Episode 740: "Kaneda Rant Time"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·22m 14s·analyzed·Nov 8, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Kaneda argues modern pinball prices are unjustifiable without game quality matching Godzilla standard.

Summary

Kaneda delivers a passionate critique of the modern pinball market, arguing that at current price points ($10K-$13K+), games must deliver exceptional quality and innovation comparable to Godzilla and classic benchmarks like Lord of the Rings. He expresses frustration with mediocre releases, empty playfields masquerading as 'clean,' inflated FOMO marketing, and content creators promoting games they quickly resell. He calls for manufacturers to either add significant content or reduce prices by 20%, warns of a post-COVID correction in the market, and teases upcoming releases including a new American Pinball game and potential Stern/CGC partnerships.

Key Claims

Godzilla has become the new benchmark standard by which all pinball machines should be measured
high confidence · Kaneda, stated emphatically multiple times: 'Godzilla is the new benchmark in all of pinball... we're going to measure everything against Godzilla'
Modern pinball games are increasingly priced at $10,000-$13,000+, making mediocre releases unacceptable
high confidence · Kaneda: 'now games are pushing closer to $10,000 and that's the new thing now' and 'Every other manufacturer right now is right upon that $10,000 mark'
A James Bond Elite auction winner bailed on purchasing the game after realizing LE units are available at sticker price
medium confidence · Kaneda: 'The person who won my James Bond Elite auction... he bailed out on buying the game... you can now go get a James Bond LE at sticker price'
Manufacturers are creating artificial FOMO and pricing LE games without showing the Pro/Elwin versions first
medium confidence · Kaneda re: Stern/James Bond: 'I think Stern's going to lock in all of these LE orders, all 1,000 of them, before they show people the Elwin game'
An unusually high volume of pinball machines are listed for sale on Pinside, indicating market saturation and buyer remorse
medium confidence · Kaneda: 'If you go on Pinside and you look at how many games are for sale today, it is astonishing the volume of pinball machines that people are trying to get rid of'
Raw Thrills and CGC are partnering, with Roger Sharpe (Raw Thrills CFO) coding a CGC game
high confidence · Kaneda: 'Raw Thrills and CGC are united... Mr. Roger Sharpe, who's the CFO of Raw Thrills, is coding a CGC game'
A new American Pinball game features a long ramp shot and may be revealed at IAAPA (November 15-16)
medium confidence · Kaneda: 'I heard there's a really long ramp shot in the game... We might see it at IAAPA, which is like November, I think, 15th or 16th'
Cactus Canyon Limited Edition machines may not ship by end of 2022 despite distributor promises of delivery within a week

Notable Quotes

“I just want games that are freaking magical, games that have freaking amazing moments I'm never going to forget, games that have like incredible toys”
Kaneda @ ~2:30 — Core philosophy statement defining what Kaneda believes makes great pinball
“You didn't get into pinball because you wanted to win tournaments, because you wanted to stack score and figure out what the multipliers were. What is going on in the state of pinball these days?”
Kaneda @ ~4:00 — Pushback against anti-toy sentiment in pinball community and critique of tournament-focused design philosophy
“Godzilla is the new benchmark in all of pinball and I mean it when I say it... Everything that in that game is exactly what we want in American Pinball machine.”
Kaneda @ ~11:30 — Establishes Godzilla as the quality standard against which all modern games will be measured
“You either make a game that is better than what came before it, or there's no point in making the game. There is no room for mediocrity in a world in which every single pinball machine is over $10,000”
Kaneda @ ~14:45 — Central thesis: higher prices demand higher innovation and quality
“People are starting to pump the brakes. People are starting to say, wait a minute, this feels overpriced. This feels like it's not worth it.”
Kaneda @ ~19:00 — Market correction signal indicating consumer sentiment shift post-COVID
“Lord of the Rings... is one of the greatest pinball machines in pinball history... 18 years later. And the majority of modern pinball machines does not deliver what Lord of the Rings delivers.”
Kaneda @ ~12:30 — Historical comparison establishing that 2004-era machines still exceed modern quality in many cases
“I think these companies need to bring these prices back down by 20%. I think they need to add more to the games.”
Kaneda @ ~34:00 — Direct demand to manufacturers: either reduce prices or increase content

Entities

KanedapersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyCGC (Chicago Gaming Company)companyRaw ThrillscompanyAmerican Pinballcompany

Signals

$
market_signal: Significant volume of pinball machines flooding secondary market at steep discounts (TNA dropping from $9,000 to $6,495, Toy Story 4 reselling $2,000+ below retail within weeks, other B-tier games unsold).
high · Kaneda: 'If you go on Pinside and you look at how many games are for sale today, it is astonishing the volume... I just saw a TNA up for sale for $6,495'
?
business_signal: Post-COVID bubble in pinball demand and FOMO-driven purchasing is deflating as market matures and buyers become more discerning.
high · Kaneda: 'the COVID fever's gone, like the FOMO by all of us men who needed new toys to feel good about ourselves when we were locked into our homes, that is going away. People are starting to pump the brakes.'
?
product_concern: Modern games increasingly feature minimal under-playfield mechanics and toys, described as 'clean' but criticized as lazy; contradicts industry narrative that simplicity is superior to mechanical richness.
high · Kaneda: 'when we pop the playfield on a modern game and there's barely anything underneath it... Where are the mechs? Where is the engineering?... You can't hide anymore. You can't hide your effort.'
?
product_strategy: Manufacturers using tiered LE/Pro/Standard releases to lock in preorders without showing full product, particularly Stern withholding Keith Elwin James Bond design to maximize LE sales first.
medium · Kaneda: 'I think Stern's going to lock in all of these LE orders, all 1,000 of them, before they show people the Elwin game. I think it's going to create an incredible debate.'
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Topics

Pricing inflation and value proposition in modern pinballprimaryGame quality benchmarks and design standards (Godzilla as new standard)primaryPost-COVID market correction and secondary market saturationprimaryContent creator authenticity and dishonest game promotionprimaryPlayfield design philosophy: toys/mechs vs 'clean' empty fieldsprimaryFOMO marketing tactics and artificial scarcity in LE releasesprimaryPinside community toxicity and behavioral issuessecondaryUpcoming game releases and pipeline visibility (American Pinball, James Bond, Cactus Canyon)secondary

Sentiment

negative(-0.72)— Kaneda is deeply frustrated with the state of modern pinball manufacturing, pricing, and community behavior. While he expresses love for the hobby itself and celebrates quality games like Godzilla, he is highly critical of current market trends, dishonest marketing, and what he perceives as a race to the bottom in value. His rant-style delivery conveys genuine disappointment with price-to-content ratio and manufacturer tactics. Some positive notes about community support for his podcast and optimism about potential partnerships, but overwhelmingly the episode is a critical manifesto against current industry practices.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.067

Alright, I've had a cup of coffee in me, it's 8 AM and I'm going to show you why we're the world's favorite pinball podcast. Let's hit it. Hey little thing, let me light your candle, cause the mama I'm sure the hen and I just around. Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit up. Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast on Election Day. We're all about to be divided in this country. So here's what I want to talk about. I was walking home last night and I was sort of bummed out. I was like, you know, why is it that it is now November of 2022 and I'm feeling a little bit like sort of underwhelmed and sort of shrugging my shoulders about what's happening in the state of pinball. And you know me, there's only one thing I really want in this industry and it's so simple and it's the same thing all of you want. I just want games that are freaking magical, games that have freaking amazing moments I'm never going to forget, games that have like incredible toys I'm going to say this right now. I was listening to another pinball podcast in which they were talking against toys in Pinball. They were saying like, oh, only collectors want toys and tournament players, real pinball players don't want toys in pinball machines. Are you kidding me? Is this where the narrative is that we wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for games like Adam's Family and Twilightzone and IndianaJones andLordoftherings andACDC, all of the games that made you fall in love with pinball. Guess what they had in them? They had toys, they had magical moments, they had great codes, you saw stuff under glass that made you have a really, really freaking good time. You didn't get into pinball because you wanted to win tournaments, because you wanted to stack score and figure out what the multipliers were. What is going on in the state of pinball these days? Of course we want hey this ways D here we have new比較 I've never seen more people put up red flags and say, nope, this is not good enough. This is not a good enough effort to get this much money from me. You know, something really interesting happened that's never happened before. The person who won my James Bond Ellie auction, right, to buy the game at sticker price, he bailed out on buying the game. I'm not surprised he bailed on it is because you can now go get a James Bond LE at sticker price now. People are realizing that for this much money, you've got to give us something that's absolutely magical. Now look, I know it's early on James Bond to say it's not going to be great, but I also know all of you out there don't want to wait a year to get a great game. And so here's what I want to do for each of you on this episode of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I want to simply Okay, so let's just quickly and totally make a plea to each and every one of you. Do not buy a game unless the game is great, unless the game is a masterpiece. We are at a certain inflection point in this hobby right now where it's going to be quite amazing to see which way it goes because the old model, right, the old model of like three tiered games and three to four games a year and you're just going to buy a game and like enjoy it for a little bit and then pass it on and you're I'm going to be a game that looks like it's less than $10,000 and that's the new thing now. It's like people are starting to associate the dollar value with what's in the game. I can't tell you how disappointed I am that when we pop the playfield on a modern game and there's barely anything underneath it, how there are so many apologists in the pinball world who will say something silly like, well, it just looks really clean now, like really clean. Like where are the mechs? Where is the engineering? Where is the stuff that is supposed to interact with the ball above the playfield? If you have nothing underneath the playfield, there is not a lot over the playfield. And I just can't understand why people are defending this, like as a clean look. You know what's the cleanest thing possible? Just a blank piece of wood, nothing gets cleaner than that. And so as we're thinking about pinball and as we're looking at these games, you can't hide anymore. You can't hide your effort. You can't hide your creativity. You can't hide your passion. And these pinball companies now know that at these prices, they have to show us games as great as Godzilla. You know look I think Godzilla is the new benchmark in all of pinball and I mean it when I say it I think Godzilla is the new benchmark We are really going to measure everything against Godzilla and you got to buy your Godzilla LE for And now that these games are more expensive and we seen what possible right Godzilla has incredible shots It has incredible toys It has incredible artwork It has incredible code It has incredible like theme integration Everything that in that game is exactly what we want in a pinball machine We almost got it with Ghostbusters It just shot really poorly But Ghostbusters was another machine When you looked down at that machine it like they I freaking almost nailed it. Now, at these prices, there is no room anymore for like these B-level games. But no one's falling for it. Like, you're just not going to get people to buy Queen. You're not going to get people to buy Spinal Tap. You're not going to get more people to buy Legends of Valhalla. These people do not exist. And so here we are going into November and I was walking home and I was saying, Chris, what's even coming out in the next few months that we're excited about? I'm asking each and every one of you right now, what are you really excited about in pinball? The problem is most of us are excited about things we're making up in our own heads. Like people are really excited about Back to the Future Pinball from Stern. I don't know if that's happening. Do you know if that's happening? That is like a Moby Dick white whale in the pinball industry. We've been hearing about Back to the Future forever. I don't know. Are you excited about Jaws? No one really knows if that's happening. I'm going to be talking about the next game that's going to be happening. We know that the next games are going to be most likely Venom and then Jack Danger's game, which is either going to be He-Man Masters of the Universe or probably Foo Fighters or Motley Crue, right? And are these the themes you really want? And I keep seeing people on Pinside, they're posting threads that are saying, when are we going to get themes that most people really, really want? And maybe we're at the point now where it's really, really hard to secure a grade A license and get all of the assets and I think we might be learning like the LCD screen on these modern pins is actually proving to be more of a limitation than it is an enhancement of the pinball expiration. My game as Lord of the Rings. As in the movie it does has call out. But it is one of the greatest Ray Distinct Call Out. crayota pinball machines of our time. straitest call out in pinball history. It has some of the greatest pinball moments in a pinball machine. And that game came out in 2004. So here we are 18 years later, people, 18 freaking years later. And the majority of new pinball machines does not deliver what Lord of the Rings delivers. And I mean, not just in code and call outs. I mean, in toys and fun factor and in moments in pinball. And so that's it, right? I mean, I feel like pinball can be condensed into a very simple way to look at this hobby. You either make a game that is better than what came before it, or there's no point in making the game. There is no room for mediocrity in a world in which every single pinball machine is over $10,000 for the most part now, right? Every other manufacturer right now is right upon that $10,000 mark. How long can they expect new in box sales to take place if everything Justin Bieber Zombie skincarefire, Diablo.t borromなく 바로 I think I TiO4OsSs. Leslie L Alpha, LeB Clip, Mark Staff, QPL, I'm the guy with the coffee. I'm the guy with the five twippies. But that's my point is I'm really, really happy to see what so many of you are doing. You are passing up on these new games unless these games deliver. Cactus CanyonLE, you know what the big news is going to be over the next six months? It's Raw Thrills and CGC are united, right? And it's pretty obvious. Like Mr. Sharp, who's the CFO of RawThrills is coding a CGC game. But you're going to see more of this partnership I'm going to do this. I want to invite all the other major content providers. We should do like a live debate. It doesn't need to be a negative debate, but we should do a live recording of the major personalities all talking about pinball together. And we should each field questions from the community. How awesome would that be if we turn the twippies because it basically is an election We electing the favorite streamer the favorite pinball podcast the favorite designer How fun would it be if we got something like that going in 2022 No one's going to do it. No one will ever get into the ring with Kaneda in a live format. They will never do it. Christopher Franchi said he was going to do it. He will never do it. I get people who come into my live streams talking all of this left and right. And then I'm like, hey, come on camera and let's have a conversation about it. I don't get it. It's just pinball. I'm not the big bad Charles Wolf. I would never hurt anybody. I would never try to damage anyone's career. We're here just talking about pinball. With everything else going on in the world, why is pinball so scary of a topic for people to talk about with wee little Kaneda in New York City who doesn't even have a pinball machine set up? I mean, I'm the most innocuous guy to talk about this damn hobby. So here we are heading into November, December, right? A year in which nobody's excited for the World Cup. A year in which everybody's divided. And look, it's just real simple. I'm hearing about the AP game. Here's what I heard about the new American Pinball game. I heard there's a really long ramp shot in the game, whatever that means. And I'm also hearing that we are going to see this game by the end of the year. I still don't know if that's going to be the case. We might see it at IAPA, which is like November, I think, 15th or 16th. So that's coming. So if you don't see anything at IAAPA, I don't think you're going to see anything for the rest of the year other than Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo. But here it is, people. I'm watching these prices. I'm watching them go up and up and up. I'm watching. If you go on Pinside and you look at how many games are for sale today, it is astonishing the volume of pinball machines that people are trying to get rid of. Get I just saw a TNA up for sale for $6,495, right? 6,500 bucks. How do you think all those people who just spent 9,000 on a TNA that doesn't even look as good as the original one, how do you think they feel? And there's a reason why Spooky Pinball is still not sold out of their TNAs. And they must be realizing right now, uh oh, like the COVID fever's gone, like the FOMO by all of us bored men who needed new toys to feel good about ourselves when we were locked into our homes, that is going away. People are starting to pump the brakes. People are starting to say, wait a minute, this feels overpriced. This feels like it's not worth it. Now we're going to see the ultimate test of this come this month or so. We're going to see the ultimate test of this when Stern prices the Keith Elwin James Bond game, but I don't think we're going to see that game until like January. I think Stern's going to lock in all of these LE orders, all 1,000 of them, before they show people the Elwin game. I think it's going to create an incredible debate. I think people are going to actually respond in a negative way when they realize what Stern is doing here. You know who's going to cover it the most objectively objectively is Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. The thing I was seeing is this, is that Mr. Sharp over at CGC and Raw Thrills, he's playing the new code of Cactus Canyon. I was in the thread and that thread is like spiraled into a horrible thread about Europeans calling Americans whiny and you guys don't know how to like be nice and it's this toxic behavior. Oh, we're so sorry Europe that we make all of these great pinball machines and then we have such strong opinions about them. We apologize to our friends in Europe that we are whining like American babies in the CTC thread. I think if you were to tell people where can I go on the internet to see grown men acting like complete babies, the first site out of all of the internet websites you would go to is Pinside. Strateg All right. And everyone's like, dude, what are you talking about? This game is not shipping in a week. He's like, well, I'm just going off of what my distributor told me, and I don't know why I just put on this weird accent to talk about what he would say. But here's the thing. Are you kidding me? How are you going to sell a game that you are promising people will be here in a week for 12 five when you know all too well, this game is not even on the line. It's not even on the line. I don't even know if we're going to see cactus Canyon Ellie's by the end of the year. I mean, I think I would like to see a game where you're like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't even know. I'm not sure what he would say, but here's the thing. Are you kidding me? How are you going to sell a game that you are promising people will be here in a week for 12.5 when you know all too well this game is not even on the line. It's not even on the line. I don't even know if we're going to see Cactus Canyon L.E.s by the end of the year. And this is where we're at in pinball. Kaneda's going to get unhinged like this. You're going to get ranty shows every once in a while. But this is why I love doing Kaneda's Pinball Podcast because we got to bring the energy. Mark he started a pinball podcast right You gotta go check it out The guy sounds like Arnold I love him I hope you guys check it out I hope you guys have a good day But I do want to close on this point and sort of slow down a little bit and be completely candid You gotta remember something in this hobby This hobby has flourished over the last few years because of a great value exchange between company and consumer It really has We were getting a lot for our money We had a lot of options We had a lot of great themes that were being served up to us And it also wasn very hard to get a game And what happened over the last few years I think the magic has not been present in most of the games that have come out over the last few years I would also argue that the prices have gone through the roof as the magic in these games has sort of evaporated And I think there a lot of apologists a lot of I'm going to be a photographer or an artist or a psychologist, you know, guys buying games like Ultraman and Halloween saying they're great and then spending $10,000 and then dumping them like a few weeks later for $7,500 bucks. Like, people are literally promoting these games on their channels, saying how great they are and then they turn around and sell them right away. We're seeing the same behavior with Toy Story 4. Glowing reviews of the game and then, hey, I'm going to sell it right away for like $2,000 less. I mean, what's going on? And I think all we're looking for is just people to be a little bit more honest. How can this game be great? If it is so great, why are you selling it after 75 plays? Like that doesn't add up. It's like saying, I love my girlfriend. I love her so much. She's amazing. And then three weeks later, I'm breaking up with her. But she's still a good girl. She's still a good girl. Just not for me. She's just not the one for me. And we're seeing a lot of that. And the thing is that was cool when these games were like 5,500 My dock time zone going there. It's there since In a. 80 years on what was nothing. T serie freckles, that all pleaded her you stand up and tell you even year older than this. I just am not going away and what they are from T-Mobileón in action. under the. Like the other side of Kaneda, they're going to convince you that they put everything they could into these games. They're going to convince you that an empty playfield when you lift the hood, it's deceiving. They'll say stuff like, well, pop the hood on an EM and there's so much underneath it but not a lot on top. We're not going to be fooled by this stuff. You know what effort goes into a game because your eyes work. Because you can see and compare these games to what these companies have done before. And that is the thing is they want to keep it in a situation in which every new game they want to create this FOMO and this frenzy to get it. Do you think Stern wants you to look at ACDC when they're trying to sell you Led Zeppelin? Do you think they want you to do that? Do you think they want you to look at Lord of the Rings 18 years ago and then look at a modern game that's pretty empty? They don't want you to do it. You think Jersey Jack wants you to go look at Wizard of Oz and compare it to Toy Story 4? I'm going to be a little bit out of control now. And that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it's a lot out of control. I think these companies need to bring these prices back down by 20%. I think they need to add more to the games. They've either got to add a lot more to the games to justify these prices or they need to bring the prices back down. Godzilla is the benchmark. It was 10-5. If a game doesn't have more than that in it, I'm not spending $13,000 on a freaking James Bond that doesn't have as much in it as Godzilla. It's just not happening and I think a lot of people feel that way. Everybody if you have any feelings on a show like this just let me know in the comment section. Let me know and also you know you have friends who are not part of the Kaneda Club. They should be joining right. We're still tinkering 520, 540, 550 club members. It's all gravy over like a hundred like everyone else is struggling just to get to 50 supporters. We've got 520 something so that's because of each and every one of you and you can You can tell you're going to get entertaining content all week long on Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I love doing this show. I love you guys. Don't get into political arguments today. It's going to be a brutal day for some people and it's going to be a celebratory day for other people in my company. Know what they're going to do? They're going to have like this emotional time to heal thing. It always happens. It's amazing. Like Gen Z kids just can't accept defeat in any way. Like the moment they don't get what they want, they have to like take juvis Bilderplanetsignmodell.com Out Within spontaneous Out of Russia Out fauc Outflow Outflow Out there that Kaneda is doing it right and that is why we have the most support and the only show that could actually ever ask for money because you know this is where the goods are at. Later everybody.