman SLE right And I think that where we at right now Stern is stalling They trying to capitalize on the hotness of this pinball market But I think this game is going to backfire I do I think this game is going to be Outpinballêsate uniform vagy dragon consisting Rapid近 May the Sundays for showing off their boxes today at length when you're quietly Part toddlerombres The game is a game where the game developers make themselves another $10,000 or $15,000 in their pocket for everyone sold as a way to say thank you for absorbing all of the Rush premiums and Mandalorian premiums. I don't like it. I don't like it. And I think this is the problem. There's going to be like a seesaw back and forth now where I think a lot of pinball buyers out there are going to say no thank you at these prices. And it's going to start to divide people. It's already started to divide people. And I just don't think people want to wake up and spend this kind of money on machines. Now look, I don't know if it's 25K or not. I hope it's not. I really hope it's not. I don't know why anyone would spend $25,000 on a If participate Stephanie, DeвигTee, sucpte�, Rayne, Erich, Keiter K," P跑te Ronnie V It's not me. It's not Kaneda. I'm not going to get that way with my $5 a month subscription. I'm not Ninja playing Fortnite with like a million subscribers or a hundred million Subscribers. I'm just a wee little pinball podcaster in New York City and it is what it is. It's fun to talk about this stuff. It's fun to sort of speculate on all this stuff. But I do think Keith Owen's James Bond game is going to be one of the most polarizing pinball machines I've ever seen released. I do think they're stalling. I don't think they know where to price it. And I think the people running Stern, the marketing people running stern need to be careful. This isn't the time to be greedy. This is the time to give people value. The world economy is about to go through a rocky few years. And if you get greedy now, you're going to really regret it when everyone heads for the exits and stops buying all these new in box games. You know, and I think that's what they're struggling with. That's what they're struggling with. And I also think they need to show this game before people pay for these James Bond elites. I think Stern has really never done this before. We've never seen Stern do this in the history of all their releases, release two games on the same theme by two different designers. And I think they could have made this a special moment. And nothing about this James Bond release feels special. It doesn't feel like they connected to the 60th anniversary in the right way. It doesn't feel like they gave the Keith Elwyn machine to their loyal customers in a fun way where value was exchanged between company and customer. None of this feels fun. None of this feels like it was done right. It feels really like a greedy move and we don't know what the exact price is going to be, but everything about this feels like a fumbled launch. Everybody, happy Monday from Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I can't wait to just see this game, this Elwyn machine. I can't wait to see Eric Minior's next game. I can't wait to see like Galactic Tank Battleforce whatever is coming out from American Pinball. What we need is a new game. Everybody just wants a new game to discuss and I think the next game we're gonna get that's gonna be brand new to discuss is gonna be Scooby-Doo. Everybody, I will be back this week with more Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Thank you so much for being a club member. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Hit me up. Comment on this on the Patreon page. If you have any feelings, just let us know your feelings. It's a great conversation going on on this Patreon page everybody. TheFarted rogue gets eliminated Recently TheFarted